College officials say that they are not turning African American applicants away.
"Bluefield has turned down zero African Americans in the past ten years who had a GED or high school diploma," said Nelson. "We have a community college component, so even if they don't have the test scores, we offer remedial classes so that they can attend Bluefield."
Moore has consulted with West Virginia State College's president, Dr. Hazo W. Carter Jr., about how to recruit minorities in a state that is so minority-barren. A neighboring HBCU, West Virginia State has also experienced a drop in African American enrollment over the years due to many of the same reasons that Bluefield cited.
West Virginia State spokespersons say their African American student population is currently at 14 percent and their African American faculty population is at 18 percent. They too, still qualify for Title III appropriations and average 1.1 million dollars a year from the federal HBCU fund.
West Virginia State's vice-president for student affairs, Dr. Ervin Griffin, says that the school would like its African American population to reach 20 percent. He attributes the campus's student support services as a major reason for the slight increase in African American students that it has experienced in the past two years.
As for Bluefield State, the battle has just begun. For this historic institution that nurtures many first-generation, low-income college students, re-establishing a sizeable African American population will be an uphill battle. But it's a battle that Nelson says the college is "certainly not going to write off."
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