An assessment study of appropriations to implement various provisions mandated by the Geier Stipulation of Settlement Agreement, 1986–1997

Patricia Ann Crook, Tennessee State University

Abstract

Special funds were appropriated since the Geier Stipulation of Settlement Agreement to public higher education institutions to assist in the achievement of a desegregated system of higher education in Tennessee. The study was conducted to determine whether the additional funds had resulted in the achievement of numerical goals designed to increase the presence and provide greater access for black students, faculty, administrators, and professionals statewide at the historically white institutions and white students, faculty, administrators, and professionals at Tennessee State University and Shelby State Community College. This study examined the amount of funds appropriated and used; compared actual other-race headcounts with established objectives for each category of student enrollment, faculty, administrators, and professional employment categories; and described activities and programs conducted to effectuate desegregation at sixteen public higher education institutions in the Tennessee Board of Regents System for an eleven-year period since the Geier Stipulation of Settlement Agreement. The study revealed that a combined amount of approximately $39,458,100 had been appropriated by the Tennessee State General Assembly for the sixteen institutions included in the study from 1986 through 1997. The institutions spent a combined amount of approximately 47,302,500 during this period to fund desegregation initiative to comply with provisions of the Stipulation included in this study. The study further revealed that each institution varied in the level of achievement of desegregation objectives for each of the student enrollment and employment categories examined during the eleven-year period. A comparison of the Fall 1997 actual black headcounts in the student enrollment and employment categories with comparative data for the Fall 1985, when there were no special funds appropriated for desegregation initiatives, revealed the following findings: (1) there was an overall net increase of 52.5 percent in the total number of black students enrolled at the undergraduate level; (2) there was an overall net increase of 57.2 percent in the total number of black graduate students; (3) there was an overall net increase of 33.3 percent in the total number of black students enrolled at the ETSU Medical School; (4) there was an overall net increase of 51.5 percent in the number of blacks enrolled in the UOM Law School; (5) there was an overall net increase of 27.8 percent in the total number of black administrators; (6) there was an overall net increase of 22.2 percent in the total number of black faculty; and (7) there was an overall net increase of 107 percent in the total number of black professionals at the sixteen institutions, since the 1985 year. While there were net increases in all categories of black student enrollment and employment categories, an individual analysis of each institution revealed decreases in some categories. Additionally, an individual institutional analysis revealed that the level of the increase varied when compared with the overall net increase of the combined institutions.

Subject Area

School administration|School finance

Recommended Citation

Patricia Ann Crook, "An assessment study of appropriations to implement various provisions mandated by the Geier Stipulation of Settlement Agreement, 1986–1997" (1998). ETD Collection for Tennessee State University. Paper AAI9907840.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI9907840

Share

COinS