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Changes Along The Road To College Reflect The Evolution Of Humanity
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Published: September 6, 2008
The way college students come to campus now is much different than in years past. You can expect to see members of the millennium generation arriving for college with parental escorts and modern conveniences such as cell phones and computers. If not in their first semester then certainly by the second, many will have their cars on campus.
It hasn't always been that way.
Thelma Allen, one of Pasco County's first black students to earn a high school diploma, remembers leaving Dade City in 1945 for Florida Agriculture and Mechanical College in Tallahassee on a segregated train. Like other black travelers, who usually packed lunches to skirt some of the indignities of segregation, Thelma brought food from home on that trip. It was useless to spend money on food when there was food at home, and no one could cook better than mom.
"I had been in school for some time before I purchased food at the train station," recalled the retired elementary school teacher.
Theresa Williams, a 1966 graduate of Mickens High School, took the train from Dade City to Howard University in Washington, D.C., with a footlocker and a couple of cardboard suitcases. Sounds like emotional suicide. The day she arrived on campus was the first time she'd been to the city. Today, most students would fly.
Theresa was tough. She visited relatives in New Jersey and other nearby Northeastern states during breaks and came home only for Christmas. That kind of distance has been known to crush some students with homesickness and loneliness. Theresa stuck it out, even when her mom didn't attend her graduation.
"Mom had some experience traveling, but she did not come," the retired teacher said.
In 1973, I had to ride the "dog" - the Greyhound bus - from Brooksville to Morris Brown College in Atlanta. I had visited the campus a year earlier to pick up an application but never thought I needed to attend orientation or take a campus tour. My acquaintance with the school came from one of my high school classmates and best friends who was a student there.
Greyhound and Trailways were my means of transportation for three years. The trip was 10 hours with stops in every little town along the way. It seemed like everyone and his sister was headed to college on Labor Day weekend.
On more than one occasion, there were no seats available by the time the northbound bus arrived in Brooksville, and I had to stand or sit on luggage in the aisle. The fare was not discounted for the inconvenience. Seats did not become available until the FAMU and Florida State University students got off in Tallahassee. My mother caught the same bus round-trip to attend my graduation. Now, the bus doesn't even run through Dade City - or many other small towns.
I was not prepared for Atlanta. When winter came, my high school letterman jacket was my only defense against the cold. I did not think I was poor or disadvantaged, maybe because many of my peers were in the same situation.
My experience was more like that of a community college student. I always commuted and lived in the city with my sister. I caught the city bus five days a week for three years. The living arrangement reduced the cost of my education
In the late-'80s, circumstances were much better for Theresa's first cousin, William Chris Walton. A relative took Chris to visit Johnson & Wales College in Charleston, S.C. The 1989 Pasco High School graduate eventually arrived with a word processor, $200 and a devastating greeting from Hurricane Hugo. Becoming a chef was something Chris knew he wanted, so he kept his focus on his goal and not his challenges. Today, he works as a chef in Baghdad.
Change is not necessarily bad. I can't imagine being charged extra to have basic appliances such as a radio or iron at school, as Thelma was in the mid-'40s. Nor could I imagine this generation agreeing to attend mandatory chapel service once or twice a week.
People who cannot or will not adapt to change are bound to be left behind. It is man's nature to make life better for each generation. Improvements are only symbols of man's continuous evolution. So when it comes to college, we can expect for things to get better for our children and grandchildren.
Imani Asukile, a Hernando County native, is a longtime Dade City resident and one of the founders of the African American Heritage Society of East Pasco County. To suggest a future column, e-mail him at idasukile@yahoo.com.
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