The Mid-American Conference (MAC) announced Wednesday a historic esports venture with a newly created independent esports conference – Esports Collegiate Conference – to facilitate and foster high-quality gaming competition among collegiate esports teams. Kent State University is among the 12 founding members of the new esports conference.  The Esports Collegiate Conference (Esports Collegiate or ESC) will provide structure, scheduling and championship opportunities for its membership, with competition beginning with the 2020-2021 academic year. Esports Collegiate is an independent ent...

The nation watched in anger and shock as a white police officer in Minneapolis nonchalantly knelt on the neck of George Floyd, an African American man, who had been accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill until he uttered the words “I can’t breathe.” Floyd’s brief encounter with the police, which was recorded and subsequently disseminated to the world, was the latest in numerous encounters in which unarmed African American men and women have died at the hands of police or other citizens taking the law into their own hands. Floyd’s death set off national, even global, outrag...

Note: The following essay was crafted by Tayjua Hines, president of Black United Students (BUS), a student organization at Kent State University. Founded in 1968, the underlying philosophy of BUS is to serve and unify all Black students at Kent State by addressing their needs.  ------------- As a community, Black citizens have seen more than enough of our own treated unjustly, brutalized and murdered by law enforcement. For me, my first realization of the value that America places on its Black citizens was when Trayvon Martin was killed by police, how he received no justic...

Note: The following essay was crafted by Amoaba Gooden, Ph.D., Kent State University’s interim vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, and chair and associate professor in the Department of Pan-African Studies. Created in 2009, the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion leads the university’s efforts to increase diverse representation, create and sustain equity of opportunity and intentionally foster an inclusive environment. The Department of Pan-African Studies focuses on the study of communities of people of African descent both on the continent of Africa a...

Note: The following essay was crafted by Neil Cooper, Ph.D., director of Kent State University's School of Peace and Conflict Studies. The school evolved from the Center for Peaceful Change, which was established in 1971 as a “living memorial” to the students killed by the Ohio National Guard during a student protest against the Vietnam War on May 4, 1970.     -------------   This is America: a mash-up of a Childish Gambino video, echoes from the civil rights era and images from a failed state. A mixture of righteous anger, peaceful protest, violence, looting, curfew...

A Kent State University student is gaining recognition for a photo she took that captures an African American Cleveland police officer shedding a tear as he came face to face with demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis Police custody. Floyd’s death has sparked protest marches across the country. Sylvia Lorson, a senior from Orrville, Ohio, studying journalism and digital media production, took the photograph during a protest on May 30 in downtown Cleveland. Lorson’s photo and the story of how she captured the image were recently featured on Clevelan...

  Lori Holcepl felt the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic deeply when she was laid off from her job recently. As a single mother of two, Holcepl relied on her paycheck to support her family. “Since the pandemic began, I have feared we would lose our home and everything we have,” Holcepl said. “With my children home from school, I also have to make sure they have the internet they need for their schoolwork, plus extra food and toiletries since we’re home all day now.” Being aware that Kent State offers an emergency grant fund for students affected by COVID-19, the Ken...

Lori Holcepl felt the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic deeply when she was laid off from her job recently. As a single mother of two, Holcepl relied on her paycheck to support her family. “Since the pandemic began, I have feared we would lose our home and everything we have,” Holcepl said. “With my children home from school, I also have to make sure they have the internet they need for their schoolwork, plus extra food and toiletries since we’re home all day now.” Being aware that Kent State University offers an emergency grant fund for students affected by the COVID-19 pandemic...