Mississippi Merger Plan Will Hurt HBCUs

Our nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities have produced some of this country's greatest leaders and innovators: Martin Luther King, Jr., Oprah Winfrey, Branford Marsalis and Alice Walker are just a few of the great Americans to emerge from schools such as Grambling, Spelman and Howard University.

Originally founded in the 1800s to address the educational needs of freed slaves, these schools are still incredibly relevant. That's why Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's plan to merge that state's three HBCUs to save $35 million is a big mistake.

African Americans have the lowest graduation rates among groups at predominately white colleges, at 41 percent. Today, HBCUs enroll 14 percent of all African Americans who attend college, but in Southern states, where the legacy of racism is still blatant, 28 percent of African Americans enroll in black colleges or universities. In addition, HBCUs enroll a higher percentage of low-income and minority students, exactly the groups that need the social mobility that a college degree can help provide.

According to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, HBCUs also produce 40 percent or more of African Americans who receive degrees in physics, chemistry, astronomy, environmental science, mathematics and biology -- all fields where blacks are severely underrepresented. They also produce 50 percent of the African American public school teaching force.
According to the Associated Press:

Under Barbour's plan, no campuses would close, but Alcorn State and Valley would be merged into Jackson State. Each of the smaller schools is roughly 100 miles from Jackson. Barbour said the merger would save money by reducing administrative costs and eliminating academic duplication. He also wants to consolidate Mississippi University for Women with nearby Mississippi State University.

Marybeth Gasman, an associate professor in the graduate school of education at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on HBCUs, told AOL Black Voices that Barbour's plan "is not in the best interest of the African American students in the state."

"First, it is silly to merge three institutions just because they are historically black in nature. This assumes that they are all the same and that there is no diversity within the black college context. Jackson State is an urban institution, and Alcorn and Mississippi Valley are rural in nature -- a merger would bring together institutions with very different student bodies and missions," Gasman said. "Second, the governor's recommendation does not honor the spirit of the Fordice settlement, which aimed to bolster HBCUs, not destroy them. Given the history of Mississippi and its extreme forms of racism and segregation, more -- not less -- should be done for the HBCUs in the state."

For decades now, HBCUs have been underfunded and ignored despite the contributions they make. These colleges sometimes get less funding than their white counterparts. Some schools have struggled to keep their accreditation, and some students have had to leave college because the schools couldn't provide financial assistance. The economic downturn is only making things worse.

According to a report in U.S. News and World Report:

HBCU students are also facing financial difficulties. Minorities are often the first to feel the brunt of layoffs and tend to have less of a financial cushion against hard times, reducing their ability to pay tuition bills, let alone make donations. Spelman College, ranked as the No.1 HBCU by U.S. News & World Report, says hundreds of students might have to leave because their families can no longer afford to pay tuition bills. Meanwhile, college endowments are plunging, shrinking the supply of scholarship dollars even as demand rises. The United Negro College Fund, which raises money to fund operations at 39 private HBCUs and oversees hundreds of scholarships, says its usual $5 million a year in endowment profits completely dried up in 2008, and the average size of donations has shrunk during the recession. That most likely means less money for schools and students in 2009. "This is going to be a really tough time for low-income students. And it is going to get tougher," says UNCF President Michael Lomax.

"I personally believe they undermined the uniqueness of the black colleges and how far we've come with the little resources we have," Marissa Simms, a 20-year-old Jackson State University student, said at a recent hearing about the potential merger.

James T. Minor, assistant professor of higher education policy at Michigan State University and also an expert on HBCUs, questioned the effectiveness of a merger in an interview with AOL Black Voices.

"There is very little evidence to demonstrate that mergers are financially wise or that they are logistically worth any savings that might result," Minor said. "Universities are not to be opened, closed or merged based on the state budget. These institutions represent the values of education, democracy, and opportunity, which are expressly American. The idea of a merger represents a short-sighted business model that ignores these values."

With the history of racism and poor education in Mississippi, saving $35 million of a $5.5 billion budget gap is simply not worth it. During this deep recession, the state should be adding $35 million in funding to these schools to help increase access to higher education. That will make for a stronger Mississippi and United States once the recession ends.

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