In Black America; The Late Dr. Marguerite Ross Barnett

you From the Longhorn Radio Network, the University of Texas at Austin, this is in Black America. I think it's probably a generalization, it's more correct than not to say that in the 60s, that was the generation in which becoming an educator was a highly desired occupation,

highly competed for profession. I recall again some of the surveys that were completed in the 60s on what's the most prestigious profession and I think at the very top was President of the United States and then it was Supreme Court Justice, but I think professor was third in that hierarchy. And so I was a in college at a time which academia was in general a very attractive profession to be in so that all of that is to say that it was really a decision that I made about my career, but I did make it within a certain intellectual climate. The late Dr. Margaret Ross Barnett, former president of the University of Houston, died of cancer on February 26, while on a retreat with her husband in Hawaii. Dr. Barnett leads behind a legacy that includes being the first African American woman to

head a major national research university. Dr. Barnett became the eighth president of the University of Houston on September 1, 1990. A national leader in higher education, she was dedicated to the emergence of urban public colleges and universities as the backbone of American higher education in the future. She also will be remembered for a vision for the University of Houston, plus her desire to see all persons regardless of race, benefit from higher education. Before coming to the University of Houston, Dr. Barnett spent four years as chancellor of the University of Missouri St. Louis. I'm John L. Hanson Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. This week, the legacy of Dr. Margaret Ross Barnett, former president of the University of Houston, in Black America. I developed an interest in political philosophy and started taking courses in that area and if you become a political scientist, it's hard to kind of hang out a shingle as a political

scientist. You end up going into academia, engaging in research and teaching. And I like academia as a career. I was nominated for a position at the City University of New York when I was on the faculty at Columbia University. And I was nominated by someone who did not approach me and asked me if I was interested before I knew about the nomination, I was on the list of ten, so I received a telephone call saying you're on the list of ten for the vice chancellor's ship at the City University of New York. And this is a very large system, $180,000 students in a billion dollar budget. So I thought about it for a while and I said, well, you know, I've been a faculty member and a teacher and departmental chair, but, you know, I am not committed to going into administration, but I will go to the interview and just see what happens. What happened was Dr. Barnett was selected and served three years as vice chancellor for academic affairs at the City University of New York.

While at the City University of New York, Dr. Barnett was responsible for the development and opening of the university's medical school. Dr. Barnett served on the political science faculty at the University of Chicago as well as Princeton, Howard University and Columbia University. While at Columbia, she developed a compassionate commitment to improving public school education, focusing particularly on the needs of urban areas. Born and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia, Dr. Barnett made a rapid descent as a student, teacher, and then administrator on her way to the president's chair. She earned a BA degree from Annie Out College and her master's and PhD degree in political science from the University of Chicago. Dr. Barnett authored five books and some 40 articles. In 1991, her book entitled, quote, The Politics of Culture, Nationalism, and South India, end of quote, one of the American Political Science Association Award at the best scholarly work in five years.

Dr. Marguerite Ross Barnett was one of 43 women presidents of public four-year universities and one of only three with 30,000 or more enrollment. As president of the University of Houston, she oversaw an operating budget of $235 million and 6,353 employees. Dr. Barnett served 18 months as president of the University of Houston, but her accomplishments in that short period of time will stand as a testament to her clear understanding of the changing demographics and needs of Americans to create a new model in higher education. The melting of community accessibility with the highest standards for intellectual advancement and scholarship. One month after taking over the presidency at the University of Houston, in Black America travel to Houston to speak to Marguerite Ross Barnett. I developed an interest in political philosophy and started taking courses in that area and if you become a political scientist, it's hard to kind of hang out a shingle as a political

scientist, you end up going into academia, engaging in research and teaching. And I like academia as a career. I was nominated for a position at the City University of New York when I was on the faculty at Columbia University. And I was nominated by someone who did not approach me and asked me if I was interested. Before I knew about the nomination, I was on the list of 10, so I received a telephone call saying you're on the list of 10 for the vice chancellor ship at the City University of New York. And this is a very large system, $180,000 students in a billion dollar budget. So I thought about it for a while and I said, well, you know, I've been a faculty member and a teacher and departmental chair, but I am not committed to going into administration, but I will go to the interview and just see what happens. I think all of my colleagues across the country, especially in public higher education, would agree that we are in difficult times.

There's a general tax payer reluctance to raise and increase taxes and in public institutions. We're dependent on monies from the public treasuries and as inflation increases, we need increased resources. At the University of Missouri St. Louis, I supplemented our budget by raising private dollars. I've been at the University of Houston for a month, so I don't have a budgetary strategy. I also ran a very efficient operation at the University of Missouri St. Louis and we restructured our entire administration. So we were a very lean operation and I reallocated funds in that setting. I'm still looking at the University of Houston and asking the question, how am I going to fund some of the things that are my major priorities? I am delighted that our Board of Regents has been considering a capital campaign. They're looking at something that might be in the range of about $300 million that would

be enormously helpful to us at the University of Houston. Has the process of higher education, a post higher education, changed that drastically from the time you were a co-ed till today? Well I was a co-ed in the 1960s and the society has changed and universities are of course part of the societies in which they reside. So naturally, university campuses are very different because our entire country is different. Our political point, view is different. Those things that we value are different if you just look at the surveys that have been done of freshmen back in the 60s, we tended to, as freshmen and college, value the life of the mind, pursuit of careers which allowed us to serve people in the surveys of freshmen. Now freshmen are much more concerned about their ability to earn a living, to enter a profession

and even to replicate the lifestyles of their parents. So it's a very different economy, society and culture, and they're for higher education is different. Is my understanding that you were recruited for the position at the University of Houston or two-party question, the first part is how did you feel your reaction when you found out that the University of Houston wanted you to be their president and why did you accept the position? I was nominated again for the University of Houston and I do not know who nominated me for the position but again I ended up on the short list before I knew I had been nominated and in fact I was in Paris when I learned that I, when I was invited for the interview and I had to decide whether or not I was going to come home from Paris early and interview for this position. The University of Houston is a very fine institution, is a very fine national reputation and my interest in the University reflects the enormous potential that I think the University has to become

one of the great universities in the country. Do you have an opportunity to converse with students and if so, what are some of their concerns, particularly society and what the University of Houston will have to offer for their education? In fact I had lunch with the leader of our student association two days ago and he had a range of very interesting issues that he wanted to discuss. Some of them are very particular and peculiar to the University of Houston so I won't mention those. But there is one that you might find interesting, he was interested in a more diverse curriculum at the University of Houston and has met with leaders of the faculty senate to talk about ways of having one course which he particularly thinks in cross cultural communication would be very useful for students to have that course become part of our freshman, general freshman core curriculum and that's of course a faculty decision and so he's raising it with exactly

the right people in the faculty senate. But he would also like to see a more multicultural core curriculum at the University and he has formally raised that with the faculty senate. I'm glad you brought up the word multiculturalism. In the last six months I've received five or six different definitions of multiculturalism. Can I get your particular definition of multiculturalism? Well in the context in which I just use the term we're talking about a curriculum which seeks to represent the diverse expressions and intellectual contributions to knowledge represented by the various cultures and societies throughout time and around the world. That's a very complex undertaking but it's grounded in a principle that's central to academia and that's our search for truth and you cannot legitimately say and you never actually capture truth and say oh I know the truth.

In fact the person who says that to you, you know that person is grounded in falsehood. What you're really trying to do is to get closer to truth or in a paperian sense called popper the English philosopher, you're trying to figure out a way to always have hypotheses or theories about what you're doing which can in principle be falsified and therefore you can always be engaged in the search for truth now. And the emphasis on multicultural education seeks to expand the realm of knowledge that we will use in the classroom, in that constant engagement, intellectual engagement that constant search for truth. So it's philosophically the way of approaching a subject by saying as we seek truth we're going to go beyond that which may have narrowly been defined for us by the culture in which we reside to move and to expand those boundaries to look at the way in which other cultures

have asked and answered the same questions. You think the regents will be receptive to this broadening of the educational spectrum? Our regents support academic freedom and therefore they support the right of the faculty to determine the curriculum. The question is how the faculty wants to shape the curriculum. Besides your parents who were the major influences on you in becoming an educator. Again you have to have to situate everything that happened in the 60s in a different context. I think it's probably a generalization it's more correct than not to say that in the 60s that was a generation in which becoming an educator was a highly desired occupation, highly competed for profession. I recall again some of the surveys that were completed in the 60s and what's the most prestigious profession and I think at the very top was President of the United States

and then it was Supreme Court justice but I think professor was third in that hierarchy. So I was a in college at a time which academia was in general a very attractive profession to be in so that all of that is to say that it was really a decision that I made about my career but I did make it within a certain intellectual climate. Dr. Barnett had an outstanding academic record combined with the dedication to forging strong partnerships with economic culture and corporate entities brought fresh new ideas to the University of Houston. As one of our first actions upon assuming the presidency at the U of H was the partnership for progress program designed to improve public school education from the grammar school to the high school level. It included the nationally recognized model high school bridge program to assist motivated

disadvantaged high school students, bridge to distance between high school and college through innovative programs in the sciences and mathematics. The bridge program was named the Outstanding Public School Initiative in the nation in 1991 receiving the Anderson Medal from the American Council on Education. So the implementation of the Texas Center for Environmental Studies program address the multi-disciplinary concerns for the nation's environmental needs through research, educational service activities in history, law, engineering, science, business, and communications. And the recruitment and creation of the University of Houston's first University-wide external community support organization. The friends of the University of Houston which assist in informing the community about the college. The University of Houston has enormous potential to become one of the very best universities in this country and therefore in the world.

That is that essentially rest on our ability to support scholarship and research at the University. Our ability to also support undergraduate instruction to support our libraries in addition to those goals of supporting research, scholarship, our libraries. I also want to see the University of Houston become a leader as an organization capable of not only being more diverse but building diversity into a tradition that enhances the excellence of the institution. We seek to be good stewards of public and private resources which we receive. I'm interested in neighborhood revitalization and development of the area around the University of Houston. And it's also a goal to lead an institution with high morale, an institution that's humane in its treatment of students, faculty, staff, and an institution that is a community that

bound together by a common set of goals in a common vision for the future. Particularly here in Houston and some other cities, women are in positions of high authority. Do you think the time has come, the loosening up of the male attitude and society has brought about these changes? I think over the next decade, we're going to see women, immigrants, minorities increasingly move into leadership positions and increasingly move into the workforce. A majority of the new entrance into the workforce will be women, immigrants, and minority groups. But we will see throughout the workforce and including the professional workforce and increase in all of these groups. It's a necessity in our society.

It is driven by the material conditions of the society. Our economy requires highly skilled, highly professional workers and will require more workers who are especially trained in mass science, technological fields, also people who are very good communicators, people with strong leadership skills. Over the years, there's been a declining number of the number of minorities and people of color attending colleges and universities, particularly the black male. Is this a concern to you and will this be a priority or initiative that you will try to put forth at the University of Houston and try to get more minorities and people of color in colleges? Actually, there has not been a decline in the absolute number. There's been a decline in the growth rates and a decline in the percentage of the student population. But this is clearly a concern because our nation will need more well-educated, highly trained workers, especially in mass science and technological fields.

We face a shortage of 675,000 mathematicians, scientists, and engineers in the year 2006, unless we are able to begin expanding that pool now. This is a wonderful opportunity for minorities, those minority young people who are now in grammar school who begin to prepare for careers in those fields. They'll be able to move into those fields without barriers with ease into the 21st century. As for recruitment of minorities, it has always been a priority of the University of Houston to recruit minorities. One of our priorities is to increase the diversity of our student body. We are going to do so. We are going to work with the high schools and the grammar schools to begin to give students the preparation to enter college when they are very young. The last three colleges that you've been employed by have been urban colleges. Are you particularly fond of working in urban settings?

I have a very interesting background. I have a background in highly elite private institutions and in the background in first-rate urban institutions. I have enjoyed both parts of my career, but at the present moment, I think I can make a greater contribution in urban research universities. When you speak of research, we're talking scientific research, the environment, sociological problems. We're talking about research and scholarly activity would include not only scientific research, the kind that went sponsorship from NSF and NIMH, but also scholarship in English and history and philosophy and fine arts in my own field of South Asian studies. I can't think of any major granting agency that would give you a grant to do research in on the tummels of South India. That's my own area, but it's an area of scholarship. Great importance to me, and I would argue great importance to the world, but it is not sponsored

research. There is a difference between sponsored and not sponsored research, but when I talk about research, I'm really talking about research and scholarship and research in the humanities and the social sciences as well as in the sciences. What you're really trying to do is to get closer to truth or in a paperian sense, called Popper, the English philosopher, you're trying to figure out a way to always have hypotheses or theories about what you're doing, which can, in principle, be falsified and therefore you can always be engaged in the search for truth now. And the emphasis on multicultural education seeks to expand the realm of knowledge that we will use in the classroom, in that constant engagement, intellectual engagement, that constant search for truth. Dr. Barnett also developed the U of H's first university report to the community, which offered a periodic look at the school and its programs, and the creation of the Texas Center for University School Partnership.

TCU SP is a research and outreach program designed to assess national school reform efforts and disseminate the results of the successful programs nationwide. Also during her administration, the University of Houston received a $51.4 million gift from millionaire John J. Moore's and his wife Rebecca, the largest single year gift ever to a public university. It's really the formation of a center called the Texas Center for University School Partnerships and Rice is the first university in what we hope will be a consortium, a statewide consortium of universities, all of which will be invited to join us in assisting school improvement efforts across the state. We have invited Rice. Rice has said, yes, a letter will go out for me in another two weeks to all the presidents of all of the institutions in the state. And my hope is that a number of them will also want to join this consortium. Are you finding life a little bit easier here in the South?

The majority of your career has been on the East Coast, so in the northern section of the country. Well, this is a difficult time to ask because at the moment I'm finding life is rather like trying to take a simple water from a fire hydrant that's flowing. There's just a lot going on because I'm new in the position. But probably in another six months, if you ask me that question, the answer might be different. I don't think it's so much easy, but it is just very, very pleasant and wonderful to live in Houston. People in Houston are warm and friendly and have just showered us with love and with welcoming gestures. I'm quite sure there's life after five at the University of Houston. What are some of your other interests and concerns? After five at the University of Houston, I go home and work until about 11 at night. And then I get up early at about five and work. So I have not been, I have not pursued other interests recently. However, when I do have the time, I love to play golf.

What advice would you give a young person concerning a career in education? I think you have to love, if you're talking about as a university professor, you have to love university campuses. They are very special places, academia is a very special profession to be in. They are institutions which in many ways run like no other institution in our society. Because the president of the university is really the first among equals. It's a collegial form of governance and a collegial relationship among faculty and administrators. And to a certain extent, among faculty, staff, students and administrators. And all of that makes it a very exciting environment to be in. It's also exciting because of the intellectual stimulation. There's always something interesting going on. First-rate speakers and concerts and theater on the campus.

Working with young people is just thrilling. And watching the development of young minds between their freshmen and their senior year if you have an opportunity in working with the people who are majors in your own department. If you love that profession, then you have to ignore the fact that college professors have not been paid very well over the last several decades. And you have to choose based on love. This is not the profession that I would go into if your main goal is to have a prosperous life and to acquire a lot of material objects. It is the profession to enter for satisfaction. It's a very, it's a very good way of life. Despite her short tenure, Dr. Barnett will long be remembered for her energy, for a well-focused vision of what the University of Houston can be, and for her ability to express that vision to the many facets of the Houston community.

Dr. Barnett had a profound impact on the university and upon the city. She had that special ability to bring the city and the university together in ways I have never seen before. During the time of her illness, neither Dr. Barnett nor the U of H officials would give specific information about her condition. However, last January, she was granted a six-month medical leave of absence to devote more time to her treatment. Throughout her academic career, Dr. Barnett served as a member of many community and corporate boards. Also, she was the recipient of numerous awards, honors, and honorary degrees. If you have a question or comment regarding this program, write us, remember views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or the University of Texas at Austin. I would like to thank our technical producer Cliff Hargrove for his assistance. I'm John L. Hanson, Jr. Please join us again next week. Cassette copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black

America cassettes, Longhorn Radio Network, Communication Building B, UT Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712, that's in Black America cassettes, Longhorn Radio Network, Communication Building B, UT Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712. From the Center for Telecommunication Services, the University of Texas at Austin, this is the Longhorn Radio Network. I'm John L. Hanson, Jr. Join me this week on in Black America. In the 60s, that was the generation in which becoming an educator was a highly desired occupation, highly competed for profession.

The legacy of Dr. Marguerite Ross Barnett this week on in Black America.