Historically black colleges and universities, HBCU's, are reaching out more aggresively to Hispanic students, reports the Associated Press today. Atlanta AP reporter Dorie Turner finds that " Black colleges that want to shore up enrollment numbers are revising recruitment strategies to include more members of the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority group. The campuses are hiring Hispanic recruiters, distributing brochures that feature Hispanic students and establishing special scholarships for Hispanics."
This is an interesting development which could help save the financially challenged HBCU's while also calming some of the tensions between African Americans and Hispanics that even reached into the academic elites.
Just a couple years ago I participated in, and spoke at, a three day symposium at Harvard Univeristy titled the Color Lines Conference and I witnessed a thoughtful dialogue between a panelist and an audience member who spoke about their mutual distrust for one another even though both have devoted their time to building racial and ethnic understanding.
No comments:
Post a Comment