The Tuscaloosa News today profiled Stillman College and its president Ernest McNealy. The profile lauded Dr. McNealy’s 15 years at Stillman’s helm, and the transformative growth of the school’s facilities and academic offerings during his tenure.

“The spirit of the college, its commitment to the greater good continues unchanged, but the way we go about achieving that has changed,” McNealey said. “There is a sharper edge in terms of everything we do — acquiring faculty, increasing technology, managing and building facilities. We compete very successfully in most areas we pursue, and despite the economy, our immediate and long-term future is bright.”

Unlike private HBCU juggernauts Morehouse and Spelman, Stillman maintains a mission of educating the best and the brightest along side those students who enter on the fringes of academic achievement and maturity. The school has taken a hit in media and with accrediting officials in recent years because of that dedication.

But Dr. McNealy and Stillman have grown the learning, social and athletic borders of the campus with minimal funding from state and federal resources, a great feat when compared to tragic stories of pending closure at schools like Saint Paul’s and Morris Brown. Like Paul Quinn and Claflin, Stillman is coming into a new era of benefit from its mission and merit-based outcomes for faculty and students.

It has a ways to travel before it can catch the likes of Hampton and Howard, but Stillman is on the right path of being a great HBCU option for students in Alabama and beyond.

Stillman College