Georgia State Senator Seth Harp, Chairman of the Senate for Higher Education Committee, is asking the states residents, “Has the need for Historically Black Colleges and Universities(HBCU’S) passed?”  As a Georgian and an alumnus of a HBCU, I respond with a resounding “NO.”  Senator Harp appears to have come out of left field with this question. I’m not sure why all of a sudden this is an issue that he’s interested in.  Perhaps his interest has something to do with the budget crisis the state of Georgia is in.

   The senator is proposing the merger of the traditionally African-American campus of Albany State University with the majority-white Darton College in southwest Georgia and the traditionally African-American campus of Savannah State University with the majority-white Armstrong Atlantic State University.  If Senator Harp’s intentions are to find ways to trim the state budget in the higher education system, I’d like to know why he chose these specific schools to merge.  He hasn’t provided any evidence that the mergers would indeed save the state money in the long run. 

   Georgia’s three publicly funded historically black colleges are vestiges of a time when white state leaders didn’t want African-American students to attend the states public colleges and universities.  The mission of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’S) was not segregation.  The HBCU’S primary goal was and still is to provide a quality education to its’ students regardless of race or economical status.  Originally HBCU’s catered to african-americans because they had few if no other avenues to obtain a college degree in the state of Georgia.  But understand HBCU’S have always welcomed people of all races.

   What’s so special about HBCU’S one might ask?  They offer a nurturing environment where faculty expectations are high and role models are abundant.  HBCU’s enroll 14% of all African-American students in higher education, although they constitute only 3% of American’s 4,084 institutions of higher education.  Nearly 25% of all African-American college graduates attended a HBCU.  According to the National Science Foundation, almost a third of all doctorate degrees awarded in the sciences to African-Americans went to men and women who attended HBCU’S as undergraduates.  Those facts alone are reasons HBCU’S are worth preserving.