Jackson State University President Ronald Mason detonated an explosive in the middle of a heated debate on Gov. Haley Barbour’s proposed merger of three Mississippi HBCUs.
And the one getting burned appears to be Mason himself.
In a strange turn of events, Mason, who has been at the helm of Jackson State for 10 years, was quietly promoting his own plan to combine Jackson State, Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley, while publicly opposing the governor’s proposal.
In a Dec. 16 National Public Radio interview, which Mason placed on his own JSU website, he laid out his position on Barbour’s proposal: “… we can talk about working together to produce a better educational product, but the notion of merging is, first of all, politically unfeasible. And, secondly, you know, not well thought out.”
Then last week, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger newspaper obtained a copy of a PowerPoint presentation Mason had prepared for some state lawmakers. In a written summary of the proposal, which he sent to Diverse, Mason calls for the creation of “Jacobs State University.”
“Mississippi’s big three should become the big four. We should create a new HBCU,” Mason stated in the document. “I would call it Jacobs State University after H.P. Jacobs, a slave who taught himself to read and write. … Jacobs State University would include Alcorn College, Mississippi Valley College and Jackson College, each with a specific purpose and role.”
When asked how long he had been formulating the Jacobs State plan, Mason said in an e-mail message to Diverse, “I have [been] thinking about the benefits of unifying the three Mississippi HBCUs for several years.”
