Journalism Professor Denied Tenure Sues FAMU
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida A&M University journalism professor denied tenure because she didn’t have a doctorate has filed a sex and race discrimination complaint against the school, saying it is run by and for Black men.
Assistant professor Gloria Horning also says the university illegally changed the rules after she began a tenure track in 1993 when a doctoral degree was not required. Tenure effectively gives university professors a lifetime guarantee of a job (see Black Issues, May 27, 1999).
“I believe that Florida A&M University has been engaged in a systematic and intentional scheme and artifice to deny my promotion and tenure because I am a Caucasian female employed at a predominantly and historically Black university,” Horning says. “Further, I believe that men are given preference over women.”
Horning, 43, filed a complaint last month with the Florida Commission on Human Relations. The commission has six months to mediate the dispute or make a written finding, which either side can appeal to the courts.
Horning also says she plans to sue the school for breach of contract. Without tenure, Horning will not have a job after Aug. 7, 2000.
FAMU spokesman Eddie Jackson says he cannot comment on pending litigation.
Michigan Admits Fewer Minority Applicants
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — While the University of Michigan continues to encourage a diverse student body, data released last month indicate that fewer underrepresented minorities have been admitted to this year’s incoming freshman class than last year, according to a story in the university’s student newspaper, the Michigan Daily.
Despite a negligible decrease in the number of underrepresented minority application submissions in the last year, from 2,267 to 2,260, the number of those admitted declined by more than 100.
University spokesperson Julie Peterson told the student paper that the numbers are only based on applications received and entered into the system by May 17. She said that because applications are still being processed, data could fluctuate and will not be finalized until October.
Underrepresented minority enrollment has decreased at the University since 1995, when underrepresented minority students comprised 15 percent of the entering class. That number dropped by 1 percent in 1996, then during 1997 and 1998, underrepresented minority enrollment dropped to 13 percent of the entering classes for both years.
Noting that this year’s underrepresented minority enrollment is something administrators are “watching closely,” Peterson said, “Having a diverse student body is a concern of ours. We don’t like to see it go down.”
Peterson says it is unlikely that there is a correlation between the drop in underrepresented minority admissions and the lawsuits against the university’s admission policy, filed by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Individual Rights. The lawsuits challenge the university’s use of race as a disproportionate factor in admissions (see Black Issues, Jan. 21, 1999).
“We have chosen to defend the lawsuit because a diverse student body is essential to a Michigan education,” she says.
According to the student newspaper report, the university received 21,011 applications for the incoming first-year class — 2,260 from underrepresented minorities. Of that, 13,351 prospective students were admitted — 1,520 of whom were underrepresented minorities.
Also, fewer underrepresented minorities have paid the deposit securing their spot in the incoming class. Underrepresented minorities are defined by the university as Black, Hispanic, or Native American.
Meanwhile, a group of students of color who seek undergraduate or law-school admission into the University of Michigan have asked a federal appeals court to let them intervene in the reverse-discrimination lawsuits against the university.
Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians will be directly affected by how the lawsuits turn out and should be allowed to participate as parties in the lawsuits when they are heard in the Michigan federal courts, lawyers for these students told the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The lawyers asked the court to reverse rulings by lower courts against their clients (see Black Issues, Aug. 6, 1998).
“If the plaintiffs win this case, the University of Michigan will go on. It’ll just be much Whiter,” says Theodore Shaw, one of the lawyers who argued in behalf of the minorities.
Appeals Judges Martha Craig Daughtrey, Karen Moore, and William Stafford did not say when they will rule. The appeals court had halted the proceedings in the lower courts in order to consider these arguments.
Former Governor Becomes
College Board Head
NEW YORK — Former West Virginia Gov. Gaston Caperton succeeded Dr. Donald M. Stewart as the president and chief executive officer of the College Board on July 1.
Caperton brings a well-respected reputation for what is considered significant educational leadership. During his two terms as governor, he oversaw a major reorganization of West Virginia’s higher education system. He enacted legislation requiring public institutions to create five-year strategic plans that addressed such areas as access, student performance, and public awareness of educational opportunities.
He also increased funding for higher education by 3.25 percent annually for five years. Caperton tied those increases to an institution’s progress in meeting the goals set in the five-year plan.
When he left the governorship, Caperton served as executive director of the Institute on Education and Government at Columbia University’s Teachers College, and as a fellow and instructor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
“I am honored to have been chosen as president of this highly regarded, 100-year-old organization,” he said at the April announcement of his acceptance of the position. “This is a great challenge and opportunity in education, and I believe the College Board can make a real difference by effectively serving its members in their critical job of helping students prepare for and succeed in college, work, and life.”
Stewart, who led the College Board for more than 12 years, is now the program director for higher education policy at the Carnegie Corporation.
At the announcement of the College Board’s choice of Caperton, Stewart said, “It has been an honor to serve as president and CEO of the College Board and to help contribute to the future of so many young lives.
“I am leaving at a time when the organization is healthy and engaged in identifying new ways to provide even greater public value in education,” he continued. “I know that Gov. Caperton will serve the College Board well as it enters its next century.”
Oregon Universities Acknowledge Racial Tensions
PORTLAND, Ore. — Racial tensions at Oregon’s two largest universities have resulted from long-standing frustration, and some students and faculty say school officials do not understand the root causes of the problem. As the school year drew to a close, both campuses experienced race-related unrest.
“As much as we’re seen as a liberal, activist campus, we’re in a state of denial on minority issues,” says Missy Rock, a student arrested during a recent anti-racism sit-in at the University of Oregon (UO) in Eugene. “Until we acted, there wasn’t a lot of dialogue around these issues, so we’ll keep pushing.”
An ongoing classroom discussion that apparently got out of hand sparked the May 18 sit-in at UO, at which 31 people were arrested. A student made what others felt was a disparaging comment about Latinos, fueling an angry e-mail debate.
At OSU, a pair of fraternity members stand accused of yelling a racial epithet and throwing firecrackers near a passing Black student on May 1. The same student was, as a freshman three years ago, the target of racial harassment in an incident that led to a campus demonstration and university reforms (see Black Issues, May 27, 1999).
Oregon’s campuses are gradually becoming more diverse and, most people agree, more tolerant. About 12 percent of students at the UO and OSU are minorities — about 1 percent more than five years ago. The UO has about 16,800 students, and OSU has about 14,600. Both schools are growing.
But minority students describe a campus atmosphere in which they swallow little indignities on an almost daily basis. They hear demeaning comments in classrooms from often well-meaning professors and fellow students. They find themselves being trailed down store aisles by suspicious clerks when they’re out shopping.
After the 1996 protest, OSU instituted minority education offices to assist students socially and academically. Both campuses have increased minority student and faculty recruitment. But both still have higher minority dropout rates. University officials also complain their talented minority professors are lured away by other colleges.
Larry Roper, OSU’s associate provost for student affairs, says, “What we’ve got is a clash between what the university can be and reality.
“There are folks suffering in silence,” adds Roper, one of only a handful of African American administrators at the university, “and when something happens, the rage all comes out.”
Protests Accompany Abu-Jamal’s Commencement Speech
OLYMPIA, Wash. — During a taped speech by convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal at Evergreen State College’s commencement ceremony last month , a handful of the approximately 800 graduates walked out in protest, two dozen other graduates stood and turned their backs, and still others wore yellow armbands to express their displeasure.
Protesters who did not attend the university — including Maureen Faulkner, the widow of the Philadelphia police officer allegedly shot by Abu-Jamal in 1981, and police officers in dress uniforms — also attended the ceremony. One protester had a replica of an electric chair and a sign reading: “A positive role model for Mumia.”
Faulkner said Abu-Jamal’s participation was “not fitting for a graduation ceremony. A classroom, maybe, but not a graduation ceremony.”
Evergreen permits its student to select commencement speakers, but the selection of Abu-Jamal as a speaker was controversial. The state’s Democratic Governor, Gary Locke, canceled his scheduled appearance at the ceremony, and Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) — the day before the ceremony — asked the U.S. House of Representatives for a moment of silence to protest the students’ choice.
Abu-Jamal’s jailhouse writings about the justice system and his efforts to win a new trial have given him worldwide attention. A symbol for death penalty opponents, he insists he is innocent and his conviction was the result a biased judge and an ineffective lawyer. He has been on death row since 1982. No execution date has been set. He is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.
College President Jane Jervis told the crowd before Abu-Jamal’s remarks were played that people should “be aware of the pain and outrage” of Ms. Faulkner and police officers — and of the right of diverse voices to be heard.
Malka Fenyvesi, a student who supported the choice of speakers, says Abu-Jamal was not invited to “to create a lot of bad feelings,” but rather to create a forum for a “marginalized segment of our society.”
In his remarks, Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther, drew parallels between British colonial rule and Black U.S. political power.
“Why was it right for people to revolt against the British because of taxation without representation and somehow wrong for truly unrepresented Africans in America to revolt against America?” he asked. “For any repressed people, revolution, according to the Declaration of Independence, is a right.”
