Email Article

Printable Page

Students Unable to Find a White Leader

By Ashley Northington
Black College Wire

Charles Manning, the Tennessee Board of Regents chancellor, asked Chauncey Davis, Student Government Association president at Tennessee State University, to find a white student leader to sit on the search committee seeking a new university president.

Photo credit: The Meter Chauncey Davis, Tennessee State student government president, said white students would be kept informed on the presidential search.

But Davis was unable to fulfill the chancellor’s request. Instead, she chose William Busch III, the SGA speaker of the house.

“He asked for me to find a white student from the House of Delegates to serve on the committee,” Davis said. “Currently, there are no white students in the House of Delegates or in any of the branches of government.”

Mary Morgan, director of communications for the board of regents, said the chancellor’s request was typical because the board wants student representatives to reflect the diversity on campus, regardless of the institution. Manning was unavailable for comment.

With more than 90 organizations on the Tennessee State campus, there are no white student leaders. However, Mark Gunter, director of minority student affairs, serves as mentor to minority students as well as an adviser to Campus Kaleidoscope, an organization that is not racially identifiable but reaches toward non-black students.

“A lot of white students don’t live on campus,” said Ashley Goins, a senior from Murfreesboro, Tenn., who is majoring in nursing. “We just come here to go to school. A lot of us don’t have time to get involved.”

Davis said one of her goals is to inform students that they have the right to attend any SGA meeting. She said she is looking for a way to make sure that every student is involved in student government and campus organizations.

“[S]ome people don’t feel comfortable like they won’t be accepted,” said minority student Gloria Hoch, a sophomore from McMinnville, Tenn., majoring in psychology. “They really should go to the organizations they are interested in and ask questions.”

Morgan said that typically, at other Board of Regents institutions, students in the minority receive mentoring from a faculty or staff member of the same race to encourage the student to become involved in campus activities.

“People need to realize that this is a predominately black institution,” said Nathaniel Booker, a freshman from Chicago majoring in political science. “No matter what, there are only going to be black leaders.”

University President James Hefner announced in the spring that he would retire May 31 after 14 years on the job, making the decision after two state audits questioned his fiscal management and ethics.

Davis said that regardless of who is on the search committee, she would do her best to ensure that all students are well-informed about the progress of the search.

The committee is made up of board of regents members, Tennessee State faculty, administration representatives, the Tennessee State national alumni president and business and other community leaders.

Ashley Northington is a student at Tennessee State University who is editor in chief of The Meter. She can be reached at [email protected].

Posted Oct. 25, 2004