Liberals should go after Clintons, not Trump
Unless someone can readily show me where any Russian election meddling has changed any vote – by deletion, addition or otherwise – it follows that the Russian effort is nothing more than that of a high-profile lobbyist. If the liberal press wanted a real meddling situation, why don’t they go after the Clintons and the Uranium One fiasco? The FBI never prosecuted this situation because I believe Robert Mueller was then director of the FBI. Who knows what laws were possibly broken?
LARRY SHUMAN, DOUGLASVILLE
HBCU report misleading, lacked context
To read the AJC articles about historically black colleges, you would think that HBCUs are a lost cause. But much of the information presented is misleading and the most important facts about HBCUs have been omitted altogether. The articles lament the graduation rate of 20 percent or below at HBCUs, but they neglect to point out that only 20 percent of all HBCUs have that rate, which is no different from the percentage of colleges in general that experience low degree completion rates.
Spelman’s outcomes are particularly impressive. We produce more Black women who complete Ph.D.s in STEM fields than any other college or university in the country. The AJC articles compare Spelman’s graduation rates with Georgia State and the University of Georgia, but fail to point out that our graduation rate for Black women exceeds the graduation rate for Black women nationally, the graduation rate for Black women at liberal arts colleges in general, and the graduation rate for Black women at women’s colleges.
One last observation: The anecdote about the student who chose Georgia Tech suggests that students are losing interest in Spelman. The numbers tell a very different story. In the past three years, applications to Spelman have gone from 5,000 to close to 9,000. We welcome a visit.
MARY SCHMIDT CAMPBELL, PRESIDENT, SPELMAN COLLEGE, ATLANTA
Low grad rates not only an HBCU problem
In reading “Perilous Times for Our Black Colleges”, (News, Feb. 4), I found it partially misleading to compare the graduation rates of HBCU’s to majority white universities.
Yes, graduation numbers are unfortunately low for HBCUs, but this article failed to mention that the graduation rate of African-American students at majority-white universities is equally, disappointingly low. According to U.S. News and World Report, only 38 percent of African American students will graduate from majority-white universities in six years or less.
Suggesting the graduation rates at HBCU’s are a reflection of these institutions’ failings is misleading. Low graduation rates reflect the disadvantaged socioeconomic background of many black college students in our nation. Any HBCU will tell you that college funding is the No. 1 reason students do not graduate. What is sad is the overwhelming resources white universities have in comparison to most black colleges and yet their black student graduation rate is only slightly higher.
As a proud graduate of both Morehouse College and Morehouse School of Religion at ITC, I would have liked to read more about state funding discrimination and the impact of systemic racism in undermining our HBCU’s.
REV. CHRISTOPHER J. WATERS, AUGUSTA
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