North Carolina Central University will hold its 61st Annual Honors Convocation on Friday, April 9, in the McDougald – McLendon Gymnasium at 10:15 a.m. The keynote speaker will be Ernie Suggs, reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

Suggs is a 1990 graduate of NCCU. As a student, he served as sports editor and editor-in-chief with the award winning Campus Echo. His extensive background in journalism includes work with Gannett Westchester Newspapers in White Plains, N.Y., and the Durham Herald-Sun, where he covered higher education.

While working at the Herald-Sun, Suggs was awarded an Education Writers Association fellowship and completed the groundbreaking series, “Fighting to Survive,” a 17-story, eight-day series on black colleges that earned him several national and state awards, including Journalist of the Year by the N.C. Black Publishers Association, the N.C. Press Association and the National Association of Black Journalists.

He is now the primary reporter on race and civil rights at the Journal Constitution. In 2005, he served as national vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists, the largest organization of journalists of color in the world.

As a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, Suggs spent a year studying in the university’s African and African-American Studies Department before being appointed to the Nieman Foundation’s Board of Trustees.

The Honors Convocation celebrates academic excellence by NCCU students. Honor recipients are recognized in the following categories: Chancellor’s Award for Academic Excellence, University Award for Academic Excellence, departmental academic honors, performing arts distinctions, community service, and membership in professional and academic honor societies. Students receive a lapel pin that will distinguish them as an honor student and will be worn during the week of convocation and on Convocation Day. University and Centennial choirs will perform and a reception will follow in the A.E. Student Union.

“This is an opportunity to celebrate our students,” said Dr. Tim Holley, director of the honors program. “If retention and graduation is the end goal, then honors convocation serves as the means to the end.”

University of North Carolina President Erskine Bowles recently appointed Dr. Harvey L. McMurray, chair, Department of Criminal Justice, North Carolina Central University, to represent the University of North Carolina on the Governor’s StreetSafe Task Force. The task force was established last year to explore ways to help people released from prison make successful transitions back into community life.

McMurray said, “I am hopeful that the StreetSafe Task Force will seize this opportunity to have frank discussions about balancing public safety with social justice.”

He applauds the Governor’s foresight in establishing the Task Force and insists that at the end of the day, its success will be measured by advocating for home comers and by giving them a second chance. His goals are to reduce recidivism and ensure that the limited fiscal resources available are invested efficiently and effectively.

On September 19, 2009, Governor Bev Perdue named 34 members to the StreetSafe Task Force. Attorney General Roy Cooper and Department of Correction Secretary Alvin Keller serve as co-chairs. StreetSafe will bring together faith-based organizations, nonprofits, local and state government agencies, business leaders and members of the community to develop a plan to combat recidivism and reintegrate offenders safely into the community.

North Carolina Central University is the first publicly supported liberal arts college for African-Americans and this year, U.S. News & World Report ranked NCCU among the top ten HBCUs in the country. As NCCU celebrates its Centennial Year, a diverse student body of more than 8,500 students is enrolled in programs such as law, business, library science, nursing, education,

The Campus Echo, North Carolina Central University’s student newspaper, has won nine Excellence in Journalism awards from the Black College Communications Association.

The Echo won Best Overall HBCU Student Newspaper, Best Headline Writing, Best Individual Page Design, Best Editorial Cartoon and Best HBCU Online Student Newspaper. The paper also took second place in Best Overall Design, Best Opinion/Editorial Section and Best Multimedia Package, and Honorable Mention for Best Photo Essay.

Led by faculty advisor Dr. Bruce dePyssler, the publication has won more than 134 national awards, including the Mark of Excellence award from the Society of Professional Journalists for best all-around online student newspaper. “These awards, which are given by industry professionals, are a testament to the hard work of our students,” said dePyssler. “Their commitment to the Campus Echo — and to learning how to produce a professional newspaper — has inspired me since the day I began advising the Echo 10 years ago.”

With a staff of 15 that includes reporters, copy editors, photographers and a cartoonist, the print publication has a circulation of 4,000 to 30 campus newsstands.

Last year, the Echo completed a redesign of its online edition, integrating it into College Publisher 5 (CP5), a content management system owned by MTV that is the standard for university online newspapers. The switch has sped up production, integrated local advertising and simplified adding multimedia content to the publication. MTV provides CP5 to the Echo in exchange for prime advertising positioning.

“Our primary goal, as always, is to never lose any ground,” dePyssler said. “Given the never-ending graduation of our best-trained students, it would be easy to slip into mediocrity. After that, our goal is to continue to integrate multimedia into the online edition. That’s where we need to put our efforts.”

Editor-in-chief Carlton Koonce said he is thrilled to have the hard work of his colleagues recognized. A graduating senior from Greenville, N.C., Koonce spends many hours working on the publication, even as he juggles a fulltime job, parenthood and classes, all while maintaining a 3.9 GPA. “When I go over to the NCCU archives and look up the Echo, I see my name listed among the other editors, and that is the legacy that I’ll leave,” he said. “I was the centennial editor.” His advice to his yet-to-be-named successor, is simple: “Push but don’t shove — use please and thank you.”