UNC Officials Concerned About Enrollment, Test Scores at HBCUs

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Declines in enrollment and test scores at the University of North Carolina system's five historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) may signal a change in the attitudes of Black students, a UNC administrator says.
"Ten years ago, there was a widespread conviction that Black students were better served" by HBCUs, says Gary Barnes, vice president for UNC's program assessment. He wonders whether "that movement just ran out of steam."
Meanwhile, administrators at predominantly Black schools are trying to figure out why more Black students are choosing traditionally White institutions (TWIs) and why Whites are shying away from the HBCUs.
A record 44 percent of Black students who go to UNC schools are at TWIs, compared to 35 percent in 1981 — the year UNC reached an integration agreement with the federal government. White enrollment at the HBCUs peaked at 19 percent in 1993 and has since fallen to 14 percent.
"I don't have any explanation for the decline," said Alvin Schexnider, chancellor at Winston Salem State University, where White enrollment has dropped 24 percent in the past five years.
UNC administrators say the loss of students probably accounts for a decline in SAT scores at HBCUs. Some say Black institutions are losing bright prospects to TWIs. The average SAT score among the state's five HBCUs rose to 932 in 1994, but fell to 879 this year. While the five-year graduation rate at Black colleges has improved in recent years to 39 percent, it still lags behind the 54 percent rate at TWIs.
Much of the White enrollment at UNC's historically Black schools is made up of adult commuters and community college transfers. Schexnider speculates that a strong economy in the past few years may have prompted those students to enter the labor force instead.
But leaders at the state's Black institutions see an expected surge in UNC system enrollment as an opportunity to revitalize their schools. The UNC Board of Governors met last month to discuss how system schools will handle an extra 38,000 students, a 31 percent increase from current enrollment, by 2008.
A consultant hired by the system has suggested that growth over the next decade be spread out among all schools, especially the HBCUs. The system likely would have to spend millions on new academic programs and construction to make the universities more attractive to students.
"It's a great concept," says the consultant, Eva Klein. "How you actually get there is not exactly obvious. I think it will be difficult. It will take creative thinking and a lot of hard work."