University of Virginia Library

HEW Says State Runs
'Racist' School System

By Rod MacDonald
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

The U.S. Department of Health,
Education and Welfare has accused the
state of Virginia of maintaining a
"racially dual system of higher education"
and has given the state 90 days to
plan that system's demise.

The accusation was made in a letter
sent a week ago to Governor Mills
Godwin, who quickly informed the
department that his term ends January
17, so the problem will be the concern of
Governor-elect Linwood Holton.

The HEW accusation and direction - which
may be taken up in a federal court if the state
fails to meet the 90-day deadline - comes
about one month after the University had
replied to the department on similar charges.

The ruling would affect the University by
bringing its racial imbalance problem to the
attention of the state government, thus
overshadowing the school's own efforts at
enrolling more black students.

The HEW report, drawn up by Leon E.
Panetta of the Office of Civil Rights, says that
Virginia's state-supported colleges are either 99
per cent white or 99 per cent black.

For 1968-69, the last year of available
figures, the state's predominantly white schools
had 44,000 students, of whom 209 were black.
Of the 6,179 students at the two predominantly
black schools, 50 were white.

The University's figures for the 1969-70
year, which show a slight increase in black
enrollment over the preceding year, list 129 of
the approximately 9,600 students who indicated
their race as "black." Of the 129, 38
are undergraduate and 91 graduate, including
55 in the school of Graduate Education. The
total represented 1.3 per cent of the student
body.

Such a ratio was not indicative of racial
balance, according to HEW, which said "It is
not sufficient that an institution maintain a
non-discriminatory admissions policy if the
student population continues to reflect the
formerly de jure racial identification of that
institution."

Other state schools show dual systems
operating in the same locations and spheres of
study, the report said. For example, Virginia
Polytechnic Institute was originally established
as a white vocational-agricultural school, of
which Virginia State at Petersburg is the black
co-ordinate. VPI has 9,267 students, 61 black;
Va. State has 2,104, including 50 whites.

In Norfolk, Old Dominion College has 8,892
students, 40 of whom are black; Virginia State
has 4,075 students, with no white students
included.

Mr. Panetta told the Governor he did not
wish to "stipulate the form which a desegregation
plan should take," but that "a general
institutional sharing of resources would seem to
offer a constructive approach."