There is plenty of common ground between universities and civil rights groups that needs to be uplifted and utilized. There is a gulf that needs to be filled.
Many universities operate as if they are an island unto themselves and many civil rights organizations are as engaged as they could be in the education space. It is becoming increasingly necessary for civil rights groups to work with colleges and universities to increase access to higher education and improve the economic conditions of underserved communities.
There is a natural synergy that needs to be reinforced. There are too many areas of convergence not to. Institutions of higher education should work with civil rights groups to help get their issues on the agenda and have them resonate in the broader public consciousness. Colleges and universities need the consistency of a civil rights organization to help them move issues on the agenda. Otherwise, many issues and concerns will just be an episodic tantrum and the political powers that be can wait them out.
Universities hold the key to the kind of upward mobility and opportunity that the civil rights community has fought to attain for generations. Civil rights organizations need guidance on what to organize around and where to apply public pressure. Higher education institutions can provide that with an increased level of engagement.
Arguably the most pressing areas of convergence is the issue of state governments financially starving out public institutions of higher education. The New York Times noted that, “since the 2008 recession, states have reduced spending on public higher education by 17 percent per student, while tuition has risen by 33 percent, according to a recent report by the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.”
The fiscal troubles at many public colleges and universities in Louisiana and Arizona, where they have cut spending 39 percent and 56 percent, respectively, are representative of a funding crisis that has been building at public universities across the country. Despite a rebounding economy and more robust state budgets, funding for colleges and universities has remained below funding levels prior to the recession.
If the current trend of disinvestment goes unmitigated, then some states will not end up investing anything toward colleges and universities. This will place an increased burden on poor and working-class students and parents. The process of students gaining access to, and successfully completing programs at institutions of higher education, can be long and arduous and does not have the same kind of drama associated with it as police violence. But it is as consequential to the long-term sustainability of minority communities.
