Success of HBCUs Means Looking Forward, Not Backwards

As a scholar and observer of higher education, I am sometimes concerned about the future of historically Black colleges and universities. Policy discussions about HBCUs are overwhelmingly based on rather romantic notions of what they were in the past. As a HBCU alumnus,
I am first in line to defend the honor and tradition of this institutional sector. However, given the current context in which public HBCUs operate — in an era of race-blind policies, limited public resources and intense competition for the top students — building a case for support based on historic valor and survival is hardly enough.

Before the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, intended to integrate public education, HBCUs enrolled 75 percent of all Black undergraduates. Since then, the world and the enterprise of higher education have changed significantly. Today, HBCUs enroll approximately 14 percent of all Black students and compete with community colleges and predominately White institutions for students.

For example, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, a predominately White public institution, enrolled nearly 3,000 Black students in 2002, compared to 327 Black students in 1972.

Another significant change is the evolution of litigation and public policy concerning the place of race in public higher education. The American public and judicial officials are upholding affirmative action polices with a weakening arm. Any benefit based on race or perceived to be race-related is likely to be subject to legal scrutiny. What does this mean for historically Black public institutions?

Undoubtedly, HBCUs play a valuable role in higher education and society. HBCUs are responsible for educating an overwhelming majority of the Black students who earn graduate and professional degrees. Nonetheless, HBCUs struggle to garner the type of public or private support necessary to increase their institutional capacities. State-sponsored discrimination and inequitable funding practices are only now being redressed in some states, and even a White House Initiative on HBCUs has produced limited results. Exacerbating the problem is genuine confusion on the part of many higher education leaders and legislators about what the role of public HBCUs should be.