What is the Future for America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities?
A tour through the campus of Morris Brown College on Atlanta’s west side is a journey through history and, now, despair. The president’s home is boarded up. Up and down Martin Luther King Boulevard, the area’s main thoroughfare, old student dormitories resemble blown out abandoned factories. The school’s dilapidated football stadium nearby is rotting, quite literally, from the inside — years removed from its last home game. Beneath the cracks, though, there is a proud history. It is one of the few historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) with black founders. The renowned black scholar and activist, W.E.B. Du Bois held an office at the campus’ historic Fountain Hall and the school counts many well known black athletes, writers and artists as alumni. “We’ve been in a battle,” school President Stanley Pritchett told NBC News as he walked along the school’s still mostly well-kept main quad. That battle began more than a decade ago when the 136-year-old school lost accreditation after a financial scandal that nearly led to its closure. With no accreditation status, all students enrolled at the school were no longer eligible to receive financial aid — a devastating prospect for the more than 90 percent of students who relied on aid and which accounted for 70 percent of the college’s income. The losses were staggering. Beneath the cracks, though, there is a proud history.
In 2003, the school had an enrollment of 2,700. Today, it has 40 students. Morris Brown College is an extreme example of the dire financial challenges facing many of the nation’s more than 100 HBCUs. The schools, the majority of which were founded in the Reconstruction Era as black Americans searched for a formal education that had eluded them for centuries, played a huge role in creating the black middle class and have remained central to African-American life in the United States. Today, though, many are grappling with severe levels of debt, declining enrollment and, even, relevance as they compete in a hyper-competitive environment for the best and brightest black students. “We have a few bright spots in the community, but by and large the overall sector is struggling,” said Johnny Taylor, President and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall Fund, the only national organization that supports all HBCUs. “The underfunding problem cannot be overstated.” Despite the structural challenges, HBCUs continue to outperform their peers in some respects. While HBCUs represent only three percent of all U.S. colleges, they produce 17 percent of African-Americans with bachelor’s degrees and 24 percent of all black scientists and engineers. And, by and large, at a time of stratospheric tuition rates, HBCUs have continued to serve academically and financially disadvantaged students — known as “at risk” students in financial aid parlance.
US President Donald Trump talks with leaders of historically black universities and colleges before posing for a group photo in the Oval Office of the White House before a meeting with US Vice
President Mike Pence February 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. Photography: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP - Getty Images
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