It&8217;s about time. As of Friday, the $1.7 million owed to Alcorn State University as a result of the Ayers discrimination settlement was finally in the bank.

And Alcorn is the first of the state&8217;s three historically black universities to receive the funds because it is the first to achieve a 10 percent diversity standard set in the settlement agreement.

Alcorn State President Dr. Clinton Bristow credited the school&8217;s Natchez campus &8212; which houses an MBA program and a nursing school &8212; with much of the diversity success.

Alcorn has worked hard to recruit non-black students to its programs in Natchez.

Now that Alcorn has the funding, it can begin spending the interest from the settlement. The full amount of the settlement must go into an endowment.

Alcorn has known this money is coming for years &8212; and has been planning how to spend it as well.

The school now has an even greater opportunity to position itself as the university for southwest Mississippi. And with recruiting successful outside of the state &8212; even as far away as Russia &8212; there&8217;s a good chance Alcorn can gain a reputation that extends beyond Mississippi as well.

Bolstering that reputation will bode well not just for the Lorman-based school but for Natchez as well. With a branch of a four-year university in our own community, we can market our educational opportunities to future businesses and industries. Alcorn&8217;s success is Natchez&8217;s success, too.