Campbell professor is commencement speaker for Harnett inmates

     It wasn’t your typical institution of higher education at which Campbell University’s Dr. Edward Fubara delivered the commencement address on Tuesday, June 5. Armed guards stood atop a brick and glass watchtower surveying the sparse landscape. Additional officers were posted at the main gate admitting only those whose names appeared on an approved guest list. A roll of gnarled barbed wire crested a 12-foot chain link fence that encircled the compound.

     Inside, the seven inmates about to receive the Bachelor of Science degree in business management from a Shaw University program administered through Harnett Correctional Institute (HCI) couldn’t have been prouder.

     Fubara, who is an assistant professor at Campbell’s Lundy-Fetterman School of Business, was asked to be their commencement speaker by the Shaw University Prison Program.

     “The graduates were absolutely proud and happy to receive their degrees,” Fubara said. “I talked to them about the obstacles they had to overcome and the fact that their degrees were achieved through hard work and perseverance. There are students who have access to all the best resources, the latest technology, excellent tutors and state of the art libraries and still don’t graduate,” he said.

     Nnamdi Onuorah, director of Shaw University’s College of Adult and Professional Education, said over 654 students have graduated from the university’s Prison Program since 1988. Established in 1983 through a contract with the North Carolina Department of Corrections, the goal of the Prison Program was to provide undergraduate degree opportunities to incarcerated men and women using the same curriculum employed at the university’s main campus. The program quickly expanded to five correctional institutions, but is currently available at only two institutions, HCI and North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women. Onuorah reports that only one of the 654 graduates has returned to prison since the program began.

      “I believe that education is the best way to rehabilitate an inmate,” he said. “It is less costly to educate prisoners than to keep them incarcerated since the state pays more than $20,000 per year per inmate. Statistics indicate that the majority of those released will return to prison if they are without skills or education,” Onuorah added.

     In his commencement address, Fubara drew parallels between the lives of the graduates and Samson of the Bible.

     “Samson’s story is the tale of a strong and passionate man whose impulsiveness caused him to make some mistakes and yet God used him,” Fubara said. “I want Samson’s life to resonate with you and provide inspiration for the next leg of your journey. Instead of going out like Samson, you can end your life like the Apostle Paul who said,’….I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord will give to me on that Day …’”

     A graduate of the University of Benin in Benin City, Nigeria, Fubara received a master’s of Business Administration and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University. He came to Campbell in 2005, where he teaches management courses and serves on the campus Multicultural Council. He has developed and facilitated workshops and seminars on diversity management, employability skills, leadership, Christian education, time management, market research, small business development and conflict resolution.