 HBCU Dodgers Radio welcome back to another episode discussing high-level issues in the historically black college community today. We are privileged to have the great senator from the great state of Georgia, Nakima Williams. She is from the 39th district of the state of Georgia here today with us to talk about the action of several democratic members of the state legislature in rescinding their support of Senate Bill 273 which called for the realignment of three of the state's public HBCUs under a single system so Madam Senator it is a pleasure to have you on today. Thank you for having me. Talk about today's activity there was engagement with the public in the media to talk about the issue of Senate Bill 273 what was today's experience like and what was some of the feedback that you've received thus far. So earlier today I actually withdrew my name from the legislation on SB 273 I did four of my other colleagues who were co-sponsors of the bill the primary sponsor held the press conference I was not a part of that press conference because I had already withdrawn my name and issued my own press release denouncing the legislation because I am an alumni of the Talladega College the Alpha Lara Vega and there is never a time that I would do anything that would jeopardize our institutions the historical values and importance of them and the uniqueness that they all hold. Just last year I created a study committee SR 977 which passed the Senate unanimously and we had meetings throughout the state to talk about ways that the state of Georgia we have 10 HBCUs here in Georgia and that is more than any other state in the country and so I wanted to talk about ways that the state could better partner with our HBCUs not just the public ones and this was framed to me initially that of coming up with the government structure that could make recommendations on how the state could better partner and strengthen our HBCUs as a result of the study committee there wasn't one body that we could look to that could deal with the private institutions and the state institutions and so this was framed to me in a way that the legislation did not actually support and so that's why I withdrew my name as did my colleague Senator Tanya Anderson who is an alumnus of Alabama State University Senator Gail Davenport is an alumnus of Spelman College Senator Harold Jones is an alumnus of South Carolina State University and Senator Freddie Powell Simp who is an alumnus of Fort Valley State University we all withdrew our support and took our names off of the legislation before it was even withdrawn today and so we wanted to make it clear that there was never a point in the legislative process that we were supportive of a realignment or changing the names or a merger of any of these institutions this was these same members were part of the study committee that I led over the summer that ended on December 31st and the whole idea was to come up with a way to continue the work from our study committee of finding a governance structure or some type of commission or body that can make recommendations to the state on what the schools wanted and a way to partner and be have the state be more supportive and it was it would have been inclusive of public and private institutions and so that is still something that will be ongoing that I am going to continue to work on on my behalf without the work that Senator Jackson is doing separately so whatever he's doing I'm not a part of that and have made that very clear to him and to the public and I'm moving forward with my own work to continue the work that we did from my SR 977 that passed the Senate body last year can you give us some insight on the timeline and the structure of how this goes down because this bill was filed according to the legislative document on a Thursday. This bill was filed on Thursday. Thursday was a very busy day. Day 39 in the chamber where so we only have a 40-day legislative session this bill but we have a biannual session which means anything filed this year is still alive for next year as well so this bill was filed on Thursday day 39 when it was very busy and we have a posture where if one of my colleagues especially someone that I trust is working on someone especially if it's dealing with um our historically black colleges and universities I want to be supportive and so I after reading the cover page and we talked about coming up with this government structure because he was a part of the HBCU study committee that I led last year. I was under the impression that this was a continuation of that coming up with that government structure and in fact when I later found time to go through all of the details and talk with more people that was not the purpose of the legislation and not something that I was willing to put my name on or be supportive of and so this all happened the the legislation was just introduced and signed on Thursday and on day 39 of a 40-day legislative session when lots of things are going back and forth and so it's unfortunate that the bill wasn't properly explained when it was initially introduced or it would have been a single signer on the legislation and the members that I mentioned earlier would never have signed on to it. So are you saying is it your impression that most of the people that were signers on the bill did not read through it before it was filed? So the bill was already filed before it was brought to us so the way that the process works is to sponsor a thousand legislation and then look for people to support it with him so the legislation was already filed before it was brought to any other members. What is it about specifically about that file proposal that was a non-starter? Was it the changing of the branding and the nomenclature of each of the schools? Was it funding? Was it the government structure? One of the biggest things to me like SB 273 would have created a board that would have taken full control of Albany State University, Fort Valley State University and Savannah State University and it would have allowed our current governor, Brian Kemp, to select 11 of the 13 board members which was a non-starter for me. 11 of the 13 board members and it would not have been a legislative body like these are people picked by our current Republican governor to govern and come and lead this new governance structure of our three state HBCUs and so that was one of the biggest things for me and then I'm an advocate at heart I stand by my people wholeheartedly and I heard from people on I'm a huge social media I'm the youngest member of my Senate Democratic caucus so I probably use social media more than most but I heard from people and I wanted to hear what people were saying and I've read the fact that I heard from current students and young alumni and older alumni like about their concerns around this and I want to be supportive and I want to do everything that I can to move our HBCUs forward and make sure that they are able to thrive and continue in perpetuity so that I have a three-year-old son who I know that one day if he's expecting mom to pay for it he will be attending an HBCU and I want to make sure that our schools are around and ready for my little card it takes to attend both of my parents graduated from HBCUs and I attended I graduated from an HBCU and so I never want to do anything that is going to put our schools in jeopardy by giving up any control that we currently have and now there are going to be times when we need to work with other people to make sure that we're getting the resources and funding that we need to make sure that we're able to continue to exist but that does not mean relinquishing control that does not mean changing names of historical institutions that have been around for decades and we need to make sure that we're doing everything to uplift them by allowing them to still have their own autonomy. Well that is an excellent point to bring up because Georgia is the single state in the country that has developed through its higher education system principles of consolidation meaning we're going to put these schools together and they've been doing that over the last seven years one of them has been happening with our PWIs this has been happening with other institutions but we have been continuing to push back against this and so this isn't a new effort but it is a new effort to try to get alumni of HBCUs to sign on and carry the water and that is not something that I'm willing to do. But just to be clear there has been one consolidation of an historically black Albany State and Darden State College which in which Darden was consolidated into Albany State of sorts so and clearly you guys have been studying the issue going back some time so if we know that Georgia is a state of where they're actively trying to merge institutions and you guys have been studying the statistics on enrollment and funding and funding cuts and where people are going and where these schools are being merged and typically they're being proximate to HBCUs what would you say or what has the data shown you that we need to do in a short and long term to deal with or at least to work with other folks in the state to say preserve these schools because if this isn't the plan what would it be? What our study committee showed us there is a model in Louisiana and we that is the model that we're looking to find a governance structure to work under which is why portions of this bill would have been okay with me but not the name change and the consolidation of any school but what our study committee report the final report and I can send that to you after this call so that you can have it as well for any listeners that might want to view it it's on our Georgia State Senate website but there are governance structures all over the country and there are ways that other states are supporting even their private institutions and we don't do that here in Georgia and so we are looking for ways that the state can better partner with our institutions not control not come up with the new governance board that is giving control but a commission that can make recommendations of what the schools need and that's where it has to come from it has to come from the actual institution having the conversation and not a governance board where it's a overwhelming majority of appointees by our current governor and that is not something that I'm ever going to go for so we need to go back to the drawing board back to the table and revisit the report from the study committee that was just produced on December 31st has not been that long so it's fairly new data and we need to pull this information and make sure that we are moving forward with what the recommendations of the the study committee from last year recommend it and not coming up with a new structure that will in fact not strengthen but change the autonomy change the names and change the entire structure of our current state institutions and I'm not just looking at working on our state institutions I'm also looking at our private institutions Talladega College my school is a private institution and a lot of the schools that are having some of the financial problems and enrolling enrollment decline our private institutions and I think it's for us to look at all of these institutions when we're looking at the steps that we need to take to move forward and then the final question how much time do you think it would it would take to do that because currently the three H the three public HBCUs are under the university system of Georgia which is their governance board works closely in tandem with what the governor wants so that's the system we operate under now which is the one that you guys did not favor under the new proposal but how how quickly can something be done because as we know enrollments falling every year presidents are changing out every year almost or every other year at all three of the institutions there this is a pair I mean something can be done something something can be done now we can have a proposal that is ready to go at the start of the next legislative session we already have a recommendation we just need to find a way to fit in both our private and state institutions I've been I'm working with stakeholders on getting this completed and it was my understanding that this was a next step forward into that work but I quickly found that this was actually not a continuation of the work that I have been doing for our HBCUs in the state and so there there is time and I know that we want to get things done quickly but I mean I don't I wish I knew the years because I would state them the Toledo College was founded in 1867 and so we've been here since 1867 and waiting a couple of more months into the legislature reconvene is not going to close our doors