Opinion ID: 785104
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: This Court's 1997 Opinion

Text: 15 On appeal, while upholding most of the district court's decision, this court rejected a few of its conclusions, and we set forth several instructions to be followed on remand. We focus here only on those aspects of our 1997 opinion that are relevant to this appeal. We concluded that the district court erred in finding that the use of ACT cutoffs to award scholarships was not traceable to the de jure system and that this policy did not continue to foster segregation. Ayers v. Fordice, 111 F.3d 1183, 1209 (5th Cir.1997), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 1084, 118 S.Ct. 871, 139 L.Ed.2d 768 (1998). Thus, we remanded for consideration of the practicability and educational soundness of reforming this aspect of the undergraduate scholarship policies at the historically white universities and of implementing, if necessary, appropriate remedial relief. Id. at 1209, 1228. In addition, we directed the district court to investigate the status of the Board's proposal to consolidate Mississippi Valley State and Delta State. Id. at 1214, 1228. If the district court determined that the Board planned not to merge the two schools, we instructed the court to order the Board to study other methods of desegregating Mississippi Valley State, including adding academic programs at that school. Id. We also concluded that the Board should report to the monitoring committee on new academic and land-grant programs that would have a reasonable chance of increasing the number of non-African-American students attending Alcorn State. Id. at 1214, 1228. Additionally, we remanded the issue of equipment funding, asking the district court to investigate the cause and segregative effect of disparities between the money received by the historically white universities and the historically black universities and, if necessary, to implement appropriate relief. Id. at 1225, 1228. Finally, we instructed the district court to monitor closely the effectiveness of the summer remedial program. Id. at 1228-29. We indicated that the program should be reformed as necessary to achieve the objective of identifying and admitting students who are capable — with reasonable remediation — of performing at the university level, but who fail to qualify for regular admission. Id. 16