Last year the Southern University, Board of Supervisors officially revealed its plan for the Southern University Baton Rouge campus to replace its long-standing policy of open admission selective admission. Thus, instead of admitting every student that applies regardless of academic merit -- as was the tradition -- admission will now be based on the ability of of prospective students to meet certain set academic criteria. By this pronouncement, the hoard has created another milestone in the history of the university' which oversees the operation of the three campuses of the Southern University System, located in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Shreveport Bossier City.
The idea of selective admission had been under consideration for some time. But the fear that this type of admission might go against the institution's mission by denying education to many students of color in and around the state and, indeed, the country at large, necessitated a prolonged and thorough preliminary investigation to identify likely adverse impacts in order to design measures to minimize, if not eliminate, them completely.
In essence this occasion represents another landmark in the institution's history of survival, success, access and vitality in providing college education for the poor and the underprivileged who otherwise have been denied the ticket to climb the ladder to better living standards.
Selective admission at Southern University Baton Rouge is by design planned to coincide with the birth of the Baton Rouge Community College. The community college, established by the state government, will serve as a feeder institution to Southern University Baton Rouge by adequately preparing students for university work. Given the present conducive atmosphere for selective admission and the on-going preparation for its final implementation by the university administration, the Southern University system should become further strengthened.
Historically Black institutions have the: unique ability to, in the words of one scholar, reach the unreachable, teach the unteachable: and embrace troth the rejected-and the valedictorians with equal concern.
