Huntley notes that in the year 2000, 44 percent of all African-Americans receiving bachelor degrees in the physical sciences graduated from HBCUs, which make up less than three percent of the nation’s institutions of higher education. “Were it not for these Black schools, located mostly in the South,” Huntley says, “America would be falling much further behind in meeting its science imperatives. Yet, HBCUs as a group are desperately underfunded when compared to most traditionally White colleges, both private and public.”
SEF’s report calls for “real leadership” among private and public donors to support the Black colleges’ role in STEM education. “The current trend of inadequate support, if continued, will marginalize and progressively weaken the contribution that HBCUs presently make to enlarging the Black presence in the STEM fields. … The nation must find a way to do a better job of developing its most precious treasure — its human capital. Our future depends on it,” the report concludes.
For further information, go to <www.southerneducation.org>.
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