Prometheus 6   

Black Colleges Already Do What White Ones Must Do
by Artelia C. Covington

WASHINGTON (NNPA)�-As some predominantly White universities scramble to revise their admissions process to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court rulings in two University of Michigan affirmative action cases, they ma want to borrow a page from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that have been taking an individual approach to applicants all along.

�I think the literature is full of many ways to look for talented students and if you look for a student body that will be conducive to the learning of everyone then you are going to look at those measures that will help you predict who can be successful,� says Barbara R. Hatton, president of Knoxville College in Tennessee.

…In an unusual twist, the new rulings prohibiting strict scoring standards may also spell the elimination of special scholarships that had been awarded to Whites in an effort to encourage them to enroll in predominantly Black colleges under court desegregation orders.

In 1995, Alabama District Court Judge Harold Murphy, in a ruling in the case of �Knight v. Alabama,� mandated the creation of Whites-only scholarships at predominantly Black Alabama State University in Montgomery and Alabama A&M University in Normal, near Huntsville. Under the court order, the race-based scholarships were funded annually for up to 10 years, with each university being reimbursed up to $1 million a year.