wfn.org | United Methodist university plans exchanges with black colleges

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 19, 2000   News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville,
Tenn. 10-31-71B{281}

By United Methodist News Service

A United Methodist-related university in the North will jump start efforts
to establish a closer relationship with the denomination's historically
black colleges in the South when it begins student exchanges in the next
academic year.

Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minn., has signed agreements with four
historically black colleges to enhance academic and cultural development for
students. Within the last year, Hamline has re-established a connection with
Huston-Tillotson College in Austin, Texas. It also has developed
relationships with Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Dillard University
in New Orleans, Rust College in Holly Springs, Miss., and Bethune-Cookman
College in Daytona Beach, Fla. The exchanges will be during the 2000-2001
academic year.

The idea for the student exchanges came from Phillip W. Miner, Hamline's
assistant vice president of university relations. 

"I want to establish a closer relationship with our sister schools via the
idea of a student exchange," Miner said.  

Although the 146-year-old university has direct exchange relationships with
schools from around the world and the country, the move to engage in a
direct and deliberate effort to link with the black schools of the United
Methodist Church is new, he said. The church has 11 historically black
colleges and universities.

Miner's interest in the student exchange is twofold: linking the colleges
and "giving Hamline's student the opportunity to experience the context of
learning in a black school," he said. 

While the content of learning at the black colleges and at Hamline is the
same, the context of learning at black colleges is different, Miner said.
"The difference is a positive and a plus." 

Too few opportunities exist for people to see African Americans at their
best daily, and historically black colleges and universities give that, he
said. "Outside of the black college setting, you wouldn't see many blacks
with doctorate degrees together in one room." 

Miner stressed the importance of all students having an opportunity to
experience the context of learning that happens in black colleges.  

"I do not question at all whether the content of learning at the black
schools is as good or if not in some instances indeed better," he said. The
exchange is for students who are white, black or from other racial
minorities.

"Until they have experienced the context of learning that happens at our
black schools, folk will never understand or appreciate to its fullest level
the quality and the compassion of African-American educators and scholars,"
he said. "The more people who can experience the exchange and take part in
it, I know that the world can change, one exchange student at a time." 

The world will be changed because the students will return to their home
campuses clearly aware that talent comes in all colors and in both genders,
he said.

"Until people can more freely associate academic excellence and quality with
African Americans, and our schools and students, we will not move to a point
where a real sense of equality exists in this country. But through these
kinds of experiences, that reality of excellence being common among all
people will become commonplace."

The exchange offers students the opportunity to study in an alternative
academic environment, and it offers those who come to Hamline an awareness
and exposure to graduate and professional career opportunities both at the
school and within the St. Paul area. 

"We want to see this exchange result in more of the black students from the
historically black institutions looking at doing their graduate and
professional study here and then staying in the Twin Cities for their
professional careers," Miner said. "We want them to see that this would be a
great place to grow their careers and their lives."

The key to the agreement between Hamline and the historically black colleges
and universities is "my commitment not to raid the black schools in order to
pad Hamline's black student enrollment," Miner said, "but rather to offer a
really substantive and meaningful experience for all student participants."

Exchange participants will see differences and similarities at the schools.
Miner said the climate or culture in the upper Midwest is different from
what one would find in many of the cities where the black colleges are
located. "Our students - both those who come here and those who go there --
are going to be in a position to experience a different way of living or a
different approach to life," he said, but "you will find that people care
about you in both places."

Collectively, an exchange can support the personal, cultural and academic
development of the students, which can have spin-off benefits for the
schools involved, he said. Such a benefit to Hamline, and particularly to
those institutions that have graduate degree options, would "potentially
increase post-baccalaureate enrollment and enable us to assist one another
in our efforts to recruit faculty and staff," he said.

During spring break, 55 Hamline students participated in three
service-learning options with Clark Atlanta University, Dillard University
and Rust College. The groundbreaking trips were the first student-to-student
connections between Hamline and sister United Methodist historically black
institutions. The trips gave students an alternative way to spend bring
break, and Hamline's students worked beside those from the black colleges to
explore civil rights and education, environmental rights, race relations,
homelessness and urban and peace issues.

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United Methodist News Service
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