Two historically Black colleges aspire to become more than just feeder schools

Historically Black colleges and universities are relative newcomers to the science and engineering search arena. As a consequence, few offer doctoral level programs on their campuses, which is one reason they are not among the top tier of institutions receiving federal science and technology research funding.

A handful of these institutions are, however, far outpacing the competition in their production of African American undergraduates in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMET) disciplines. This fact, coupled with an awareness about the amount of public and private funding that is becoming available to students and institutions that excel in this area, has inspired some HBCUs to aggressively expand their SMET programs. Their ultimate goal is to become not just one choice, but the first choice of Black undergraduates -- and eventually graduate students -- who want to pursue degrees in these disciplines.

The following is a profile of two such institutions.

Unlikely Leaders

Despite their multi-million-dollar scientific research budgets, when it comes to recruiting and retaining African American undergraduates in SMET disciplines, institutions like Johns Hopkins, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) are a long way from competing with historically Black North Carolina Agricultural & Technical (A&T) and Florida Agricultural & Mechanical (FAMU) universities.

A&T and FAMU rank one and five respectively among the leading producers of Black engineers at the undergraduate level. All but one (Georgia Tech) of the leading five institutions in this category are historically Black.

In 1996, A&T graduated 255 Black undergraduate engineers, which amounted to roughly 10 percent of all the African American engineers who earned bachelor's degrees that year. The university also leads in the production of Black undergrads in technology and mathematics (264), and ties with three other institutions as the thirteenth-leading producer of Blacks with bachelor's degrees in the physical sciences (13).