Higher education 2019: Cybersecurity, band director among GSU highlights

Lincoln Parish’s HBCU piloted new initiatives and made moves toward the future in 2019, from the announcement of a digital library to the university’s first woman band director.

Gathered below are only a few of those stories concerning Grambling State University coming from the pages of the Ruston Daily Leader in 2019, presented in chronological order.

GSU unveils plans for digital library

An on-site press conference in early February revealed design and timeline particulars for Grambling State University’s upcoming digital library, which will be the first of its kind on a Historically Black College and University campus in the U.S.

To be located on RWE Jones Drive just a quick walk from the previous library, the Digital Library and Learning Commons is planned to provide 50,000 square feet of learning space to the GSU and greater Grambling community as early as winter of 2020.

“For the past 56 years, the A.C. Lewis Memorial Library’s brand was books,” GSU President Rick Gallot said.

“Now that we’ve entered the 21st century, and we must meet our record enrollment and fill Grambling State University with Generation Z students, we must provide them with an information beacon on the hill which we will introduce as the digital library.”

A display of plans for the Digital Library and Learning Commons at its announcement event in February

Governor, LED provide $1.2 million for GSU

Gov. John Bel Edwards, GSU President Rick Gallot and LED Secretary Don Pierson came together at GSU’s Eddie G. Robinson Museum in mid-February to sign a $1.2 million Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen the university’s new cybersecurity program in addition to computer science and computer information systems degree paths.

“This will be a fouryear infusion of $1.2 million for missioncritical programs here at Grambling State University to create partnerships and to prepare the student body by working with LED,” Edwards said.

Students across multiple software, information technology and STEM fields will benefit from this agreement through scholarships, internships, apprenticeships and other work-based opportunities.

Trayvon Martin’s mother speaks

Grambling State University’s Women’s History Month Lyceum Series Program in March featured Sybrina Fulton, the mother of 2012 African American shooting victim Trayvon Martin.

Seventeen-yearold Martin’s death in Sanford, Florida, and the following highlypublicized trial of his killer became a rallying point for questions of racial profiling and self-defense laws.

Since then, Fulton has been on a mission of social change and civil rights advocacy.

“The worst day of my life was seeing my son in the front of my church in a casket in all white as if he was going to the prom,” Fulton told attendees at the Frederick C. Hobdy Assembly Center on the GSU campus.

“Because before that I didn’t know the impact of gun violence — it had never touched me so hard and so close and so deep.”

GSU names first woman band director

Nikole Roebuck made history on May 31 when Grambling State University named her director of bands and chair of its Department of Music.

A woman is at the helm for the first time in the 93-year history of the university’s “World Famed Tiger Marching Band,” a group whose exploits include playing at multiple Super Bowls, presidential inaugurations, and more recently for Beyoncé.

“It’s truly an honor to have this position,” Roebuck said. “I’m still processing it all. It’s truly a humbling experience to be part of history.”

Melton named GSU police chief

Grambling State University officials added more than 26 years of law enforcement experience after announcing in October that Jerry Melton had been appointed the institution’s new Chief of the University Police Department.

Melton takes over from Interim Chief Quentin Holmes, who will continue to support the Division of Operations as Special Assistant for Campus Safety.

At GSU, Melton is now in charge of safety for 5,200 students and the surrounding campus community.

GSU hosts first ‘STEM Grambling’ event

Cypress Springs Elementary student Odaris Roberson tries out the virtual reality headset at the STEM Fest.

Grambling State University’s new “STEM Grambling” initiative held its first major science, technology, engineering and mathematics event for area youth in November at the Fredrick C. Hobdy Assembly Center.

The “STEM Fest” engaged more than 370 students and parents from across north Louisiana in more than 40 hands-on activities related to STEM fields.

Students piloted drones, built and raced model cars, experimented with robotics and experienced virtual reality technology, among numerous other modules.

More than 90 schools across the region were represented.