Miss. HBCU Has New Competition for Students, Funds
JACKSON, Miss. — In a ruling praised by education partisans on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, a federal judge will allow a four-year college program to begin accepting students as early as next summer, if funding allows. Eight months after blocking college expansion plans on the Gulf Coast, U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers Jr. ruled earlier this month that the University of Southern Mississippi’s new classes should not hurt historically Black state universities.
Coastal leaders had complained of limited educational opportunities in the populous area. The ruling eliminated one of the last barriers for Southern Mississippi to have a four-year school in Long Beach.
Black plaintiffs in a 24-year-old college desegregation case had convinced Biggers in March to halt Southern Mississippi’s plans to admit freshmen and sophomores in Long Beach. Juniors and seniors are the only ones attending the campus now. The plaintiffs contended that predominantly Black Alcorn State, Jackson State and Mississippi Valley State are already underfunded and would be financially impacted by a new campus.
“Although the court is not convinced that the Legislature is fully cognizant of the financial demands this undertaking will require in future years as an annual budget expenditure, nevertheless the court has no reason to question at this point the state’s willingness and ability to fund all the higher education needs, including the Gulf Coast expansion,” Biggers wrote in the ruling made public earlier this month.
Higher Education Commissioner Thomas Layzell said the College Board was pleased with the ruling and would “work with the Legislature on the funding request so that students can be admitted as early as June 2000.”
The College Board had agreed last January to allow the expansion. The 1999 Legislature provided no money for new classes because of Biggers’ earlier decision, but lawmakers said they would give USM-Gulf Coast at least $500,000 in 2000 if the federal court was satisfied.
Biggers had ruled last March that proposed admission requirements for the new students at the coast campus did not comply with requirements in a 1995 order to desegregate the state’s universities.
USM-Gulf Coast had planned to require applicants to write an essay and they wanted to limit admission to students who live on the coast. Those requirements were dropped.
Biggers is overseeing court-ordered desegregation of the eight state universities. Mississippi had been sued in 1975 by the late Jake Ayers Sr. over conditions at the Black colleges.
Administrators Project a Loss of Diversity Because of ‘One Florida’ Plan
TAMPA, Fla. — Members of a task force created to help enact Gov. Jeb Bush’s effort to end affirmative action in university admissions debated earlier this month what it would take to make the plan work. Meanwhile, University of Florida administrators estimated that the state’s flagship university would enroll 700 fewer minority students next year, a drop of about 50 percent, if race is not considered as a factor in admissions.
Under Bush’s One Florida proposal, race and ethnicity would no longer be factors in university admissions. Instead, the top 20 percent of graduates at each public high school would be guaranteed a spot at a public university, though not necessarily at the campus of their choice.
The 40-member task force voted to recommend that students’ grade-point averages be calculated at the end of their seventh semester of high school — or first semester of their senior year.
One of the toughest issues in carrying out the plan involves creating a uniform calculation method for GPAs. School districts now calculate GPAs in many different ways. Some give greater weight to advanced placement courses, for instance, while others give more consideration to honors classes.
After debating the pros and cons of a statewide approach to evaluating grades, the task force recommended there be some uniform state standard — to be determined later. School districts would still have some flexibility to give more weight to advanced placement and international baccalaureate programs. Less weight would be given to honors program.
Kim Federle, student body president at Florida State University, says she likes the idea of giving more weight to advanced placement courses. Otherwise, students who could get higher grades in easier classes could potentially end up with higher grade point averages.
“It’s important that the students that really make that better effort and take harder classes not feel slighted,” she says.
Bush’s plan calls for increased AP course offerings at low-performing schools.
Jocelyn Moore, student vice president at the University of Florida, says that it is a step in the right direction, but will take several years to see the results.
“Until the K-12 system is more equitable, it’s not going to help a lot.”
Last month, Charles Young, the interim University of Florida president, told some faculty members the plan would drain minority students away from the university, rather than boost enrollment (see Black Issues, Dec. 9, 1999).
Minority students represent about 24 percent of the University of Florida’s 42,000 students. Minority enrollment statewide is 35 percent.
The state board of regents approved Bush’s concept last month and asked Chancellor Adam Herbert to draft a policy for it to consider in January.
Fire, Racist Graffiti Damage HBCUs’ Business Incubator
RALEIGH, N.C. — A soon-to-be-opened small-business incubator, that will be managed by two historically Black colleges, was damaged when someone burned the interior and scrawled racist symbols on windows and walls.
The damage totaled about $300,000, according to the contractor who built the $1.7 million structure. The cost will be covered by the contractor’s insurance, but repairs will take at least two months.
The center — which would help launch new businesses by providing affordable office space, access to equipment and inexpensive marketing advice — was scheduled to open after the first of the year. It will be overseen by Raleigh’s two historically Black colleges, Shaw University and St. Augustine’s College.
“Here we were, finally on the threshold of something good for the community,” says City Council member Brad Thompson, a supporter of the project. “The incubator was a symbol of everything right in the city, and this action is a symbol of everything wrong.”
Capt. M.W. Franks of the Raleigh Fire Department says the arson was committed and the racist graffiti sprayed at the same time late Thanksgiving night.
The graffiti — swastikas, “KKK” and the more cryptic “Ree” — were applied to walls, windows and the floor with a caulk gun. JC Edwards, the building’s contractor, said the graffiti was the least of the physical damage. The arsonists took cans of paint to the top floor and dropped them to the second, where they exploded; they sprayed each of the five fire extinguishers until they were empty; they knocked holes in walls and doors, broke windows, turned on all the faucets on the second floor and finally set fire to the circular receptionist’s desk in the foyer.
Appeals Court Rejects Grad Student’s Discrimination Suit in Michigan
