![[Under Construction]](images/undercon.gif)
Interesting.....
----- Forwarded 11/16/2004 02:02 PM -----
Enrollment Is Shifting At Black Universities
By Avis Thomas-Lester
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 31, 2004; Page C01
Just after noon on the Howard University yard, members of the Omega Psi Phi
fraternity broke into an impromptu step show, bobbing and chanting as they
stomped in unison.
Chad Bishop watched from a distance. In his three years on the Northwest
Washington campus, he has become fully immersed in college life: student
body treasurer, sports announcer, newspaper board member, resident adviser
in a dorm.
But Bishop, one of the few white students at this historically black
university, said he has never felt quite comfortable enough to join a
fraternity.
"You know, I started to pledge, but then I thought I shouldn't," Bishop,
24, said. "I wasn't sure how people would feel about it with the history
and everything. I wasn't sure if people would understand why I wanted to do
it."
Increasingly, white students are enrolling at the nation's 120 historically
black colleges and universities, changing the landscape of institutions
that were created when African Americans were barred from attending most
colleges.
In the past quarter-century, the number of white students at these campuses
has risen 65 percent, from 21,000 to nearly 35,000 -- an increase driven
partly by court orders aimed at desegregation and partly by interest in
programs these schools offer.
Some of these universities, such as West Virginia State University and
Lincoln University of Missouri, are now majority-white. Others, struggling
to meet court mandates for more white students, are using scant scholarship
money to lure students from as far away as Russia.
Many educators said the changing demographics will enrich the educational
experience for all students at the once all-black colleges.
"Boardrooms are not all black, and classrooms shouldn't be either," said
Lee Young, admissions director at North Carolina A&T University, which
actively recruits white students.
His school's increasing popularity with students of all races, Young said,
is in many ways a measure of its success.
"What does it say about the value of your institution that people who
didn't come before are now coming in droves to get in? It means that your
institution has transcended color and now it is viewed as an institution of
higher learning of impeccable choice."
Other activists and students, though, said this influx of white students is
costing African Americans slots and scholarships at coveted schools and
eventually could change the mission of these historically black colleges
and universities, which are considered more nurturing than most other
institutions.
"I feel like it will change the structure of the classes and the culture of
the campus," said Tiffany Hawkins, 22, a senior telecommunications major at
Baltimore's Morgan State University. "Now, we can speak freely. We learn
about how things are different for us as black people. . . . In English
class, we study black literature. In my media criticism class, we talked
about how blacks are portrayed in the media.
"The focus is on us."
Most of the influx has come at public institutions, which receive funding
from federal and state governments. As such, many colleges are pressured to
increase their white enrollment -- even as affirmative action requirements
at some other universities are waning.
"It is an odd and dubious legality that institutions that have not excluded
anyone" are now forced to recruit white students, said Lezli Baskerville of
the Silver Spring-based National Association for Equal Opportunity in
Education.
Tennessee State University, for instance, was at one point under court
order to increase its non-black enrollment to 50 percent. The court
eventually dropped that requirement, and the campus has agreed to earmark
$924,000 a year for scholarships to white students.
Three universities in Mississippi -- Jackson State, Mississippi Valley
State and Alcorn State -- must increase their white enrollments to at least
10 percent and maintain that level for three years before they can receive
a portion of the $524 million in state funds for school improvements
provided in a federal court settlement, officials said. An effort to
overturn that settlement reached in Ayers v. Fordice, a landmark
desegregation case for colleges, was rejected Oct. 18 by the U.S. Supreme
Court.
Alcorn State University, about 90 miles southwest of Jackson, has not found
enough eligible white students from Mississippi interested in attending, so
officials began recruiting overseas.
Eugenia Merculova Lubrano, 24, of Veronezh, Russia, a 2001 graduate who
works as a recruiter for multicultural students at Alcorn, said she heard
about the college from the mother of a friend. The word spread, she said,
and now 40 people from her town have attended the historically black
college.
Lubrano said she never could have gone to a U.S. university without the
full scholarship Alcorn State offered.
Alvin O. Chambliss, the attorney who argued the Mississippi desegregation
case, said the focus at historically black campuses should be on providing
a quality education, not on drawing white students.
"They are going all the way to Russia to give away scholarships when they
are sitting in the poorest state in this country and there are many poor
black kids right there who could use those scholarships," Chambliss said.
"They should be focusing on improving facilities and adding professional
programs so that it will make all students want to go to these schools."
Morgan State University President Earl S. Richardson agreed. He said the
key to diversifying student populations is offering quality programs. The
Baltimore school offers no race-based scholarships, but has unique programs
in architecture and city regional planning that help bring in students of
all races. About 8 percent of its undergraduates and 20 percent of its
graduate students are white, Asian or Latino.
"My goal here is to create an institution that is comparable to any of the
majority-white universities," Richardson said. "Then, we not only improve
the quality of education we offer our black students -- we make it
attractive to white students, as well."
Morgan State and Maryland's other three historically black institutions --
Bowie State, Coppin State and University of Maryland Eastern Shore -- are
governed by a 2000 accord with the U.S. Department of Education that sets
no quotas for enrolling white students. Rather, the agreement encourages
the state to invest in those colleges so they can offer unique programs to
draw all students. Virginia, too, has focused on enhancing facilities and
academic programs at Norfolk State and Virginia State universities rather
than setting quotas.
Private universities, such as Hampton in Virginia and Howard, face no court
mandates to attract white students and generally have less diverse student
bodies. At Howard, 1 percent, or about 100, of their 11,000 students are
white. Those who do enroll are generally drawn by its academic reputation
or its music and athletic programs.
Bishop -- a tall, sandy-haired native of Shreveport, La. -- whittled his
college choices to Howard and the University of Michigan because he had
relatives near both campuses.
Bishop said he chose Howard "because of the tradition" -- the red brick
buildings, the impressive résumés of the faculty, Howard's prestigious
reputation.
He is aware, though, that some people think he doesn't belong.
"I don't want to offend you," a woman in a campus elevator once told him,
"but I'd like to ask you why you decided to come here."
At other times, he has been called racist names and met more subtle
hostility. He has been in classes where instructors have referred to "the
white man" and made generalizations about white people that would have
drawn fire if a white professor said the same about African Americans, he
said.
"I was in the administration building and I had had a problem with
something . . . and this lady who worked there said to me: 'Why are you
here? This is for black people.'
"If she had been at a majority-white school and I had been black, she would
have been fired."
Oddly, his relationships with white students are more strained. He feels
more at home at majority-black parties at Howard than visiting
predominantly white students' parties in Georgetown. Bishop said he rarely
sees Howard's other white students taking an active role in campus
activities, other than sports.
His southern roots have made him comfortable with some aspects of black
culture, such as the food and music. "I eat my greens with my fingers mixed
with my cornbread," he said. "I put my pork chops on bread and put hot
sauce on it to make a sandwich."
The hardest gazes come when he walks across campus with black female
friends. "It's like, 'What is she doing with him?' " he said.
But he has enjoyed his years at Howard. "I wish I could do it over again,"
he said. "This is a beautiful experience. The people who are nice to me are
genuinely nice. This is like a family atmosphere.
"Not only did I get an academic education, I got a cultural education. . .
. I don't believe I would have gotten that someplace else."
© 2004 The Washington Post Company (Embedded image moved to file:
pic09084.gif)
(Embedded image moved to file: pic12060.gif)