Appreciating and committing to HBCUs

As we enter the 21st century, it is important to reflect on the status of African Americans in higher education and the critical role that historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) continue to play in preparing the next generation of leaders in America and the global community. It also is essential that we become more serious in our financial commitment to these institutions.
After more than 30 years of focused, intensive efforts to increase diversity in higher education, the lack of overall, significant progress is discouraging.   African Americans and people of color are still grossly underrepresented at America's colleges and universities.  And while the numbers have increased, they have done so at very modest increments.
Although African Americans represent nearly 13 percent of the U.S. population, they constitute only 3.5 percent of all Ph.D.s — the most advanced scholarly credential awarded in the United States annually.
Although HBCUs make up only 3 percent of all institutions of higher education in the United States, they graduate approximately 33 percent of all African Americans with B.A.s and 43 percent of all African Americans who go on to earn Ph.D.s.
These institutions, for the most part, have accomplished this noteworthy feat with limited resources, scant attention, and little acknowledgment of the breadth of their successes.  Though many in our society believe that affirmative action, desegregation and integration have served their purposes well and run their course over the last four decades, educational attainment statistics tell a very different story—and it is a story that must be addressed forthrightly and in the next century.
High school graduation rates for African Americans have reached 86 percent today, yet African American representation in higher education institutions has not substantively increased in the last three decades.
Fortunately, HBCUs have remained true to their mission.  It is not a coincidence that Xavier University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Hampton University are among the top 10 institutions sending the most African Americans to medical schools and to graduate study at the doctoral level.  It should also be noted that Howard University's 1999 Rhodes Scholar  personifies the standards of excellence at HBCUs.  There are many potential Rhodes Scholars to be found on the campuses of America's HBCUs.
Howard University's Strategic Framework for Action is focused on increasing the numbers of African American doctoral recipients in all fields by, in large part, strengthening the existing aspects of our curriculum and research programming and broadening students' access to them.  One recent initiative funded by the National Science Foundation is specifically designed to increase the numbers of underrepresented doctoral recipients in science, engineering and mathematics—not just Howard University students, but all prospective Ph.D. students, particularly African Americans and other underrepresented groups. 
The commitment to excellence and education of African Americans and other underrepresented groups signifies progression in the struggle for educational equality and speaks to the successes earned in the recent past.
According to the American Council on Education's 1999 Report on Minorities in Higher Education, three of the top 21 universities producing African American Ph.D. recipients from 1992 to 1996 were HBCUs.  And while HBCUs take great pride in such numerical distinctions, we take even greater pride in the caliber of our graduates.
 While we pride ourselves on the accomplishments of all  HBCUs, we know we could do so much more with more scholarship support for our students, more stipends for our graduate and professional students, and more equipment and facilities for our faculties.
If America's game plan for continued economic leadership in the 21st century hinges on the integration of knowledge and diversity, we must invest more substantially in all who are able to compete.   If there is an appreciation for educational excellence in our nation, we must become more serious in our commitment to HBCUs.  We not only deserve, but require equal funding at the levels that are given so generously to majority colleges and universities.  We invite long-term business and research alliances with the nation's private, corporate, and nongovernmental agencies. HBCUs have earned and deserve a greater share of America's  higher education resources in the new millennium.                                            
— H. Patrick Swygert, president, Howard University