Panel Offers Diversity Goals For Texas HBCUs

Black Issues in Higher Education, May 25, 2000 by Lydia Lum

Becton also questions whether the campuses could accommodate a doubling of enrollments. But Jiles, the panel chairman and a 1974 Texas Southern graduate, says he and his colleagues believe so. Jiles says the list of goals spells out things that never were in previous desegregation plans.

For example, specific recommendations for Prairie View included:

* Creating a "university college" to increase retention and graduation. The 1998 graduation rate was 25.9 percent, while retention of first-time, full-time freshmen was 63 percent.

* Constructing new buildings for Prairie View's nursing, architecture and juvenile justice programs.

* Developing new degreed programs in electrical engineering, construction science, interior design and juvenile forensic psychology.

Recommendations for Texas Southern were more extensive and took into account the school's political and financial struggles in recent years. During the 1999 Texas legislative session, regents and then-interim president Dr. Priscilla Slade held off lawmakers who were considering moving the free-standing Texas Southern into a university system. Slade has since been hired as president.

The litany of suggestions included:

* Continuing to meet all recommendations from the Texas state auditor's office and the comptroller of public accounts so that all fiscal and management operations run smoothly. For years, slipshod bookkeeping and accounting practices plagued the university. Last year, Slade and her staff quickly revised practices to satisfy state officials' demands.

* Establishing an institutional development office to increase fund-raising. A state report last year determined that the university's more than 30,000 alumni give an average of only $2 per person a year.

* Increasing enrollment. Between 1993 and 1998, enrollment plummeted 40 percent. During this time, Education Department officials determined that university staff members were approving financial aid applications for students even though they did not show their qualifications. To rectify that, the Education Department required for the past four years that university officials dole financial aid up front, then file for reimbursement. This requirement has been dropped, but university officials have cracked down on students and they contend that enrollment dropped because students no longer receiving federal financial aid simply didn't enroll.

* Establishing a summer and first-year support program for incoming freshmen. In 1998, the university's six-year graduation rate was 10.6 percent. Its retention rate for first-time, full-time freshmen was 48.2 percent.

* Building more student housing. Of the 6,500 students enrolled last fall, only 850 could be accommodated on campus. Increased housing could improve student retention and graduation rates, panel members say.

* Constructing a new science building.

* Strengthening programs in law, pharmacy, business and educator preparation. Texas Southern produces significant numbers of African American lawyers, teachers, business leaders and pharmacists in Texas and the rest of the country. To strengthen the programs, panel members say university officials should modernize and upgrade curricula, equipment and laboratories, as well as hire more faculty.