A statement about the Wesley College Acquisition

Delaware State University is actively taking steps to acquire our neighboring institution of Wesley College. If all proceeds as planned, Wesley College will cease to operate as an independent institution, and will instead serve as Delaware State University's satellite campus for the College of Health and Behavioral Sciences.

I wish to acknowledge that because this is not a merger, there are inherent fears on the part of our Wesley colleagues and students.  More specifically, Wesley College alumni have expressed anxieties about how their collective identity and legacy as proud Wolverines is being impacted. Wesley alumni - Your history will not be forgotten. I hear you, and I share in your passion for your alma mater's history. 

At this time DSU and Wesley continue to operate as two distinct and separate institutions until the acquisition is legally affirmed. I would love to jump in and start working to preserve Wesley College's records and institutional memory, but I must remain at a distance. Nevertheless, I wish to allay your fears. Current Wesley College employees, from the library, alumni relations, athletics and others, are on a mission to gather the historic papers, photographs, artworks, and more. Allow me to definitively say that after the acquisition takes place, the records of Wesley College will be incorporated into the Delaware State University Archives.  For the first time ever, Wesley documents will receive the preservation treatments they so richly deserve under the direction of a professional archivist. 

If you are a member of the Wesley family, please don't hesitate to reach out to your current library staff to learn more about the initiatives happening on your campus.  After the acquisition is finalized, I too will be standing by to answer questions and ready to welcome you into the university archives.  I am so excited about the next chapter of the archives journey and meeting all of you!

Until then,

Rejoice

Final Mixx

Every weekday for six years I have come to work at the William C. Jason Library and never known that I was in the presence of musical greatness!  Sure, I occasionally heard our library assistant, Mark Harris, share stories about his band from back in the day. I knew his band had been popular, but it wasn't until I digitized the Hornet newspapers (now available online) that I realized just how BIG of a deal the band was. 

While attending Delaware State College in the mid 1980s, the Final Mixx band came of age and attained a name for itself among by touring the residence halls on the DSC campus. After gaining popularity with students, they eventually picked up gigs in the clubs of Dover, broader Delaware and New Jersey.  After graduation, the band members decided to stay in Dover in order to have a shot at fortune and fame as a professional band. Their opportunity eventually came in the form of Budweiser Showdown. Watch Final Mixx at Club Illusion in Dover, DE

Throughout the 1980s, Budweiser sponsored regional talent contests to locate up and coming Black music artists. The winners of the five regional competitions were then invited to perform at a national competition with a cash prize and a record label deal.  In 1989 Final Mixx entered a regional contest in Philadelphia and won! 

It's July 21, 1989 at the Hoosier Dome. There are 10,000 people watching. Spike Lee, Sinbad and El Debarge are in the audience. Standing in front of all of them are the members of Final Mixx, Mark Harris, Tracey Hazzard, Marty Denson, Derrick Williams, Vincent Adkins, Reuben Fountain and Richard Wright ready to give the performance of their lives. The band performed four songs, left the stage and assumed they hadn't won. 

In a stunning moment backstage, the band was hanging out and did not initially realize that Final Mixx had been declared the winner. With a little bit of prompting, the band rushed the stage to accept a $10,000 cash prize, musical equipment and a deal with Motown records. Watch a promo for Budweiser Showdown featuring the moment Final Mixx won.

While you can find the LP from the Budweiser Showdown in online marketplaces, unfortunately the band didn't go on to record an album and was all but forgotten by Motown Records. Final Mixx, has not, however, been erased.  Their story is forever preserved in the Hornet student newspapers.  Next time you are in Professor Denson's music class or chat with Mark Harris at the library front desk, be sure to ask them about the time they performed for 10,000 people!

Hornet Student Newspapers Now Available Online

 

The Hornet student newspapers are now accessible online! 

All of the newspapers held in the archival collection have been digitized and uploaded to the University Archives' DSpace digital repository. The earliest papers date to 1929 and 1947. There are a handful from the 1950s and 1960s but from 1970 until 2015 the collection is nearly comprehensive.  Please note that after April 2015 the paper became digital in format and can be found here. 

Digitizing the Hornets has been a thoroughly enjoyable project. For starters, I have discovered images of many of current university employees as college youths...you can't image the bad hair or funky fashion pictures that I now have. Just kidding.  

Second, I have become reacquainted with the college-age imagination, idealism, and snark. Who doesn't enjoy reading interviews with Mr. D. Par Kinglot or headlines such as "Lecterer bores, Student snores?" Aaaah the good old days when our biggest problems revolved around what the cafeteria was serving, athletic rivalries, and elections for the next student government president.  Joking aside, next to these humorous commentaries, you will find serious articles that prove DSC and DSU students were passionate about politics, fearless in tackling controversial topics, and well-versed in contemporary culture through poetry, plays, and concerts. Duke Ellington, Muhammad Ali, and numerous internationally-renown piano virtuosos toured on our campus!!

I hope that you, the alumni, enjoy reading about, and reliving, fond college experiences. As always, don't be shy about sharing your memories. Comment below or email me. I love hearing them!

Share your story!

 http://www.desu.edu/giving/ways-give/i-love-dsu

#ColorOurCollections 2021

 

It's national #ColorOurCollections week! Each February museums, libraries, and art institutions across the country release coloring book style images of artworks from their collections. This year the DSU archives brings you a drawing by Eugene Irving that first appeared on the cover of the Hornet student newspaper in February 1982.  Mr. Irving served as a Hornet staff photographer before completing a civil engineering course of study in 1983.  Happy coloring! 

If you want to check out some other coloring pages head over to the Color our Collections webpage hosted by the New York Academy of Medicine: https://library.nyam.org/colorourcollections/