Black students tend to do better overall at historically black colleges, studies have shown. But many HBCUs across the country are struggling to stay afloat. kurtisalee & jaweedkaleem chronicle the pressures facing HBCUs:
Bennett College senior Brie'Asha Nwanze embraces a classmate outside the campus chapel after a ceremony where they received their caps and gowns.
Meanwhile, students like Hughes flee. Ten years ago, nearly 800 students roamed Bennett’s campus; now there are fewer than 500. Fifty years ago, 90% of black postsecondary students attended historically black schools. In 1990, it was close to 17%. Today, around 9% do.Students walk across the Bennett College campus in Greensboro. The school was founded in 1873 as a co-ed institution; in the 1920s, it became an all-women’s college. Students cross the Bennett College campus in Greensboro, N.C. The school was founded in 1873 as a co-ed institution; in the 1920s it became an all-women’s college.
“Everybody has heard of Howard, Spelman, Hampton, Morehouse,” said Dianne Suber, former president of tiny St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh, N.C. “But so many others are out there just existing day-to-day, check-to-check or sometimes worse.” One advantage that historically black college students have is that their schools tend to be small; more than half have 2,500 or fewer students. But the size has also made financial and enrollment dips harder to manage.
“When else in life will you be able to be in an all-black setting working toward a common goal — getting a degree? That was a question I thought about a lot before deciding on Bennett,” she said, noting that a predominantly white institution — which is commonly referred to on campus by the acronym PWI — was never an option.
On a recent morning, the biology major dropped by the enrollment management center to get her transcripts. She plans to apply to North Carolina A&T. “Immediately, I knew I wanted to attend,” Mosley said. “I can text my professors … there is investment in students from faculty.” In recent months, after going public with its accreditation struggle, Bennett netted more than $9.5 million in donations. Its accreditor, the Southern Assn. of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, nonetheless said Bennett was in financial trouble and took away its status. Accreditation allows colleges to offer Pell Grants, federally guaranteed loans and work-study programs, and make a degree more valuable.
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