HBCUDigest.com January 28, 2011 Editorial: NAFEO Responds to Governor Jindal During these austere times states are considering a wide range of options for meeting the educational needs of their increasingly diverse citizenry, while reducing costs. To assist Governor Jindal and the Louisiana State Legislature in exploring a wide range of options, the Governor convened the Louisiana Higher Education Review Commission. The Commission was a blue ribbon panel of some of the nation's leading higher education experts, as well as leaders from the legislative, education, and business communities of the State of Louisiana. Persons such as Belle Wheelan, President of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools; Mark Musick, former president of the Southern Regional Education Board; David Longanecker, President of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education and other representatives from the elementary and secondary education communities, 2- and 4- year colleges and universities served on the Commission. I was privileged to serve on the Commission representing the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority-serving Institutions. Over the course of nearly one year, the board heard from virtually every segment of the community. The Commission explored the possibility of merging SUNO and UNO and expressly rejected the option for a number of reasons, including but not limited to: (1) the important role that SUNO is playing in meeting the education needs of mostly adult, first generation students of fewer financial means in attaining a four-year degree in unique programs that respond directly to the needs of the State's urban and traditionally underserved communities: urban education, criminal justice, entrepreneurship, social work programs that prepare students not only in the core social work curricula, but also prepare social workers as advocates and for the empowerment and transformation of under-resourced and underserved residents and communities; (2) the vastly different student bodies being served by the SUNO and UNO having little to do with race but much to do with that tremendous differences in the enrollment sizes, with UNO being a large campus (12,000) in which students who are used to, and in need of smaller, nurturing education environments, would likely not receive the types of supports and attention that will enable them to thrive; and differences in admissions criteria that would likely leave a large segment of the New Orleans community that is desirous of attaining a 4-year degree without a viable option; and (3) it was recognized by the Commission and the witnesses who appeared before the Commission that SUNO also plays an important role as part of the nation's only HBCU system: Southern University System (SUS). SUS is comprised of four unique, complimentary, geographically dispersed campuses: a four-year undergraduate campus in Baton Rouge; a graduate campus in Baton Rouge that is home to the State's only 1890s land-grant institution and one of the nation's five HBCU law schools, that has one of the most diverse student bodies of all of the State's higher education institutions; and a 2-year campus, Southern University Shreveport, that has among the highest completion rates of the State's two-year institutions. The system also operates the Timbuktu Academy, an elementary and secondary academy that is preparing students for the rigors of college life. With President Ronald Mason having recently assumed the helm of the SUS, the System is poised to become a national model of how to successfully prepare, inspire, and connect diverse students to college and opportunity by creating nurturing, rigorous environments beginning at PK and moving students successfully through high school (Timbuktu Academy), perhaps into and through a 2-year institution (Shreveport), through a four-year, traditional university (Baton Rouge), through graduate or professional school, and for adults and non-traditional students, through Southern University New Orleans. Now is not the time to destroy, but rather to strengthen the Southern University System. The critical components are there for the type of model envisioned by this Administration and many governors across the nation, grappling with how to create a seamless, successful PK-20 education pathway to prepare more students to thrive at home and globally. Governor Jindal should heed the wise counsel of his Higher Education Review Commission and support the strengthening of SUNO and the Southern University System. Corporations and foundations that are looking for a model of the new education pipeline in which to invest should look no further than SUS and invest in the model that President Mason and the team of remarkable administrators, faculty, and staff at SUS are trying to perfect. Lezli Baskerville, Esquire President & CEO National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education SANDRA M. PHOENIX Program Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 Skype:sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.