'These are long overdue physical changes to campus buildings, but they will mean very little if campus leaders fail to also address racist operational structures, such as policies and practices that guide how institutions function.' (via latimesopinion)
have documented how Black enrollment declined between 1960 and 1968 on California’s public four-year campuses, largely limiting them to the state’s two-year colleges. San Francisco State University’s Black enrollment, for example, dropped from 12% to 3% in that short period.
The history of affirmative action shows perhaps most succinctly how some college presidents co-opted demands for equity to maintain racist norms. In July 1963, President John F. Kennedy turned to university leaders for assistance in the fight for civil rights: “The leadership that you and your colleagues show in extending equal educational opportunity today will influence American life for decades to come.
However, the momentum behind the idea of broader transformation stalled. Expressing concern about collaborating with Black colleges, in March 1964, University of Wisconsin President Fred Harrington said he assumed desegregation would negate the need for Black colleges. Soon the systemwide changes applicable to all higher education institutions were replaced by the largely symbolic effort to enroll a limited number of Black students at select majority-white campuses.
College presidents today are, once again, making symbolic proclamations, by saying “Black Lives Matter” and removing racist names. But without operational changes, colleges will remain ingrained with racism — whether offensive names on physical structures remain or not. Eddie R. Cole is an associate professor of higher education and organizational change at UCLA, and the author of the forthcoming book,
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