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Department of Library Special Collections
University Archives
Council on Higher Education Checks Affirmative Action Goals
Citation: Lega, Stephen. "CHE Checks Affirmative Action Goals," College Heights Herald, August 22, 1996. The College Heights Herald is a student publication and copies are available to researchers in University Archives record group 37.
The plan Kentucky established to increase opportunities for minority students expired last year.The Council on Higher Education is now moving forward on a new plan.
At the same time, CHE reports indicate many state universities are still a few steps behind.
The CHE Committee on Equal Opportunities met yesterday in Frankfort to discuss possible revisions in the Kentucky Plan for Equal Opportunities in Higher Education.
The plan set objectives for each state college and university in regard to black students from Kentucky, according to the CHE's annual evaluation report of the plan.
In May 1990, the CHE approved the plan for the time period from 1990-1995. Gary Cox, CHE executive director, said the CHE will continue using the old plan until a new one is approved.
The old plan
had three objectives:
The plan
"exclusively addresses the status of the Kentucky resident African-American
students in comparison to the status of Kentucky resident white students,"
the report stated.
Meredith
said this is one of the flaws in the 1990 plan.
For example,
he said black students who come to Western from Tennessee or Indiana do
not factor into the CHE's evaluation of Western's progress.
"We think
it should be looked at in different ways," Meredith said.
Cox said
the committee that has final approval of the plan heard some of those
recommendations yesterday.
Meredith,
who was on his way to the funeral of Jim Wayne Miller, a former Western
professor said the issue was too complicated to get into yesterday.
"Now it's
time to determine if we're going to have another plan," he said. "If so,
what is that plan going to look like?"
There were
eight areas in which state universities were evaluated under the 1990
plan.
According
to the report, Western averaged a 36 percent progress rate in the eight
categories.
The average
rate of progress for all state universities was 90 percent.
According
to the report, Western made the most progress (222 percent) toward increasing
the number and proportion of black faculty employed by the institutions.
This was
the only area in which Western progressed more than 50 percent.
In four areas,
Western took a step in the opposite direction.
The lowest
progress rate (27 percent) was in the area of graduate enrollments, the
report stated.
Meredith
said Kentucky has been a national leader on Affirmative Action, but the
standards set by the CHE make it appear as if state schools are coming
up short.
Two of the
eight state universities had average progress rates higher than 100 percent
- Northern Kentucky University (200 percent) and Murray State University
(131 percent).
No other
school progressed more than 85 percent toward its overall goals, according
to the report.
Cox said
the CHE will be holding four public hearings on a plan for the next five
years.
He said the
closest one to Bowling Green would be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the
auditorium of Hopkinsville's community college.
Cox said
Kentucky citizens, CHE staff members and representatives of the state
universities will have a role in developing the new plan.
University
Attorney Deborah Wilkins said she is in a group that can make recommendations
about the plan.
"We really
haven't come to any conclusions," she said.
See
also - Minorities at WKU Bibliography
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