Charles R. Drew University emerges fom probation
Series of improvements
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The commission that accredits Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science has allowed it to emerge from probation, the school announced today.
A statement said the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, one of six regional accrediting commissions for four-year colleges and universities and graduate schools, “based its decision on 24 months of scrutiny” during which it examined the university’s governance, financial, academic, and quality control systems.
“This is the new Drew,” said Dr. M. Roy Wilson, the university’s board chairman since last September. “As our momentum builds, we continue to produce outstanding graduates and provide strong academics. I hope people will judge us not on the past, but from this day forward.”
The school said the accrediting body allowed Drew’s probationary status to lapse based on a series of improvements, including completing a strategic plan for growth, receiving $10 million in funding from the University of California, opening a new $43 million nursing school, and creating a new governing and advisory board.
The private, nonprofit medical and health sciences university, which serves predominately Black and Latino students, was created after the Watts riots in 1965 and is located in the Watts-Willowbrook area.
The accrediting commission placed the institution on probation in July 2009, citing problems with its systems of educational assessment and quality control, but allowed it to keep its accreditation during the review.
After a year studying math, science and technology, kindergartners through 12th-graders participating in the Saturday Science Academy II sponsored by Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science were recognized during the annual White Coat Ceremony and Reception. This year 130 youngsters graduated from the program and received a white lab coat, a universal symbol of the medical profession.
The Frederick K.C. Price III Schools is partnering with Stepping in the Right Direction to host “The Black College Fair,” a free Historically Black College and University (HBCU) college fair on Saturday, Dec., 15, 2012, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. The fair will feature more than 45 HBCUs from around the country, including Spelman College, Howard University, Morehouse College, Hampton University and Xavier University. The fair will be held in Crenshaw Christian Center’s Youth Activity Center of Price Schools. The church is located at 7901 S. Vermont Ave. in Los Angeles.
More than 100 Crenshaw High School students and parents had the opportunity to hear directly from UCLA admissions and financial aid officials and to get personal advice on achieving their college dreams at a special Oct. 22 assembly and resource fair at the South Los Angeles campus.
The event was part of Achieve UC, a University of California systemwide initiative designed to inspire students from historically underserved high schools to aim for and apply to college and to equip them with the information and resources they need to get there.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has appointed Kent Taylor—himself a graduate of Inglewood High School—as state administrator over the financially troubled Inglewood Unified School District.
On Dec. 28, 1998, 19-year-old Tyisha Miller lay comatose in her aunt’s locked Nissan Sentra at a gas station with the motor and the radio running. Family members said she was shaking noticeably and foam was coming from her mouth. A.38-caliber pistol lay in her lap.
