If communicating what you want were a course in school, U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers Jr .would fail.

On Friday, the judge issued an order halting Alcorn State University and Mississippi Valley State University from spending $3.5 million appropriated by the Mississippi Legislature.

The money was supposed to be spent for programs designed to increase white enrollment at the predominantly black universities -&160;a goal mandated by Biggers’ ruling in the Ayers desegregation case.

But as Dr. Clinton Bristow, president of Alcorn State said this week, the ruling leaves college officials feeling more than a little like bewildered student who completes all his coursework, passes all the tests with As and still earns a failing grade in the class.

The order just doesn’t make sense.

And that is because Biggers has failed to communicate clearly what he expects of Alcorn and the other historically black universities.

Simply saying schools need to develop programs aimed at improving diversity isn’t enough. Obviously both Alcorn and MVSU thought they’d done just that with the programs to be funded by this $3.5 million.

Biggers must, instead, clearly specify what types of programs he expects and what standards he will use in judging the worthiness of those programs. Until he does that – and until his students have a clear outline of how to achieve the goal of further desegregating Mississippi’s higher education system -&160;Bristow and others will waste precious energy and time in trying to satisfy the judge.

And, more important, Bristow and the others will lack a key component in the process.

Like any good teacher, Biggers must learn to communicate with his pupils … clearly, effectively and from the beginning.