Positive News for HBCUs
New Gallup-Purdue University report says black students are more likely to feel supported and be engaged in work after graduation if they attend historically black colleges and universities. Black graduates of historically black colleges and universities are significantly more likely to have felt supported while in college and to be thriving afterwards than are their black peers who graduated from predominantly white institutions, according to the newest data from an ongoing Gallup-Purdue University study. The survey -- which is the largest of its kind and has now collected data from 50,000 college alumni over two years -- attempts to measure whether colleges are doing enough to help students’ well-being in life after they graduate. It measures five “elements of well-being,” described as social, financial, purpose, community and physical elements. The survey also asks graduates if they remember having had a professor who cared about them, made them excited to learn or encouraged them to follow their dreams -- which Gallup refers to collectively as
being “emotionally supported” while in college. Brandon Busteed, executive director of Gallup Education and Workforce Development, said that while HBCUs continue to lag other colleges and universities in many other areas, the data in the newest Gallup-Purdue report should come as “positive news” for the struggling institutions. “There are still noticeable challenges around completion rates and loan default rates, and this data doesn’t change that,” Busteed said. “But this data does add a whole new dimension to the conversation about the value of HBCUs. Black students are having very meaningful experiences at HBCUs, compared to black graduates from everywhere else.”
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