Georgia Committee Weighs Combining Black Colleges With Neighbors

A Georgia state Senate committee on Monday discussed combining historically black schools with their once segregated neighboring colleges in an effort to alleviate budget concerns, the Athens Banner-Herald reports. Black colleges like Savannah State University could merge with nearby institutions such as Armstrong Atlantic State University.

"It's time that Georgia closed that political chapter," said Seth Harp, the state senator who floated the idea.

Erroll Davis, the chancellor of the University System of Georgia, warned of the difficulties of such a move but did not reject the idea outright.

"We will need a political will to do that, because each of these institutions has been in business for a long time," he said. "Those schools may have been created for reasons 50 years ago. But that was 50 years ago. . . . It's going to be a political decision, not an economic decision."