I have a number of thoughts on this, some probably not popular. But I am a realist and it's time to face facts.
I think there are too many HBCUs in this nation.
Before you get into your emotional, knee jerk feelings, lets look at why I say this.
HBCUs have served a great need in this nation for students who were not always able to attend predominantly white institutions and for students who need a different kind of educational experience, or want a different kind of educational experience than what predominantly white institutions can provide. That need is still sorely needed.
But of the roughly 107 HBCUs in this country (two of them, Bluefield State and West Virginia State, are actually predominantly white HBCUs that are 75 and 72 percent white), a growing number are struggling just to keep their doors open.
That is a huge problem.
Why is this happening? Mainly it's funding. Schools like Stillman, which has 750 students, are private and not privy to state funding (which has been unfairly dwindling for public HBCUs in most states). Many are still run on a funding model that is based way too much on tuition and fees. If they raise their already private school fees, then students and their parents are more often now being forced to make economic decisions. Big State is going to much cheaper than Private HBCU. And the student loan situation in this country isn't what it used to be. They are much harder to get now than they were in the 1980s or nineties. So fewer students mean less money rolling in on tuition and fees which means the bills aren't getting paid.
At the same time, HBCUs are having to compete for students like they never have before. The decades-long selling point of being the black place of last resort, or being a place that a black student will truly be focused on, isn't playing to the millennial class as it did to Baby Boomers. They just don't think that way, although the recent issues black men have had with police in this nation, along with the Black Lives Matter movement, has led to a slight uptick in some HBCU applications.
But, for example, when predominantly white institutions like Kennesaw State University, Florida State University, the University of Georgia, or UCLA offer some sort of African American Male Initiative program, it forces HBCUs to have to step up what they are doing as they not only have to compete with predominantly white institutions for students based on facilities, programs, etc. They are also increasingly having to compete on a level of focus as non-HBCUs are now starting to look at trying harder to attract, retain and graduate black students -- though most still have a looong way to go with that.
But how does a school compete for students today?
Part of that dilemma has been the fault of HBCUs. Many have spent far too long in doing what Morehouse College President John Silvanus Wilson Jr., said while he was executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs: they were playing the violin instead of playing the trumpet. Meaning they were still talking more about what ails them instead of extolling what they are great at doing.
While that is true, even truer is some have not found a specific niche to be able to extol. Students are looking for a high quality education that allows them to compete for high paying jobs. While many HBCUs are focused on keeping doors open, they lag further and further behind in being able to compete on a foundational basis in 2017.
Don't get me wrong or twist me out of context here. There are a great number of HBCUs that are competing and in some ways outperforming predominantly white institutions. I can run off a long list of them. But there are a number that just aren't able to in 2017. If you can't provide basics, such as wireless internet, or up-to-date food offerings, how are you going to pour money into needed liberal arts upgrades of high technology science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs that students are asking for?
The sad answer is many cannot.
That's why you see schools with 750 students struggling to keep their doors open. Cash-strapped and bells-and-whistle-wanting students want more. You can't just be an HBCU that is just an HBCU and expect to compete for students -- and donors -- anymore.
So what has to happen?
Unless the HBCUs that are struggling find a way to solve the funding dilemma so they can focus and compete, some likely need to close. Tuition and fees-driven funding models are not going to work anymore. When student populations dip, so does funding. What do you do then?
Ask Stillman College.
Or Morris Brown College. Or Knoxville College. Or St. Paul College. Or Bishop College. Or Friendship College. Or Kittrell College. Or Mary Holmes College.
