HBCUs were created for the most part after the Civil War to educate students who were barred from white institutions. In the 1960s, about 90 percent of black college students attended HBCUs, both public and private, but today the schools enroll just 21 percent of black undergraduates. “We began to compete openly for students, talent, and resources,” said John Brown, then the interim vice president for Morehouse’s office of institutional advancement, in late June. (He has since left the position.) “As that competition opened up on all fronts, we have found ourselves in the position of playing catch-up, plain and simple, and that’s where we are.”
The wealthier a school’s endowment, the more money it has both to attract students and to provide them with the funding and academic services to get them to graduation. Howard’s endowment means it has just under $58,000 for each of its 10,000 students. By comparison, Nashville’s Vanderbilt University has about $300,000 per student. The problem isn’t alumni who fail The wealthier a school’s endowment, the more money it has both to attract students and to provide them with the funding and academic services to get them to graduation.
to give. Across the street from Morehouse at Spelman College, the historically black women’s college with a graduation rate of more than 75 percent and a $348 million endowment, more than a third of alumnae donated to the institution in 2016. That’s more than four times the national average of 8.1 percent, according to data compiled by the Council for Aid to Education, a group that tracks philanthropy to universities. Spelman collected $2.52 million in alumnae gifts in 2016. Smith College, the women’s college in Northampton, Mass., had about the same proportion of alumnae donating. But that school, with a $1.6 billion endowment, received $36.3 million from former students in 2016.
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