USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J. and Jackson State President Ronald Mason, Jr. signed an agreement last month for a student exchange program between the two schools. USF Provost Jim Wiser and Jackson State Provost Joseph Stevenson organized the partnership.
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USF Partners with Jackson State
After signing student exchange agreements with schools in Hungary, Korea, and Finland over the last year, the University of San Francisco will also be exchanging students from an equally distinct area: the American South.
Last month, USF and Jackson State University in Mississippi became official exchange partners. The program, set to begin this fall, will probably start small, with a total exchange of three to five undergraduates.
“Students learn best from each other and the more breadth of cultural experience they have, the better,” said Jackson State President Ronald Mason, Jr. “It makes sense to do this exchange right here in America.”
The program is another way for USF to diversify its student body by offering African American students the best of both worlds, said USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J.
“We were particularly interested in partnering with a historically Black college because students have felt that they were forced to choose,” (between a diverse school like USF and a historically Black college like Jackson State) Fr. Privett said.
The program is one of a handful offered between a historically Black college or university like Jackson State and a more diverse school like USF. At Jackson State, about 94 percent of students and 66 percent of faculty are African American. At USF, whites are 44 percent of the student body, Asian Americans are 17 percent, and African Americans are 6 percent. Jackson State offers a similar menu of colleges and majors as USF, with its own business and education schools, plus an engineering school.
What will be a profound experience for both USF and Jackson State students, both presidents agreed, are the cultural differences. Jackson, the capitol of Mississippi, is a small city of fewer than 200,000 and 70 percent of its citizens are African American. San Francisco, a city of nearly 800,000, is more variegated, with whites (roughly 50 percent) and Asian Americans (30 percent) its biggest ethnic groups.
“Most Mississippians never leave Mississippi, and there is no other city like San Francisco,” said Jackson State Provost Joseph Stevenson. “It is a cutting edge cultural experience [for our students].”
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