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
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.