The event is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom and is free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Department of Communication, the lecture is part of the University's Black History Month festivities.

The lecture recognizes the contributions of African-Americans in the media. The event also honors the late Michael Davis, a mass communications student at Southeast who died as a result of a hazing incident.

Boyd has served as managing editor of the New York Times since September 2001 after having served for four years as deputy managing editor for news. During his tenure as deputy managing editor, the Times' "How Race is Lived in America" series published in 2000 was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting the following year.

Boyd had been named a senior editor in January 1991 when he was appointed special assistant to the managing editor. That led to a brief stint as a top editor in the paper's Washington bureau and in its national and metropolitan departments. Boyd took the lead during a major expansion of metropolitan reporting, which included hiring staff, reorganizing the department and reshaping its coverage. In 1994, the New York Times received a Pulitzer Prize for spot news for its coverage of the World Trade Center bombing, the paper's first Pulitzer for local reporting in two decades.

In 1988, he was a member of the Times' national political team and reported on Vice President Bush's pursuit of the presidency, through the nominating process and the general election. Following the election, Boyd played a leading role in reporting about the Bush appointees. He had previously reported on Mr. Bush during the 1984 campaign and, after the election, had reported as one of the Times' two White House correspondents on the internal turmoil prompted by the Iran-Contra disclosures and the resignation of President Reagan's chief of staff, Donald Regan.

Boyd joined the Times following a 10-year career at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he worked his way from copyboy to the newspaper's White House correspondent. In 1977, he founded the St. Louis Association of Black Journalists and served as its first president. One of the organization's projects was a seven-week journalism workshop for high school students.

He graduated in 1973 with a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. While at the university, he was elected student body vice president.

For more information on the upcoming lecture, call Dr. Ferrell Ervin, chair of the Department of Communication, at (573) 651-2241.