Jackson Free Press

A line of concerned students and alumni gathered May 25 at 9 a.m. on the pavement below the Jackson State University administrative towers building to protest the merger of the university's sociology and criminology programs. Students said they were shaken by the news that the university would be putting both schools under one administrative roof in a merger it claims will strengthen the faculty base.

"The students have not been involved in the process at all," said criminology graduate Jonathan Wright. "When they were told that some of their main and key professors would not be teaching classes, it raised red flags, and it spurred us to write letters to the college."

Wright said the letters and requests for conversation went ignored by JSU officials, however, further fueling trepidation.

"We went all the way up to President Mason. Nobody wanted to talk to us, so two weeks ago we wrote (Associate Provost) Velvelyn Foster a letter saying if we don't get a response this Monday, we'll seek a broader audience, so here we are," Wright said. "The whole point of this was that we just wanted to dialogue about this merger, and they weren't interested."

The merger, which has been two years in the works, was the result of the university's shuffling of the Center for Urban Affairs, which originally housed two programs: a degree program in urban affairs and a degree program in criminal justice. Urban affairs, according to Velvelyn Foster, got moved to the new college of public service, leaving criminal justice standing by itself in the university's liberal-arts division.

"The professors in criminal justice convinced us that their program was more of a humanities-based philosophy and should remain in liberal arts, and that's what we did. But we thought that that program standing alone was not as strong as we would like it to be." As a companion program, JSU chose sociology, which spawned the criminal justice program. "We said we would put those two similar programs together, and we would have a stronger faculty base for our students," Foster said.

The new department, called the Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology, is headed by Dr. VV Prakasa Rao, chairman of the Department of Sociology. A press statement released by the JSU Consortium for the Preservation of the Criminal Justice Program claims that Rao has no background in criminal justice and, therefore, "has no vision for the Criminal Justice Program and its commitment to the community."

Foster argues that Rao has the credentials to handle the criminal justice department.

"We're reviewed by accrediting bodies as far as credentials are concerned, and he has the credentials to head the department," Foster said. "Rao does not teach criminal justice, but he's not required to. ... If there are curriculum matters to be done in the areas of criminal justice only criminal justice professors will be engaged in developing those and making recommendations to the chair."

Wright said he and current students were concerned that professors such as Assistant Professor Jimmy Bell, now coordinator of the criminal-justice program, would be swept out. They also complain that the Institutions of Higher Learning was not contacted.

Foster says IHL approved the merger, however, though IHL President Virginia Newton did not return calls to confirm whether or not proper procedure was followed. Foster added that Bell will remain with the department if he chooses.

"Mr. Bell is assistant professor of criminal justice, and he also has a temporary appointment as coordinator of the criminal justice program. His faculty position is not in danger. I don't know how that (rumor) got out there," Foster said, adding that the school was emphasizing strengthening the program by hiring additional members with PhDs in criminal justice.

Bell said the concerns of the students about the effectiveness of the department in the face of the merger are not unfounded.

"What happens when you change leadership is that you change philosophies and you hire individuals more compatible to your vision of the program. … A new leader in that position may not have a vision that is in tune with current trends, so students have legitimate gripes," Bell said.

Rao and JSU President Ronald Mason Jr. could not be reached for comment.