Survival of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities by Edward Fort

Author:Edward Fort [Fort, Edward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2013-03-16T16:00:00+00:00

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 provided the momentum for these successes. Despite limited funding, each of the 1890s developed programs in research and outreach to address the needs of their constituents. The major focus was on programs to meet the needs of small farmers with limited resources and the rural poor (Mays, 1992). Additionally, the 1890s were major producers of African Americans with degrees in agriculture and related sciences. It was clear, however, that none of the 1890s could realize their full potential without increased funding.

The partnership began with a symposium held on April 24–26, 1988, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and hosted by Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. The participants included representatives from the USDA, the 1890 land-grant institutions, and Tuskegee University. The symposium was titled “Building Partnerships through Dialogue.” It is sometimes referred to as Nashville I because a follow-up symposium called “Nashville II” was held later. The stated goal of the symposium was “to enhance communication between the 1890 institutions, Tuskegee University, and U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies to achieve and maintain active partnerships that will strengthen the agriculture enterprise” (USDA, 1988).

The symposium was given great credibility by virtue of the fact that the Secretary of Agriculture Richard E. Lyng gave the keynote address and Deputy Secretary Peter C. Meyers participated in the symposium from beginning to end. In his keynote address, Secretary Lyng expressed his commitment to enhancing the partnership and recognized the importance of the 1890s in meeting the need for continued production of persons with expertise in the food and agriculture sciences.

The symposium program also included two panel discussions, three workgroup discussions, presentations of the recommendations of the work groups, and closing remarks by the deputy secretary of agriculture Peter Meyers. Panel Discussion I was titled “The future status and outlook for instruction, extension, and research in the 1890 institutions and Tuskegee University.” Panel Discussion II was titled “USDA/1890 joint initiatives” (USDA, 1988).

The key to the symposium was the work groups and the recommendations that came forth from these discussions. Many of these recommendations laid the foundation for the strengthened partnership that followed.

The three work groups were charged with the task of discussing and recommending strategies for increasing the number of minorities who pursue careers in the agriculture and food sciences, and for strengthening the partnerships between the USDA and the 1890 institutions. The participants of each work group included a broad cross-section of representatives from the USDA and the 1890 universities. This ensured that both the 1890 and the USDA perspectives were represented in the various recommendations.

The workgroup deliberations resulted in fourteen recommendations. These recommendations served as the basis for the immediate follow-up activities for the partnership. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Peter Myers gave final remarks and reiterated the department’s commitment to this partnership. This is best summed up by his statement that

the Conference should not be an end but a beginning—a beginning of a committed, strengthened, viable partnership with emphasis on human resources and American agriculture and economic development.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.