Interesting topic to bring up. Recently, I have been hearing from my professors in my sociology courses that some discussion is currently taking place in regard to removing the HBCU title from Spelman College. Some people argue that the title should be removed for diversity reasons and claim that it will bring more attention to the college if that phrase was removed.I wholeheartedly disagree with that statement. Historically Black Colleges and University is not a negative connotation. The truth is, although Spelman was founded by white women, it was an institution created for women of African decent. With that being said, Spelman College will always be a HBCU if we have the title on paper or not.
We should not be concerned with how many white or non-African's attend OUR institution. That will never be a threat to us. Spelman College will never change it's curriculum, standards, values, beliefs, mission statements, etc., for anyone. One thing is for certain: at Spelman College the majority will always be people of African decent. Most of the non-Africans that come to Spelman are here for domestic exchange and usually the case is that they end up loving Spelman and wanting to enroll here full-time. That to me is flattery.
As far as the Hawaiian young lady winning the Miss Hampton pageant; I personally feel like we cannot be upset at the fact that she won the pageant and that she is now representing Hampton even though Hampton is historically Black. We would not be upset if a African American girl won a pageant at a historically white institution.
However, I was upset when I heard of the white young man who won valedictorian at Morehouse. The reason is that he did not even attend Morehouse all four years so I think he should not have qualified. I was not mad at the fact that he was white; moreso that he was not enrolled at the institution for all four years and here he comes all of a sudden winning valedictorian. The fact that he was white probably added to the equation as a whole, but that was not my initial complaint.
The intergration of Spelman College is an interesting topic. If administration ever decideds to remove HBCU from our title, then we as the student body should petition immediately.
-Sasha Mills
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2 comments:
I completely agree!! I believe that no one has the right to take away a title that in a sense is what we are known for. So like you said, whether someone takes the title away from us or not we will always be an HBCU. Also, I believe that it is no ones place to take away a title, especially if they do not attend the institution. At the end of the day, Spelman will always be an HBCU, so I feel no need to even bring up the topic!
I personally do not have a problem with going school with white people or people not of African descent. However, Spelman is a Historically Black College and all ways will be whether the title is HBCU or not! Our HISTORY tells us that this institution was founded as a school for Black Females so regardless of the title it will always be a Historically Black College. HBCUs have rich traditions and backgrounds that are unique to the collegiate world. If Spelman or the AUC does become integrated then some of our traditions may be lost. The atmosphere at an HBCU homecoming is a lot different than that of a mixed or predominately white institution. The Greek lives at HBCUs are also distinctively different in nature. I am afraid that if we do integrate Spelman many of the aspects that make it so unique will be lost. I feel that the persons who are trying to assimilate Spelman into the white institution realm do not value the traditions and uniqueness of HBCU and it disturbs me that these are the people who are indeed in charge of running our school! I take pride in knowing that I attend the #1 HBCU in country!
BriElla Nelson
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