Historically Black Colleges Try to Catch Up as Rich Schools Get Richer
Of the 90 schools with billion-dollar endowments, not one is an HBCU Morehouse College has strong academics, an idyllic leafy campus, and illustrious alumni, 15 percent of whom give back to the school, a rate comparable to Harvard’s. But the historically black college in Atlanta lacks one thing that’s increasingly important: a rich endowment fund.
At just over $130 million, the all-male college’s fund ranks about 400th among U.S. schools. It’s not an unusual problem for historically black colleges and universities, also known as HBCUs. None of the 90 higher education institutions with endowments of more than $1 billion is an HBCU. The wealthiest is Washington’s Howard University, with $578 million as of June 30, 2016, ranking about 160. That’s less than 2 percent the size of the fund at Harvard, the richest school overall, with $35.7 billion.
Independent wealth is especially important at a time when Donald Trump and his administration have given mixed messages on federal funding. Upon coming into office, Trump said he would “absolutely prioritize” funding for the institutions. When submitting a budget proposal, however, Trump implied in a signing statement that federal funding to HBCUs might be unconstitutional. A second statement backtracked the comment, and the administration’s proposed funding for the schools is unchanged from last year’s budget under President Obama, at about $492 million.
A second statement backtracked the comment, and the administration’s proposed funding for the schools is unchanged from last year’s budget under President Obama, at about $492 million.
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