November 3rd, during the Student Government Association meeting, I asked President Ransdell what the university administration plans to implement to address the needs of a number of students who feel that Western’s campus can improve in the realm of making students of color feel welcome. When posed with this question, Ransdell began referring to South Campus, and explaining the “task force on quality” and its objective post-Oct 22, 2008 and stated “this is not a black/white thing.” He said that due to the disrespect that those students displayed toward each other and their own opportunity at higher education, the task force is one of those “quality variables” put in place to better our campus community. But, I responded, “How can you correlate keeping low GPA students from the opportunity at higher education with achieving a safer WKU (especially since some students who were involved in that incident last year still roam around Western)? If they’re smart enough to make it here, what makes you think they can be defined by low academic performance?” (Conversely, that would/has lead many to assume that black students with low GPAs are more likely to commit acts of aggression while at Western). Before I could finish my remarks, Ransdell put his head down and back up again with an embarrassed chuckle. I was glad to see it, because at least now we can stop ignoring the corner we’ve gotten ourselves into with this line of thinking.

This is a tough matter to address. The truth is, you can’t equate a low entry GPA with a potential thug. And you certainly will be punishing students who enter Western via the South Campus by afflicting them with the already existing stigma of “not good enough to attend the main campus.” Indeed, this shouldn’t be considered a black/white issue, but we can’t ignore that whenever discussing how We the SGA … or We the administration … are going to address … with students of color — ”We” will undeniably start with PFT and/or South Campus.

It’s not about intentions now, it’s about that place the popular mind goes when We the Western Community have black students on the brain. Retention for first-year Kentucky resident (black) students isn’t where the administration would like it to be. Also lacking are the numbers for (black) Kentucky resident graduate student enrollment.

While the administration struggles to find a way to keep black student interest and college success up, this year saw the loss of one of Western’s most influential black professors, Dr. Nancy J. Dawson, a professor who gave so much to Western’s African American Studies program. How can the administration accommodate students of color in realizing their potential at Western? We certainly have a starting list of obvious things that shouldn’t be done to reach this goal: 1. Perpetuate the stigma that students (of color) who live in PFT and attend classes held at South Campus are inferior to main campus students (through “task force” criterion), 2. Work to create a comfortable home-base for students of color where they can go for support (not unlike the Women’s Studies Center or even the International Center), 3. Perhaps retain the few inspirational and accessible black professors that actually reach (black) students and offer some apparently much needed support.

This commentary does not represent the views of the Herald or the university.