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Letter to the editor

Stillman: We're better than that

By ALBERT MOORE
Published June 10, 2007

Editor's note: Officials at Stillman College asked to respond to columnist and editorial board member Bill Maxwell's recent series on his two years of teaching there. This is from the college's director of public relations.

Journalist. Professor. Fiction novelist. Comic.

Times editorial writer Bill Maxwell has definitely had his share of occupations in the last three years. Even better, it seems as if he's been able to do them all at the same time.

Maxwell took the liberty of foisting upon the public a perspective of Stillman College, in particular, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities, in general, that was so skewed, it can only be interpreted as dark comedy. The entire series was so filled with inaccuracies and literary license, it could have been found in the local library's pulp fiction section.

Even the premise of his assault on Stillman - wanting to give back by teaching at a small HBCU - sounds less than genuine. It seemed his two-year stint was nothing more than a journalistic "project" (who else remembers quotes from more than two years ago unless they write them down for later use). I would even wonder if he was still on the Times' payroll because he was quick to voluntarily take a significant pay cut to acquire the job at Stillman. Maybe the only people he was "giving back" to were the Times' editors.

Maxwell's tale of his two years at a 131-year-old institution present a bleak, downtrodden picture not just of our Tuscaloosa, Ala., campus, but of all HBCUs - institutions of higher learning that allowed him the opportunity to enjoy the life he lives today. The reality is that Stillman has a sparkling campus with manicured lawns, edged sidewalks and stately magnolia trees around new and renovated building. Unlike the ghetto that Maxwell conjures, the buildings are well maintained and the campus is free of litter and graffiti.

It would be easy to write a column on the inconsistencies alone in Maxwell's series. For example, I would have a hard time seeing a "jailhouse tat" from at least 60 feet in a moving vehicle, as he alleges and my eyes are younger and in good repair. It is also difficult to do research on students' SAT scores at Stillman because it is an ACT school, where student performance is only addressed in that format. Those are just two glaring fictional descriptions found in the first half of part one Maxwell's collection.

Stillman, like many HBCUs today, is a place where many who might not otherwise attend college can get an opportunity to earn a degree. Still, current students entering classes have average ACT scores above the mean for African-Americans. Being poor with limited opportunities for cultural exposure cannot be correlated to the inability to perform as Maxwell implies. It does require heuristic teaching rather than the teacher-as-idol approach that Maxwell employed.

At Stillman, serious students do not have difficult problems with their instructors, no matter their race or origin. Nearly 75 percent of the professors employed at the college have terminal degrees. Many are professional leaders in their fields, and have published and/or performed, as their disciplines would require. The college continues to expand the options for students, as with the burgeoning journalism program that Mr. Maxwell abandoned. Two publications that the students Maxwell discussed produce are available to the public: The Stillman Advance school newspaper, online at www. stillmanadvance.com, and the West-End Journal, a collaborative effort between students from Stillman and the University of Alabama.

The college has hard and fast rules - with little tolerance for violators - regarding the dress and public decorum of students. The ghetto behaviors that Maxwell described in his classes were products of his classes, rather than the climate. Thought-provoking initiatives by students such as the N'Surrection Conference (examined the historical and current use of the N-word in society) and "Box City" (raising awareness of homelessness in the United States) are more reflective of the public actions of Stillman students. The former event received international media attention.

Three disciplinary accrediting groups, the regional accrediting commission, and the State Department of Education upon reviewing real data concluded that Stillman operates within the normative standards of higher education. U.S. News & World Report, upon reviewing real data and compiling a reputational index, has ranked Stillman in the top tier of comprehensive colleges in the South for the past three years. How did such an astute observer miss this?

In January 2007, Dwayne Murray became the first African-American fire chief in the hometown of Maxwell's alma mater, Daytona Beach. Murray's alma mater? Stillman. While Maxwell may have failed himself, it is regrettable that he would chose to unfairly accuse the dedicated community that embraced him of doing so as well. Stillman's contribution and importance (as well as other HBCUs) to the black community has been documented and continues.

Even an angry published comic would have trouble disputing that.

A.A. Moore is the director of public relations at Stillman College.

[Last modified June 9, 2007, 20:01:13]