New Round of Fordice Hearings While Board Considers Privatizing Ole Miss

JACKSON, Miss. — U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers Jr. has told the Mississippi College Board to prepare for a new round of court hearings in the 24-year-old Ayers v. Fordice lawsuit that accuses the state of favoring White colleges over historically Black ones.
But Alvin Chambliss, an attorney representing plaintiffs, says the order will do nothing to speed up desegregation at Mississippi's eight public universities.
"We had filed an appeal in the 5th Circuit [Court of Appeals] 10 days prior to his order. So it seems it's nothing more than an attempt to show the appeals court that something is being done in the case," says Chambliss, a law professor at Texas Southern University.
And in a related development, board member James Luvene of Holly Springs has proposed making the University of Mississippi a private institution as part of the settlement in the desegregation case.
In an order issued earlier this month that called for the new round of hearings, Biggers also prohibited the board from taking any action that could affect the desegregation of higher education unless it is first cleared by him. He directed the college board to prepare for hearings into disparities in equipment at schools and the awarding of scholarships tied to American College Test (ACT) scores. The judge also wants an update on how endowment money has been spent.
Mississippi College Board officials say the order was unclear about how it might impact the continuing debate over expansion of the University of Southern Mississippi-Gulf Park into a four-year program. Biggers had blocked that move amid questions about admission standards.
Chambliss wants to stop the expansion entirely and has appealed Biggers' ruling.
Pam Meyer, assistant higher education commissioner, says that although Biggers has not set dates for the hearings, officials are preparing the material he requested.
The case originated in 1975, when the late Jake Ayers Sr. of Glen Allan sued the state, accusing Mississippi of neglecting its black universities — Jackson State, Alcorn State, and Mississippi Valley. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed in 1992 that higher education in Mississippi was segregated and it ordered the state to fix it. Biggers has overseen those efforts.
According to college-board figures, $40 million has been spent on Ayers-related matters since the Supreme Court ruling. A majority of that has gone to endowments and scholarships at HBCUs.