After backlash to proposed Georgia Senate Bill 273 that would consolidate the state’s three public historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) into the Georgia Agricultural and Mechanical University System, lawmakers swiftly withdrew and introduced in its place a second bill, SB278, allowing the institutions to keep their names under the system.
However, the move did not alleviate the concerns of alumni and supporters of Albany State University, Fort Valley State University and Savannah State University, who wished for more transparency in the crafting of the bills by state senators.
Five Georgia senators – Tonya Anderson, Gail Davenport, Harold Jones, Freddie Powell Sims and Nikema Williams – withdrew their names and support from the previous SB273 bill after mounting backlash, according to a statement issued by the group Monday. They have not signed onto SB278, which is now solely sponsored by State Senator Lester G. Jackson.
“The bill, SB273, is something that, those of us signing on just didn’t pay attention to. We get hundreds of bills on our desk,” Sims told Diverse. “We have no intentions of being a part of any kind of discussion that deals with merging these schools without talking to alumni, or having discussions with students and community leaders.”
Sims added that the group of legislators that originally signed SB273 believed the bill to be a resolution that would merely continue a study committee focusing on the future of the three HBCUS.
“It was not,” Sims said, noting that the study committee, which was hosted last summer, involved conversations about increasing enrollment and retention and disparities between and among the historically Black and predominantly White universities in Georgia, particularly around the amount of funding and support given over the years.
“All of those things that you would expect us to talk about when it deals with our HBCUs,” she said. “The word ‘merger’ never, ever surfaced during those talks last summer.”
