Chancellor remains a scholar

• By CHARLES LUSSIER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 6, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Academics who move into administration often give up the scholarship that fueled their passion for academia in the first place so they can focus on their new responsibilities.

That’s not the case with new Southern University Chancellor Kofi Lomotey, who will continue as longtime editor of the scholarly journal, Urban Education.

So on top of his time-consuming administrative duties at Southern, Lomotey reads up to 200 submitted articles every year for the journal, which annually has six issues. Each entry is “refereed” by two to four other experts before it’s accepted for publication.

Lomotey is also editing a two-volume publication, “Encyclopedia of African-American Education,” for SAGE Publications, which also publishes Urban Education.

“I try to do one or two publications a year, book chapters, journal articles, just to stay on top of my field … which is increasingly difficult,” Lomotey said.

To make things easier, Lomotey has hired Berlisha Ricard to serve as his editorial assistant, and Southern is setting up an office for its new scholarly addition.

Lomotey has served as the journal’s editor for 16 years and, for five years prior to that, worked as its associate editor. Previous editors served no more than three years, but SAGE Publications has been pleased with the journal’s sales and supported him staying as editor, Lomotey said.

Urban Education has traveled with Lomotey through much of his career, including a stint at LSU to his most recent job as executive vice president and provost at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn.

“It’s followed me from Buffalo to Baton Rouge to Georgia to Tennessee and now back to Baton Rouge,” Lomotey said.

The journal, as its title suggests, focuses on urban education all the way from early childhood to the university level. A recent issue has articles examining suspension rates in elementary schools and middle schools, the importance of school gardens, and a review of the debate over affirmative action.

Lomotey said that over time the journal has taken on a more international cast, receiving a regular supply of submissions from education scholars in Europe and Asia, where the journal has a notable readership.

Lomotey himself is an educator with experience outside the ivy-covered walls of academia. “I’ve taught on every level from preschool to the professional school,” he said.