There have been many articles and reports recently about the future of historically Black colleges and universities, touching on many aspects of what needs to happen in the HBCU arena. Below is my opinion of other factors to consider:
HBCUs have strong traditions growing out of the days of racial segregation in the United States. Many of them are defending their historic missions in the 21st century in light of the fact that they are faced with responding to demands that are more market-driven. In addition, African-Americans are attending non-traditional schools like the University of Phoenix (UPX) which is siphoning off many potential students that otherwise might enroll in an HBCU. In fact, UPX was the number one producer of Black graduates for 2010-2011.
To compound matters further, many publically funded HBCUs are already struggling financially and depend more heavily on state appropriations and financial aid than their counterparts at majority White institutions. To make matters worse, the recession that began in 2007 has put even further strains on HBCUs and is forcing them to consider fundamental changes to their landscape. However, these challenges can provide HBCUs with an opportunity to repackage their presence in higher education and transform their institutions by ensuring that they continue to produce graduates that can compete in the national and global marketplace.
There is no shortage of information pertaining to the challenges facing HBCUs or higher education in general these days. HBCUs are still facing familiar issues — inadequate revenues, enrollment pressure, leadership stability, technological challenges, governance and on and on. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of issues, but rather, to reflect some of the major issues that HBCUs must grapple with both now and in the future.
By chronicling some of the major issues, HBCUs can begin to form ideas about the relative placement of the issues along some meaningful spectrum that will allow them to make reflective analyses. How HBCUs solve these challenges by making informed decisions will determine how they will distinguish the important things from the not so important things and be able to effectively offset some of their key challenges which are shown below:
1. Inadequate Resources — While it is not their sole source of funding, state appropriations often provide a significant source of the overall budget for the college or university (public). Over the last several years, other demands of state resources have lessened the pot for higher education each year as other constituents are vying for the same limited state resources.
