The Flame on the Fly | University of the District of Columbia

UDC National Alumni Society will welcome Portia Holmes Shields, PhD, ’60 at its Nov. 13 Homecoming Dinner Dance at Ft. McNair Officers Club in the city at 7 p.m. Shields, the CEO of Concordia College (Alabama) and former president of Albany State University, will give the keynote address.

During her 8-year tenure at ASU, Shields had the vital responsibility of rebuilding a campus devastated by floods. A master planner and builder, she spearheaded a $153 million rebuilding program that added 52,000 square feet of space to create a new campus with modern architecture. The renewal effort led to a $7 million athletic stadium; an academic building that houses the academic administration, laboratories, an auditorium and classrooms; a physical education and recreation building; a new dining hall; and a state-of-the-art central energy plant.

Shields was not only a superb fund raiser at ASU, she fulfilled her primary mission: to put the student front and center of all programs and initiatives, both academic and nonacademic. Faculty, staff, alumni and the ASU external community signed off on this agreement, and the result was the attraction of more presidential scholars and honor students to ASU during Shields’s presidency than at any other time in the school’s history.

Joining Shields will be her sister, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the District of Columbia, UDC President Allen Sessoms, and other University administrators and friends of UDC. For tickets to the homecoming gala, contact WoodardAssociates@comcast.net or jthompson@udc.edu.

Campus News

UDC Students Take On Prostate Cancer
Five undergraduates spent the summer doing research to improve the prognosis of prostate cancer—the number one non-skin cancer affecting US men and the number two cancer killer. (African-Americans are disproportionately affected.) Mentored by researchers at the Center for Prostate Disease Research at the Uniformed Services University Health Sciences campus in Bethesda, MD, the students presented their research at a symposium on Aug. 18.

In some cases, their results represent significant, unanticipated discoveries with potential benefits for the diagnosis or treatment of prostate cancer. “We are doing this for the cancer patients,” said Dr. Shiv Srivastava (CPDR), who co-directed the research program with Dr. Deepak Kumar, chair of UDC’s biology department. “I learned a lot about research,” enthused junior biology/nursing major Zainab Afzal, a sentiment echoed by others.

The HBCU Summer Undergraduate Training Program in Prostate Cancer Research is funded by a grant from the Dept. of Defense to Srivastava and Kumar. The students—Afzal, Habib Kedir, Juliet Chijioke, Christelle Donfack and Nicola Abdul—look forward to presenting their work at major national conferences this fall.

Alumni News

UDC Provides Access to Jazz Archive

Alumni, did you know that you can tap into an immense collection of recordings, books and archival jazz collections right on UDC’s campus? The collections of the Felix E. Grant Archives are noncirculating, so they may be consulted on-site during the archive’s hours of operation, according to its Guidelines for Access. The Jazz Studies Program, College of Arts and Sciences, and the Learning Resources Division maintain the archive. Academic researchers can take advantage of its reference services online via a website and by e-mail, standard mail and telephone.

Want to learn more about jazz? JAZZAlive at UDC presents events featuring students, faculty and guest musicians, authors, educators and scholars. There are many great events happening during the month of October and beyond. Visit the JazzAlive event listing page for a complete list.