Why do we think this way about the very institutions that prepared us to further our education? What about our undergraduate experience makes us doubt continuing our education at a HBCU? Some feel you need that diversity from a PWI once you have gone to a HBCU to balance out your resume. You want to be able to show an employer you can do well in all environments.

I had a difficult time deciding if I was going back to my HCBU or a PWI because of this very issue. The PWI was small and the program really wasn’t well known, but it was a PWI. My HBCU was a bigger school, with a lot of recognition especially on the program I was going into, but it was an HBCU. You may think that was a no brainer but it really wasn’t when I thought about all the things people say. After weighing the positives and negatives, I chose my HBCU. I realized your degree is what you make it. Yes, having one of the well known PWI’s might make your resume shine a little brighter than mine but your writing samples won’t, and your internships won’t. I’ll have a different perspective on life and my African American community that a PWI student could never obtain or even begin to understand.

As African Americans, we must remember there was a time when these were the only institutions we could attend and some of the best and brightest developed at our HBCU’s. We should never discredit the work they have done, are presently doing, or will do in the future. The same goes for our law schools and medicals schools. Prelaw Magazine named North Carolina Central University one of nation’s the top law schools based on tuition, percentage of students passing the bar exam, and becoming employed.

Lawschool100.com put HBCU law schools in their ranking joined by many other PWI’s. There is nothing wrong with attending a PWI, but we must remember our past in order to know where we are going.

We should encourage our youth to attend HBCU’s. It is a rewarding and invaluable experience one can never forget. The United Negro College Fund reports that the 105 HBCU’s represent just 3% of the nation’s institutions of higher learning, yet graduate nearly one-quarter of African Americans who earn undergraduate degrees.

No one can make the choice for you but yourself. Don’t let what you think society might say about your HBCU turn you away. Remember, there was a time when an HBCU was our only option. Continue to support our HBCU’s through graduate, law, and medical programs. There is a reason HBCU medical schools lead the nation in producing the highest percentage of physicians practicing in underserved communities. HBCU’s instill a compassion for our community and being that 10% we were called to be. Don’t forget your roots.

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Another significant accomplishment, which was minimized in The Tennessean articles, is the land grant match and agricultural research, forestry research, and cooperative extension funding for TSU, which was secured by President Johnson. Because of this funding, TSU has received over $9 million annually since the fiscal year 2007-2008 and will continue to receive that money indefinitely. Over the next ten years, that amounts to more than $100 million coming into the school that was not there before.

The Tennessean also failed to report that the business intelligence plan and dashboard approach piloted by TSU to improve data-driven decision-making is now being planned for use by the entire Tennessee Board of Regents system. The business intelligence plan was President Johnson’s initiative to improve data-driven decision-making at TSU, with technical support from Deloitte Consulting. TSU and TBR technical staff spent more than an hour with The Tennessean reporters providing a demonstration of how this data system works, and how it would improve services to students and decision-making for administration at all levels of the University. The Vice President for Communication and Information Technologies was at this demonstration and answered questions. So was I, to respond to questions on the relevance of this business intelligence capability for planning purposes. The Tennessean did not mention this major initiative in the articles.

TSU’s national reputation far exceeds its reputation in Nashville. When I go outside the state, the feedback I receive about the school is overwhelmingly positive and encouraging. We draw a higher percentage of students nationally than any other university in Tennessee. People continue to look at TSU as a leader, a front-runner, and an inspiration. We do things on this campus that put Tennessee and HBCUs on the map.

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November 4, 2008 was a remarkable day. We had new leadership, President Obama, the first African American President. After that day many believed America had arrived and all were accepted. We had overcome that someday sung by so many of our ancestors, so some thought. Many have had and have a false reality of what truly exist.

On a recent trip to Capitol Hill in one of the House of Representatives Office Buildings, I became increasingly excited by the number of young people working with the policies that affect our daily lives. Yet, I noticed young African Americans were few and far between. My excitement shifted to curiosity as I wondered where all the young people like me were. Where were the political science majors, Young Democrats, and even student government association members? Then it dawned on me, they weren’t there. Don’t get me wrong, there are some young black people working in policy on Capitol Hill. But from what I saw, it just wasn’t many.

My excitement was restored when I met a young lady all suited up. I assumed she worked somewhere in the building which gave me some piece of mind because I hadn’t seen any African American females. Unfortunately, after speaking with her I found out she was a college student and was just visiting.

As the generation that is speaking out more than ever, voting more than ever, and eager to change the world, why are we underrepresented? Does our generation not understand the very things we complain about would be easier to change if we played a direct role in the policies being made?

We are more than capable to play the role of the policy maker or at least work for one. We should be knowledgeable of our politicians and hold them accountable to keep our generation in mind as they are voting. We can do more, and we need to do more or I’m afraid twenty years from now the policies being made won’t represent us at all. We complain and tell ourselves we are making big strides, but truthfully, we are not taking the steps to make the difference we claim to be making.

How can HBCU’s help? There are so many ways to gain experience and exposure to the political world. Congressional internships are a great way to get your feet wet. The Congressional Black Caucus offers great opportunities for minorities. I believe HBCU’s could help enormously by pushing politics beyond political science majors. People on Capitol Hill have various degrees. HBCU’s should influence students to use their degrees to advance our community.

There is a great need for more young African Americans on Capitol Hill. Someone has to continue to speak for us when no one will. One African American president can not do it by himself. After him, who else will make the difference? Who better to step up to the plate than students of the institutions that spoke on our behalf when no one else would?

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Where much time and effort has been invested in exposing the university’s leadership and structural deficiencies, little to no time has been attributed to the critical elements influencing these issues. The university’s academic mission of serving those whom the State of Tennessee has abandoned at the elementary and secondary levels, and its cultural mission of providing access and opportunity to those  students who might not find such opportunities voluntarily afforded to them by other institutions in Tennessee, presents the need for a much different kind of discussion – a discussion that must call for the accountability from the State of Tennessee and the opportunistic local media that grossly misses the mark on responsible coverage.

The reality for many historically black colleges and universities across the nation, particularly in economically trying times, is that resources from state and private factions are not easily routed to the institutions serving those with the greatest need. This reality is life-altering for those students seeking   funding opportunities for education, and life-threatening for the institutions striving to maintain operational integrity with thinly-stretched budgets. The Tennessean crafts headlines on TSU’s retention and enrollment challenges with students the state acknowledges as unprepared at the secondary level.   Yet the paper buries the more-startling lead on a more important story; the disparity of retention rates at Tennessee State and their direct relation to the economic struggles faced by minority families in Tennessee and beyond.

The Tennessean thunders headlines into print on expenditures made by TSU per student, yet whispers that Tennessee State was bested only by Austin Peay University for the lowest budget allocation projections amongst public colleges and universities in the state in 2008, and received the lowest allocation recommendations for the 2010-11 budgets, with just under $3 million in improvements.

The Tennessean can call to task the university for poor leadership and structural student support, yet has made no effort to balance expose’ reporting with reviews of the university’s successes – successes that would dramatically influence public perception of the university. TSU’s training seminar for area public school math teachers, its partnership with the Naval Engineering Education Center, and its perfect passing rates for the state’s board of nursing licensure exam are just a few of the recent achievements worthy of national attention, but barely gracing the pages of its local paper of record.

No true and informed supporter of Tennessee State University yearns for facts about the university’s performance to be manipulated or omitted from public review and account. But the partnership between higher education and media requires a mutually-collegial approach to the promotion and enhancement of the taxpayers’ money working in the form of academic and social talent being groomed to professionally benefit the State of Tennessee. For the good of its mission, and in spite of ever-dwindling support from the state legislature, Tennessee State University has kept its end of the bargain.

The Tennessean, despite its access to facts and ability to do better for all parties involved, remains a media resource challenged by unbalanced, divisive and unrepentant journalism towards one of America’s great academic and cultural treasures.

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I’m not interested in the particulars, in part, because I really feel like I am not qualified to speak about issues of accounting and auditing. Maybe TSU and UT have the same issues, covered in different ways, maybe not. I don’t know.

I do know a little something about human nature, though.

So I just want to say this. The population of Nashville is roughly 30 percent black. None of the newsrooms in town are anywhere near 30 percent black. I can’t think of a newsroom that’s even pushing 10 percent (with the obvious exception of the Tennessee Tribune). The Scene stands at zero. And as long as that’s the case, I doubt we’ll see predominately black institutions treated as ordinary. It will either be feast or famine, crisis or exceptional wonderfulness.

Not only does the Tennessean face a glaring disparity in its coverage of TSU, but most of the state’s traditional and large news sources must own up to the blaring omission of coverage for schools like Fisk, Knoxville, LeMoyne-Owen, Meharry and Lane. Each of these institutions are making significant strides socially and academically, and when they misstep, are deserving of responsible, critical coverage instead of no public account at all.

So what can HBCU’s and their constituents do to offset the white-out of HBCU media coverage? Supporting organizations like the Center for HBCU Media Advocacy is a tremendous start for national scale, but shaping the local news culture takes a localized, long-term movement. Encourage children to produce stories and perspectives on the HBCUs where they grow up. Connect with civic, religious and recreational organizations to advocate for HBCUs.

The media we create for ourselves is the media bias complaint we don’t have to make to someone else.

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A perfect example of this disillusioned sense of entitlement can be found in this blog entry, ‘20 Things You Can’t Stand About Clark Atlanta.‘ In the list are some legitimate issues that students at CAU and the entire AUC should take up with Panther administration. But where student service, high food prices, and administrative shortcomings are concerned, you’d be hard pressed to find the hint of a solution anywhere in the post. It’s apparent that some students at CAU, members of the same generation that is proactive of revamping wardrobes, hairstyles, and slang when rendered out of touch is completely clueless and lazy when it comes to holding administration and each other accountable for what goes right and wrong on the campus.

What happened to students that stormed the administration building when their concerns were not addressed? What happened to boycotting campus dining services when prices were too high, or the food quality not up to par? What happened to student car washes, cookouts and bake sales to offset high tuition costs for classmates, or to finance campus activities that shortsighted administration often claimed were “too expensive” for students to enjoy?

What happened to students taking ownership for each other and the direction of their school?

Somewhere between desegregation, B.E.T. and personal technology, we un-learned the process of making responsible actions to achieve our goals. We allowed a misplaced self-righteousness to infiltrate our understanding of the financial and social struggle of HBCUs, succumbing to the allure of convenience and a pop culture representation of what college life could be through a PWI prism. Forget the cultural benefit of the school, the small class sizes, the brilliant instructors or the history steeped within campus soil.

We can’t stand not having what everyone else who doesn’t look like us has.

Some things should be inherent to the college experience, and not sacrificed for an experience that takes place on an HBCU campus. Common courtesy, respectful customer service and adequate two-way communication are essential to the development of any campus community. But when students are more satisfied to complain and avoid work to make their institutions better, all in the name of “it should’ve been done before I got here,” is to defeat the legacy of the HBCU.

And on a larger scale, the legacy of the people for whom they are designed to uplift.

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To build upon this culture, the HBCU Digest is proud to present ‘HBCU Legacy Narratives,’ a section dedicated to stories of achievement and pride told expressly by the families living the legacy. Lindsay Watson, a senior at Hampton University, shares her experience as a third-generation resident of “A Home by the Sea.”

I attend Hampton University, preceded by my mother, uncle, and grandmother. I am currently a senior, graduating on May 8, 2011. My grandmother graduated with the class of 1949, my mother with the class of 1980, and my uncle with the class of 1983. It is clear that Hampton has made a huge impact on my family and me. Though several things, including curfews and Greek life, have changed over quite some years, the tradition and unity of a Hampton family will always be familiar.

Hampton has a sense of camaraderie that is not always found on various campuses throughout the country. All four classes that my family members and I have been a part of hold special places in our lives. Each of us know we can come back to Hampton at any time and always have a place to call home or, more specifically, our “Home by the Sea.”

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To build upon this culture, the HBCU Digest is proud to present ‘HBCU Legacy Narratives,’ a section dedicated to stories of achievement and pride told expressly by the families living the legacy. Our inaugural entry is from William A. Foster IV, an alumnus of Prairie View A&M University and Virginia State University, whose family members share intimate and historical ties with both institutions.

So my mother’s family is that of Virginia State University. Great-Grandfather there and went on to Meharry Medical. He’d return to become one of if not the 1st practicing African American doctor in Fluvanna County, serving both black and white citizens at the time since there were just no doctors around, period. His name was Arthur Blakey, Sr.

After him, his daughter-in-law (my grandmother) Gladys Holland (she divorced my paternal grandfather and married my grandfather Bradford Holland who would go on to teach chemistry at VSU) would go to VSU. She would go on to be one of the first African American women cooperative extension agents in VA; serving farmers, helping them with FHA loans and helping farmers save their land. She later served as President of the Ag. Alumni Assoc. at VSU. Then my mother Laurette Foster did her bachelor’s and master’s at VSU in mathematics and math education respectively. She’s currently a professor of over 30 years at Prairie View.

I myself did my undergraduate at VSU in economics & finance. My baby sister Aysha just completed her Master’s in psychology this past May, and is a doctoral candidate there now in the doctoral psychology program. So we are four generations in at Virginia State University.

My uncle Frank Hawkins who was the oldest of six kids by my grandmother went to Prairie View followed by his brother (my father) William A. Foster, III who also attended Prairie View. They were the 1st in the family to do so. My uncle’s kids (my first cousins) would both graduate from Prairie View as well and go onto medical school (one who would also attend Meharry Medical school like my great-grandfather on my mother’s side). My sister would get her bachelor’s in biology from there, and I would follow with a master’s in community development there. As a family, we are three generations in now with the younger cousins who just started at Prairie View who are my second cousins.

My oldest niece, Brandy Hairston-Foster is there. We have at least three of my uncle’s grandsons there in the biology department. My uncle’s granddaughter is also doing her Master’s there. There is a second cousin, Octavius Foster, who is there as well; shining in the business school. So the third generation that is there now is there in strong numbers.

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But WGCL gets a little funky in its follow-up coverage. Subtle accusations are made by consumer reporter Adam Murphy that a follow-up inspection on May 13 yielded a similar failing assessment, but that ‘preferential treatment’ on the part of FCHD Director Dr. Patrice Harris prompted a favorable score for the college, in order for the dining hall to remain open for commencement activities. From the WGCL report:

The state health code also states that a food service establishment that is graded as a U and does not earn at least a grade C within ten days of receiving the U will be requested to voluntarily close until all violations are corrected. In this case, Chivers Hall remained open for graduation weekend.

“Was there preferential treatment?” asked Murphy. “Absolutely no preferential treatment. What happened was we were scheduled to go back for a follow up and when our inspectors got out there they realized this is graduation weekend and thousands of people will be served,” said Harris.

Harris told CBS Atlanta that the second inspection was considered a special event so the 83 was a temporary score. The Health Department also had inspectors at the school dining hall during graduation weekend checking temperatures on every tray of food. Harris was unable to tell CBS Atlanta the last time they scored a school dining hall inspection this way.

Unfortunately, Murphy never asked the obvious questions that might have proven contrary to his framing of Dr. Harris as an aid to keeping an unsafe food service operation open. What would make Dr. Harris offer preferential treatment to Morehouse? Does she have family or friends as students of faculty?

And if the code on requests a voluntary ceasing of operations, why would the expectation be that the FCHD shut down the school’s dining hall on the biggest weekend on the Morehouse calendar?

Dr. Harris recently offered some insight on the subject to the HBCU Digest.

Does the Health Department have published protocol allowing for provisional food service operation in light of violations? If so, how did Morehouse meet these conditions?

Fulton County has adopted the Georgia State Food Service Code. We follow that code regarding inspections of food service establishments. Because of the numerous events associated with graduation that were spanning over the course of three days and the multitudes of people attending the events, we deemed the activities as more of a special/temporary event (That is why on the Inspection Report under the category of Purpose of Inspection we listed it as Other). This provided us with the opportunity to be onsite to take temperatures on all of the food that was being served for the entire three-day period, thereby ensuring that all food was prepared and served in a safe and sanitary manner.

Do you have any personal ties to Morehouse that would encourage a public inclination of favoritism towards the university?

No, I have no personal ties to Morehouse College.

How has the Morehouse administration interacted with the Health Department to resolve violations of cleanliness and food maintenance/storage?

The Health Department involvement has been with the vendor that is contracted to provide food service for Morehouse College. The vendor that is contracted to provide food for Morehouse College was provided with additional training (On May 17, 2010) administered by our Public Health Instructor in safe food handling practices and procedures. We are also scheduled to conduct a follow-up inspection in the next week.

Have there been others scenarios in which inspected establishments have received temporary passing scores of inspection? If so, what kinds of establishments, and what were the circumstances?

Yes, there have been other instances of inspected establishments receiving temporary scores.  These events are typically deemed as special/temporary events that occur for multiple days.  Examples include events such as Cavalia, the Renaissance Festival and the Atlanta RV Show.

Has Morehouse resolved all food service violations documented from the Health Department’s last inspection?

We will make that determination when we conduct the next scheduled follow-inspection.

So there you have it. FCHD workers were on-site the entire weekend monitoring activity at Chivers Hall. They providing training with the vendor, and acted appropriately within all measures of the code, just as they have with other, non-HBCU-related events that haven’t drawn critical consumer reports. This doesn’t exempt Morehouse from scrutiny over poor food service conditions, but it does demonstrate that the County and the school worked diligently to resolve the issues and maintain order for the College’s single-most important event.

WGCL’s biased and incomplete coverage of the story begs the question; was there really a problem with the food service operation? Or that an agenda setting measure to cast negativity on Morehouse’s biggest day and the Health Department’s highest-ranking official is a sexier story?

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Dr. Malveaux authored a column printed in today’s Tri-State Defender on the need for African-American communities to mobilize resources and planning for the next vacancy on the courts. With a call for forward thinking, Dr. Malveaux deftly touches on conflict of blacks questioning decisions of the first black U.S. President, and establishing a focus of community advocacy for the next generation of African-American leaders. From the Defender:

Unfortunately, there is too much “paralysis of analysis” with far too much conversation focused on this nonsense of post racialism in the Obama era. Too many are tentative in offering feedback to the White House, fearing that they’ll be labeled “anti-Obama”, or even worse, “race traitors”.  Other communities are pushing hard for action from the White House, while many African Americans with credibility are being tentative, conciliatory, or short-run and reactive.

To be sure, I understand the tentatively. Some see criticizing President Obama as offering aid and comfort to the Tea Party crowd who are irrationally critical of the President. That hasn’t stopped other perceived Obama Administration allies – gays and lesbians, immigrant Americans, and others from fighting for what they were promised in the 2008 election. All of the angst around whether African Americans can offer President Obama feedback reflects the warped way African Americans are perceived in our society. We aren’t homogenous, and our views cannot simply be distilled into “liberal” and “conservative’.

Which brings me back to the courts.  If we want an African-American woman on the Supreme Court, now may be the time to organize around that.  How could it happen? Short lists might be developed in the African-American legal community, biographies developed, names floated, support garnered. There is likely to be at least one more opening on the court in the next two years, and some advance preparation, planning, and lobbying might well yield the right results.

It is overtime for African-American leaders and scholars to take a long view toward black progress. We should stop squabbling about the leaders of tomorrow and start preparing the leaders of two decades from now. And we must learn to be more proactive than reactive. Otherwise, this same debate will recur when next there is a Supreme Court opening, when next there is a reason to react.

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