In the fall of 1965 one thousand freshmen enrolled at what was then Cheyney State College. We were the largest class the university had ever accepted. We turned out to be not just the biggest but also the most vocal and radical in terms of confronting the status quo. We challenged college rules, protested for better food in the cafeteria, more culturally relevant classes, demonstrated against the war in Vietnam and especially protested against Cheyney’s mistreatment by the state based upon decades of racial discrimination.
Despite the turmoil we persevered and graduated in four years, not all of us but a significant number. We kept in touch with our social and fraternal networks and we had reunions every five years. At our forty-fifth reunion at the behest of Bob Turner and me we embarked on a goal to create a scholarship endowment fund. Previous classes created scholarship programs or raised money for the school, notably the Class of 1964 who raised $50,000. We wanted to be different, we wanted to create a vehicle that would grow in perpetuity and provide assistance to needy students just like Richard Humphreys did when he bequeathed $10,000 to start a school to educate “the descendants of the African race” as he stated in his will.
We thought since our class was so large we could easily surpass the Class of ’64. Klent Boseman suggested we do it in increments so as not to overwhelm our classmates. The endowment committee consisted of a handful of classmates most of whom were members of Greek Letter Organizations because we knew we could get our classmates contact information through those organizations. The primary organizers of our class reunions; Brenda Braithwaite a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and Barbara Merriweather Washington a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority helped immeasurably by supplying us with the names and addresses of our classmates. They helped us to locate and contact them and most importantly turned over money that was in our class’ name that was held in the Cheyney Foundation.
Bob who is a member of Omega Psi Phi reached out to a few of his line brothers who all joined the committee, Clarence Hoover reached out to the members of Alpha Phi Alpha and I was the point person for the Kappas. Karen Strange Shanks helped find classmates who were not members of GLOs.
Although Bob and I had talked about this project for years he was still working and didn’t have the time to put into the project along with his work as an attorney and Vice President at Virginia State University. I waited until he retired at which time he agreed to co-chair and the rest is history. We did the research and we came up with a place to serve as the repository for our money. We subsequently entered into an endowment contract with The Philadelphia Foundation.
When we actually started in 2015 it only cost $5,000 to start an endowment fund. The original committee members and several other alums put up the money and we were off and running. Over the years we solicited funds via email by asking our classmates to write a check to the endowment fund. There were no major fundraising activities, people just gave from their hearts. Throughout the campaign we strove to be informative and transparent to our classmates by providing periodic reports, usually quarterly, on the progress of the campaign.
At our fiftieth reunion in 2019 we had raised a little over $60,000. But I felt we could still do more, so we kept on keeping on. As of the end of the second quarter of this year (June 30, 2021) the Cheyney University of Pennsylvania Class of 1969 Endowed Scholarship Fund achieved its goal of $100,000; $100,046.96 to be exact.
Looking back to the beginning when it was just an idea Bob and I had kicked around in our heads, we both were ecstatic when we received the latest statement. Bob said, “This outstanding accomplishment is a demonstration of the serious commitment the Class of 1969 has made to current and future students of our beloved Cheyney! The lack of financial resources is one of the most daunting challenges our students have to overcome in order to obtain their degrees and embark on satisfying and rewarding careers. Through the establishment and funding of this endowment the Class of 1969 will forever be a partner in helping to address this challenge! Hopefully it will also become an example of what past, current and future alumni classes can accomplish in order to ensure a continuous stream of student financial assistance now and well into perpetuity.”
We now have to establish a committee to set criteria for the recipients and disbursement of the funds which will be given from the interest the endowment earns. We will get together and establish a committee to do that in the near future. Congratulations to the Class of 1969. We did it and we did it our way!
