Yale Black Alumni Network (YBAN)

35th House Anniversary promo event in Chicago a success!

(Click on image to enlarge. Victor Chears '73 dons a YBAN hat, presented earlier to him by YBAN Administrator/Co-founder Chris Rabb '92.)

About 40 Black alums attended the June 11th reception at the G.R. N'Namdi Gallery in Chicago.

Brief comments were made by 35th Anniversary Committee Co-Chair Victor Chears '74 and Jeff Brenzel, president of the Associate of Yale Alumni (AYA).

Chris Rabb, speaking on behalf of Dean Pamela George, director of the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale (aka "The House"), who could not attend, encouraged folks to join YBAN and RSVP for the upcoming celebration in October.

Author Cora Daniels '93 speaks on her new book 'Black Power Inc.' at the Akwaaba B&B in DC

(From the left is Monique Greenwood, Rich Shaw, Marc Davis and his wife, and Chris Rabb. Of course, Cora Daniels is the one holding the book!)

An intimate gathering of engaged attendees participated in an informal discussion about Cora Daniels' new book, Black Power Inc., at the new Akwaaba Bed & Breakfast in northwest Washington, DC, owned by entrepreneur, author, and former Essence editor, Monique Greenwood.

YBAN folk in attendance were Rich Shaw '91, Marc Davis '92, Errol Small '86, and Chris Rabb '92. There were a number of other folks at the mixer, one of who was Jabari Asim, columnist for The Washington Post who reviewed her book in the June 1st edition.

$75,000 a Record Gift for Yale? Here's How

By STEPHANIE STROM
The New York Times

Yale University will celebrate the largest class gift in its history this week when it credits the class of '54 with a contribution of more than $110 million.

The bulk of the gift, $90 million, comes from an unusual fund-raising exercise born 25 years ago out of $75,000 in seed money and frustration with the university's financial management.

"Savvy money management is taken for granted by most graduates of universities today, but it is a relatively new phenomenon," said Richard Gilder, a member of the class of '54. "Yale does a great job of managing the endowment now, but back then its investment performance was pretty lousy."

In 1979, Mr. Gilder and a group of his classmates were attending their 25th reunion and bemoaning the sorry state of Yale's finances, when Mr. Gilder proposed a novel idea: What if they pooled their donations and entrusted them to a professional money manager with a plan to turn the principal and the interest earned over to Yale at their 50th reunion?

To read the rest of this interesting article, please click here.