DATE: Thursday, November 20, 1997           TAG: 9711200030

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   50 lines

HIGHER EDUCATION

The recent decision of the State Council of Higher Education to deep-six a proposed African-American Studies major at Virginia Commonwealth University is cause for concern.

The problem is not the demise of a specific program. VCU can doubtless flourish without this particular major. It is, rather, the fear that the council is launching into the micromanagement of curriculum issues in higher education - or, even worse, is willing to set policy based on the pet peeves of individual members.

Opposition to the bachelor's degree in African-American Studies began with the board's lone black member, Jeff Brown, who is a buyer for Circuit City Stores in Richmond. Brown complained that the program would be racially divisive, was being structured with a liberal bias and would not lead directly to employment.

VCU countered that the major - which required only the addition of three courses and one faculty member - would help fulfill its mission as an urban university with one of the state's largest minority enrollments.

Officials noted that current courses are being taught without any escalation in racial tensions. And they pointed out that if direct access to jobs were the measure of academic merit, then disciplines from geography to history to economics would have to be reconsidered.

Such arguments were persuasive to the council's staff and to a subcommittee that voted 2-1 in favor of adopting the major.

Usually, such support would suffice. Traditionally, the council has given colleges wide latitude to assess the programatic needs and desires of their students. Approval by staff of the Higher Education Council usually cements the deal.

But for the first time in two years, the council overrode its staff's recommendation on a new academic program. By the time of the final vote, some of the emphasis had shifted.

``This Council should send a message: Restructuring is not over; get rid of marginal programs,'' said one council member in voting against the plan.

Fine. But there is no evidence that the council is rigorously pursuing a new policy with a clear set of guidelines as to what makes a major acceptable or unacceptable, which programs are marginal and which mainstream. Instead, it appears that in this case a major was rejected because a specific council member had ideological differences with its thrust.

The State Council of Higher Education ought not to be making decisions on those grounds. A council that last year fired its longtime director, the highly regarded Gordon Davies, and has suffered the departure of most of its senior staff is already suspected of putting ideology ahead of education.

This episode does nothing to inspire confidence.

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