[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 26 (Thursday, March 1, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E262]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          HBCUs DESERVE PARITY

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                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 1, 2001

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, as a graduate of North Carolina A&T 
University, one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities 
(HBCU), I cannot help but rise to express my shock over the outrageous 
decision by the majority members of the Committee on Education and the 
Workforce to exclude HBCUs from the new 2lst Century Competitiveness 
Subcommittee. I know that my friends across the aisle have no intention 
of riding on the media coattails of what some people perceive as this 
past fall's denial of minority voting rights; nevertheless, the 
misguided decision to separate HBCUs as well as Hispanic Serving 
Institutions (HSIs) and Tribally Controlled Colleges (TCCs) from non-
minority higher education institutions on this subcommittee seems to 
play right into the hands of those who suggest that last fall's events 
were part of a concerted effort to deprive minorities of our right to 
vote.
  Furthermore, placing these institutions of higher education into a 
new select education subcommittee which shares jurisdiction with 
juvenile delinquency, welfare, and child abuse seems to suggest that 
minority education is more social experiment than higher education 
program. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am to find out in the 
107th Congress that my education is now considered second rate by those 
in the majority. I join with my fellow Democratic Caucus members in 
urging the Speaker of the House and the Majority in the House to 
restore HBCUs, HSIs, and TCCs to their appropriate status as equal 
institutions of higher education.




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