An Examination of the Fulfillment of the Goals for Increasing Minority Enrollment and Black Faculty/Administrators Employment in the University of North Carolina, 1980-1999.

This study is a two-phase examination of the desegregation of the 16-campus University of North Carolina system. The first phase involved obtaining and analyzing copies of letters, books, journal articles, newspaper articles and annual reports concerning the court-mandated desegregation plan and its implementation and voluntary continuation after the mandate was rescinded. Reports of black and white student enrollment in historically black institutions (HBIs) and historically white institutions (HWIs) were analyzed for the years 1980, 1988, and 1999. The study found that very substantial increases in minority enrollments occurred in all HBIs and HWIs between 1980 and 1988 and, there were further increases from 1988 to 1999. In absolute numbers, white student enrollments in HBIs increased from 1,801 in 1980 to 3,009 in 1988 (for an increase of 67.1%) and to 3,421 in 1999 (which represented a 13.7% increase from 1988 and a 90.0% increase from 1980). black students in HWIs increased from 7,481 in 1980 to 10,186 in 1988 ( 36.0% increase) and to 14,489 in 1999 ( an increase of 42.2% from 1988 and 87.7% from 1980). black employment in HWIs in faculty and executive/administrative positions increased even more dramatically over the same period. black faculty members in HWIs increased from 138 in 1980 to 206 in 1988 to 310 in 1999, for a total increase of 124.6%. black executive/administrative employment in HWIs rose from 43 in 1980 to 76 in 1988 to 139 in 1999, for a 19-year increase of 223.2%. The second phase of this study involved interviewing the former president and other top-level University of North Carolina system administrators and other principal actors in desegregation planning, implementation and evaluation in the 1970s and 1980s. A second round of interviews was conducted with selected chancellors and directors of admissions in several HBIs and HWIs. The conclusions based upon the responses of both the former and current administrators are that the greatest impediments to increasing black enrollment on HWI campuses were geographic locations of the institutions and the greatest obstacles to increasing black faculty members in HWIs were geographic locations and the lack of new black Ph.D. graduates