Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
16
White enrollment at black colleges lags in Louisiana
BATON ROUGE -- While the number of white students enrolling at historically black institutions is dramatically increasing on the national level, Louisiana is largely bucking the trend.
The number of white students and the percentage of whites in the overall enrollment at Grambling State University and the three campuses of Southern University have decreased since 1998 when 835 whites made up 4.1 percent of the total student populations of the schools.
Deputy Commissioner of Higher Education Larry Tremblay said there's no explanation for the one-year drop, 1998 to 1999, from 835 to 726 white students but "since then, it's been creeping up. It seems to be rather stable."
Brad
ley Hattaway, a white nursing student at GSU, transferred from Loui
siana Tech after about a year and a half because, "I heard Grambling's nursing program is a whole lot better than Tech."
Fellow nursing students Jennifer Coker and Shasta Chatham, both white, said the same.
Coker, stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base, commutes 45 minutes to take 13 credits at GSU.
The biggest trend indicated in data showing white enrollment at Louisiana's predominantly black universities is that Southern University in Shreveport leads other schools more than three to one.
In 2003, SUSLA's enrollment was 10.8 percent white, compared to Grambling's 3.3 percent and Southern-Baton Rouge's 3.4 percent. Only 2.4 percent of the enrollment at Southern-New Orleans was white.
Nationally, the enrollment of white students is increasing at the nation's 120 historically black colleges and universities, changing the landscape of institutions that were created when b
lacks were barred from attending most colleges, according to a story in The Washington Post.
The newspaper
reported that, 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.
For much of the past two decades, Louisiana universities operated under a consent decree in a desegregation lawsuit. The decree was designed to iron out discrepancies between state universities that originally were for whites only and those originally built for blacks only. Incentives were offered to attract other-race students, primarily in the form or graduate student stipends, but mostly state money was funneled into upgrading black colleges and making them more attractive.
A settlement ended the lawsuit when it was found that black universities weren't getting any whiter. More bl
ack students were attending predominantly white universities, though.
"Overall, there weren't large numbers one way or the ot
her," said Commissioner of Higher Education Joseph Savoie, "but the agreement didn't set out to do that. But with colleges, you're dealing with adults and they choose where they want to go. It's not like elementary and secondary schools where you can tell students where they will attend school."
Blending racial attendance at universities "is an evolutionary thing. As programs develop and get better, students will be attracted."
Improved graduate programs and specialty programs, such as SUSLA's emergency medical training, have attracted more white students. Much of Southern University's current law school class is white.
Of the 154 white students on campus, graduate student Ricardo Hernandez said he personally only knows of one.
"He's in the band so he's got a black
soul. You know he's got to be soulful to be in our band," Hernandez said of the renowned marching band.
Matt Feeheley, a tight end for the Grambling football team, was studying with fellow football players in t
he lobby of the business building Monday afternoon. Feeheley said he was recruited to the school to play football and doesn't really think about GSU being a "black" school.
After the 19-year-old and his friend, Ab Kuuan, also on the football team, left to take a test, Zerrick Haymond, a wide receiver for GSU said, "I don't really have a problem with (white students) coming to black colleges because I feel like they shouldn't have a problem with me going to a predominately white college."
**********
Or it could be these white people couldn't be accepted at a real university, or it could be the cost was lower or it could be these white students love niggers. What the artic
le doesn't say is how many YT's stay long enough to graduate.
T.N.B.
White enrollment at black colleges lags in Louisiana
BATON ROUGE -- While the number of white students enrolling at historically black institutions is dramatically increasing on the national level, Louisiana is largely bucking the trend.
The number of white students and the percentage of whites in the overall enrollment at Grambling State University and the three campuses of Southern University have decreased since 1998 when 835 whites made up 4.1 percent of the total student populations of the schools.
Deputy Commissioner of Higher Education Larry Tremblay said there's no explanation for the one-year drop, 1998 to 1999, from 835 to 726 white students but "since then, it's been creeping up. It seems to be rather stable."
Brad
ley Hattaway, a white nursing student at GSU, transferred from Loui
siana Tech after about a year and a half because, "I heard Grambling's nursing program is a whole lot better than Tech."
Fellow nursing students Jennifer Coker and Shasta Chatham, both white, said the same.
Coker, stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base, commutes 45 minutes to take 13 credits at GSU.
The biggest trend indicated in data showing white enrollment at Louisiana's predominantly black universities is that Southern University in Shreveport leads other schools more than three to one.
In 2003, SUSLA's enrollment was 10.8 percent white, compared to Grambling's 3.3 percent and Southern-Baton Rouge's 3.4 percent. Only 2.4 percent of the enrollment at Southern-New Orleans was white.
Nationally, the enrollment of white students is increasing at the nation's 120 historically black colleges and universities, changing the landscape of institutions that were created when b
lacks were barred from attending most colleges, according to a story in The Washington Post.
The newspaper
reported that, 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.
For much of the past two decades, Louisiana universities operated under a consent decree in a desegregation lawsuit. The decree was designed to iron out discrepancies between state universities that originally were for whites only and those originally built for blacks only. Incentives were offered to attract other-race students, primarily in the form or graduate student stipends, but mostly state money was funneled into upgrading black colleges and making them more attractive.
A settlement ended the lawsuit when it was found that black universities weren't getting any whiter. More bl
ack students were attending predominantly white universities, though.
"Overall, there weren't large numbers one way or the ot
her," said Commissioner of Higher Education Joseph Savoie, "but the agreement didn't set out to do that. But with colleges, you're dealing with adults and they choose where they want to go. It's not like elementary and secondary schools where you can tell students where they will attend school."
Blending racial attendance at universities "is an evolutionary thing. As programs develop and get better, students will be attracted."
Improved graduate programs and specialty programs, such as SUSLA's emergency medical training, have attracted more white students. Much of Southern University's current law school class is white.
Of the 154 white students on campus, graduate student Ricardo Hernandez said he personally only knows of one.
"He's in the band so he's got a black
soul. You know he's got to be soulful to be in our band," Hernandez said of the renowned marching band.
Matt Feeheley, a tight end for the Grambling football team, was studying with fellow football players in t
he lobby of the business building Monday afternoon. Feeheley said he was recruited to the school to play football and doesn't really think about GSU being a "black" school.
After the 19-year-old and his friend, Ab Kuuan, also on the football team, left to take a test, Zerrick Haymond, a wide receiver for GSU said, "I don't really have a problem with (white students) coming to black colleges because I feel like they shouldn't have a problem with me going to a predominately white college."
**********
Or it could be these white people couldn't be accepted at a real university, or it could be the cost was lower or it could be these white students love niggers. What the artic
le doesn't say is how many YT's stay long enough to graduate.
T.N.B.