This is a useful, short interview about HBCUs in the 21st century.

 

Know Justice, Know Peace,

Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin, Professor of Communication

ASU FSA Co-VP for Faculty, AEJMC MAC Officer

Alabama State University, 915 S. Jackson St.

Montgomery, AL 36101-0271 PH:334-229-6885

Thanks in advance for your research & creative activity referrals:
http://home.earthlink.net/~ekdaufin

 

With all my  heart I want work that I love; for abundant pay; in a
beautiful, functional, comfortable environment; with/for kind,
competent, happy, supportive people who love, enjoy and appreciate me
and I they. Ashe.

 

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SUNDAY CONVERSATION


Q&A: UNCF president: Don't close historically black colleges


By ROSALIND BENTLEY
<http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/12/07/mailto:rbentl
[log in to unmask]> 

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Last week, state Senate Higher Education Chairman Seth Harp (R-Midland)
suggested that the University System should merge two of Georgia's
historically black colleges, Savannah State and Albany State, with
majority-white institutions. It would save money, he said, and it would
close an "ugly chapter" in the state's segregated history. Not so fast,
said Michael Lomax, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund.
Lomax is a former Fulton County Commission chairman and former president
of Dillard University, a historically black school in New Orleans. He
also has served on the board of advisers of the White House Initiative
on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Here, the graduate of
Morehouse College, Columbia and Emory universities talks about education
and what race has to do with it.

Q: People said they never thought they'd see a black man elected
president of the United States. It has happened, and it's seen as a sign
of progress. Do you think we'll live to see a day when HBCUs are no
longer necessary, and would that represent progress?

A: I don't think it would represent progress when any college is no
longer necessary.

Q: So what is the definition of a historically black college or
university (HBCU)?

A: Being a historically black college has nothing to do with even its
enrollment. It has to do with why it was founded. [It's an HBCU if] it
was founded to educate black people before the Civil Rights Act [of
1965]. That's a historical fact that can't change. Demographics may
change, and the institutions may have a large number of white students
or even a majority of white students.

Q: That's probably news to a lot of people.

A: My job is to take people from being ignorant to educated [laughs].
But you know, when people see a category that says "historically black,"
they just assume that means "exclusively black." And that isn't the
case.

Q: Isn't this, in part, a question of identity? Meaning that, once a
school has been absorbed by another, its brand ceases to exist, that its
history no longer matters?

A: Historically black colleges are nurturing environments, and there's a
certain amount of tough love. Those are characteristics of HBCUs. But
another characteristic is that these are institutions where
organizations and the culture of the black community thrive. They are
places where, for four years in their lives, black kids get to be just
kids who happen to be black and not be the outsider or the stranger.
They value that experience and, when they get their degrees, they don't
want to see that experience lost for future generations.

Q: Can't a black student get those things on a campus that's not
predominantly black?

A: American higher education isn't one-size-fits-all. It is diverse. You
have historically Jewish institutions. You have Catholic schools. You
have single-gender institutions. You have a real mixture. So different
people can find that different environment that suits them.

Q: Some people think a degree from a black university doesn't measure up
to one from a nonblack institution.

A: No. 1, any accredited college or university in this country meets the
standards of its regional accrediting body. No. 2, there are close to
4,000 secondary institutions in the country, and they don't all have the
same brand value. I will tell you that, when I set foot at Columbia
University in 1969, the Morehouse brand didn't mean very much. It was
not well known. But I can tell you, when you set foot at Columbia
University in 2008, the Morehouse brand is a very strong one.

Q: I would expect you to say that.

A: I would say that the best historically black schools are today
recognized across the country as highly competitive. They produce
leaders.

Q: There was a time when top African-American leaders and members of the
black middle class came out of HBCUs, but that's not the case anymore.

A: My peers thought I was absolutely nuts to be going to Morehouse
College. My classmates went to UCLA, Harvard, Yale, Berkeley.
Ironically, the kids of my classmates, Generation X and Y, have flooded
these historically black institutions.

Q: Even now, in 2008, they're still necessary?

A: The marketplace says they're necessary. As long as there are people
knocking on their doors saying, "Let me in, I want to go here," then
it's counter to everything else in America to say, "Well, we're going to
close those down."

Q: Wait a minute. You said the marketplace. Wouldn't the proposed
mergers involving Savannah State and Albany State save money?

A: In tough economic times, where do you want to make your investment?
As a nation, we need to produce more college graduates, not fewer.

Q: But would fewer black kids graduate if the two schools were merged
with nonblack colleges?

A: I don't know. But I would say that the way the suggestion has been
made by the Honorable Chairman Seth Harp has been provocative, a bit
heavy-handed, and made in a way that has not shown respect for the value
that these institutions have to their students, their alumni and the
communities in which they exist.