DSU seeking an identity?; Recognizing school's legacy subject of debate
By Elizabeth Redden, Delaware State News
DOVER - The nation's historically black colleges and universities were all founded in a pre-Civil Rights era when "separate but equal" was the norm.
Delaware State University was founded in 1891, five years before the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy vs. Ferguson that "separate but equal" should be the law of the land.
DSU and other schools like it provided in many cases the only post-secondary educational opportunity available for blacks.
Today, the university president has come under fire by the Alumni Association for neglecting that legacy.
Though President Dr. Allen L. Sessoms has stated he wants DSU to become a "premier" historically black institution, Alumni Association President Alfred A. Outlaw wrote a Sept. 16 letter calling for his resignation and questioning his intent.
"We doubt his sincerity since he has made no effort to include this language in the mission statement or his vision statement," Mr. Outlaw wrote.
Dr. Samuel B. Hoff, a professor of history and political science at DSU, said the institution has been publicly confused about its heritage for more than 15 years, long before Dr. Sessoms came as president in 2003.
Dr. Hoff said DSU had two competing mission statements throughout the 1990s, with neither directly alluding to the university's historically black status.
He said an attempt to introduce the phrase, "a historically black college and university founded pursuant to the Second Morrill Act of 1890" to the mission statement was met with resistance at Monday's faculty senate meeting.
The faculty senate serves in an advisory capacity to DSU's board of trustees, which would ultimately decide any revisions in the mission statement.
Dr. Hoff, who said he supports the president's vision and is not associated with the alumni group, believes the controversy with the alumni is preventing the administration from restoring the mission statement to encompass DSU's founding principles.
The change, Dr. Hoff said, "is seen as a sign of weakness only because some of the groups opposing the administration have been complaining or bickering about a lack of adherence to the university's HBCU heritage."
DSU spokesman Carlos Holmes deferred a request for an interview with Dr. Sessoms to Dr. Rodney E. McNair, associate professor of mathematics and chair of the faculty senate.
"There was a lively discussion," he said of Monday's meeting.
"Basically, the concern is that we take our time and not rush to change the mission statement."
Any reworking of the mission statement, he said, should arise from a deliberative process involving faculty, students, alumni and the administration.
Dr. McNair said many faculty are considering a more thoughtful and extensive modification of the statement and have brought up technology and globalization as other issues they would like to see addressed in DSU's mission.
Defining an HBCU
The federal government defined "HBCU" in the 1965 Higher Education Act as an institution established prior to 1964 "whose principle mission was, and is, the education of Black Americans," according to the U.S. Department of Education Web site.
Sherman Miller, a retired DSU assistant visiting professor and former acting director of the school's Wilmington campus, said the concept of historically black colleges has evolved beyond race designations since the 1960s.
He cited West Virginia State and Bluefield State College in West Virginia, which are 17 and 10 percent black respectively, as schools that still use the term "HBCU," "though they aren't race-wise."
"The issue is to offer opportunity for downtrodden people, be they white, black, or what have you," said Mr. Miller, who is working toward his doctorate in education at the University of Delaware, focusing on instructing inner-city students.
Dr. Hoff said "HBCU" is a marketable designation university professors use to help attain research grants, which Dr. Sessoms has made a priority in his administration.
The designation also makes a school eligible for a grant under the federal Strengthening HBCU program.
"The school has what business people call differentiation," Mr. Miller said.
"The worst thing that a business person would want to do is have a differentiated product and then give away the differentiation."
Dr. Sessoms has rebutted any claim that DSU is moving away from its historical role as a haven for the disenfranchised, telling the Delaware State News in August that 86 percent of students received financial aid in 2004-05, an increase of 4 percent over the year before.
He said 79 percent of the student body was black last year.
Dr. Hoff said that DSU must embrace "HBCU" in its mission statement as a changing term that reflects back to its legacy.
It is not a problem the current president caused, he said, but one that he could help fix.
"We should know that our institution went through a period of abject racism and discrimination and yet thrived," Dr. Hoff said.
"Somebody asked me last spring, a visitor to the campus," he said.
"They said, 'Well, what's Delaware State known for?'
"My response was that they're known as an institution that was created out of racism and overcame these hurdles and thrived, and led to generations of students, African-Americans at first, but later on, a diverse array of students to have careers and contribute to society."
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Monday, October 10th 2005 at 10:46AM
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