JANS – As a prelude to National HBCU Week Sept. 15, a group of educators from Historically Black Colleges and Universities held a workshop on the Utica Campus to discuss establishing a platform for exchanging ideas and building relationships leading to retaining more college-bound students in Mississippi.
“We would like to bring state leadership to the table and have a genuine conversation about what it will look like at the community college level and what will it look like at the university level…how can we create pathways to promote our institutions to our students and let them know that they can transition to places like Valley, Jackson State, Alcorn, Tougaloo, Rust,” said Jonathan Townes, Vice President, Hinds Community College Instruction-Career and Technical Education.
“It’s going to take all of us to continue moving the needle forward for our students. It will take all of us working together, all HBCUs in the region and all HBCUs in the state of Mississippi,” said Townes. Hinds Community College President Dr. Stephen Vacik was there to support the collaboration.
“We are a minority serving institution, and we are a Predominantly Black Institution as well, with a 55% Black student population, 40% Caucasian, and five percent other. We may not be an HBCU but we know who we are serving at Hinds. And because all of our numbers are so limited as higher ed institutions, we tend to fight over students. But we don’t want to fight over student populations, we want to work with you and make sure our students are getting to the institutions and the programs that will best help them reach their purpose and their passion,” Dr. Vacik said.
The group discussed having more comprehensive agreements for HBCU students such as making academic transfers a more fluid process, and there was also discussion of dual enrollment scenarios, and cross-resourcing things such as certifications that are required with some of the bachelor of applied science degrees being made available to them at Hinds. An example would be OSHA certifications, Commercial Driver’s License and CPR certification, among others.
Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs, Josiah J. Sampson, Ph.D., of Tougaloo College agreed with Dr. Vacik and centered on trying to meet students along the pathway of their educational journeys.
“The more we engage in a unified movement, giving the student the information they need, resourcing all of us, and all of us having some differences in what we offer, this would make it better for our students. When a student comes to Hinds or to Utica, and if they already know what they want to study, we can reassure them all the while that they are here, that we are here for them when they finish at Hinds. We are here to help them make that transition,” said Dr. Sampson.
