March 2001: Vol. 80, No. 2March 2001: Vol. 80, No. 2Race and the liberating power of education
 Michael F. Adams |
s I stood on the steps of what is now the Holmes/Hunter Academic Building on January 9 and watched the unveiling of a marker commemorating the brave steps taken in 1961, I could not help being proud of the remarkable day-long celebration of desegregation here. I also realized that, while we have come quite far since 1961, we yet have far to go.
But the debate about minority enrollment often focuses on the wrong targets. Is it fair to criticize us for not having an African-American enrollment equal to the percentage of the state's black population? I don't think so—not when a very small percentage of African-American high school students are taking the kinds of courses that will prepare them for the competitive academic environment at UGA. Is it fair to say that UGA's atmosphere is not welcoming to African-Americans? Again, I don't think so—not when African-American freshmen return to UGA for their sophomore years at a rate higher than their white counterparts, and not when we rank fifth in the nation in the number of African-American tenure-track faculty.
On the other hand, am I satisfied with the percentage of African-Americans in our student body? Absolutely not. Competing for the 700 African-American high school graduates in Georgia whose SAT scores and GPA qualify them for admission to UGA is a high priority, and we put a lot of time and effort toward recruiting those students.
We have direct and repeated contact with every African-American high school student in this state whose academic performance makes him or her a qualified applicant. They receive letters and publications, and staff members from our admissions office visit them in their schools. We have tremendous cooperation from African-American students who are already enrolled here; many undergo voluntary training so they can return to their high schools as ambassadors for UGA. We work closely with other schools in the University System to encourage and facilitate transfers of students to UGA. Our housing department assigns an upper-class mentor to each African-American freshman to ease the transition to a campus that can be overwhelming for any student, not just minority students.
We are currently undertaking a national search for an associate provost for institutional diversity, a position with broad responsibility and authority for increasing our recruitment and retention of minority students, faculty and staff. We will soon announce the appointment of the Hamilton Holmes Chair in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, a fitting tribute to a man willing to endure incredible hardships for the reward of a UGA education.
I firmly believe that one of the singular educational opportunities a major university offers its students is the chance to meet and befriend people different from them. And while it is certainly important for our students to study with and get to know people of other races, it is also important for students who grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta to meet students from rural south Georgia. It is important for students from rural south Georgia to meet students from New York and California. And it is important for students from New York and California to meet students from Taiwan and India.
I am a child of the 1950s. When Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes enrolled at UGA in 1961, I was a 12-year-old in Albany, Ga., who didn't understand why the city baseball field was closed. Rather than obey a court order that all public facilities be open to people of all races, the city fathers closed the park. As a college student, I watched fires burn in the Nashville night as young black men and women took to the streets in anger and despair over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
I wish I had an answer to challenges we still face today on matters of race. As a lifelong educator, I believe in the liberating power of education and have committed my life to that concept. Ironically, the University of Georgia finds itself enmeshed in a legal battle over access to higher education and all the benefits that flow from it. We have simply recognized that this state is still coming to terms with a dual school system, one that banished a significant portion of its population to the trap of inferior education.
We will continue to do all we can do at the University of Georgia to make sure that this is a place open to all Georgians, for the power of an education is the power to improve Georgia as well as her people.
