Go Retire Psychiatrist

I saw the recent news story about the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision to block the University of Iowa from redirecting a private scholarship fund to first-generation college students despite the donor’s intention by that it go to black students.

I believe the donor, Ezra Totton, intended that the scholarship go to black students and because it’s a private gift, that should be honored. That doesn’t mean I don’t recognize that there are many needy students who would benefit from scholarships. I’m both black and a first-generation college student.

I got my first chance to go to college in the 1970s. I received scholarships to attend Huston-Tillotson College (now Huston-Tillotson University) in Austin, Texas. It’s one of the country’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). I was also a reporter for the college newspaper, the Ramshorn Journal. I had forgotten all about that until August of 2025 when I saw a photo of me in a copy of the paper identifying me as a reporter. I contacted the Downs-Jones Library at H-TC to track down my stories and send them to me, which they did.

One of the stories I wrote was “H-TC Sponsors Education Seminar,” published in December of 1975. Only after I read it did I remember how I strongly felt about the issue of helping black students get into college. Another article written by Christopher F. Edley in the Ramshorn Journal was reprinted from The New York Times January 31, 1976. The title was “A Threat to Blacks In Higher Education.” I wrote a blog post about both, “History Lessons in the Ramshorn Journal, which I posted September 8, 2025.

My understanding of the current issue facing the University of Iowa is that one of the alternatives to the current disagreement about what should be done with the Ezra Totton scholarship would be transferring the fund to an HBCU. Because I’m an Iowan, I would like to see it stay in Iowa in the form Totton intended it—as a scholarship for black students. Because I was given the opportunity to attend an HBCU, if the scholarship can’t be administered as the donor intended it, then I think the fund ought to be transferred to an HBCU.