C-LeB28
Moderator
Editorial: Where have all the Black professors gone?
It is well past time the state-supported HBCUs considered their futures and developed reasons for their continuation that are not tied to the up-from-slavery rationale of their creation or the separate-but-equal justification for their continued existence during the time of a de jure segregated society. Those coverings have either been totally removed or have worn preciously thin and will provide scant, or no, protection against the attacks that have come and are sure to grow, particularly as the battle for scare state higher-education resources intensifies. And, intensify they will.
It is sad, but a fact of life that we the put-upon are, and will be, called on to explain our right to life and nourishment, but, alas that is the reality in which we live. And, no amount of caterwauling about the impropriety of requiring the victims to defend their entitlements to a share of the public coffers will remove that burden. Hence, the wise thing to do is to get ready.
To do this, we must create a rationale for the state-supported HBCUs that is not dependent on their being, or staying, black. They must be viewed as entry or bridge universities which are there for whoever needs them at any given time. Presently, that group is mostly black. Tomorrow, it could be of another ethnicity.
At the very same time the HBCUs are faced with the dilemma of fighting for their existence outside their racial identification, they must retain a certain patina of color to remain relevant to their historical core constituency. While they will forever be ?historically? black, there is no guarantee they will be ?predominantly? black, even in the short run, particularly in the ranks of the full-time faculty. It certainly is to be hoped this country will not remain two separate societies forever and that one day, we will emerge as one unit, functioning under a single umbrella, stitched together of all our diverse parts. Until that occurs, there will continue to be a need for the state-supported HBCUs. And, there will continue to be a need for recruiting and retaining a significant number of native-born Black professors to maintain a sufficient culturally and socially relevant ethnicity to preserve the institutions as something that is more than merely historically black.
If there is a valid justification for the HBCUs, it is tied to the students who will continue, for the foreseeable future, to need us. Thus, for that time, whatever it may be, there will be a need for a community of scholars who mirror the makeup of that student body. That mirroring is eroding and already is no longer the case in some academic departments as the professoriate of those units have long since become peopled by other than Black professors. And, it is the HBCUs that are to blame. In saying this, we play no race card and speak with no animosity to our brother and sister colleagues of other ethnicities. We simply speak a truth that needs to be put out in the open.
The HBCUs have played the credentials game without developing their own PhDs.. For example, it is a pipe dream to believe the HBCUs can compete for the few Black PhDs being produced nationally in the sciences and other critical areas. Notwithstanding this reality, the HBCUs have done nothing to increase the size of the pool. And, as is to be expected, Black faculty at the HBCUs continue to decline.
In 1997, of the 13,440 full time faculty members at the nation?s HBCUs, 7,966 or 59 percent were Black. In 1999, of the 13,573 full-time faculty members at the HBCUs, 7,887 or 58 percent were Black. This is a loss of 79 full-time faculty members for a 1 percent decrease over a two-year period. If this trend continues, in the not-too-distant-future Black faculty will have ceased to be the majority full-time faculty at the HBCUs. When that occurs, the dynamics of the institutions will have been unalterably changed, forever.
We are amazingly adept at shooting ourselves in the foot as we, in pursuit of whatever standard we perceive we must follow, as it was said of Adam Clayton Powell?s ruinous conduct, continuously take ourselves out of the game. Like crabs in a basket that need no cover to keep them in, we, for whatever reasons, have not replicated ourselves. And so we must tell our children that our institutions are no longer your mother?s and father?s HBCUs. As the old Black profs die off, there are no young Blacks to replace them. It is as though the oldsters have climbed into the fables ivory towers and pulled the ladders up behind them, at the same time proclaiming themselves to have been self-made-up-by-the-bootstraps individuals who made it the hard way, without anybody?s help. They, generally, did not deign it fitting to help create a new cadre, all the while denying the tremendous boosts they got from their employing institutions, willing to hire them, prior to their obtaining the terminal credentials, and supporting them throughout their graduate studies. And if they are truthful, they would also acknowledge the existence of friendly institutions that made a strong, affirmative effort to ensure they received their PhD degrees.
Nationwide, Black faculty increased 5 percent from 27,723 in 1997 to 29,222 in 1999. This is a gain of 1,499. We must ask ourselves why did HBCUs not receive some of these new faculty. The answers are both painful and painfully obvious. If we must play the credentials game, the problem is twofold. How do we convince our brightest students to go after the PhD? And how do we persuade them to join the faculty of an HBCU once they have acquired it? Like all young, well-educated professionals, Blacks go where the money, quality, support, and future lie. Unless the HBCUs are willing and able to compete in providing these incentives, we can forget about their continued existence.
We need individuals with competence and dedication, not simply credentials, to fill the teaching positions at the HBCUs, if we are to maintain our relevancy and refuse to stand witness to the destruction, from within, of our institutions as the bastions of black higher education, culture, leadership and socioeconomic development. While the task is daunting, it is not impossible. If we shall succeed, we must begin immediately. We must be diligent, and we must be bold.
(Taken from the University Faculty Voice April 2002)
It is well past time the state-supported HBCUs considered their futures and developed reasons for their continuation that are not tied to the up-from-slavery rationale of their creation or the separate-but-equal justification for their continued existence during the time of a de jure segregated society. Those coverings have either been totally removed or have worn preciously thin and will provide scant, or no, protection against the attacks that have come and are sure to grow, particularly as the battle for scare state higher-education resources intensifies. And, intensify they will.
It is sad, but a fact of life that we the put-upon are, and will be, called on to explain our right to life and nourishment, but, alas that is the reality in which we live. And, no amount of caterwauling about the impropriety of requiring the victims to defend their entitlements to a share of the public coffers will remove that burden. Hence, the wise thing to do is to get ready.
To do this, we must create a rationale for the state-supported HBCUs that is not dependent on their being, or staying, black. They must be viewed as entry or bridge universities which are there for whoever needs them at any given time. Presently, that group is mostly black. Tomorrow, it could be of another ethnicity.
At the very same time the HBCUs are faced with the dilemma of fighting for their existence outside their racial identification, they must retain a certain patina of color to remain relevant to their historical core constituency. While they will forever be ?historically? black, there is no guarantee they will be ?predominantly? black, even in the short run, particularly in the ranks of the full-time faculty. It certainly is to be hoped this country will not remain two separate societies forever and that one day, we will emerge as one unit, functioning under a single umbrella, stitched together of all our diverse parts. Until that occurs, there will continue to be a need for the state-supported HBCUs. And, there will continue to be a need for recruiting and retaining a significant number of native-born Black professors to maintain a sufficient culturally and socially relevant ethnicity to preserve the institutions as something that is more than merely historically black.
If there is a valid justification for the HBCUs, it is tied to the students who will continue, for the foreseeable future, to need us. Thus, for that time, whatever it may be, there will be a need for a community of scholars who mirror the makeup of that student body. That mirroring is eroding and already is no longer the case in some academic departments as the professoriate of those units have long since become peopled by other than Black professors. And, it is the HBCUs that are to blame. In saying this, we play no race card and speak with no animosity to our brother and sister colleagues of other ethnicities. We simply speak a truth that needs to be put out in the open.
The HBCUs have played the credentials game without developing their own PhDs.. For example, it is a pipe dream to believe the HBCUs can compete for the few Black PhDs being produced nationally in the sciences and other critical areas. Notwithstanding this reality, the HBCUs have done nothing to increase the size of the pool. And, as is to be expected, Black faculty at the HBCUs continue to decline.
In 1997, of the 13,440 full time faculty members at the nation?s HBCUs, 7,966 or 59 percent were Black. In 1999, of the 13,573 full-time faculty members at the HBCUs, 7,887 or 58 percent were Black. This is a loss of 79 full-time faculty members for a 1 percent decrease over a two-year period. If this trend continues, in the not-too-distant-future Black faculty will have ceased to be the majority full-time faculty at the HBCUs. When that occurs, the dynamics of the institutions will have been unalterably changed, forever.
We are amazingly adept at shooting ourselves in the foot as we, in pursuit of whatever standard we perceive we must follow, as it was said of Adam Clayton Powell?s ruinous conduct, continuously take ourselves out of the game. Like crabs in a basket that need no cover to keep them in, we, for whatever reasons, have not replicated ourselves. And so we must tell our children that our institutions are no longer your mother?s and father?s HBCUs. As the old Black profs die off, there are no young Blacks to replace them. It is as though the oldsters have climbed into the fables ivory towers and pulled the ladders up behind them, at the same time proclaiming themselves to have been self-made-up-by-the-bootstraps individuals who made it the hard way, without anybody?s help. They, generally, did not deign it fitting to help create a new cadre, all the while denying the tremendous boosts they got from their employing institutions, willing to hire them, prior to their obtaining the terminal credentials, and supporting them throughout their graduate studies. And if they are truthful, they would also acknowledge the existence of friendly institutions that made a strong, affirmative effort to ensure they received their PhD degrees.
Nationwide, Black faculty increased 5 percent from 27,723 in 1997 to 29,222 in 1999. This is a gain of 1,499. We must ask ourselves why did HBCUs not receive some of these new faculty. The answers are both painful and painfully obvious. If we must play the credentials game, the problem is twofold. How do we convince our brightest students to go after the PhD? And how do we persuade them to join the faculty of an HBCU once they have acquired it? Like all young, well-educated professionals, Blacks go where the money, quality, support, and future lie. Unless the HBCUs are willing and able to compete in providing these incentives, we can forget about their continued existence.
We need individuals with competence and dedication, not simply credentials, to fill the teaching positions at the HBCUs, if we are to maintain our relevancy and refuse to stand witness to the destruction, from within, of our institutions as the bastions of black higher education, culture, leadership and socioeconomic development. While the task is daunting, it is not impossible. If we shall succeed, we must begin immediately. We must be diligent, and we must be bold.
(Taken from the University Faculty Voice April 2002)
