Prairie View A&M University celebrated its 130th anniversary at a gala in Houston in April. Here, President George C. Wright expands on the remarks he gave at the gala to discuss what’s new on campus, the university’s legacy and the importance of literature in education.
Prairie
View A&M President George C. Wright
What are some recent highlights at Prairie View A&M?
The electrical engineering building opened last fall and the School of Architecture has a new building that has been featured in architectural magazines. The College of Nursing moved into its new state-of-the-art building in the Texas Medical Center in Houston recently and the College of Juvenile Justice & Psychology building is progressing nicely on campus and will be opening this fall.
While the buildings contribute greatly to our campus and programs, as a former provost, I know it is even more remarkable that every program that requires accreditation has now achieved it.
In April, for example, our College of Business, under the leadership of Dean Munir Quddus, received full accreditation from AACSB, the international accreditation for schools of business. Less than one-third of all business schools in the United States meet these standards and only 12 out of more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities have achieved this hallmark of excellence.
What is your philosophy about what students should learn on your campus?
As president, I am committed to making sure that our students get much more than a degree. We want them to leave with an education.
Something Winston Churchill said sums up my belief: “No, this is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning.” That is what an education is all about: preparing someone for life, providing something that will always be of value to the individual who acquires it.
Along those lines, I have developed a reading list of books that I recommend to everyone, not just our students. I have also asked Vice President Lauretta Byars to form a committee to solicit recommendations and come up with a broader reading list that reflects more than my personal taste.
Why do you think reading is such a powerful experience?
Reading inspires and challenges us. Maya Angelou, the storied author and poet, said the following about reading: “When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.”
Malcolm X said the following about reading: “I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke in me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.”
Has a love of reading played an important role in your own life?
Definitely. I shudder to think what my life would be like if my mother had not instilled in me at an early age a love of reading. Because I had been such an indifferent student in high school—that is a nice way of saying what I really was: someone who graduated because of social promotion—I can say that two books specifically are responsible for my obtaining the B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.
The first one is The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, which gave me insights into the value of hard work and discipline. The second, by Strunk and White, is called simply The Elements of Style.
Case in point: in my freshmen English class, we were told to write an “outline.” I wrote outside of the lines of the paper! Then, in another class, the professor said that we needed to bring a “blue book” for the exam, so I went to the library and checked out a book with a blue cover! Someone told me to read Strunk and White and I have been doing so again and again since my freshmen year in college.
Do you have a favorite genre of literature?
All of my life I have loved reading military history. Over the course of my life I have purchased and read what has become a countless number of books on the American Civil War, the War to End All Wars that was World War I, and then on the Great War, which was World War II.
I highly recommend Richard B. Frank’s, Downfall, The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. This incredible book starts off by explaining that the war in Europe had ended and that the Allies, led by the United States and Russia, were determined to end the war in Japan. Meanwhile, the military warlords in Japan, fully aware that they could not win, were equally determined to kill so many Americans on the invasion of Japan that they could then sue for peace on their own terms instead of being required to submit to an unconditional and total surrender. This book said that one million American lives would be lost on the invasion of Japan.
Another military book I recommend is Joseph Persico’s, 11th Month, 11th Day, 11th Hour: Armistice Day, 1918, World War I and its Violent Climax. This incredible book makes the point about the large number of people killed in this conflict:
The total Armistice Day casualties were nearly 10 percent higher than those on D-Day 25 years later. There was, however, a vast difference. The men storming the Normandy Beaches were fighting for victory. Men dying on Armistice Day were fighting in a war already decided.
The author then concluded by trying to help us understand just how many people died during the bloody fighting of World War I. He wrote:
The dimensions of loss can perhaps be appreciated visually. If one were to stand on a street corner at 9 a.m. and watch the spirits of the British dead march by four abreast, the column would be 97 miles long and would take twenty-four hours.... The French dead would take an additional 51 hours and the Germans another 59 hours. Considering all the dead on the Western Front, this parade would last from 9 a.m. Monday to 4 p.m. Saturday and stretch 386 miles, roughly the distance from Paris through Switzerland or from New York to Cleveland.
For someone like me, who has never been in the military, books like these are a vivid reminder that the cost of the freedoms that we enjoy are not free but were paid for with the blood of others. Reading is a bridge between the past, present and future.
Prairie
View A&M’s nursing program has always been known
for excellence. The program recently moved to a state-of-the-art facility
in the Texas Medical Center in Houston.
As a historian, you often focus on the contributions of those who have gone before. What is being done on behalf of future generations on your campus?
I believe we have a responsibility to act in a way that preserves Prairie View A&M University for the next 130 years. We must act with a sense of urgency to continue the legacy of excellence.
Our $30 million capital campaign is designed to preserve the university for future generations. The donations we receive will impact the quality of our programs and enhance the services and support we can offer our students.
Now that we are more than halfway to our goal, we are in the alumni phase of the campaign. I have said repeatedly that our graduates will always be affiliated with Prairie View A&M, for better or worse, and it is up to them to ensure that the university reaches new heights.
I also have urged alumni and their families to donate photographs, portraits and other memorabilia for display on our campus. They can best help us capture the spirit of Prairie View in a way that will commemorate our legacy and encourage our students. It is my goal to continue the tradition of excellence at Prairie View A&M.
