JACKSON - Viewers of the latest television commercials for Mississippi Valley State University would be hard-pressed to recognize that the tiny campus tucked in the expansive Delta farm country is a historically black school.
The marketing approach that depicts white students on campus has raised eyebrows among some in the predominantly black region. But for Valley - and Mississippi's other two publicly funded historically black universities - finding ways to attract non-black students is vital to securing millions of dollars in funding for scholarships, programs and other enhancements.
Unlike college desegregation lawsuits in neighboring Louisiana and Alabama, a court-approved settlement of Mississippi's long-running case imposed the non-black enrollment goals.
"Some viewers have said, 'You all make Valley look like it's all white,"' Roy Hudson, Valley's vice president of university relations, said of the ads. "It has not been a historical trend for white students to go to previously all-black schools. You've got to reverse patterns that have been ingrained for years."
Alcorn State University, in southwest Mississippi, has met the requirement of maintaining 10 percent non-black enrollment for three consecutive years. Jackson State University and Valley have not.
The three institutions are among 105 in the nation considered historically black colleges and universities. The schools, legacies of slavery and segregation, remain educational enclaves for young blacks, drawn there by tradition or a desire to learn more about their culture.
Mississippi was among 19 states, primarily in the South, that were accused in lawsuits of operating racially segregated systems of higher education decades ago. Mississippi's 29-year-old case ended in October when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal.
As part of a $504 million settlement that's to be paid over 17 years, the black universities are entitled to a $70 million endowment if they increase other-race enrollment. The endowment has yet to be funded by the state Legislature.
To get the numbers, the universities recruit foreign students and athletes, offer diversity scholarships and hire staff with the sole responsibility of attracting non-black students.
There's nothing wrong with diversifying the campuses, Hudson says. The problem, at least at Valley, is that there's not enough money to go around.
For the past three years, the black universities have received state funding for diversity scholarships. The first year it was $300,000 each. The last it was about $150,000. The figure fluctuates because it is generated from interest on a state fund.
Interim Higher Education Commissioner Richard Croft says what makes the non-black enrollment goal different than a quota system is that "this is about building and academic program development."
Alvin Chambliss, the attorney who represented a group of plaintiffs opposed to the state settlement, calls the requirement "a sham."
"Offering other-race scholarships to induce people to enter your universities does not upgrade the quality of the universities. It does nothing for libraries, accreditation and programs to attract leading faculty from the leading universities," Chambliss said.
Jim Blacksher has a different perspective.
"It's fair to look at it that way, but you have to consider too that's it's one of the prices the HBCUs have to pay to get the other advantages," said Blacksher, the plaintiffs' attorney in Alabama's college desegregation case.
Blacksher said there was never a settlement in Alabama, only a series of court orders, and none set an other-race enrollment requirement at Alabama State University and Alabama A&M.
"The HBCUs in Mississippi, just like the HBCUs all over the South, have institutional cultures that are very difficult to turn around," he said.
Tennessee once set other-race enrollment goals at its public universities, but reversed the decision in a 2001 consent decree.
"Instead, we decided to focus on implementing specific programs that if successfully implemented would result in the increase of other-race students," said Wendy Thompson, special assistant to the chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents.
"Just setting a goal in isolation doesn't necessarily mean that you will make it. We wanted to set a foundation for the increase."
Alcorn State spokesman Christopher Cason said the other-race goal hasn't been a burden for the 3,400-student university with campuses in Lorman, Vicksburg and Natchez.
Cason said Russian students have bolstered numbers at Alcorn, where 29 are currently on campus.
In addition, Alcorn's nursing and master's of business administration degrees offered at its Natchez campus have attracted other-race, nontraditional students, such as Lillie DeShields, a 58-year-old white woman.
DeShields, who's attending Alcorn on a diversity scholarship, says she never considered Alcorn's image as a black school.
"I just decided that Alcorn's program was here and it was such a good program, I would avail myself to it," she said.
Alcorn has maintained a 10 percent non-black enrollment for three consecutive years, Cason said.
"We've also dispelled the myth that it would be difficult to attract that kind of diversity to rural Mississippi, and we've proven them resoundingly wrong," Cason said.
It hasn't been as easy at Jackson State, says longtime recruiter Steve Walker.
Located in the state's capital city, Jackson State has a student population of 7,780. Its non-black enrollment is between 8 percent and 9 percent.
Still, Walker says the social attitude toward historically black universities has improved since he first started recruiting in the 1970s.
"Back in those days, white students and their parents would scoff at my table," Walker said. "Now, both the parent and the student stop to see what we have to offer, and some follow up."
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