[Note: this webpage is descended from the Minority Student Caucus's first webpage, created by Victor Schoenbach on the Minority Health Project website (early webpage, courtesy of the Internet Archive) in 2000. After several years, websites for the Caucus were created by the School and later by the Caucus, on various web platforms. Several of those platforms were decommissioned, but some of the sites can still be found on the web, including a UNC Student Organizations page, a UNC Student Affairs page, and on last inspection one of the editions in Facebook. An earlier Facebook site appears to have been taken down.

The School's current website for the Caucus includes the bios of current E-board members. The page you are viewing now (in the webfolder www.epidemiolog.net/mhp/sph/caucus/) serves as an historical archive, having been maintained continuously since about 2003, though somewhat irregularly in recent years.




Minority Student Caucus logo
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Gillings School of Global Public Health

Minority Student Caucus

 

CONGRATULATIONS to the Minority Student Caucus on the 50th anniversary of its founding!

Annual Minority Health Conference and William T. Small Jr. Keynote Lecture

About William T. Small, Jr.

MSC @ Student Affairs website

History of the Caucus and Conference, in video

Minority Student Caucus Alumni Network

Vic sends ~monthly updates to MSC alumni; send me an email if you'd like to receive the updates.

  At the Minority Student Caucus alumni reunion

The Minority Student Caucus was founded in 1971 by a group of African American students who gathered at John Hatch's house. They were troubled by the lack of attention to health disparities (then referred to as minority health), the lack of support for Black students, the near total absence of Blacks on the faculty, and the low representation of ethnic minorities among the students. The Caucus was intended as a vehicle for bringing their concerns to the attention of the School's Administration and for working to attract more Black students to the School.

Initially called the Black Student Caucus, in the late 1970s the Caucus changed its name to the Minority Student Caucus and welcomed American Indian, Asian American, and Latino students. Some of the history has been recounted in multiple interviews and presentations with some of the key participants, including MSC founders John Hatch and Anita Holmes (who presented the history of the founding of the Caucus at the 2021 Annual Minority Health Conference), past presidents Bill Jenkins and Victoria Motley Washington, and other prominent leaders, such as Geni Eng and David McCoy.

The Caucus founded its annual Minority Health Conference in 1977 and has conducted it nearly every year since then. The Caucus also works with the School administration on initiatives to link to the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, especially in North Carolina, and to institutions serving other minority groups.

Leadership

The Minority Student Caucus is led by an Executive Board elected annually by all Caucus members. Officers - Co-Presidents, Secretary, and Treasurer - and other E-Board members serve one-year terms.

For its first quarter century, the Caucus received support and advice from William T. Small, Jr. (the Caucus actually played a role in Dean Small's coming to the School as a minority student recruiter in 1971). Following Dean Small's retirement in 1999, Aundra Shields became Assistant Dean for Students and worked with the Caucus. After Aundra's departure, her successors Felicia Mebane and then Charletta Sims-Evans became the Dean's Office advisers to the Caucus. Victor Schoenbach (Department of Epidemiology), who assisted the Minority Health Conference planners beginning in 1991, was invited to serve as faculty adviser to the Caucus in 2005/2006 and served in that role until beginning phased retirement in 2015. Chandra Caldwell (Department of Epidemiology), who had informally counseled/advised Caucus members and officers since she joined the Epidemiology staff, was later named a staff adviser to the Caucus and served in that role until about 2019. Trinnette Cooper, coordinator for diversity programs and recruitment in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, was the Office of Student Affairs advisor through June 2022. Patsy Polston, assistant professor in the Department of Health Behavior and a past Caucus co-president, became the faculty advisor to the Caucus in 2021.

Executive Board Members for 2024-2025 [Under construction!]


Co-Presidents:

Co-chairs for the 46th Annual Minority Health Conference:

  • Mercy Adekola (she/her/hers), BSPH student, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering

  • Justin Wang, BSPH student, Department of Biostatistics

Treasurer:

Secretary:

Faculty advisor:

  • Patsy Polston (MSPH 2011, PhD 2015, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering), assistant professor, Department of Health Behavior

Minority Student Caucus page on the (Gillings School's website)


Links

Minority Student Caucus home page
2023-2024 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2022-2023 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2021-2022 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2020-2021 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2019-2020 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2018-2019 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2017-2018 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2016-2017 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2015-2016 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2014-2015 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2013-2014 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2012-2013 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2011-2012 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2010-2011 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2009-2010 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2008-2009 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2007-2008 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2006-2007 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2005-2006 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2004-2005 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2003-2004 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
2002-2003 Officers of the Minority Student Caucus
Previous officers of the Minority Student Caucus
Annual Minority Health Conference
About Dean William T. Small, Jr.
Minority health-related links at UNC and elsewhere
Minority Health Project
Vic Schoenbach's Evolving history of minority health-related activities at the UNC School of Public Health [Vic sends ~monthly updates to MSC alumni; send me an email if you'd like to receive the updates.]

Last updated 8/31/2016, 9/1/2016, . . . ., 8/12,15/2020, 12/26/2020, 2/9/2022, 7/13/2022, 6/15/2023, 1/18/2025 by Vic Schoenbach