Restructuring Reconstruction: A Sociohistorical Perspectiveon a Digital Curriculum Initiative within a Southern

Historically Black College or University (HBCU)

“We seldom study the condition of the Negro to-day honestlyand carefully. It is so much easier to assume that we knowit all. Or perhaps, having already reached conclusions inour own minds we are loth to have them disturbed by facts”

(Du Bois 1903)

“Higher education in the South during the early years wasinseparably intertwined with the personalities of presidentswho headed the respective institutions of higher learning”

(Neyland, Those Who Tresspass, “Introduction” v)

Historically blacks colleges and universities (HBCUs)

are unique sites of education and led by administrators who

are equally unique. According to Gasman et al., “Leadership

at HBCUs is a current and vital topic in higher education”

(43). The level of collaboration and foresight required to

traverse the many challenges surrounding these institutions

recognition and admiration, yet it is often met with closed

hands, zipped pockets, and excessive criticism. Constantly

trying to equip their students with an education, Black

people often perceived education as liberation: “a promised

land where black people are seen as fully human by whites—

1

even by the racist whites who first consigned blacks to the

status of subhuman slaves” (Williams, “Forward,” xiii).

Unfortunately, the challenges that HBCU presidents

traditionally encounter and continue to face stem from

systemic injustices. As Charles V. Willie, Richard J.

Reddick, and Ronald Brown quote the Negro spiritual, “Nobody

Knows,” they compare the plight of a president of a Black

college to the message of the song. Interestingly enough,

the plight of the president of a Black college has not

changed drastically since the first black college opened.

Since the overt campaign to close HBCUs began in the 1970s

(Willie, Reddick, & Brown 18), financial woes,

understaffing, budget cuts, and underpaying seem to be as

much a part of the black college experience as the targeted

population.

Some prevailing attitudes among HBCU suggest that these

institutions are far removed from the foundational, polemic

nineteenth century debate between Booker T. Washington and

W. E. B. DuBois concerning the appropriate direction for the

2

black race. Washington, a former enslaved African

privileged physical labor; as a result, his vocational

curriculum mirrored his work ethic. DuBois’s liberal arts

education arguably was an outgrowth of his personal academic

advancements (Willie, Reddick, & Brown 19); however, this

resolve might be more accurate in theory than in practice.

Juan Williams and Dwayne Ashley, with Shawn Rhea, highlight

the resilience of these institutions: “Despite many

obstacles facing black institutions of higher learning, 83

of the 108 HBCUs in existence today opened their doors by

the turn of the century” (75). African Americans were

legally prohibited from participating in and significantly

influencing the political processes which brought adequate

appropriations from state legislatures, their survival was

dependent mainly upon the ability of the presidents of these

institutions to persuade the legislatures to give support to

their causes” (Neyland V).

This research project is an attempt to unpack the

“facts” concerning the integral ways the formative

3

presidents, namely President Young, had radical visions for

the State Normal and Industrial College for Colored

Students, now known as Florida Agricultural and Mechanical

University (FAMU), and the surrounding community grounded in

literacy. By understanding the university’s leadership, one

can gain a greater insight into its founding vision while

gauging the relevance or necessity for upholding this vision

for the future. Thus, the question remains: How will HBCUs

survive the evolution of education in the new millennium?

Some HBCU presidents address this question with a greater

emphasis on developing a greater digital presence, a network

of HBCUs, HBCUsonline.com, which anticipates providing an

educational experience equivalent to each HBCUs geographical

location in the digital interface. FAMU’s President, Dr.

James H. Ammons, is making the push for distance learning in

his new millennium initiative.

Prior to the launch of its new distance learning

initiative, President Ammons, (2011 FAMU), proposed a plan

that, as he terms it, is a “paradigm shift” (website): he

4

plans to focus on science, technology, engineering, and

mathematics (STEM) programs. As a result, Ammons has had to

restructure the University to maintain its existence and

secure its growth over the next ten years, which ultimately

results in significant budget cuts and programmatic changes

(FAMU web). To his credit, Ammons has spent most of his

three years in office attempting to assuage the impact of

these cuts, resulting in cutting approximately 200 jobs—

including faculty positions, When he initially called for

meetings to address the state of affairs with all of its on

campus constituents within his first year in office, Ammons

eagerly accepted suggestions from employees, students, and

staff, yet he reminded everyone that his plan will be

primarily influenced by the financial condition of the state

of Florida. Yet, his financial woes have not impeded upon

his quest to make the University a competitive institution.

Considering that the founding presidents also placed a

great emphasis on establishing a strong liberal arts program

alongside a strong emphasis on career preparation, this

5

programmatic shift is trickling throughout the university

and into the writing classrooms. There is an influx in

undergraduate students to these institutions. The conflict

lies in the disproportionate influx of new hires or pay

increases for writing instructors. Of the 200 plus faculty

released from their positions, some of these instructors

were teaching three and four freshman writing courses. This

essay does not focus on this primarily, but it is necessary

to consider the current insurgence of online education in

these site-specific spaces and attempt to predict the future

implications on the universities at large. While these

changes are the direct result of the financial crisis in the

state of Florida, they are challenges reminiscent of the

Reconstruction era, a time when black people regardless of

their motivation, were not provided with an equitable

educational experience.

The impetus of this project stemmed from several HBCU

writing center staff’s desire to publish the historical

relationships among African American literacies, its English

6

Department, and the University’s founding presidents in a

special edition, peer-reviewed journal, Reflections: A Journal of

Writing, Service-Learning, and Community Literacy. The initial project

did not survive our rigorous schedules, but with the team’s

permission, I continued pursuing the project. In the end, I

found comparing the University’s recent affiliation with

HBCUsonline.com with its historically traditional curriculum

during the precipice of the Washington-DuBoisian debates to

be more relevant.

Overall, I sustain my assertions that literacy is not

limited to reading and writing and that it most certainly

should not be an English instructor’s or writing enthusiasts

primary focus. In fact, I found that HBCU administrators

provide a case of appropriate concern for enhancing literacy

across the university curriculum. Moreover, a focus on

critical consciousness and lifelong learning permeate

curriculum development in the sciences, mathematics, and

other fields not readily associated with literacy; making

the method of delivery of the highest concern.

7

The Great Debate: Liberal Arts versus Vocational

Over one hundred years ago, W.E.B DuBois engaged in a

controversial discussion concerning the status of the

“Negro” which has outlived its orator. It is important to

note that his educational philosophies still hold fast in

current curriculum developments. Immediately following the

Reconstruction era, DuBois argued for an immediate shift

towards equitable education for African Americans. He, was

a strong proponent of mobilizing African Americans with

equitable educational and political opportunities. His

political contemporary, Booker T. Washington, argued for an

intellectual compromise in educating Black folks per his

1895 speech, “Up from Slavery,” which argued that African

Americans would be satisfied and better served with a

vocational education, as opposed to a liberal arts

education. In time, both scholars agreed that both parties

held valid points that added to the racial uplift of the

Black race, yet their strong leanings—while not valued by

hegemonic society—left a framework by which traditional

8

HBCUs can be understood. While there is a wealth of

scholarship concerning the both DuBois and Washington, their

polemic speeches and writings have traversed into the 21st

century, especially evidenced in schools historically

designed to educate blacks in the U.S.

A close examination of FAMU’s history can provide a

perspective on this debate, as well as the relevance of the

concerns it raises. A brief contextualization of the origins

of historically black institutions is necessary to hedge the

conversation because these intentional educational

communities were forged together by legal segregation and

oppression: historically black colleges and universities

(HBCUs), by their mere existence, are counterculture.

Carmen Kynard and Robert Eddy define HBCUs in terms of

Perry’s definition, stating that these intentional

educational communities traditionally serve as

‘counterhegemonic figured communities’ on the American

educational landscape” (Perry, Steele, and Hilliard 92 qtd.

in Kynard and Eddy W25). In other words, HBCUs, along with

9

Hispanic serving institutions (HSIs) and Tribal Colleges,

have always been identifiable by their unique aims to

prepare students of color for professionalization, being the

“central, primary locus of defining and constructing an

education for racially/economically subordinated students in

the United States (W27). Both M. Christopher Brown II and

Kassie Freeman note Roebuck and Murty’s share perspectives

on HBCUs: “HBCUs, unlike other colleges, are united in a

mission to meet the educational and emotional needs of black

students. They remain the significant academic home for

black faculty members and many black students” (xii). These

facts are significant when considering over a century of

pedagogy that have been in use within these institutions.

HBCUs: My Personal Experience

After spending most of my adult years working and

enrolled in a HBCU, I have observed patterns of behavior

that can be supported by literature about African American

communities as a whole. Students typically understand that

their professors are to be addressed by the title “doctor,”

10

even if it were not the appropriate identifier. Faculty

reserve the right to “close their door”1 and candidly speak

to any of their students about the real world. Faculty and

students often celebrate their university’s legacy, honoring

founding fathers especially during homecoming. Beverly J.

Moss in A Community Text Arises, explains this practice through

her perspective on the African American church and shared

culture knowledge. She explains that “shared cultural

knowledge (or understanding, including norms, ideology, and

artifacts) contributes significantly to the roles and

expectations of participants, intertextual relations, and

just about everything else in this [African American

churches] institution. That is, there are expectations and

1 This is not to say that this level of personal engagement is specific to HBCUs or that all professors on HBCU campusesrespond in this way. I am attempting to depict community practice, which includes community expectations. Unearthing Promise and Potential: Our Nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (2010), by Marybeth Gasman, Valerie Lundy-Wagner, and Tafaya Ransom, provide a literature review of the research conducted over the past thirty years concerning the HBCU environment.

11

shared experiences that dictate ‘the way we act’ and ‘what

we recognize as acceptable behavior…’” (8-9).

Setting A Precedence: The Founding Presidents

President Thomas DeSaille Tucker, the first president

of FAMU, wrote letters and speeches that address many of

these same concerns as it related to the Tallahassee,

Florida—centered university: providing the Black attendees

with a liberal arts education, one that directly opposed the

Hampton-Tuskegee Model, and thus provided blueprint for an

alternative model for Blacks in the university. Though his

biography is elusive, Tucker is generally remembered for

being a proponent of a liberal arts education, which made

him countercultural during a time when educating Blacks in

the South primarily meant teaching them a trade (Anderson

34). The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute became

the programmatic model for systematically instructing

Southern black students in such a way that assuaged most

white people’s fear of empowering formerly enslaved Africans

with what they—the enslaved Africans—wanted most, literacy.

12

Anderson details the passion that freed black people, as a

collective, had for becoming literate citizens. This

institute became the prototype in their “curriculum, values,

and ethos” even though the curriculum was ironically a

juxtaposition of a “Yankee” and former slave’s ideology

(Anderson 33). In essence, General Samuel C. Armstrong, an

American educator, philanthropist, and Booker T.

Washington’s mentor, attempted to ameliorate the notion of

education in the South while desiring to assuage the

cataclysmic retaliation of ingrained racism.

Tucker went on to highlight his philosophy in not only

words but in how he spent the college’s annual budget. For

example, in 1896, he allocated money from the Morrill Fund

into five categories: English Language, $4,320.10;

Agriculture, $2,018.77; Mechanical Arts, $1,790.49;

Economics Science, $1,360; and Mathematics and Natural

Science, $1,250. He invested more money in English language

education because he saw parallels between successful

progression of black people as farmers, masons or welders,

13

as well as scholars in the arts and sciences. This balance

of an industrial and literary prowess, Tucker believed,

would prepare black people to understand the philosophies

that American society and the world was modeled after,

therefore, allowing them to have a better understanding of

various worldviews in comparison to their own (Neyland 54-

55; Neyland and Porter 35; Florida Department, Bi-ennial Report

ending June 30, 1896,125).

While President Nathan Young, the second president,

replaced Tucker, he did not supplant his educational vision.

Instead, he enhanced it by balancing the science component

with his predecessor’s (and his own) passion for the

Classics. President Young also valued strong oral and

written skills, regardless of the field of study. In fact,

one of his biographers, James H. Blow, retells an instance

when Young uses a casual conversation with a student as a

life lesson for him and later, a University lecture. The

student used nonstandard English, and in a non-repudiative

manner, Young used his silence to teach the student how to

14

sharpen his use of Standard English (Blow 9-10). As he

reflected, Young wrote a memo that connected the learning

the student experienced that day to the overall aims of the

university: “Every student in the school should be made to

feel the kind of English he uses in his recitations and

written exercises has much to do with the success or failure

of any particular exercise” (Blow 10).

Some would question whether President Ammons’ new

vision is undoing what these founding presidents

established, however. Ammons is arguably facing a new

crossroads: he has to compete with internet colleges, such

as the University of Phoenix. And, this shift towards a

digital age is already evidenced in the campus lifestyle.

Ammons is recommending a major shift towards distance

learning initiatives (web), but he has already begun

restructuring programs, such as foreign languages and fine

arts, resulting the dismissal of at least eight English

faculty. Considering the University’s goals, not much

different from many other HBCUs for that matter, shifting

15

his platform from supporting liberal arts education might

appear to be counterproductive if he intends to uphold the

founding presidents’ vision. On the other hand, Ammons could

be making the necessary changes that will preserve the

wealth of literacy rooted in the institution while

contributing a new literacy curriculum into the university’s

historical biography. In the end, this research will

hopefully encourage other researchers to provide further

studies concerning HBCU presidents and their roles in

influencing the culture of the University, including how

their ways of knowing is still valued within this academic

space or shifting in new directions, and thus may even

require a different method of analysis.

African American Literacy and HBCUs

This different level of analysis requires a university-

wide uptake of African American literacy. Defining African

American literacy is a slippery task, given the varied

perspectives on its importance and place in academia.

However, when considering the rich literate legacy of HBCUs,

16

namely FAMU, its extended to include literary acts that may

not traditionally subscribe to the traditional definitions

of reading and writing: developing a vision, such as

becoming a social advocate or serving in the Black

community. Jacqueline Jones Royster makes this distinction

in Traces of a Stream, as she championed to bring awareness to

the many “literacy arenas” of African American women on the

nineteenth century. Royster’s observations of these women’s

literate actions foreground our literacy definition: “. . .

African American women present to the world their visions,

values, and desires—with one of those desires . . . being a

desire to inspire advocacy and activism in the interests of

humanity and particularly the African American Community”

(23-24). As it is the foundation of all extended definitions

of the term, this way of understanding is quite necessary

and implicit in the extended versions. These literacy

events are reflective of a community of people who created a

community-driven campaign for “universal education”

(Anderson 4). With an attempt to implement this plan during

Reconstruction, slaves envisioned gaining the ability to 17

read and write as a means of liberation. This ideology was

not a new concept to them; Logan (2008) and other scholars

have indicated that there were other sites of rhetorical

education for enslaved blacks long before they ever were

able to establish a school.

In the U.S., literacy has been measured through census

data; however, the question of accuracy comes to the

forefront of many arguments regarding this measurement

system. For example, in 1787, one hundred years prior to

the founding of The State Normal College for Colored

Students, presently FAMU, the 3/5 Compromise was enacted,

which counted black people as 3/5 of a person for tax and

voting purposes.

Literacy and Black Dialect (AAVE/BVD)

Geneva Smitherman provides an earlier presence of black

dialect dating back to 1619, when “a Dutch vessel landed in

Jamestown with a cargo of twenty Africans” (Smitherman 5).

Since extant records noting the ways in which these Africans

communicated with the Dutch, Smitherman suggests that we 18

examine the patterns within African American communities.

For example, in the 1900 Federal Census (the Twelfth

Census), the total numbers of both black and white

illiterate school age children (10-21 years) are

misrepresented. The reported total of black illiterate

children in Table 57 of that census is reported as 64,816,

and the reported total of white illiterate children is

19,184, which comes to a total of 84,000. The census

reported the total as being 84,285 (74). One could accredit

these conflated numbers to the high rate of human error.

Much of how African Americans spoke and wrote (and

continue to speak and write) is largely informed by an

African worldview (Smitherman 75). Therefore, Geneva

Smitherman’s explanation about how these documents reveal

the impetus of the disparity in the U.S. educational system

was and remains relevant to the current educational system.

Smitherman also questions records, such as the Census,

because they fail to record data from an African American

perspective. The spiritual and material aspects coalesce

19

with this worldview where the spiritual aspect dominates the

secular (75). This unifying of the sacred-secular, as

Smitherman posits, is evident in black colleges and

universities; arguably, the same conflation of the sacred-

secular is ingrained in the FAMU culture. Since FAMU, as did

most of these colleges, received funding and support from

religious organizations (i.e. African Methodist Episcopal,

Baptist), an emphasis on the church has always played a

prominent role in the affairs of the University.

Smitherman also argues that there is little empirical

evidence of the cultivation of this hybrid form of literacy

known within African American communities explaining that it

was not until 1771 that a black person records black speech

patterns and writing. So, the larger question is who

decides what literacy counts? Against the backdrop and

challenges of this era, Smitherman’s research proves how the

mainstream notion of literacy has been used as the standard

language measure for African American literacy: “with such

close linguistic-cultural contact, the influence of the

20

majority culture and language on its minorities is powerful

indeed, and there is great pressure on the minorities to

assimilate and adopt the culture and language of the

majority. However, this pressure to maintain home language

and culture while blending much of the dominant culture is

an attribute that makes black literacy unique. Smitherman

calls it the “push-pull” momentum that, much like W.E.B.

DuBois’s “double consciousness, accounts for the push

towards white culture and the simultaneous pull from it (10-

11).

Other unique unquantifiable black ways of knowing are

rooted within the community involvement. According to an

African purview, “all modes of existence are necessary for

the sustenance of its balance and rhythm” (Smitherman 75).

In other words, many black people draw on this

interdependence upon each other and nature, so “individual

participation is necessary for community survival. Balance

in the community, as in the universe, consists of

maintaining these interdependent relationships” (75).

21

Therefore, many black campuses are spaces that have

intersections between a strong sense of spirituality and a

strong push towards education. They are often deemed

interdependent.

Because there is a rich history of controversy

surrounding literacy, Jacqueline Jones Royster goes to great

lengths to contextualize the need of an alternative way of

studying African American literacy acts. The polemic term,

literacy, has been historically limited to solely meaning

one’s ability to read and write. Sylvia Scribner and Michael

Cole, however, urged scholars to reach for a more nuanced

understanding of literacy in their ethnographic study of the

Vai people. Shirley Brice Heath’s extensive case study

allows us to see that literacy is specific to certain sites,

and Beverly Moss also asserts that “literacy is defined in

context,” thus requiring a more specified study (Moss 4).

This understanding of literacy excludes the multifaceted

ways of knowing evident in African American discourse, as

Royster, Moss, Richardson, Delpit, and other scholars of

22

African American scholars argue. Bishop Walter Ong is one

that privileges literacy as the progression of a more

developed society, oversimplifying “primitive” cultures that

do not always value writing in the same ways or for the same

purposes. This linear and narrow understanding of literacy

problematic because there are cultures, like African

American, that intertwine writing and speech acts.

In A Community Text Arises: A Literate Text and A Literacy Tradition in

African-American Churches, Moss identifies one of the key

problems with privileging one definition of literacy:

This discussion of literacy in composition studies is

not about one’s ability to read and write; that

represents too narrow a definition of literacy. The

discussion is more about the relation between how

language is used and what counts as literacy. Far too

many past and current discussions about African-

Americans’ literacy and language skills paint us in a

negative light (2).

23

She continues to uncover the stigma attached to this

alternate way of knowing, correlating the myths entrenched

in hegemonic society concerning Black communities that

ultimately were reflected in statistical data designed to

hinder scholarship, the Bell Curve discussions for example,

within this community (Moss 2). Moss initiates the “forced

relationships” between home and school literacy (4) by

surveying ethnographic research that repeatedly amplify the

disparity between community literacies or home literacies

among within diverse populations (Moss 3).

Geneva Smitherman broadens the definition of African

American speech acts—the function of literacy-- to include

language and style, noting that the two usually overlap

(Smitherman 3). In her often quoted text, Talkin and Testifyin,

she illustrates both the layering of language and style

common in African American culture: “Here the language

aspect is the use of the be to indicate a recurring event or

habitual condition…But the total expression…also reflects

Black English style, for the statement suggests a point of

24

view, a way of looking at life, and a method of adapting to

life’s realities” (3). She concludes that “Black English,

then, is a language mixture, adapted to the conditions of

slavery and discrimination, a combination of language and

style interwoven with and inextricable from Afro-American

culture” (3). Smitherman goes on to posit that varying

speech acts typical to the African American community,

include inflection or preacher style and narrativization,

also appear in student’s composition and their composing

process. In one study of African American students’

writings, Arnetha Ball “noticed formulaic patterns of

repetition, intimate dialogue with the reader, storytelling

as a transitional device, and popular African American

idioms” (Ball qtd. in Redd 79). Other common identifiers

within African American speech are as follows: “redundancy,

preaching, folk sayings, wordplay, word coining, image

making, indirection, alliteration, and rhyme” (Campbell;

Gilyard and Richardson; Noonan-Wagner; Smitherman “African

American”; Redd; Thompson “Rescuing”; Troutman qtd. in Redd

“Keepin’ It Real” 79).25

In her article, “Keepin’ It Real: Delivering College

Composition at an HBCU,” Teresa Redd provides an example of this

range of common interests within the African American

community. She notes that writing as liberation is embedded

in African American history, citing Frederick Douglass,

Thomas Jones, Ida B. Wells, and many others (73). Redd

makes the case that this rich, African American heritage is

not limited to an oral tradition, but enriched by both an

oral and written tradition. In fact, she makes parallels to

writing behaviors among present African American youth and

African customs.

However, it is noteworthy to stress that black colleges

are no more ubiquitous than black people, or any people for

that matter. Although they are similar to predominantly

white institutions in many ways, their historical traditions

and their levels and types of support make them distinct.

Similar to many other institutions of higher learning, black

colleges reflect the diversity that is so characteristic of

the United States’ postsecondary education system” (Brown

26

and Freeman xii). In spite of turbulent times, these

institutions have repurposed what was supposed to be a site

of oppression into a site of liberation. These colleges,

often under dire situations, used minimal resources and

maximum potential to create access for African Americans in

hegemonic society. In making a conscious effort to examine

how the historical expectations and political atmosphere

necessitate inform epistemological and pedagogical

practices.

Beyond the Binary? HBCUsOnline.com

In the Time Magazine 1998 Princeton Review, FAMU was

recognized as “The College of the Year.” Less than ten years

later, this school that outranked Ivy League schools in

providing the most baccalaureate degrees to African

Americans no longer held the honor: online, for-profit

universities became its formidable opponents. This

insurgence of a greater virtual presence in academia has

been anticipated for years, yet it is now that HBCUs, with

the assistance of radio personality Tom Joyner, are

27

attempting to place black institutions in the running to

regain some of their nontraditional students who find it

difficult to attend the geographical institutions, as has

been the history. During a recent interview, Tennessee

President, Dr. Portia Holmes Shields, and Florida A&M

University President, Dr. James H. Ammons, discuss the

launching of this collaborative site that resembles

mainstream online institutions such as University of

Phoenix:

President Shields: “…and then there’s the bachelor’s of

interdisciplinary studies for people who have gone through …

gotten some credits and need to fold them into a

degree. ..you can get two undergraduates right now [and] one

master’s. In one day and a half, twenty-five people have

already applied for the program. ..the master’s is in

professional studies, also…[the types of jobs a student can

get with a master’s in professional studies is as follows:]

systems analysts, info technology, software design, and be

the boss. Tom Joyner: because getting these degrees is all

about getting a better job.28

President Shields: people are in dead-end jobs because they

don’t have a degree, yet they have some classes. This will

help them complete. It’s a unique program, and we have been

doing this for ten years with online degrees.

Tom Joyner: That’s at Tennessee State. Now, everybody has

heard about the MBA program at Florida A&M. Now, you can get

an online executive MBA degree from Florida A&M.

President Ammons: You can get the Master’s of Business

Administration from Florida A&M University, one of our

signature programs that is in high demand. One that has

prepared so many people to go into the private sector and to

land in leadership positions within corporations across the

globe…our placement rate right now is, even in this tough

economy; we’re placing over 90% of our students. One of the

things that we saw with our last commencement is that our

students are leaving…with multiple job offers in this

economic environment. It is a very productive and high

demand degree…Master’s in Science of Nursing—this is a Nurse

Practitioner Program, and this program will give the

29

students the clinical expertise they need to go into the

various healthcare settings whether we’re working hospitals,

clinics, nursing homes, etc. It has a specialty in

Gerontology, Women’s Health, and other areas that are

critical for today’s nurses. Master’s in Public Health—this

program in Public Health that we’re offering online will

give the students who complete this degree the kind of

background that they will need to go into the clinical

setting and be on the cutting edge of research as well as

administration. A program that is so critical to the African

American community.

Although Ammons posits that these programs are “so

critical to the African American community,” there are

inherent complications with any attempt to recreate a

material experience in a virtual space without the adequate

amount of training. Scott Reid concurs: “Online courses are

a disruptive technology in the sense that it requires

different pedagogical methods which may not yet be fully

understood. In many ways it is a break with the past and

30

requires professors to rethink their teaching practices”

(“Online Courses”). Reid’s research, however, suggests that

the scholarship is still evolving concerning this new method

of education. Some scholars describe “the instructional

development process for distance education, consisting of

the customary stages of design, development, evaluation, and

revision” (Sherry 337). Many scholars concurred with a

more traditional purview for quite some time, “…based on the

concept of a computer performing formal operations on

symbols” (Seamans, 1990: qtd. in Sherry 338).

The alternative approach is based on constructivist

principles, in which a learner actively constructs an

internal representation of knowledge by interacting with the

material to be learned. This is the basis for both situated

cognition (Streibel, 1991) and problem-based learning

(Savery & Duffy, 1995). According to this viewpoint, both

social and physical interactions become both the definition

of a problem and the construction of its solution. Neither

the information to be learned, nor its symbolic description,

is specified outside the process of inquiry and the 31

conclusions that emerge from that process. Prawat and Floden

(1994) state that, to implement constructivism in a lesson,

one must shift one's focus away from the traditional

transmission model to one which is much more complex,

interactive, and evolving.” (Sherry 338). What these

institutions might find challenging is their claim to uphold

traditions without acknowledging these dynamic shifts in

this new media.

Another consideration these schools need to consider is

acquiring additional costs for training current staff or

hiring new staff with this level of expertise. In order for

this virtual HBCU experience to be successful, the virtual

space has to provide the same perceived level of uniqueness

as experienced in the institutional physical locations,

which heavily relies on the varying levels of face-to-face

mentoring occurring in these physical locations. Sherry

states it as such: “Successful distance education systems

involve interactivity between teacher and students, between

students and the learning environment, and among students

themselves, as well as active learning in the classroom” 32

(338). And, this experience is feasible, given the

universities are able to hire trained, technologically savvy

professors. Yet, given FAMU’s recent budget cuts, it may be

difficult to invest in the quality training or the

previously trained staff required to provide the same

engaging social and educational experience as the face-to-

face model.

Similar to Reid’s acknowledgement that the “nature” of

the classroom will be altered, Johndan Johnson-Eilola makes

similar claims concerning what he terms the “datacloud”. He

notes that when well-meaning enthusiasts leap to simplify

work or learning using new interfaces,

[t]he space of learning and work here collapse[s]:

Work is no longer something visibly, socially

situated in a large space (an office, a classroom,

etc.), but now has condensed, in many ways, into a

19-inch glass window. In addition, as that

workplace has collapsed, it has sucked learning

right down with it. However, because the pace of

33

work has accelerated, the information space has

flattened, with users increasingly unlikely to

look outside their immediate interface for

assistance on using the computer—the assistance

that used to frequently position the technical,

functional aspects of their work within a broader,

richer framework. (51)

Therefore, it is likely that these HBCUs, in an effort to

remain relevant, may not afford their students with the

quality education they are known to offer. Johnson-Eilola

cautions educators to avoid hasty, ill-informed

juxtapositions of learning and the digital space:

We have to recognize that more effective

documentation or even more effective, usable

interfaces will not resolve the complex social,

cognitive, emotional, and economic problems

situated in both micro- and macrocontexts and the

breakdowns among various aspects of the two”

(Johnson-Eiola 51, 53). Where previously work was

34

enmeshed in a social context—and learning how to

work involved a process of education over time—

work now is shrunken and decontextualized so that

only the most functional aspects are visible at

the surface. In effect, the interface is not

simply a tool, but a structure for work—a set of

forces articulating a specific form of work, a set

of forces articulating work. (51)

Sherry emphasizes another important point as it relates

to the successful fusing of technology and classroom

instruction:

Although technology is an integral part of

distance education, any successful program must

focus on the instructional needs of the students,

rather than on the technology itself. It is

essential to consider their ages, cultural and

socioeconomic backgrounds, interests and

experiences, educational levels, and familiarity

with distance education methods and delivery

35

systems (Schamber, 1988). Students usually adapt

more quickly than their teachers to new

technology. On the other hand, teachers who have

begun to feel comfortable with the equipment don't

mind having their students teach them new tips and

tricks (Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow, 1992). The

most important factor for successful distance

learning is a caring, concerned teacher who is

confident, experienced, at ease with the

equipment, uses the media creatively, and

maintains a high level of interactivity with the

students. (338)

For these institutions that are experiencing challenging

setbacks as it relates to understaffing and limited

technological support and training, ensuring that the

instructors are confident in teaching their students through

this new learning space can be a costly risk, one that may

cause the instructors to question the accuracy and relevance

of the presidents’ vision. And, without a vision, the

university will perish.36

Reid reminds us that incorporating new technologies

will always alter the learning experience. Therefore, for

the affiliate presidents of the HBCUsOnline.com to assume

that learning in this new medium will not both increase and

yet aslo alter the face-to-face interaction inherent to the

traditional black college experience would be an inaccurate

assumption. Reid’s findings also gives us a balanced

perspective of what mirror an alternative way to continue

the HBCU legacy: “Many professors noted that, compared to

in–class day time students, the students in online courses

have more work experience and were bringing this experience

to class interactions. In some fields of study the students

were more likely to be full–time, on campus students who

were adding a course to provide more flexibility in their

schedule. These were very different from the part–time

students. One professor noted that the online students who

were doing the course part–time were generally more mature

and “a little bit more timely and responsible in terms of

getting work in” (Prof. 003).

37

Although the change that these presidents are offering

seems to push against their target population and

traditional goals, John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid remind

us of the longevity and resilience of universities over the

past millineum (208). Many high school graduates have been

educated in a direction that will lead to pursuing some form

of higher education at a college. Yet, what was once

accompanied with the traditional farewell: the journey

towards scholastic maturity in the traditional college dorm

is now visibly changing, shifting into a noticeable

alternative. Distance learning is moving us from the binary.

Considering their original intent could not have possibly

foreseen the emergence of the information age, many HBCUs

are typically written out of the future of higher education

because of the disparity between educating blacks and other

minorities in the U.S. HBCUsonline.com could be their way of

restructuring the aftermath of Reconstruction, repositioning

these institutions of higher learning for generations to

come.

38

Works Cited

Anderson, James .D. The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935.

Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North

Carolina Press, 1988. Print.

Ammons, James and Portia Shields. “HBCUsOnline.com.” Tom

Joyner Morning Show. Interview, May 23, 2011. Radio.

Blow, James H. Those Who Trespass Against Us. Florida A&M

University: Tallahassee, FL, 1976. Print.

Brown, M. Christopher Brown II, Ed. Still Not Equal: Expanding

Educational Opportunity in Society. Peter Lang: New York, 2007.

Print.

Brown II, M. Christopher, and Kassie Freeman, eds .“The

State of Research on Black Colleges: An Introduction.”

Black Colleges: New Perspectives on Policy and Practice. M.

Christopher Brown II and Kassie Freeman. West Port, CT:

Praeger,. xi-xiv, 2004. Print.

39

Cushman, E, Eugene R. Kintgen, Barry M. Kroll, and Mike

Rose, eds. Literacy: A Sourcebook. Boston: Bedford/St.

Martin’s, 2004. Print.

Davis, R. D. Black Students’ Perceptions: The Complexity of Persistence to

Graduation at an American University. New York: Peter Lang,

2004. Print.

DuBois, W. E. B. “Of the Quest of the Golden Fleece.” Souls of

Black Folks: Essays and Sketches. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.;

[Cambridge]: UP John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.,

1903; Bartleby.com, 1999. www.bartleby.com/114/. 10

Feb. 2012.

Ellis, R (2005). “Nathan B. Young: Florida A&M College’s

Second President and His Relationships with White

Public Officials.” Go Sound the Trumpet: Selections in Florida’s

African American History. Eds. David H. Jackson and Canter

Brown,. Tampa: University of Tampa Press, Print.

Fisher, M (2009). Black Literate Lives: Historical and Contemporary

Perspectives. New York: Routledge, Print.

40

Florida Department of Public Instruction (1882-1922).

Superintendent of Public Instruction Correspondence, Bi-ennial Report of

the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Florida for the two

years ending June 30, 1898 State Archives of Florida. Print.

---. Superintendent of Public Instruction Correspondence, 1882-1922: Bi-

ennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of

Florida for the two years ending June 30, 1900. State Archives of

Florida. Print.

---. Superintendent of Public Instruction Correspondence, 1882-1922: Bi-

ennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of

Florida for the two years ending June 30, 1902. State Archives of

Florida. Print.

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. Datacloud: Toward a New Theory of Online

Work.Gail E. Hawisher and Cynthia Selfe, eds.

Hampton :Cresskill, NJ, 2005. Print.

Kynard, Carmen, and Robert Eddy (2009). “Toward a New

Critical Framework: Color-Conscious Political Morality

41

and Pedagogy at Historically Black and Historically

White Colleges and Universities.” CCC 61.1: W24-W42.

Logan, S. W (2008). Liberating Language: Sites of Rhetorical Education in

Ninteteenth-Century Black America. Carbondale: Southern

Illinois UP.

Moss, Beverly J (2003). A Community Text Arises: A Literate Text and A

Literacy Tradition in African American Churches. Cresskill, NJ:

Hampton Press.

Neyland, Leedell W (1990). Historically Black land-grant institutions and

the development of agriculture and home economics, 1890-1990.

Tallahassee: Florida A&M University Foundation. Print.

Neyland, Leedell W., and John W. Riley. The History of Florida

Agricultural and Mechanical University. Gainesville:

University of Florida Press, 1963. Print.

Porter, Gilbert L., and Leedell W. Neyland (1977). The History

of t he Florida State Teachers Association. Washington: National

Education Association, Print.

Ong, Walter. Orality and Literacy (1982). New York: Routledge,

1982. Print42

Richardson, Elaine (2003). African American Literacies. New York:

Routledge.

Redd, Teresa. “Keepin’ It Real: Delivering College

Composition at an HBCU.” Delivering College Composition: A Fifth

Canon. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 2006. Print.

Reid, Scott. “Online Courses and How They Change the Nature

of Class.”First Monday. 14.3. 2 March 2009.

Royster, Jackie J.. Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change

among African American Women. Pittsburgh: University of

Pittsburg Press, 1994. Print.

Seely Brown, John and Paul Duguid. The Social Life of Information.

Harvard Business School Press: Boston, 2000. Print.

Sherry, L. “Issues in Distance Learning.” International Journal of

Educational Telecommunication.” 1.4. 337-365. Web.

Smitherman, Geneva. Talkin and Testifyin:The Language of Black America.

Wayne State UP, 1977. Print.

Washington, Booker T. “The Atlanta Exposition Address.” Up

from Slavery: An Autobiography. New York: Doubleday, 1901.

Bartleby.com 2000. 10 Feb 2012.

43

Willie, Charles V., Richard J. Reddick, and Ronald Brown.

The Black College Mystique. Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham, MD,

2006. Print.

Williams, Juan. “Forward.” I’ll Find a Way or Make One: A Tribute to

Historically Black Colleges and Universities. New York: Amistad,

2004. Print.

44