clemson-struggles-attain-civil-rights-dream
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2012/aug/25/clemson-struggles-attain-civil-rights-dream/
CLEMSON UNIVERSITY — About 1,000 undergraduate students walking around Clemson's campus today are black.
In the fall of 1962, there were none. A state law banned the admission of black students to historically white institutions like Clemson University.
Harvey Gantt's lawsuit in federal court would break down that barrier and lead to his entry in January 1963. Gantt was on campus this week to help launch a yearlong celebration of that milestone at Clemson.
Gantt's keynote speech at the university's convocation emphasized the good people he met at Clemson 50 years ago and the transformative friendships he forged with the white students there.
Those in the audience who lived through that time or have studied that period in South Carolina history described it as a "glass is half full" speech.
Bruce Ransom was 13 years old and attending the all-black Palmetto High School in Mullins, S.C., when Gantt fought his way into Clemson University. Today, Ransom is a tenured professor of political science there and remembers well the conversations his friends and family were having 50 years ago about Clemson.
"You don't want to come across as having rancor or bitterness," Ransom said. "You want to say something positive. But at the same time it's honest to say those were some difficult times, some challenging times."
And the work, Ransom said, is far from done.
Other black students would soon follow Gantt, but Clemson University has struggled to transform itself into an institution that reflects the population of South Carolina — a goal Clemson President Jim Barker repeated at this week's convocation.
Of the nearly 16,000 undergraduate students at Clemson last year, only 6.46 percent of them were black. The state of South Carolina's population is 28.1 percent black.
Jerry Knighton is the director of access and equity at the university, and has served with campus groups trying to boost minority employment and student recruitment.
"When you think about Harvey Gantt being the first African-American student, it hasn't even been that long ago," he said. "So we are just now seeing those legacy students with parents who went here or who have an older brother, sister or cousin."
Those people who have had a good experience at Clemson — and he said most have — pass that on.
"We are beginning to see the fruits of our actions now," he said.
Ransom said Clemson could help recruit and hold onto black students, staff and faculty if more of its leadership were black.
The university's top-ranking black administrator ever was a dean of health and human development, Harold Cheatham, who stepped down a decade ago. There's never been a black vice president at Clemson, and the 13-member board of trustees that governs the school has had one black member over the past 25 years, and it's been the same person, Louis Lynn.
"We unfortunately hear some of the other stories of not feeling included at all times, and sometimes feeling invisible and not necessarily having the support and critical mass that students need to see people like them," Knighton said. "Not only as students but role models — faculty, staff and administration. Students are looking for that. And I think parents are looking for that — that feeling of security of leaving their child on campus and knowing they are in good hands."
Prospective students pick up on these gaps, said Abel Bartley, a professor of Pan-African Studies at Clemson and chairman of the President's Commission on Black Faculty and Staff at Clemson. Those factors, the lack of a free-standing cultural center on campus and the lack of an African Studies major could be sending signals that diversity isn't embraced at Clemson, he said.
But Bartley also praised the university for its quick response to problems and requests his commission brings up. Most recently, his committee helped janitorial staff who needed gloves when working with bleach. It also helped the staff get a computer and deal with management issues.
"They've talked about how things have improved," Bartley said. "I was very impressed."
Knighton's office handles discrimination complaints, and charges of racism still top the list. Race issues, though, are not as overt as they once were, he said, and often can be attributed to differences in backgrounds, personalities and cultures.
According to the Office of Institutional Research at Clemson, the highest number of black students ever to be enrolled at Clemson, including graduate students, was 1,273. That was 11 years ago.
According to records available since 1996, the university's highest percentage of black students was 7.62 percent — in 1996. It has steadily declined ever since.
Clemson has never practiced affirmative action and maintains a race-blind admissions policy, said Robert Barkley, the university's director of undergraduate admissions.
"You want the best and brightest, but you also want a group of students from a variety of backgrounds, not just ethnicity, so the collegiate experience is one where they will learn from each other," Barkley said. "There's no one factor that makes an admissions decision. The high school academic record is the most important."
In undergraduate classrooms, blacks number one in 15. For Clemson to come close to the state's black population, their number would need to more than quadruple.
Leon Wiles was hired as Clemson University's first chief diversity officer four years ago.
He said his office and the admissions office purchase lists of prospective college students, broken down by race, who are the top performers in their respective high schools.
Those students will get recruiting letters from Clemson and invitations to "Experience Clemson" day at the university or alumni get-togethers in Greenville and Atlanta.
For students who do like Clemson, one of the biggest barriers remains cost, Knighton said.
Wiles said Clemson has no race-based scholarships but has made a concerted effort in its recent capital campaign to increase the number of need-based scholarships.
"We don't want to discriminate by race," Wiles said. "We want to help students who have economic challenges."
One area of the university that comes close to the state's demographic breakdown is athletics, which has aggressively recruited the state's top student-athletes for 40 years regardless of race — and helped them pay for school.
Out of about 500 student-athletes at Clemson in 2011, slightly less than 24 percent of them were black, according to an annual NCAA report the university submitted last week.
Of the 122 black athletes at Clemson last year, 71 of them played football.
The impact of sports is evident: one in eight black undergraduates at Clemson is an NCAA athlete, according to an Independent Mail analysis of student enrollment and athletics records.
One in 41 white undergraduates is.
"We clearly have made significant strides if we go back over 50 years in terms of recruiting African American athletes," Ransom said. "It shouldn't have to stop with student-athletes."
(via Instapaper)
Victor Cuvo, Attorney at Law
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