Stop the MERGER!!

Getting straight to the point I feel that the plans to merge Alcoren State and Mississippi Valley with Jackson State is totally unfair. I do not think that Haley Barbour thought this plan out clearly. It has been said that the idea has been brought up in order to save money but in actuality money will not be saved but instead more money will be needed to make the change happen and to keep it up. I feel that by doing this merge it takes away from the history of each school. It defeats the purpose of all the hard work it took for us to get where we are now. Why can't ways be thought of to make more money to separately add to each school to make it better individually?

If we merge then it truly takes away from the college experience, the rival games and most importantly the history behind each college. I love my school--Jackson State University and I am pretty sure all the students that attend Alcorn and Valley love their schools as well. When I first heard about it I could tell that many people for against this and some were even highly upset about the idea. Once again I agree that it is time to have an honest discussion about our HBCU's. The idea has been thrown around that some of the community colleges should be closed down or merged. On that thought I do not feel that is necessary. Although, they are community colleges they too have history. But the idea to close down a few branches of the same community college would not be such a bad decision.

My mother is an alumni of Jackson State University. She was a senior at JSU when they had the Gibbs-Green shooting on the campus so she was apart of history. When I asked her about her views on the idea she said, "I feel that it shouldn't happen." She is totally against this. She then went on to tell why she felt that way, "because Jackson State is a historically black college and if he [Barbour] wants to merge something...why not Ole Miss and Mississippi State." Even my aunt who did not attend JSU is against the idea and I totally agree with them as well.