DAYTON, OHIO
Some Ohio legislators want to force Central
State University to merge with another institution of higher education
despite a graduation rate for Black students that exceeds that of nearly
half of the state’s public universities.
One of the suggested merger partners is, ironically, the very
institution from which CSU split exactly fifty years ago–Wilberforce
University, one of the nation’s oldest, private, historically Black
colleges and universities (HBCUs). Wilberforce is located across the
street from CSU in southwestern Ohio. The chairman of the board of
trustees at Wilberforce has embraced the possibility of reuniting the two
schools, although Central State supporters say they’ll oppose any
attempt to strip the school of its status of a four-year, independent
university.
In response, Raymond Pierce, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the
U. S. Department of Education, wrote to Ohio governor George V.
Voinovich to inform him that talk of the merger has prompted a
resumption of an Office of Civil Rights (OCR) investigation into Ohio’s
higher education system.
In May of 1981 the OCR found Ohio to be in violation of Title VI
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because of its segregation of Central
State University. The federal government and the state of Ohio have
had several agreements to develop a plan for Central State. However,
Pierce said in his letter, “OCR has no
reasonable expectation that the state will
provide OCR with a plan to remedy this
matter. “
The reopening of the OCR’s
discrimination complaint against the state of
Ohio over its funding and treatment of CSU
could lead to a federal lawsuit or the
withholding of federal funds from Ohio. [See
box for excerpt from letter.]
Central State is battling for its political
and financial life after the school amassed a
debt estimated by some state officials at
nearly $20 million. An interim report of an
investigation by Ohio’s Inspector General
suggested that CSU officials engaged in
“numerous instances of fraud, waste and
abuse” that could result in criminal
prosecution. Some legislators–particularly
Republicans who control both sides of Ohio’s
legislature–say the school has squandered
previous bailouts and should be either closed
or merged with another school such as
Wilberforce or Ohio State University.
CSU’s supporters say the school has been
neglected and underfunded for years by a
state government that three decades ago chose
to build another four-year state
university–Wright State University–only
eleven miles away. They say preserving the
publicly supported HBCU, which had a
winter-quarter enrollment of 1,664, is a
worthy investment.
