Dowling collects books for African university

The boxes, stacked high and packed heavy, sit in an office at Dowling College - destined for poor students who live halfway around the world.

Their contents? Textbooks - 1,524 in all - that were collected over the past few months for the University of Livingstonia in Malawi, Africa, a fledgling school founded in 2003 in the northern part of the country that put out a call for college-level learning materials last fall.

Yesterday, Dowling officials marked the donation with a colorful ceremony attended by Malawi's ambassador to the United Nations, Steve Matenje.

"It is very important to have an educated population to push forward our national agenda and take our people out of poverty," Matenje said.

The campaign was organized by Dowling's Center for Minority Teacher Development and its director, Lizette Washington, who read about the university's need for textbooks in Newsday.

"It really touched me when I heard about it because I know how costly books can be for our students," Washington said, noting that new editions can make textbooks obsolete after just one semester.

Regina Scarbrough, a graduate student in business administration, donated several of her old textbooks to the drive. "They would have just collected dust, so it's good to know they will get some use," she said.

Washington said she plans to hold a collection every other year from now on, and donate the books to all four major universities in Malawi.

Other school officials said they hoped the book drive would spark other types of partnerships between Dowling and Malawi universities, including student exchanges.

"There are so many different ways we can work together," said Clyde Payne, dean of the school of education.