Wasting Black Minds

...Black colleges encourage their students to nurse resentment against whites, and when failure later comes, as it must from the time wasted and the lack of preparation, "whitey" is to blame...

...In the background his mother sings a wordless spiritual as she "works nights" for him to have enough money for his education...

...Blacks helping blacks seems an ideal way to solve the problems of that martyred minority, and black colleges the ideal institutions to direct their education...

...Instead of trying to offset the effects of this fear with confidence born of real accomplishment, the college callously inflicts on its students a paternalism which used to be the white man's way of keeping blacks down...

...Explaining the curious new class assignment, he said, "We make no distinctions here because of degrees...

...If a graduate remains in a relatively backward area, he can become a policeman, a public school teacher, or an employe of a local city or state agency on the strength of the diploma alone...

...There the case rests without hope of appeal...

...the other half is to keep visitors out...

...But it is not "whitey" or the world beyond the campus that is responsible for what happens in the closed community of the black college...

...Half-hidden dislike of white teachers who had come from the outside and who were already breaking up the familiar, safe group suddenly erupted into accusations of indifference toward student needs, and of lack of interest...

...But when one of the visitors suggested a faculty interchange with other state colleges and universities, a wave of apprehension swept through the gathering...

...No one will question the kind of college it comes from...

...Leaving the "family" for another campus terrified them...

...She would certainly have something to say if she heard that commercial...

...For example, there is a four-year nursing program which trains young black women to become registered nurses, but most of them can't pass the state examination they must take when they graduate and they end up somewhere lower on the scale along with those who have had only two years of college...

...But black colleges can lower standards and downgrade diplomas while appearing to fulfill every requirement of these associations...

...For example, once a required Ph.D...

...He is the first member of his family to go to college and he wants to be a doctor...

...and presumably must go back to their dorms to bed, because there is no other place for them to socialize...

...One of the teachers in the political science department complained that she could never get students interested in American government because they always wanted to talk about oppressed blacks...

...Fighting back is almost impossible once you are enrolled...

...There are pressing political reasons for the hands-off attitude...

...Cultural contacts with the town are neglected...

...Recreation is limited to a swimming pool in the gym, three tennis courts with sagging nets, and an occasional dance...

...A young man begs us to give so his chemistry class won't be closed for lack of funds...

...But the policy of "no word from the outside" sometimes results in unexplainable hostilities...

...The administration can find good excuses for isolating the students on their black campus, for this is a southern town where blacks and whites have led separate lives for generations, and it takes courage to venture into the white community and demand to be a part of the cultural life...

...The music and drama departments don't encourage their students to attend Little Theater productions or local symphony orchestra concerts...

...Such a diploma will not get these students an administrative position or an interesting career or a scholarship to a professional or graduate school...

...But when these students find that even their class credits are questioned by other institutions, they think about making their objections known...

...Some of the money was obviously wasted on unneeded buildings...

...The college paid dearly for professors who might otherwise choose a more challenging school...

...It counts on the damaging results of white repression to keep black students under its domination...

...He was the only exchange student the department had ever had, yet he told me that no other teacher had asked him to tell other blacks about his experiences abroad...

...An article in the April issue of The Progressive, "Still Separate and Unequal," by John Egerton, reminds us that we are in danger of losing sight of our integration goals and becoming preoccupied with the Lucy B. Golsan taught for three years at a black state college in the South...

...Autonomy sounds fine and the pain and responsibility of integrating two unwilling races are eased...

...Professors who come from the outside are excluded from administrative decisions and they never really know...

...The college is left to use the faculty as it chooses, and to continue the practice of graduating every student...

...If 1,700 freshmen enter in 1976,1,700 must graduate four years later if they are still in school...

...One graduate of the college was actually snubbed by former teachers when I invited him back to speak to French classes about his exchange summer in France...

...For a rare concert in town given by a black concert singer, the Lyceum Committee warned that men must wear suits and ties and women dresses or they would be turned away at the door...

...But it wouldn't do any good," she finally concluded...

...The waste and indifference of those in charge infect the students, and they treat books carelessly...

...And, with the Federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) to contend with as well, they feel the pressure and are careful not to rock the boat on racial issues...

...A good part of this mismanagement, visible everywhere on the campus, is the result of the faculty's obsession with the race issue to the exclusion of everything else, including the competent administration of their own college...

...This way students aren't likely to compare gyms or campuses outside the small circuit of black colleges...

...They are even less likely to suggest participating...

...Keeping students on campus is half the solution...

...It seems unlikely, but this can be done...

...Calling the college "afamily," administrators and faculty treat students as irresponsible children...

...Neither one of the girls tried to hide what she was doing...

...The next quarter, a black instructor took over the advanced classes to insure that all department majors would graduate on time...

...Such unquestioning acceptance of whatever the black college hands out is surprising because most college students would demand more proof of success, but entering freshmen here have little idea of what other campuses are like and, from the time they enter, the administration tries to shut them off from the outside world by keeping them safely on campus and everybody else off...

...The conservatives, who have wanted segregation all along, see black colleges as institutions where blacks can be educated—how well is not their concern—without rubbing elbows with whites...

...Convinced that these functions are legitimate and helpful, they accept the segregated campus...

...Instead of obtaining forty or fifty volumes by Cooper she ordered three copies of every book in print about Cooper, and three copies of every edition— children's books included—of the work of Cooper himself...

...The dean says nothing about "hell week" when pledges are not allowed to sleep for seventy-two hours, or the practice of branding male pledges with disfiguring Greek letters on arms and chest...

...You just open up your little grade book and if a student comes to class every day you put down an A. If he doesn't you put down a B." Administrators can't let it be known either that they raise false hopes about futures that won't materialize In the college where I taught there are many young blacks who never get where they think the college is taking them...

...Each of these groups prefers to sidestep the issue of how this kind of education compares with what students get on other campuses...

...Fear of the white world infects the faculty, too...

...And yet this black college receives an annual budget from the state in line with other colleges where campuses are rolling and green, which have a dozen tennis courts in good condition, and which see that language labs and libraries are in working order...

...But we are forgetting that separate but equal education is not possible and that the students subjected to it will suffer...

...When I complained to the dean, he advised me to go back to my work and do just what the chairman told me to...

...In many classrooms the students spend the whole hour discussing white injustices...

...When professors come to a black college fresh from graduate school, where standards are usually high, they are shocked, disappointed, and frustrated by what they find...

...My young friend spoke of going to a member of the state Board of Regents who was from her hometown...

...Fraternities and sororities flourish and their activities are not curtailed in any way...

...Subject matter is forgotten...

...In my town there is a junior college and another four-year college about forty miles away...

...Black organizations have thus far supported these segregated colleges as economically useful, forgetting temporarily their general push for integration...

...He left for Miami with high hopes for an exciting future, but he was soon back—without the job...

...A student gave a report one day directly from a page torn out of the library's copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica...

...Most colleges have long since stopped trying to tell students how to dress, but black colleges place obedience to regulations above the cultural experience...

...No one who is registered for four years fails to graduate...

...Each member of the educational hierarchy passes the complaint back down to officials of the college in question until it is buried at last under the pile of papers on the department head's desk...

...to teach advanced classes to its three French majors (there aren't many French majors...

...Liberals see them as institutions where culturally deprived blacks are given their chance and where their special needs are met by remedial programs...

...What could be more worthwhile than supporting efforts to rescue young minds from the waste of ghetto life and grinding poverty, to help start young blacks on the road to economic and social improvement and a better life...

...Actually, degrees are often given to students who do little more than pay four years of registration fees...

...But they, of course, did make a distinction: Ph.D.s who were "too hard" got only beginning classes...

...the department chairman had forgotten to turn in the list...

...As one example, a dream was shattered for a young woman I know who, after three years of chemistry and biology at a black college, was refused admission to medical school because she is unqualified...

...Or so we tell ourselves—although we've never been near one...

...He was angry because the college had not prepared him to speak Spanish well enough to hold on to his opportunity...

...And almost everybody believes that commercial...

...They don't have to claim the standards of the big universities but they must remain respectable in their area...

...Like many other bright and hopeful young people she is the victim of the schizophrenic policy that exists in black colleges which must graduate all their students, no matter how poorly they do in class, and at the same time convince students and public alike that their degrees represent academic accomplishment...

...Word came back to the English department that this enormous new collection had exhausted their budget and that no books, by any English or American author whose name began with a letter after C, could be ordered...

...Any attempt to reach a responsive official is frustrated all along the line if a disturbed faculty member wants to tell him about the poor quality of these colleges...

...The code of behavior on campus is meant to keep them that way...

...He wouldn't listen to what / said...

...Where does all the money go...

...Department chairmen here were often less educated but better paid than their counterparts in surrounding colleges, and the administrators could afford donations of $1,000 or more to the college fund from generous paychecks they received for keeping the college in its place, for making sure it remained a down-and-out black college on the wrong side of town...

...If they did, they might wonder why their tuition and activity fees don't provide them with comparable facilities...

...But where blacks have insisted in the past on their rights in jobs, in restaurants, in public facilities, the whites have given way with fairly good grace and sometimes even with a word of encouragement...

...We just pay Ph.D.s more, that's all...

...Black administrators and teachers say the college degree is helping their people, but it is not helping all of them, certainly not the most ambitious...

...When I suggested starting a film club to offer students something more thoughtful than the black exploitation films which were their usual fare, the department chairman told me to go right ahead...

...When they failed to pass the course, I was called in by the department chairman and forced to change their grades...

...They do make more money than their parents did, but not as much as they were led to expect...

...And he won't...

...This is a startling state of affairs, but black colleges have a reason for making sure that every student gets a diploma...

...Gentlemen" must leave the "young ladies' " dorm before 11 p.m...

...These students don't know that when they graduate they will be unable to compete for the best jobs...

...One young man I knew had a job in a large national company during his college years and the company wanted to transfer him after graduation to a better job in Miami because he was a Spanish major...

...Both are integrated but still predominantly white...

...We don't want you here" was written in the air, though not quite voiced...

...They were sure that nothing could interfere with their graduation in June, and they were right...

...Sometimes they are jolted into realizing it, as my friend was when she began making inquiries about medical school in her junior year, but most take for granted that the college is doing what it says it is—preparing them for new wealth and opportunity...

...A facade of academic respectability is all that is needed...

...It is the non-integrated college itself, left free to waste young minds and to award unearned diplomas, which disappoints ambitious young blacks and makes it hard for them to adjust to an integrated world after a four-year dose of racism...

...Faculty friendships between the black college and the other two are rare and students are not encouraged to get to know each other...

...But the library, which received a good share of available money, was the biggest disappointment of all...

...The year before I came, two new dormitories had been added to the campus, even while existing ones stood empty, and both of them were only half filled...

...There is no follow-up visit by the association to see how Ph.D.s are being used to better the program...

...You spend your money for an education and you end up with nothing," she told me...

...But instead of accepting this responsibility, administrators and faculty draw back, afraid that students will feel the barrenness of campus life if they see what goes on elsewhere...

...Facilities are never shared and the basketball and football teams of the black school play only other black teams...

...The Board of Regents, in charge of the state universities, will turn a deaf ear to all criticism of black colleges even by students themselves...

...The commercial is persuasive...

...Last year HEW sent representatives to visit the campus and sympathetic faculty members were hastily rounded up to testify to the town's hostility toward any efforts at integration...

...But if someone dares to suggest having a black speaker who is controversial, the administration vetoes it with a favorite excuse—there isn't enough money...

...The grass is brown and unkept, stunted azalea bushes are carelessly set out and left to die, the auditorium is old and hot, blackboards are unusable...

...Don't you know you're not supposed to give tests...

...But no one in these colleges admits the degree is so easy to get, for they must appear to be as good as other comparable schools in the state system...

...Black colleges look good to both liberal integration-ists and to conservative segregationists...

...It would not anger librarians, who expect books to be stolen and mutilated, nor shock students who get the message of indifference right away when no one bothers to check up on what they do with books...

...Accreditation associations whose business it is to see that colleges live up to academic standards are no help...

...The language department's request for new books never reached the library at all...

...We can just send a check to the fund...

...While teaching at a black college for three years, I found that segregated colleges waste a lot of young minds...

...Another checked out a textbook for my linguistics class and wrote her own name in black felt tip pen along the sides on top of the library stamp...

...They know that a college degree can mean a better job and a higher salary, especially where black quotas are enforced...

...Giant Greek letters mar the campus, and cold concrete fraternity and sorority monuments are planted in front of almost every classroom building...

...The associations do check on such matters as library holdings, classroom facilities, and courses offered, and they require a certain number of Ph.D.s on the faculty...

...I was hired because the language department needed a Ph.D...

...His new job would require contacts with Spanish-speaking customers...

...My young friend told me, "I'd like to do something to stand up for myself, to tell everybody how we hate this college, but you can't count on anybody to stick with you, not the teachers, not even your friends...

...First of all, the black vote is large in this Southern state and members of the Board are selected by the governor who, in turn, must be responsive to the voters...

...is hired and his name and degrees published in the college catalog, he can be excluded from any important part of the academic program if he worries too much about keeping up standards...

...I did know my salary was high, higher than that of friends at integrated colleges, and I knew I did little to earn it...

...One black instructor half-jokingly described the school's policy one day when he saw me making out tests...

...Fear of whites and their world is part of the psychological baggage every new student brings to this campus...

...They are used to spending time in class telling and retelling stories of personal persecution at the hands of whites instead of gaining new knowledge as a way to better things in the future...

...Doors that should be open to her are shut and she is bitter about the three wasted years of undergraduate courses which didn't teach her what she needs to know...

...the program is considered useless in getting a job), and two of these missed class more often than they attended...

...The administration knows that these activities draw attention away from the college's lack of genuine recreational facilities and programs...

...But," he said, "you realize there are no funds available for that sort of thing...

...Boys must take off their knit hats when they enter the classroom...

...Above all, the administration does not want any speaker or any film or any teacher on campus who might start students thinking seriously about their inferior education and limited possibilities...

...This is fairly easy in a town where whites would rather stay away and where blacks who have become important are busy with other things...

...It is up to the college to see that old injustices don't get in the way of cultural opportunities for their students...

...Nor is there enough money for other activities which might let in a little fresh air from the outside...

...The young man who lost his job in Miami because he couldn't speak Spanish well enough was told by a teacher that it wasn't the school's fault, but the viciousness of a racist employer...

...My own experience bears this out...

...When guest speakers do come, for Founder's Day and graduation, they are carefully chosen from other black colleges dedicated to the same principle of isolation, and therefore they don't frighten the administration...

...Last year, a young professor asked the head librarian to order three sets of the works of James Fenimore Cooper...

...Facilities are old and inadequate, the language lab doesn't work, the library is a parody of the real thing, the student center has only an old black and white television, a poolroom, and a snack bar...

...They're all scared...

...Appallingly, no one ever formally objected to this mistake, and the librarian, realizing too late what she had done, announced that there would be plenty of copies of Cooper for everyone, but she never offered to return the useless books...

...more strident issues of adjusting to reduced budgets in higher education and 'giving women their rights on university campuses...