THE RISE AND FALL OF GEOLOGY AT AN HBCU: LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

The geology program at Elizabeth City State University, a historically black university in North Carolina, officially ended in December 2015. The program was unique as the only geology major offered by a Historically Black University following the closure of similar programs at Howard University and Virginia State University. ECSU began its geology program in 1976 in the wake of the Arab Oil Embargo of the mid-1970s when there was heightened interest in developing domestic energy exploration. The program at ECSU was successful in that it graduated students who were well prepared for careers directly related to geology such as the current Vice President in ExxonMobil’s Production Company, a Section Chief for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, exploration geologists for companies like Conoco-Phillips and Texaco and had its own trust fund through which majors could receive financial assistance. The downfall of the program was the inability to attract enough African-American students despite the program’s efforts such as Earth science workshops for middle and high school students and teachers, brochures, telephone and letter follow-ups to keep the program viable. Part of the reason is the location of ECSU on the Coastal Plain on North Carolina where there no natural rock outcrops so the students who attend have not grown up with geology surrounding them, and the fact that the number of African-American geology majors nationwide has traditionally been low. Another factor was the University’s focus of resources on “signature programs”, many of which are also low performing but which had substantial money invested in infrastructure and hiring, and not trying to recruit students to other low performance programs to bolster them.

For any current HBCU thinking of developing a geology program, the lessons learned from ECSU are to (1) make sure that there is sufficient interest from your pool of incoming students, (2) emphasize to freshmen taking introductory geology not only of job opportunities but that there are organizations like the National Association of Black Geologists and the American Association of Blacks in Energy that are available for help and support such as scholarships and internships, and (3) to make sure that Administration will support the program through recruitment.