总统 Ronald Mason Jr., the 亚洲博彩网站 Board of Trustees and the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) held the CAS Reads Big Spring 2022 lecture on April 7 with Adam Harris to discuss his book, “The State Must Provide: Why America’s Colleges Have Always Been Unequal—and How to Set Them Right.” The event was held at the Van Ness campus’ 学生中心.
哈里斯是《大西洋月刊》的特约撰稿人，主要报道教育和国家政治。 他之前是《高等教育纪事报》的记者，报道联邦教育政策和传统黑人学院和大学（HBCU）。 在加入《纪事报》之前，他曾在ProPublica工作，并一直是新美国（New America）的国家研究员。 他被提名为2021年福布斯30位30岁以下的名单，他的作品曾出现在BBC， Bleacher Report和EBONY杂志上。
“It is a really great time to talk about HBCUs because there is a reinsurance of attention to these institutions,” Harris said. “It’s always interesting to come to one and meet with students, faculty, staff and general members of the community about how to move education forward.”
Harris’s book is often been described as “the definitive chronicle of higher education’s failed attempts at equality.” Told through a vivid cast of characters, “The State Must Provide” examines why “higher education remains broken today.”
“CAS Reads Big was excited to partner with the Office of the 总统 and University Board of Trustees to welcome Adam Harris to 亚洲博彩网站,” CAS Dean Dr. April Massey said. “Mr. Harris engaged attendees in a timely and comprehensive discussion of the historic and systematic underfunding of the Nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Weaving personal history with detailed research captured in his book, Mr. Harris described the impacts of over 150 years of financial inequities, the implications of those funding deficits on the success and viability of our institutions and the sustainability of our campuses as resilient and nurturing communities of possibility despite this.”
哈里斯讲述了为受教育而努力奋斗的美国黑人，比如1936年被密苏里大学法学院拒之门外的劳埃德·盖恩斯。 盖恩斯最终向美国最高法院提起诉讼，在1939年神秘失踪之前，他成为了一位著名的民权人物。 十年后，Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher于1949年成为俄克拉荷马大学法学院的第一位黑人学生。 She would go on to graduate and become a lawyer, but only after challenging the state’s segregation laws.
在演讲中，哈里斯谈到了在20世纪的大部分时间里，白人大学的校长如何竭尽全力与立法者一起维持种族隔离，将黑人学生送到邻近的州完成学业，而不是在家里接受教育。 1935年，密苏里州出资让32名黑人学生跨越州界，获得研究生和专业经验。 一年后，肯塔基州拨款5000美元将黑人研究生送出州外，并削减了对该州一所黑人学院的资助，以弥补这一差额。
几位观众对作者提出了后续问题和评论，其中包括亚洲博彩网站工程系的学生Brent Thigpen。 Thigpen问他如何帮助亚洲博彩网站成为一个更强大的机构。 哈里斯建议他成为一个坚定的拥护者。
“The more people advocate for the institution, the more it will help. Find the things that set your university apart and publicize that,” Harris said.
Thigpen是一名大二学生，他说他永远不会考虑上另一所大学。 “Being a student at 亚洲博彩网站 feels like home,” he said. “It just feels right—it feels like I belong. I can be myself here, and I want to help in any way I can.”
哈里斯能理解希彭。 他的家人上的是HBCU，他也上过阿拉巴马A&M大学。
“I loved attending a historically Black university,” Harris said. “There is so much diversity within these schools, which is important, too. Grouping together out of desire rather than necessity is a very different thing.”
According to Harris, “Black colleges, many of them public, remain woefully underfunded. 尽管黑人大学只占所有四年制大学的3%，但他们培养了80%的黑人法官，50%的黑人律师和医生，以及25%的黑人科学、技术、数学和工程毕业生。 State governments and the federal government have a responsibility to fix this inequity.”
When asked whether he’s optimistic about the future of Black education, Harris said that he must be.
“As the father of two young children, the optimist in me wants to believe,” he said. “There have been consistent knocks on the doors generation after generation. The optimist in me wants to believe that these doors will eventually be knocked down.”
为了庆祝十多年来欢迎作者来到大学，CAS Reads Big将当代关于教育，健康，历史，文化，经济和政治问题的声音带到我们的校园，并邀请大学的学生，教师，员工和社区合作伙伴与他们进行亲密的对话，以尊重不同的专业知识和观点。
To learn more about Adam Harris’s work, including his second book, “Is This America?” visit his 网站.