Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black educational institution in Texas, has announced that it has formulated a new mission statement to better identify its core values. The change was made after a two-year review process that involved students, faculty, staff, alumni, and other supporters of the university.
The text of the new mission statement is as follows:
“Prairie View A&M University is a state-assisted, public, comprehensive land grant institution of higher education. The university was designated in a 1984 amendment to the Texas Constitution as an ‘institution of the first class.’ It is dedicated to achieving excellence and relevance in teaching, research, and service. It seeks to invest in programs and services that address issues and challenges affecting the diverse ethnic and socioeconomic population of Texas and the larger society including the global arena. The university seeks to provide a high quality educational experience for students who, upon completion of bachelors, masters, or doctorate degrees, possess self-sufficiency and professional competence. The experience is imbued by the institution’s values including, but not limited to, access and quality, accountability, diversity, leadership, relevance, and social responsibility.”
It’s utterly amazing that an HBCU refuses to include the word Black or even African-American within the context of its university “Mission Statement”. In other words, this is a clear indication that Prairie View A&M University is attempting to be “all things to all people” while it indirectly neglects its own. In fairness to Prairie View A&M University, many other so-called HBCUs are following a similar course of action within the framework in their respective “Mission Statements”.
One of the main drivers behind this inverted thinking by too many of these so-called HBCU administrators’ is their blind support of neoliberalism and multiculturalism paradigm. Too bad within the threads of “multiculturalism” that is doesn’t include native born Blacks, but, everybody else. Over the course of time, HBCUs will become nothing more than mini-HWCUs or satellite campuses for the nearby HWCUs.
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To me this is absolute nonsense. Why would an HBCU neglect to consider using the words “Black” and “African American” specifically in their mission statements. They stand for Historically Black Colleges and Universities but this does not mean that the predominately Black presence of these schools should be history. This cowardly habit will not only make the lives of younger generations of Black Americans tougher, its a slap in the face to the Black educators who worked their butts off to ensure that Black Americans(specifically) and Africans studying in this country had a pathway to higher education because they new that whites, Hispanics, Asians and others generally could get away with attending PWIs with much less issue than black people could. I personally believe that extensions of the Obama administration have much to do with the steady dissipation of these beloved institutions; that and the weak-willed administrators who subscribe to this nonsense. Shame on you guys.