By Reginald Stuart
Dr. Valerie White, one of the nation’s leading journalism educators, is leaving her post later this year at Florida A & M University, after 23 years in service to the institution, education colleagues say.
White, who headed the Black College Communications Association (BCCA) for more than 10 years before its decline earlier this century, helped marshal the campus newspaper through several traumatic years, including the tragic death of the university’s drum major at the hands of fellow band members in what was described as a hazing incident on a chartered bus trip to perform at a neighboring college football game.
The incident, which the newspaper covered intensely, prompted the departure of the band director, university president and the state prosecution of several marching band members.
White, who stood firm in defense of the paper’s persistent reporting, declined to illuminate about word among colleagues of her forthcoming departure from the journalism leadership ranks.
During her tenure of leading the BCCA, White held journalism conferences in Nashville on the campus of Tennessee State University, in Birmingham, in Norfolk, Virginia and in Tallahassee at FAMU.
In the process, she helped open the eyes of many college teachers to the opportunities of journalism for students with aspirations to pursue medial careers. She also worked in New Orleans and Atlanta in conjunction with the Society of Professional Journalists and National Association of Black Journalists. Hundreds of FAMU alums count their time at the institution as among their priceless treasures.
Still, there are no secrets about her concerns, voiced recently among colleagues, about states dramatically minimizing their moral and financial support for higher education.
In Florida, most recently, the state’s highly conservative Republican Governor Ron DeSantis called on political colleagues to support his efforts to cleanse the state of programs aimed at promoting diversity, equality, and inclusion.
She would not say whether Gov. DeSantis’s hardline control of the state legislature factored into her decision. However, the declining health of her mother, who for years volunteered to help run the BCCA, has played a part.
In a recent interview, White noted the upcoming retirement of several of her generational colleagues, most recently Howard University journalism Dean Gracie, in addition to journalist and publisher Wayne Dawkins in Virginia, a journalism professor at Morgan State University in Baltimore and previously, Hampton University in Virginia.
“I fondly remember Dr. White for her leadership of the Black College Communication Association,” said Dawkins. “That was a joyous time of mentoring and training scores of HBCU students who pushed forward into successful careers in the news industry. Most of the time her leadership was strictly business,” Dawkins said, “infused with commitment and joy.”
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