NEW ORLEANS — Jasmine Stewart applied to only one college — the historically Black Southern University at New Orleans. It was near home, willing to take her despite her mixed academic record, and comparatively cheap. Stewart also didn’t want her mother, a hotel housekeeper, to have to pay more than one application fee.
But after two and a half semesters, she has had her share of disappointments.
The public university, known as SUNO, has no football team, no marching band, and teachers who often come from other countries and speak with accents she can’t understand. Parts of the campus damaged by Hurricane Katrina eight years ago, including the library, have yet to be fully repaired. A shelf in a student lounge where Stewart sometimes hangs out is stocked with 20-year-old Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedia yearbooks.
Stewart doesn’t regret enrolling at SUNO and says she appreciates the supportive environment and help administrators gave her with financial aid paperwork. But she added, “The college experience isn’t what I thought it would be.”
SUNO’s struggles — and Stewart’s loyalty in spite of them — are emblematic of broader issues facing colleges and universities set up to serve Black students, many of which are struggling with enrollment and financial problems.
Dozens of predominantly Black colleges are facing battles to stay alive — battles even their supporters agree that some will lose.
