LSU President William Tate spoke about the importance of STEM education, evolving Baton Rouge into a technological and biomedical hub, and the systemic challenges facing Black men in education at a panel Tuesday.
Tate met with chancellors Willie E. Smith Sr. of Baton Rouge Community College and Ray L. Belton Sr. of Southern University, as well as East Baton Rouge Parish Schools Superintendent Sito Narcisse to share insight on education policy.
The event, titled “Education on the Rise,” took place at BRCC Magnolia Performing Art Theatre and was live streamed on YouTube following an introductory speech by Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome.
The panelists shared personal experiences and envisioned an ideal future of education, covering a wide range of policies and issues affecting students.
Tate, the newest Baton Rouge educator on the panel, underlined the importance of STEM, as Louisiana faces its worst surge of COVID-19 cases.
“If you haven’t noticed, we’re in a pandemic,” Tate said. “You got a vaccine in less than one year because mRNA technology existed and folks put money into it, and in one year’s time – bang – in the age of biology there’s a solution for some of the problems we’re dealing with.”
The panelists went on to highlight the Capital Area Promise, an initiative promoting secondary and technical schooling to Baton Rouge students. One facet of CAP is early outreach by offering dual enrollment credits and prioritizing summer employment and internship programs.
Narcisse said the state’s most urban districts, like East Baton Rouge, hold untapped potential for the CAP program.
The hosts went on to emphasize the panelists’ achievements as influential Black men despite systemic challenges that affect African Americans in education.
“Society is organized in a very fascinating way,” Tate said. “We’re talking about Black boys right now who mostly are in what I would call a ‘sports regime.’ From the time that they’re born through the time they matriculate with you in K-12, largely they’re identified based upon their physical prowess – their ability to run or catch or throw.
“We spend an inordinate amount of money rewarding people for putting people in jail. We spend an inordinate amount of money for all kinds of other regimes that have nothing to do with actually protecting and nurturing their brain. We literally have created this monster.”
Asked to envision the next 10 years of education and community engagement in Baton Rouge, Tate suggested evolving the city into a technological and biomedical hub.
“The key is that there’s access for people indigenous to the community and not just bringing people in who are just attracted to it for gentrification purposes,” he said. “If you can do that at scale in 10 years, you would see a very different battlefield.”
