DAILY SNAPSHOT MONDAY 10/23/23
BIPOC Daily News
GOOD MORNING SNAPSHOT STARS!
STANFORD UNIVERSITY APPROVES DEPARTMENT OF AFRICAN, AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES
Black Enterprise, Nahlah Abdur-Rahman - Stanford Univesity, through its Board of Trustees, has officially approved the creation of a Department of African and African American Studies. The department is set to open in January.
The announcement was made on Oct. 20, as the department will take over the program already in place for the vast subjects within its School of Humanities and Sciences, according to the Stanford Report. Advocated by faculty and students alike for years, the official recognization of African and African American Studies (AAAS) as a department is considered to be a major step in the institution’s diversity.
The latest effort to transform the AAAS program into a department was sparked by the height of the Black Lives Matter movement and murder of George Floyd in 2020. While the AAAS program has been a part of Stanford’s curriculum options for over half a century, its departmentalization was at a standstill before the outcry of social justice nationwide.
R. Lanier Anderson, the J.E. Wallace Sterling Professor of the Humanities, shared that the school needed to make the department a “permanent” fixture in its academia in light of the historical moment.
“Events since 2020 have made it increasingly apparent that the time has come for Stanford to put our work in AAAS on a permanent footing …,” shared the philosophy professor.
A task force initiated by the university in 2021 also recommended the departmentalization of the program. Ato Quayson, a professor of English and interdisciplinary studies at the school, has been unveiled as the department’s inaugural chair.
The university will allow tracks of African, African American, and Global Black Diaspora Studies to be available for interested students. The inclusion of courses associated with Black studies will also be provided, alongside a collaboration with the Institute for Diversity of the Arts, as students within the department will have the opportunity to connect their learning through creative means.
Pharmacies in Georgia First to Dispense Marijuana Products
Atlanta—A form of medical marijuana is expected to soon be available at some independent pharmacies across Georgia, which will make it the first state in the nation to allow cannabis products at drugstores.1
The wider availability of low-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) oil is expected to significantly increase access for registered patients.
The Georgia Board of Pharmacy began accepting applications early in October. The advocacy group NORML said that within weeks, 120 pharmacies had agreed to provide medication from Botanical Sciences, one of the state’s two licensed THC production companies. Georgia already had seven marijuana dispensaries open in the state in April.
Botanical Sciences said in a press release that over the past year, it has been working closely with the Georgia Board of Pharmacy, the Georgia Pharmacy Association, and the Academy of Independent Pharmacy to get its products into independent pharmacies. With the additional locations, Botanical Sciences noted that 89.8% of the state’s residents will soon have access to its products within a 30-minute drive.
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