Thanks to the efforts of Professor Duchess Harris, the newsletter of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists is now being published at Macalester.

Professor Harris, a faculty member of both African American Studies and Political Science, has also assumed editing responsibilities for the newsletter, which has a circulation of 700 and is delivered to members of the Congressional Black Caucus and to universities across the United States.

“The [National Conference of Black Political Scientists] is very happy to have the newsletter printed at a top liberal arts institution,” Harris said.

On the flip side, Harris is thrilled that Macalester is now prominent within a major African American Studies organization. She hopes that the newsletter, which is published three times a year, will help increase her department’s national prominence.

With two issues already printed, Macalester is proving to be successful as a new home for the newsletter. Thanks to the design and production skills of the folks at College Relations, the publication sports a revitalized layout and is printed on high-quality paper.

Advertisers are beginning to take notice of the newsletter’s new-and-improved look. Macalester’s first issue was completely devoid of advertisements, as were previous issues at the newsletter’s old home, Georgia’s Kennesaw State University. However, in Macalester’s second and most recent issue, seven separate educational institutions placed job advertisements, providing the newsletter with $1,100 in revenue, over half the $2,000 cost of production.

Professor Harris predicts that job advertisements, which sell for $100 a piece, will soon cover all expenditures.

The National Conference of Black Political Scientists bills itself as a “growing organization in the struggle for the Liberation of African People.” According to Professor Harris, the Conference’s newsletter is intended as a dialogue about Black American views on world issues, whether or not the issues involve Black Americans. She encourages Macalester students to volunteer written works, even if they are not formally involved in Political Science. andré carrington ’03, editor of The Mac Weekly’s “Quietly and Mostly to Myself” column, contributed a book review for the most recent issue.

Harris hopes that the newsletter will help bring to light the diversity of opinions in Black American politics that is sometimes ignored by mainstream America.

She pointed to Bush administration big wigs Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice and renowned Democrat Jesse Jackson, Jr. as examples of the ideological variety within the African American political community.

“Just because we’re all black people with Ph. D’s does not mean we all think alike,” said Harris. We refuse to be put in a box.”