Ayers Attorney Questions Proposed Admission Policies of University Extension

Black Issues in Higher Education, March 4, 1999

JACKSON, Miss. -- The State College Board met last month with its lawyers to discuss questions raised in a complaint over whether university expansion on the Gulf Coast will impact Mississippi's historically Black colleges (HBCUs).

Plaintiffs in a long-running college desegregation lawsuit filed papers asking U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers Jr. of Oxford to hold up the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast expansion. Alvin Chambliss Jr., a law professor at Texas Southern University and lead attorney for plaintiffs in the lawsuit, questions the admissions policies at USM/Gulf Coast operations.

Chambliss also says he fears the USM upgrades could interfere with state funding needed for court-approved remedies.

The desegregation case began in 1975 when the late Jake Ayers Sr. of Glen Allan sued, accusing Mississippi of neglecting three of the state's HBCUs-Jackson State, Alcorn State, and Mississippi Valley State universities. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that Mississippi operated a segregated college system.

USM wants $2 million for Gulf Coast expansions. That includes funds for USM-Long Beach and creation of a multi-university higher education center. The legislature has not yet acted on the money.

The College Board approved the USM/Gulf Coast expansion by a 7-to-5 vote in January.

Reports from the College Board did not spell out the racial makeup of USM/Gulf Coast programs, Chambliss says.

The USM plan would add 150 freshmen next fall to the Gulf Park campus at Long Beach and 750 freshmen and sophomores over a five-year period. The board plan also proposes a USM-led higher education center on the Gulf Coast. It would allow five universities -- including Jackson State, Alcorn State, and a community college -- to teach classes.

"Persons from every sector of the Gulf Coast support what we are doing," says USM President Horace Fleming Jr. "We have support from leaders in the Black community. We think it would help everybody."

Sen. David Jordan (D-Greenwood) is urging the legislature to more than triple the $4.7 million the College Board is seeking for Ayers funding for the three HBCUs.