Welcome Back!
I hope everyone has enjoyed your summer! I also hope this note
finds you in good health, physically and spiritually. May God’s abundant
blessing continue to fall on us. May we continue to be instruments of his will.
The harvest is plenteous but the laborers are few! There is a tremendous amount
of work before us. Let us not get tired of doing well.
As we begin the new year, a presidential election year, I hope our
chapter will collectively play a role in getting our communities to actively
participate in the election process. Every Vote does count and hopefully will
be counted.
Our Alma Mater will select a new leader within months. The
selection process for a successor to Dr. Hefner has begun and a website by The
Tennessee State Board of Regents has been built to specifically fill this
position. Your comments should be expressed. The site can be directly reached
@http;//tsusearch.tbr.state.tn.us or through a link on the Tennessee State
Board of Regents @www.tbr.state.tn.us
After 14 years, Dr. Hefner will resign on May 31st,
2005. Some believe he’s being forced out.
We have some committee vacancies to fill. The membership
chairperson, and a new position targeting the recent graduates of The
university for alumni membership (Preferably a recent graduate, 1989-2004)
We need a committee to look into an additional fundraiser. The Day
at the Races is our only event to fund scholarships. Each Alumni Chapter is
asked to do more to help maintain and grow the enrollment of our school.
Currently African Americans are 81% of the undergraduate students and 50% of
the graduate student body. The university will not offer a single scholarship
this year to any out of state student. The student could be a Valedictorian and
national merit finalist and Tennessee State University could not provide any
scholarships at all to anyone outside of the state of Tennessee. This is one of
the things Dr Hefner was guilty of or Good at. He recruited highly capable and
deserving out-of state students and funded their scholarships through The
Foundation. Right or wrong the concept is one that works. The average entering
student at TSU has a 2.9 GPA and a score of 19 on The SAT Exam. The AVERAGE OUT
OF STATE SCHOLARSHIP STUDENT HAD A GPA OF 3.5 OUT OF 4.0 RANKING. We have some
very gifted and intelligent students attending TSU who deserve our financial
support. We need to add another fund raising event this year. We can have fun
doing it too.
We need to chronicle the history of the Los Angeles Alumni Chapter
of Tennessee State. A historian position is clearly identified in the By-Laws
and we need someone to accept this challenge.
Finally, to everyone of you who volunteer your time, your
resources and talent to your Alumni Chapter I would like to Thank You. There
has to be a reason that you do it? I hope there is a benefit received by being
a member of The Los Angeles Alumni Chapter of Tennessee State University. I
hope we can share that benefit with more of our fellow Alumni.
Humbly Proud To Serve as Your Chapter President,
Theo Maxey