JACKSON, Miss.
U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers Jr. has directed the state College Board to monitor decreasing freshman enrollment at Mississippi's historically Black institutions [HBCUs). In the past couple of years, there has been a noticeable decrease in freshmen at Jackson State. Alcorn State, and Mississippi Valley State universities, figures show. And while overall Black enrollment is up 7.3 percent at the state's eight universities since Biggers ordered new admission standards in 1995, the freshman enrollment to decrease.
"The board is directed to continue monitoring the various elements that affect freshman enrollment and advise the court of its findings," Biggers wrote in his four-page order last month.
"I'm delighted that they are going to be looking closely at this." said Robert A. Kronley, senior consultant to the Southern Education Foundation. "We said before that the combination of new admission standards and the abolition of remediation -- and the way its been done, the fast implementation of it -- threatened access for Black students and the current numbers prove that."
The president of one of the schools to be monitored agreed with Kronley's assessment and said the decreases were to be expected, given the new admissions requirements put in place by the courts. And besides, he said, his institution has been monitoring its enrollment, retention, and graduation rates all along.
"Certainly I don't have any problem with them monitoring us. We do that all the time, anyway. We monitor by sex, age, test scores, everything," said Mississippi Valley State President Dr. William W. Sutton, who added, "He [Biggers] just wants that [monitoring data] before the courts so that it appears like they are doing something."
College Board members say the decline of freshmen at Jackson State, Mississippi Valley State, and Alcorn State is a legitimate concern.
Jackson State's Black freshmen enrollment fell from 1,102 in 1995-96, to 844 in 1996-97, to 755 in 1997-98. It is the lowest total for the university over a twelve-year period and well below the peak of 1,289 freshmen in 1990-91.
