How St. Aug's, Shaw can thrive (and tell Duke to take its DEI and shove it.)

It’s understandable that alumni of both St. Augustine’s and Shaw universities are aghast at the prospect of merging the two financially struggling schools.

Birthed almost before the smoke from the Civil War had cleared to educate the formerly enslaved and their descendants, both schools have sent forth into the world illustrious alumni whose names and accomplishments resonate far beyond North Carolina.

They’re equally important, though, as incubators for those whose names will seldom make the newspapers or be in lights, but who sally forth and make their mark on the world one state, city or community at a time.

Although I only attended St. Aug’s for about long enough to eat lunch – I transferred after one semester after the dastardly coach Harvey Heartless cut me from the basketball team – my love for the place is immeasurable.

Having left Rockingham as green as an ear of unshucked corn, I - without the boost received during that one semester – would probably be the person asking if you want fries with that shake.

Trust me: you do not want me messing around with your fries. Or shake.

Both HBCUs have legacies and futures that deserve preserving and ensuring, but both also face a daunting reality: small, private schools around the country are shuttering their doors faster than one can say “boola boola.”

In a letter to St. Aug’s alumni, board of trustees chairman Brian Boulware wrote that two Triangle business titans demanded during a February dinner that the schools merge because they covet that business-fertile acreage upon which Shaw sits.

After reading that letter, alumni were justifiably incensed. I was ready to join them in storming the Bastille – figuratively: it’s too hot right now to be storming anything – and hardening resistance to any merger.

But then I spoke separately to two people who attended the dinner at which the schools were purportedly ordered to merge for the benefit of downtown business interests. Both are too gentlemanly to say that Boulware lied about what transpired at the dinner, but both also said he "misrepresented" their conversation. Boulware, according to their account, came in itching for a fight, kicking off the proceedings by saying, in essence, if you came here to suggest a merger, you're wasting your time.

They denied that any such orders were given, while acknowledging that they offered to hire a consultant to study ways the schools could work together, including a possible merger.

Brian Boulware, chairman of St. Aug's Board of Trustees, said two business titans demanded that the schools merge. They denied it.

Proud alumni, I get it: you fear losing your schools’ legacies and traditions if they merge.

But check this out, yo: We will probably lose the schools if they don’t.

While neither school should stand for being bullied into merging, nothing that increases their chances of survival should be off the table – and merging looks like the best option.

And what a great time for it!

St. Augustine's recently had its accreditation restored. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges stripped its accreditation last year, citing - among other things, compliance issues related to its governing board and institutional finances.

Having its accreditation restored, even if it means the school is still on probation, is a much-needed shot of positive news for the school and makes it an even more attractive dance partner for Shaw as they Electric Slide into the future.

That good news is right on time, since each day’s newspaper seemingly has a fresh story about Diversity Equity and Inclusion programs at predominantly white institutions being dismantled by conservatives. (I’m guessing these are the descendants of the people who, four years after the Civil War, complained that too much was being done for the formerly enslaved.)

The Washington Post just ran a story about universities nationwide abandoning programs that were designed to provide opportunities to those who've historically been denied them. Duke University, the story said, “recently discontinued a 45-year-old scholarship that covered tuition… and housing costs of some Black undergraduate students.”

Despair not, though, for there’s encouraging news, too. A recent $1 billion dollar donation to the John Hopkins University that will make tuition free for nearly all of its medical school students provides a blueprint for how Shaw and St. Aug’s can thrive, not just survive.

Even my untrained eye can see that Shaw’s property is worth in the neighborhood of $1 billion. That's a pretty good neighborhood.

Were Shaw to sell from its current position of strength, we could witness the beginning of a second Reconstruction.

With a huge endowment off the rip, the merged schools could give birth to a super-HBCU, and St. Shawgustine’s leaders wouldn’t have to go hat-in-hand seeking help from anyone for anything.

There’s a business maxim that money attracts money, and with anywhere near a billion simoleons, the new, merged entity could attract more money. It could then attract the best professors and the best students, while continuing to send forth into the world generations of learned, committed graduates who make their mark on the world.

They could also tell Duke and those other schools what they can do with their DEI programs. Respectfully, of course, since they'd likely be working together.

Legacy?

There – more than any buildings or land - is your legacy right there, alumni.