College officials say they were pleased the agreement required little time and no visits by federal authorities.
"It was gratifying to the president and to the college that OCR did not seek a site-based investigation," college spokesman Jim Nelson said.
Ergie Smith, who is chairman of the task force committee on minority recruitment, says he believes it's possible that Bluefield State can regain credibility within the Black community in southern West Virginia and with its Black alumni, but is cautious. "I'm guardedly optimistic," he says.
RELATED ARTICLE: What Is An HBCU?
In 1965 the U.S. Congress formally designated at Historically Black Colleges and Universities those institutions that were founded before 1964 whose principal mission was the education of Black Americans.
Most of those colleges were founded either immediately before the Civil War on in the decades afterward by churches, many of them funded through the Freedman's Bureau and private philanthropy.
Today, according to the Department of Education, there are 114 federally designated HBCUs -- including graduate institutions -- which are eligible to receive federal money through Title III of the Higher Education Act.
BI
THE NUMBERS
The Ten Whitest HBCUs
RANK INSTITUTION STATE BLACK AS A
PERCENTAGE OF
TOTAL ENROLLMENT
1993- 1997-
1994(*) 1998(**)
1 Bluefield State College W.V. 8 8
2 West Virginia State College W.V. 13 13
3 Lincoln University Mo. 26 26
4 J.F. Drake State Technical
College Ala. 45 45
5 Kentucky State University Ky. 49 51
6 Bishop State Community College Ala. 52 54
7 Langston University Okla. 51 51
8 Tennessee State University Tenn. 59 60
9 Delaware State University Del. 62 62
10 Fayetteville State University N.C. 64 64
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