Washington
Seeking to end a federal civil-rights case that dates back 30 years, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has agreed to spend $35-million on a historically black university, and to help more black students go on to college.
Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican, and U.S. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley signed an agreement last week that would bring Pennsylvania into compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws, Raymond C. Pierce, Deputy Assistant Secretary for civil rights in the Education Department, said in an interview Tuesday.
Describing the negotiations as cooperative, Mr. Pierce said no findings of current discrimination had been made. He noted, however, that the department’s Office for Civil Rights had found “significant deficiencies” at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, and had broader interests in seeing more black students go on to college and graduate.
The pact includes $35-million for Cheyney over five years; agreement among community colleges and public institutions, including Pennsylvania State University, to ease the transfer of credits; the continuation of state financial and academic support for “disadvantaged students”; and a workshop by the O.C.R. at Penn State, aimed at improving the “campus climate” there for minority students.
Citing a federal anti-bias law, Mr. Pierce said: “We were able to agree in principle on a set of concerns, which we viewed as Title VI civil-rights concerns and which the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania viewed as educational concerns for its students.”
Pennsylvania officials denied Tuesday that they had discriminated against black students or historically black campuses. They described the pact as an effort to aid minority students and revitalize Cheyney, which was founded in 1837 and is one of the oldest historically black institutions in the nation.
“This is a very important agreement,” said Dan Langan, a spokesman for Pennsylvania’s Education Department. “It will further enhance the educational opportunities for African-American students in Pennsylvania.”
The agreement is the U.S. Education Department’s third with a state since the O.C.R. began, in 1994, to investigate seven states that once practiced segregation in higher education and were never officially found to have eliminated it. Investigations are under way in Kentucky, Texas, and Virginia; an inquiry in Maryland is expected soon.
Like the two other pacts, with Florida and Ohio, the Pennsylvania agreement mainly benefits black students and predominantly black institutions.
Under the agreement, Cheyney -- whose annual budget of $23-million comes mostly from the state -- will receive an additional $35-million over five years. The bulk of the money will be used to renovate classrooms, offices, dining and dormitory rooms, and buildings around the campus quadrangle that are at least 50 years old. Some money will be earmarked for academic and campus programs. By 2003, about 200 annual merit scholarships for Cheyney students will also be financed.
Cheyney suffered a sharp loss of white students in the 1980s, with its total enrollment falling from a high of 3,000 to about 1,300 by the early 1990s. Today, overall enrollment has begun to climb, and now stands at about 1,800.
Shirley M. Dennis, Cheyney’s vice-president for institutional advancement, said the new financing package should help attract students and kick off a new campus fund-raising campaign. Ms. Dennis said she did not believe the state had been biased against Cheyney, but added that some officials had thought that the state could help more.
“One of the major roles that Cheyney University has played through the years has been to provide an education and a nurturing environment for the underserved. I can’t say that all the other institutions of higher education in Pennsylvania have done that as readily as we have,” Ms. Dennis said. “And when you do that, you don’t end up with a majority of wealthy alums.”
In 1969, U.S. officials identified Pennsylvania among 10 mainly Southern or border states as having racially segregated systems of public colleges. But few reforms were made until the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund successfully sued the federal government for failing to take tough action.
The 10 states issued desegregation plans, but some were allowed to lapse without further federal review until the current O.C.R. investigations.
Mr. Pierce of the O.C.R. said the civil-rights case in Pennsylvania would be considered open until at least five years from now, when federal officials would evaluate whether the state had carried out the agreement. If it had, the case would most likely be closed.
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