Cheyney University alum want the HBCU under the National Park Service. The State school says no way.
Posted By: S. Moore on August 18, 2023 :quality(60)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/VPDC7GBZQJGT7LLOW2GAWZQVXI.JPG) A photo of Cheyney State College taken in 1975. At a recent budget hearing in Harrisburg, the chancellor of the system overseeing Pennsylvania’s state universities bragged about Cheyney. “When I took over,” Daniel Greenstein said, referring to when he became chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education in 2018, “Cheyney was at serious risk of losing its accreditation. It’s now stable.” It’s true that the nation’s oldest historically Black university survived being on the brink of collapse, and in recent years became one of few schools in the state system that has seen enrollment grow after a precipitous decline, though it’s nowhere near the size it was decades ago. “They’ve got a jewel there if they only could recognize it and use it.” Steven P. Anderson But a vocal and dedicated group of students and alumni want more than a mere rescue mission, saying that years of neglect put the school in its precarious position. They are proposing a plan to restore Cheyney to national prominence, with a budget on a par with Harvard’s, and a designation as a national historic treasure. “They’ve got a jewel there if they only could recognize it and use it,” said Steven P. Anderson, a 1976 alumnus and one of about a dozen alumni who are leading the charge. They are highly critical of the school’s direction under Aaron A. Walton, president of Cheyney since 2017. More than 90 students and alumni signed on to a discrimination complaint, originally filed with the state system in February 2022, citing loss of academic and athletic facilities and teams and poor conditions in some residence halls, including peeling paint, filthy floors, and “a mold-like substance that appears around the vents,” leaving them with health concerns. Complainants attributed the disparities to Cheyney’s status as the only Black university among the state system’s predominantly white schools. “The whole area is a scene one expects to be in a Third World country,” the complaint said about one residence hall. The library was closed for more than two years, forcing students to use a small room in another building with few books, and the football program was eliminated, reducing opportunities to help generate school spirit and nurture student life. The group is concerned about the university’s plans to raze Cope Hall, the athletic facility, and replace it with a new complex that will include, among other things, a soccer field, though Cheyney doesn’t have a varsity soccer team. And the group has been critical of Walton’s efforts to use Cheyney buildings to house businesses, which Walton has said opened the door to more internships for students and revenue for the school, but critics see as further eroding the collegiate experience and leaving less space for enrollment growth. Some alumni became so distraught that they formed a nonprofit, Save the Oldest HBCU Institute, in part aimed at wresting control of Cheyney from the state and placing it under the jurisdiction of the federal government, specifically the National Park Service. The land and buildings would become a historic site, still a university, operated under an independent federal agency, similar to the FDIC. Though it has yet to gain political support for the idea and the NPS has not responded to a request for comment, the group says Cheyney deserves the recognition. Walton and state system officials said they have taken steps to address issues raised in the complaint. A newly remodeled library was opened in January with two full-time librarians, while the university painted rundown areas, remodeled the laundry rooms, and changed the vendor and management of its janitorial services. :quality(60)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/IGGYGYZCS5EY7MJJC4R4IEKDCI.jpg) Cheyney President Aaron A. Walton, a retired executive from health insurer Highmark, was tapped to turn around the school. “This is a state-owned institution, and it’s established by the legislature. I can’t change anything and neither can they.” Aaron A. Walton But the state system dismissed allegations of discrimination, contending that over the last nine years, Cheyney’s per student funding has been at least double that of the former Mansfield University (now part of Commonwealth University), which had the next-highest per pupil funding of its schools. Also, it said, Cheyney has received the second-highest capital allocation for more than a quarter-century. The system said it found “no evidence to support the allegation” that the board of governors, Greenstein, and Walton “are engaging in practices that disparately impact students at Cheyney University based upon their race.” The complaint also was filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which declined to launch a separate review, noting that it already is monitoring Cheyney under an agreement the state system entered in 1999 following prior discrimination complaints. The system promised to improve facilities and academic programs and ensure they are comparable to those of the predominantly white universities. The civil rights office conducted a monitoring visit of Cheyney’s campus last January and talked with some of those who signed the complaint, but did not respond to a request for comment on its findings. Many of the alumni who spoke to The Inquirer about the need for change are former football players and graduates from the 1970s, Cheyney’s heyday. Enrollment was in the thousands, not the hundreds; there was a football team, orchestra and band, and dozens of student organizations and majors, they recalled. President Jimmy Carter spoke at commencement in 1979, and Muhammad Ali visited the campus. “I want other young African Americans to experience what I did,” said Anderson, “to come out of those neighborhoods and have those same type of relationships that I did.” But Walton was dismissive of the group’s proposal. “This is a state-owned institution, and it’s established by the legislature,” Walton said. “I can’t change anything and neither can they.” Greenstein, chancellor of the system, said that if the federal government offered to fund the school, it would be time to have a conversation. Until then, Greenstein and Walton say, they have put the university on a realistic path for success that has shown results: The school no longer faces an accreditation threat, has finished with a balanced budget the last four years, has grown to more than 700 students from a low of 469 a few years ago, and increased student retention. Walton is emphasizing lucrative career paths for students, an increase in the number of students in STEM majors from 8% of the enrollment to nearly a quarter, and establishment of partnerships that lead to internships, while leveraging Cheyney’s land and buildings to raise revenue. “What he is doing is incredibly innovative,” Greenstein said. But small universities, such as Cheyney, face challenges because of their size, he said. “You can have as much as you can afford based on the number of students you have,” he said. “They are just not going to look like Ohio State.” Verron Hayspell, president of Cheyney’s alumni association, declined to comment on the proposal to transfer Cheyney to the federal government because he’s unsure how it would work. A former football player for the school, he, too, hopes the team can return and that enrollment will rebound, but said he generally likes the school’s direction and supports the partnerships that Walton is creating. “Everything takes time,” said Hayspell, a 1996 graduate who works as a consultant in the Philadelphia area. “We’ll see how things are two or three years from now.” But to students who filed the complaint, the institutional response has been inadequate. “I’m not going to say there is no progress, but it is very minuscule,” said Autumn Mitchell, a 2023 graduate from Drexel Hill and former president of the school’s NAACP chapter. SOURCE The Philadelphia Inquirer Available at https://www.inquirer.com/education/inq2/ch... If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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