University drops 'African-American students only' label from freshman orientation courses

Marshall University in Charleston, WV, has dropped the words "African-American students only" from orientation course listings on its fall schedule this year after the school was warned that using the racially restrictive phrase could be violating state and federal law.

On last year's fall schedule, the school listed three orientation classes as for "African American students only" on the courses' comment lines. However, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a Philadelphia-based nonpartisan, nonprofit group, sent a letter to Marshall University last November to request it drop the wording.

It cited the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that ruled separate is not equal education.

A spokesman for Marshall University noted that the courses were developed nearly a decade ago by Black faculty members in hopes of building a sense of community for Black freshmen there. Of Marshall's 9,861 undergrads, only 462 are Black.

In addition, Keith Spears, Marshall's vice president of communications, noted that the racial restriction was not enforced and both Black and White students had taken the course.

But, Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, noted, "Regardless, of the intention, and even if they don't enforce it, it's a facially unconstitutional rule at a public institution. In terms of labeling a class 'African-American students only'-having it as a published rule accomplishes it as a restriction."