The coming week will be filled with White House-sponsored events to raise awareness of and support the efforts of the nation’s 105 historically black colleges, so it only makes sense that President Obama has declared the week as National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week. The week’s events are part of a conference organized by the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and will feature, for example, discussions of ways institutions can strengthen their fund raising and corporate partnerships. The president’s domestic-policy adviser is scheduled to speak on Monday morning, and a press announcement says President Obama is invited but not confirmed. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and other key officials are also scheduled to speak at the conference, as are the presidents of several black colleges and other experts on minority-serving institutions.
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8 Responses to Obama Declares Week to Honor Historically Black Colleges and Universities
mlkiffin1 - September 13, 2010 at 10:36 am
HBCUs are NOT “academically insufficient and historically bad for students!” What a crock – check your facts – look at some of the people who graduated from HBCUs: like two of the most gifted thinkers of our time – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall! Or how about Oprah, who graduated from Tennessee State University, or Earl Graves, publisher of Black Enterprise (Morgan State University), or hip hop artist Common (Florida A&M Univ), or nobel laureate & Pulitzer Prize winning author Toni Morrison (Howard University). The list goes on… My daughter graduated from Howard University as an undergrad and is now a trauma surgeon at a level 1 Trauma Center at a private hospital. If you don’t know what you’re talking about, you should keep your bigoted comments to yourself.
dralexanderhamilton - September 13, 2010 at 10:41 am
gplm2000, I’m curious what made you arrive at this conclusion, which is blanketed statement regarding all HBCUs? I’m not disagreeing with you. How could an HBCU president validly address your concerns? Is it possible for an HBCU to exist without the “diversity” or “academically deficient” labels? I do agree with you that no institution should encourage a “separate society.” There are some predominantly white HBCUs that have addressed your concerns. HBCUs like Bluefield State and West Virginia State are institutions that have diversified with white students and are now predominantly white institutions. However, I do believe you may have some valid points that all HBCUs must address, but blanking all might be a tad bit overreaching. These institutions were established in a time where majority white institutions would not admit African American students. Currently, predominantly white institutions still don’t admit a high percentage of African American students and if we merged all HBCUs into predominantly white state institutions, then it would result in the majority institutions having a monopoly on access to higher education. Whereas agree with you self segregation, reverse racism, and low academics are counterproductive in racially heterogeneous society, I respectfully disagree that the solution is eradication. However, I do believe someone like you should be in the room when these institutions are making policy to assure the public who they are serving that they are adhering to high standards and not reinforcing the racism they claim they want to destroy. Just a few thoughts. Thanks for opening up such critical dialogue…Please excuse any typos…in a hurry. Will check back for comments. Thank you kindly. Take care, do good work, and be of good cheer.
maestrho - September 13, 2010 at 11:14 am
I cannot believe that I’m reading these comments on the Chronicle of all places. To know of the existing bigotry and narrow-minded racism that continues to reinforce the very rationale for HBCUs in the general public is sadly anticipated. To hear my colleagues spew such unresearched and inaccuarate personal opinions veiled in the latent assertion that fact undergirds the argument is disheartening and infuriating.As an alumn of an HBCU (Morgan State University) and a TWI (The Ohio State University) I can tell you that the education I received from MSU far outweighs the also excellent education I received from OSU. As a tenure-track faculty member at a large, public, research-intensive TWI in New England I can tell you that what these students receive even in the doctoral program pales in comparison to what I received in mine at MSU.Rather than provide you with a list of facts and figures that you’ll no doubt ignore given your rigid, ideological opposition to the very existence of HBCUs, I’ll recommend that you do what you’d have your students do (I hope!) which is research this, in an objective, dispassionate manner and find out what you’re actually talking about before unleashing this tomfoolery on the rest of us.What I WILL tell you – and can tell you from experience, not distanced theory – is that HBCUs do NOT promote a separate society and the very notion of such is absurd. HBCUs are incredibly supportive of students from all academic levels, but are committed to ensuring the academic success of those students who may need additional support that they would not likely find in the hallowed halls of whatever institutions you, gplm2000 & dralexanderhamilton, call your academic home. They also ensure that African-American students have the significant societal contributions of their peers added to the curriculum so that they are able to situate themselves as full members of both our national and international society. This is far and away different from the ONE WEEK (read: one class) each semester at OSU where courses focused on “diversity” under which every “other” was discussed to the extent possible for 3 hours.It is sad that you are both members of higher education and yet hold such un-evolved understandings and, futher, horrific recommendations as this. Whether overtly bigoted (gplm2000) or cloaked in PC rhetoric (dralexanderhamilton), your comments are hurtful and ignorant.
12094444 - September 13, 2010 at 11:27 am
Are Historically White Universities (HWU) such as UVa, UTexas, UMiss, and many others too numerous to list promoting a separate society? Are they bastions of racism? How do we know that they are producing inferior product or is it perception? If we have an HBCU and an HWU next door to each other, should we shut down the newest one and merge it with the oldest one? Hmm! Just wondering?
princeton67 - September 13, 2010 at 1:12 pm
I enthusiastically applaud Presdient Obama’s call for a HBCU, but, sadly, he does not go far enough. What about a week for HJ(ewish)CU, like Brandeis, Gratz, or Yeshiva? What about HF(emale)CU like Wellesley or Agnes Scott? What about HM(ilitary)CU, like Norwich or The Citadel? Hmmm. Let’s see: what else can I think of? Oh: HN(ative)A(merican)CU, like Little BigHorn College, or Bay Mills Community College, or Fort Belknap College. I’m sure we can come up with 52 such groupings.
newpseudo - September 13, 2010 at 1:58 pm
To 2-5, please ignore #1. Attacking Black people on the internet is his/her only claim to fame.
maestrho - September 13, 2010 at 3:21 pm
newpseudo – thank you for letting me know that. truely shameful.i must, however, make a general comment that is borne now of princeton67, but is a sentiment i hear far too often regarding hbcus. princeton67, if i am inaccurately portraying your point here, please correct me and know that i apologize for that in advance as this is not the goal at all. having said that, the comment is that hbcus are not some bizarre entity that somehow lacks relevance. i affirm the existence of all colleges and universities that choose to specialize their populations either around race, ethnicity, gender, or subject matter. i believe there a very real space for schools with gender-separate populations such as wellesley, agnes scott, spelman college, bennett college, and morehouse college. likewise for all of the other unique and creative acronyms princeton67 offered up.at issue is the fact that those schools seem never to come under attack for being “separate” in their own way, yet hbcus continue to be maligned for the fact that they cater primarily – not exclusively – to black students. there are historical reasons grounding their creation and contemporary reasons that render them relevant today.what seems necessary here is an education – which is surprisingly lacking – on the history and contribution of hbcus to academia and society at large. i challenge those who seem to question the legitimacy of hbcus to visit multiple campuses, speak with students and alumni so that you can hear the same stories of parents and grandparents who are alumni from, say, howard university that you hear from students whose families have a legacy at harvard university … albeit a longer legacy.the constant attack on hbcus and their contemporary contributions is frustrating and sad. i would have hoped that my entry into academia would place me among more enlightened individuals who could at least offer opposition based more on research and experience – some basic, general evidence – than just opinion. i have to believe you’d fail any student in your classes who would act as a few of you have today.
rickinchina09 - September 14, 2010 at 11:09 am
maestrho-As you clearly hold HBCUs is such high esteem, I’m surprised you haven’t returned to one to teach. But then we both know you’re relying on anecdotal evidence to secure a tenuous position at best. You imply that TWIs are less receptive to Black students. This is a spurious charge. Any Black student can choose from any number of courses which validate his/her cultural heritage at TWIs. And the caliber of the faculty in African American Studies is certainly no less capable or committed than their HCBU peers.mlkiffin 1:Your emotionally-charged response obscures a historical reality: the rise of affirmative action policies in admission to TWIs and the persistent and growing attempts to recruit Black faculty has unavoidably diminished the stature of the HBCUs. A similar phenonmenon has occurred in predominantly Black schooling at all levels especially as many of the most competent Black females left for more financially rewarding professions. Citing luminaries like MLK as proof positive of the merit of HBCUs is not only a dated observation, it cannot counterbalance the very real problems confronting HBCUs today.Though not Black myself, I have taught a generation of Black youth, many of whom attended HBCUs. Their reasons for attending were varied: some wished to continue a family legacy or were expected to; others wanted to remain in a socio-cultural comfort zone before transitioning to TWIs for graduate study, and still others–this must be said–merely wished to avoid what they anticipated would be a more rigorous program of study at a TWI. In the case of the latter, many of these students had the grades and test scores to pass muster, but preferred being a big fish in a little pond. To be sure, some sought and gained a solid education in its own right at a HCBU. But the fact remains that not all HBCUs are “created equal” any more than their TWI counterparts.All of us would do well to discuss this American phenonmenon without resorting to labeling and name-calling at the first sign of criticism. Certainly the issue of what to do to improve the majority of HCBUs deserves a de-politicized debate at the very least.