As my former students among you know, I still have to give an alert when a joke or metaphor is coming! I first "met" Dr. Alexander in the sixth grade, when my mother initiated the Nu Tau chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority on the campus of Georgia College and State University, where she was the first tenured African American faculty member.
I heard conversations about all the Delta presidents, but Dr. Alexander struck a particular chord with me. I grew up in a college town, in a family of academics who prized education. Yet, at that point in my life, I instinctively divided academia into two discrete spheres: humanities and hard sciences.