Investing in HBCU Leadership

Southern Education Foundation creates three-year initiative to facilitate HBCU accreditation
By Crystal L. Keels

Knoxville College, Morris Brown College and Barber Scotia College. These institutions are just some of the recent victims of lost accreditation — and there are others. Many historically Black colleges and universities
(HBCUs) have either teetered on the brink, suffered or closed entirely following the loss of accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The effects of lost accreditation are amplified considering the current national context in which troubling questions often arise about the contemporary relevance of HBCUs.
Lynn Walker Huntley, president of the Southern Education Foundation Inc. (SEF), bristles at questions about the relevance of HBCUs.
"Many people look at the South that gave African Americans the short end of the stick. Now they think HBCUs are no longer needed because African Americans can go to White schools," says Huntley. But she argues that HBCUs remain a vital part of the nation because "they are not the cause of problems; they are the solution." 
It is a fact, however, that several HBCUs are having problems with accreditation. So in efforts to prepare HBCU administrators to successfully meet SACS accreditation requirements, Huntley and Dr. Norman C. Francis, president of Xavier University in New Orleans and SEF chairman, laid the groundwork for an innovative endeavor. "Investing in HBCU Leadership" is designed to identify and address the technical and professional development needs of HBCU executives, a pressing issue of accreditation. Huntley explains that although it's not specifically designed to address those institutions that have already lost accreditation, the program is a forward-looking "preventative effort to keep (other HBCUs) from walking down that path."
Instituted in 1867 to provide educational opportunities for formerly enslaved African Americans, the Foundation continues to work toward ensuring equal access to quality education at all levels for people of color and disadvantaged groups in the South.