Garza Takes Leave from ACE to Lead New Organization
WASHINGTON — Hector Garza, vice president of the American Council on Education’s (ACE) Division of Access and Equity programs, will take a two-year leave of absence to start a new organization to encourage partnerships between colleges and elementary and secondary schools.
Garza, who also served as director of ACE’s Office of Minorities in Higher Education, will become the first president of the new non-profit organization — the National Council for Community and Educational Partnerships. His leave of absence will begin January 1, 2000.
ACE officials say they will begin a search immediately for a director of the Office of Minorities in Education, which publishes the influential Annual Status Report on Minorities in Higher Education and hosts the ” Educating the Nation” conference.
Earlier this month, Garza’s office hosted a conference for presidents of color in to promote unity among the three minority higher education associations — the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, the Higher the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.
Under Garza’s leadership, the office also held workshops for colleges to help educators craft affirmative action policies and programs that could survive legal challenges.
Minister’s Nomination to Head SUNY Campus Stirs Controversy
NEW YORK — The Rev. Calvin O. Butts, pastor of one of New York City’s largest and most influential churches has been formally nominated to be president of the Old Westbury campus of the State University of New York (SUNY). If his nomination is approved, Rev. Butts will remain as pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church.
According to The New York Times, Old Westbury’s College Council, an advisory board, issued its recommendation earlier this month to the chancellor of SUNY. The chancellor, John W. Ryan, said he would probably approve it and send it to the board of trustees for approval. The board was to take up the nomination later this month so that Butts could assume the post by the start of the fall semester.
But the nomination has stirred controversy on campus because it came just eight days after the search committee held its first meeting. The faculty senate has charged that the search was rushed and has political overtones because of Rev. Butts’ ties to New York Gov. George E. Pataki. The governor appointed Butts as an unpaid member of the board of the Empire State Development Corporation, a state-financed economic development agency.
The faculty senate sent a letter to Pataki criticizing the college council for violating SUNY’s guidelines for selecting presidents. Those guidelines call for a national search and the development of a list of 20 candidates. Gretchen Johnson, president of Old Westbury’s senate also questioned the timing of the nomination, as it comes just as the state legislature passed a law allowing nearly 200 acres of the 600-acre campus to be transferred to the university’s foundation for leasing to private sources.
NAACP Adopts Resolution Rejecting Racist Mascots
CHICAGO — The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) passed a resolution last month in New York that rejects the use of Native Americans and “all historically oppressed people and their cultural traditions” as sports mascots and symbols.
The resolution grew out of a longtime fight at the University of Illinois to ban Chief Illiniwek, the school’s mascot, says a spokesperson for the NAACP’s Champaign chapter.
The association also is asking members to stop purchasing items with Native American sports logos and to support local efforts to ban the use of Native American people and images as sports names and logos.
Imani Bazzell, of the NAACP’s Champaign County chapter, says her branch has worked unsuccessfully for several years to convince the university to give up Chief Illiniwek, a 73-year-old tradition featuring a student who performs in Indian regalia at halftime of football and basketball games. The national resolution came about, Bazzell says, after her branch took an existing resolution against the use of Native American symbols and added language asking local chapters to take concrete steps to stamp out the practice.
Tribal Colleges Fighting Stagnant Federal Funding
BISMARCK, N.D. — Ron McNeil, the president of Sitting Bull Community College in Fort Yates who has seen pipes burst and shoot water all over the school’s library, is worried about proposed federal budget cuts that threaten tribal colleges now operating in dilapidated buildings.
In addition to the roof leaking, fires have started because shoddy wiring cannot keep up with the school’s electrical demands. And, the foundation is sinking into the ground.
But McNeil and other college officials are fighting a congressional spending plan that would reduce funding for tribal colleges. In his 2000 budget, President Clinton called for a $7.1 million increase for tribal colleges, but a congressional committee changed it to maintain existing funding.
“Every time it rains, we wonder where we’re going to have to put the bucket,” says McNeil, whose great-great-great-grandfather was the legendary Sioux chief, Sitting Bull.
The American Indian Higher Education Consortium says the spending plan would actually reduce funding by more than $220 per American Indian student because tribal college enrollments are increasing so rapidly. The group says it would result in the lowest per-student budget since tribal colleges began receiving federal funding nearly 20 years ago.
On top of that, North Dakota’s five tribal colleges don’t receive money from the state, which means they rely heavily on federal government aid.
Tribal college leaders were in Washington last month to try to get the federal funding restored.
McNeil says it’s unfair for the government to implement stagnant funding levels at the same time that tribal enrollments are soaring.
“A funding reduction of the magnitude proposed by Congress will jeopardize the very existence of tribal colleges, and thereby the health of our entire community,” he says.
Needy Students Can Keep Excess Grant Money in Arkansas
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Although a new state law says colleges and universities cannot award public financial aid to students over what it costs them to attend school, state education officials say they will allow needy students who get a federal Pell grant to keep it.
The $3,125 Pell grant is based on need, and university officials pleaded with members of the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board last month to exempt the grants in figuring a student’s total financial aid package in complying with the new law. University of Arkansas System President B. Alan Sugg and others said low-income students needed the Pell grants for unexpected and miscellaneous costs, such as car repairs, transportation, and clothing expenses.
At a meeting in Stuttgart, the board incorporated the 1999 law into its rules and voted 4-3 to exempt the Pell grant. Higher Education Director Lou Hardin said afterwards that the exemption would affect less than 100 students in Arkansas — those who get enough financial aid to cover their attendance costs but also receive a Pell grant because they come from low-income families.
But the new rule also will affect those needy students who’ve qualified for financial aid — other than the Pell grant — that exceeds the cost of attendance, he said, adding that those students will not be able to receive the extra aid.
Hardin said the board’s “spirited debate” over the exemption request resulted from ambiguity in the language of the new law regarding the definition of “total financial aid package.” It was unclear if federal funds should be included or not, he said.
The board voted 4-3 against a measure to include the grants, then approved Hardin’s recommendation to exempt the grants.
Hardin said the purpose of the new law was to keep colleges and universities from attracting students by giving them more money than they needed to attend school.
