Pages
May 2014
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An Associate Consultant's
Newspaper
Established in 1983
Rodney J. Sumler, Publisher
Jerome Johnson, Managing Editor
Dwight A. Jones, Editor
Ann F. Sumler, Finance Director
Advertising Constants
Chenita Johnson, Gerald Green
A Creative Mind, Graphic Design
Ideas expressed in this publication
are not necessarily those of the
publisher or staff.
(336) 635 4096 Fax (336) 635 4567
e-mail: acphoenix@bellsouth.net
On HBCUs, Republican
Party Can't Serve Two
Masters
J. L. Carter Sr.
Republican National Committee
Chairman Reince Priebus toured Central
State University last week, supporting
the launch of a Young Republicans
chapter on the historically Black campus
in the critical swing state of Ohio. His
appearance led a second-straight week of
conservative-planted headlines involving
HBCUs, with last week's story highlighting
remarks made by a Morehouse College
Republican, as delivered by alumnus
former presidential candidate Herman
Cain.
It is an ideal time for Republicans to get
the word out on their party on HBCU
campuses nationwide. Students, should
be looking for political alternatives to the
Reince Priebust
Democratic administration that decimated
HBCUs and derailed thousands of dreams
with covert changes to the Pell grant and
PLUS loan college financing programs, and
forced the state of Maryland into a federal
court defeat over irreparable harm to public
HBCUs through program duplication - the
first blue state so defeated in a long history
of litigation against separate-but-equal
system of public higher education,
RNC leadership, HBCU students and political
observers know what time it is for the Grand
Ole Party: for its survival, the party has to get
younger, browner, and less incendiary on
matters of race and class. But the RNC faces
a unique challenge in the coming months of
road trips and rap sessions with young Black
voters.
How does the RNC expect to turn its victims
into its advocates?
It is beyond disingenuous for Priebus, Cain
or others to court HBCU students for a
party with member who systemically attack
HBCUs through cutting state appropriations
and dismantling HBCU appeal and
effectiveness. For every Young Republican
Chapter the RNC can activate, there are
thousands of HBCU students and alumni
who cringe at the mention of party sentinels
Robert Jindal, Robert Bentley, Rick Scott,
Rick Perry and Pat McCrory,
These names aren't the welcoming
committee for the Republican party; they
are the faces of denied opportunity, covert
racist agendas, and the rich, white male
privilege that created HBCUs and forced
their evolution into schools designed to
chip away at such privilege.
For students dialed in on the socio-political
HBCU landscape, the dissonance of
supporting a party which has marginalized
public HBCUs to the brink of extinction
has to be a difficult proposition. On the
one hand, it is respectable for students
to admire a party that values faith,
fiscal conservatism and limits on the
government's role in citizens' rights to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
On the other, there must be a sickening
feeling to know that education, the core of
these inalienable rights, has to be obtained
through assimilation into predominantly
white institutions, and limited to the best
and the brightest Black students and few
others.
If Republicans want to make significant
inroads with historically Black colleges and
their students, their first order of business
should be to reel in their governors and
state legislators on their criminal neglect
of HBCUs. Any real conversation must
begin with ways to reverse underfunding,
outdated facilities and dwindling financial
aid to HBCU students.
And then, conversation has to become
action. Fast. The RNC can't afford to hold
dear to the ideals of racial animosity and
accompanying isolation of resources held
by many of its members, if it hopes to
recruit new members of different hue and
ethnic loyalty,
HBCUs and Black America at large could
benefit from increasing number of
Black folks in the conservative ranks. If a
generation of activists can emerge from
HBCUs and into the Republican party with
the values of protecting and advancing
Black communities and institutions, then
we all should be open to the possibilities.
But the party as currently constructed
hasn't earned the privilege of our students'
attention or consideration.
And until the RNC and its governors and
state legislators prove a new philosophy
and respect for Black colleges and Black
people, they should continue to be at the
periphery of our interest and our vote.
Vol, No Lew
Ridert Allowed!
FACTS!
Voung men
were
molested
by older
and
stronger
Inmates.
They
became
suicidal
because
of what
happened
to them.
Prison
officials
tool?
away
their
belts to
prevent
them
from
hanging.
That ended
up being
a symbol
that the
young
man was
actually
someone’s
This style began
in PRISON!
MCClRf
The AC Phoenix
NC Senate Removes
Elizabeth City State
Closure From Budget
Proposal
By Staff Reports
One day after drawing national attention
for a budget proposal calling for the
closure of historically Black Elizabeth
City State University, legislators in the
North Carolina Senate have removed
the provision from their version of the
proposal.
Outcry from students, executives. Black
legislators and HBCU alumni in North
Carolina and beyond flooded social
media and regional news outlets last
night, following the release of details of
the Senate's proposed budget structure.
The proposal, a $21 billion package that
included raises for teachers, sought to
dissolve institutions which has enrollment
decreases of more than 20 percent in
the last three academic years; a clause
specifically targeting Elizabeth City State.
FromWITN:
Senator Bill Cook, whose district covers
Elizabeth City, said late Friday that he has
filed an amendment to do away with the
study.
"ECSU has had its fair share of problems in
the past few years, but I do not think this
study is the best way to begin addressing
them," Cook said. "I have prepared an
amendment and after my discussion with
Senate leadership they have agreed to
support the elimination of the provision
completely from the budget."
"We are grateful that the proposed
budget provision has been removed from
the Senate budget bill. We are grateful
to Senators Cook, Berger, Davis and
Apodaca for their efforts. ECSU is grateful
for the broad-based support received for
Representative Steinberg, Mayor Peel
and other Elizabeth City area community
leaders, our constituents and all who
showed their support. ECSU will continue
on its plan to right-size and increase
enrollment," said Chancellor Charles
Becton,
UJinston Salem
inrirff
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