He writes:
There is STILL a need for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. However, the way we run and support these institutions need to change for the better.If you take a look at the Catholics they support Georgetown and Notre Dame. The Mormons support BYU. The Seventh Day Adventists support Andrews University in Berrien Springs, MI. The Lutherans-Missouri Synod support Concordia University. Most White Americans support and give back to the public institution they graduated from. However, when it comes to Blacks in this country we do not support our own institutions. After all, here in Detroit, most of the businesses are owned and operated by Arabs and Chaldeans even thought Blacks make up 90% of the total population in our city.However, HBCUs can serve as an incubator to develop 21st century leadership through a silver rights perspective.
The main problem is that we still have HBCU presidents that operate on a 20th century civil rights perspective. For example, why do we continue to beg the federal government for money to run OUR institutions? This is OUR responsibility to fund and manage first. Our ways of innovation must be creative.An example of innovation for these HBCUs is creating a social business incubator that will help divert funding to the HBCU of our choice. A social business is one which aims to be financially self-sufficient, if not profitable, in its pursuit of a social, ethical or environmental goal. Speaking of social business HBCUs do not offer social entrepreneurship programs to help eradicate poverty in our community. Our way of thinking must change and our way of doing business must be global.
For private HBCUs like Howard and Morehouse we have not done a good job in holding our faith based and non-profit communities accountable for not supporting quality education in these HBCUs. The major fund we have for the HBCUs is the United Negro College Fund. I dislike the term "negro" because it is outdated. Again, this is the Silver Rights Movement not the Civil Rights Movement. Our way of thinking must change and our way of doing business must be global. We need more than just the UNCF and Coca-Cola giving out scholarships to poor Blacks going to a HBCU. We need public-private partnerships working on improving the financial status of these HBCUs, creating a financial mechanism that will bring in billions to these universities by developing new global initiatives that will place these HBCUs in direct competition with other traditional colleges and universities.
The K-12 educational program at the HBCUs must be different also. They should offer teacher certifications in areas such as African-American History (which should not be looked upon as an elective), financial literacy and physiology to go into the most distressed urban areas to prepare our children for the 21st century.In a silver rights perspective we are in the business of generating wealth on these HBCUs by developing challenging programs, curriculums, and research facilities that will prepare our students in the 21st century. Some HBCUs are already doing this such as Tenneessee State University.HBCUs serve as the custodians of the record of the struggle of Black people in this country to achieve the very highest levels of contribution to our society. There are many ways to ensure these institutions are preserved.However, American society has written off HBCUs as irrelevant. More importantly, Black people has written off HBCUs off their list as well. This is why it is important to know your history before you write anything off. These HBCUs can very well be the change agent in urban communities across America.
My response:
I actually agree with Akindele on this one. Click the link above to read the entire blog post. Good stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment