Wilberforce University - Forcean Yearbook (Wilberforce, OH)

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. Atoubltl Aetllllolbitnlllltbblnhslbl I RICHARD R. WRIGHT JR. 1932-1936 1940-1942 D. ORMONDE WALKER 1936-1940 q I 0 UIYIIOU I Qvv ll 110 vvlf Ill A. M. E. ministers, and two A. M. E. lay- men. The foregoing distributions may be consider- edtypical. Between 1887 and 1947, a series of amendments to the original act of 1887 were passed by the Ohio general assembly, and these have preserved the legal entity of the state unit at Wilberforce University as a separate and complete educational institution. By the act of August 19, 1941, the combined normal and industrial department was reorganized as the College of Education and Industrial Arts, at Wilberforce University, Greene County, Ohio. Accordingly Wilberforce, as the general public knew it, included two colleges - one, liberal arts and the other, education - when, as a matter of fact, there were two separate col- leges: namely, the college of liberal arts and sciences, controlled by the AME Church and the college of education and industrial arts maintained by the state of Ohio. This meant that two separate diplomas were handed the so-called Wilberforce University graduate - one issued by the AME Church for the college of liberal arts graduate and the other awarded by the state of Ohio to the college of education graduate. Ostensibly, in order to smooth the difficulty in the operation of the two trustee boards at Wilber- force University, a joint executive committee, including three members of the state board and three members from the church board, was es- tablished in 1941. This committee was to have authority to regulate all matters where the in- terests of the college of liberal arts and the col- lege of education and industrial arts overlap and should be unified. The truth of the matter is that this joint executive committee rarely met and accomplished little, because of the constant jockeying for control between the church and state boards - despite an educationally sound set of by-laws. Wilberforce University first received recognition by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in 1939, when the school was granted PROVISIONAL ACCREDITATION. On April 2, 1943, the North Central Association bestowed full accreditation on Wilberforce University and dis- missed its special advisory committee, which had studied the problem of accreditation for Wilber- force University ever since 1939. At the same time that Wilberforce University was securing North Central Association accreditation the church board was intensifying its efforts to control the president. Subsequently, the North Cen- tral Association inquired of the church board of trustees as to their conception of the place and function of the board of trustees in the control of Wilberforce University. Not receiving a satisfac- tory answer, the Board of Review of the North Central Association, on December 19, 1944, voted to appoint a special committee to make an in- vestigation, at Wilberforce University, to determine whether a complete survey is needed as a basis for continuing the institution on the accredited list. On April 10, 1945, the special committee informed President Wesley that it considered un- sound the present condition of control of the in-

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G5M?JGSMfD6 SMO'E6'N40fDGWQ00'DG5'WfDG'WWVDGN'UfD JOHN A. GREGG 1920- 1924 GILBERT H. JONES 1924- 1932 Q2Q'k9QOWk9Q!Qk97Wk9QOWkDQ2WkDQ2'Wk9Q2Wk9 After the war was over Wilberforce University became one of the centers for the rehabilitation of the soldiers who returned from the war. Since 1922 both a junior and a senior unit of the Re- serve Officers Training Corps have been in opera- tion at Wilberforce University. Shorter Hall, having been built with difficulty by the sacrifice of the church in the years immediately following the Civil War, had come to be a shrine representative of the A. M. E. Church's devotion to the cause of education, and a symbol of the Black race's sentiments surrounding the founding and development of the university hovered around its sacred walls. The ground on which it stood was hallowed ground. At least, so said the orator from year to year from the chapel platform. But more than that, Shorter Hall was an emblem of the church's power, the church's control over the institution so largely supported by the State of Ohio. Without its halo of sentiment, Shorter Hall was not a commodious building, neither was it in good repair. Its stairtreads squeaked as one mounted the stairs: its floors were worn through in places: its ancient walls were dingy and full of nail holes: and its class rooms were small and poorly lighted. Yet Shorter Hall was actually the educational and spiritual center of activities of Wilberforce from the time of Payne until the time of its destruction. President Gregg characterized it as follows: The building, from which have gone some of the most influential men of our race, and which stood like a mighty fortress at the frontier between the ignorance and impotence of an emerging race and its great accomplishments of today. In order to understand the relationship existing be- tween the A. M. E, Church and the State of Ohio in the management of Wilberforce University, one must take into consideration the quasi-religious character of the Combined Normal and Industrial Department Board of Trustees. Historically, the University Board of Trustees, represents the cor- poration, which is a creature of the A. M. E. Church The C. N. 84 I, Department Board of Trustees is a board of trustees representing a joint relation- ship of the church and state, and is composed of members elected by the University Board of Trust- ees and members appointed by the governor of the State of Ohio. The University Board of Trustees is compo'sed of two kinds of members: legal trustees which represent the corporation in all important business and legal relationships, and conference trustees, who serve in a consulting and advisory capacity, but who have no voice or vote in business or legal matters. The legal board consists of twenty- one members elected by co-option with a pattern of choice which is easy to follow. The three bishops representing the particular episcopal districts which directly support the school, certain other members representing these districts, and a few members representing the church at large consti- tute the legal board. ln 1932 the legal board consisted of seven A. M. E, Bishops, eleven prominent A. M. E. minis- ters, and three A. M. E. laymen, and in 1936 there were seven A. M. E. Bishops, twelve prominent 7

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CHARLES H WESLEY 1942 1947 CHARLES LEANDER HILL 1947-1956 I f 1 . ' : l f l : stitution through two boards of trustees. lf the conditions are not remedied by the time the in- vestigating committee makes its visit, the Board of Review will probably find it necessary in order to complete survey of Wilberforce University, dur- ing the winter of 1945-1946, to determine whether the institution should be continued on the accredit- ed list. ln an effort to accord with the recommendations of the North Central Association, the state of board of trustees for the College of Education and lndus- trial Arts became one of the sponsors for legis- lation, passed by Ohio Assembly during the 1947 session, which not only revamped the occupational spread of the state trustee board but also changed the ratio of state-church members from 6-3 to 8 members appointed by the state, and one by the church. Other provisions of the act changed the title of superintendent, as fiscal officer, to business manager and made the president, in effect, the chief executive officer of the College of Education and Industrial Arts. Seemingly angered by this combination of events - the loss of North Central Accreditation and the amended bill for state control of the College of Education and Industrial Arts - the church board summarily dismissed Dr. Wesley as presi- dent of Wilberforce University on June 11, 1947 by a 16 to 5 vote. Cause for this action was given by the board as an incompetent adminis- tration leading to loss of the North Central Rating. In discharging President Wesley, however, the church board claimed that they were withdrawing from only that section of the joint-executive-com- mittee agreement, which related to the election and removal of the president. At the same time, the church board refused to accept the newly elected trustee alumni representatives to their board, and instead, adopted a new plan for com- position of the board that would provide for great- er divergence of representation, within the board, according to church districts. Sentiment also was expressed that there was no need for North Central Association to tell the AME Church how to run Wilberforce University. Close upon the heels of the action of the Wilber- force University Church Corporation in separating the College of Liberal Arts from a single and uni- fied administration, the state board for the Col- lege of Education and Industrial Arts, meeting in regular session on June 19, 147, voted full confi- dence in President Wesley to proceed at once with reorganization of the educational program of the College of Education and Industrial Arts, so as to include work in'the liberal arts and sciences. A few days later, at a meeting on the Wilberforce campus, the Wilberforce National Alumni Association likewise passed a resolution praising the administration of President Wesley. Furthermore, the Alumni Association called upon both the state and church boards to meet again, through the joint executive committee, in an ef- fort to resolve the present difficulties at Wilber- force University. Although Wilberforce University had its ups and downs , trials and tribulation, it still lives. And today, we can yet say, Wilberforce is one of Ameri- ca's finest Universities and one of the best Black institutions in the world. 9