Jackson State University in Mississippi has announced that it will begin enrolling students at its new campus in Madison as early as this summer. The university has leased a 8,600-square-foot facility in Madison for 10 years and has an option to renew the lease for two other five-year periods. The new Madison campus will concentrate on nontraditional students who want to take evening and weekend classes.
The city of Madison, approximately 15 miles north of Jackson, is predominantly White and the university hopes that the location will help it obtain a threshold where more than 10 percent of its student body is non-Black. The university needs to show non-Black enrollment of 10 percent or more to gain control of a $70 million endowment that was part of the settlement of the Ayers higher education desegregation case.
