For years, Historically Black Colleges and Universities or HBCUs have boasted that they can do more with less. But sequestration could reduce the coffers of institutions that already have few resources.
Across-the-board cuts in federal spending would reduce Title III funds by 5 percent. In fiscal 2011, 95 of the schools received approximately $237 million in Title III Part B funds. The money underwrites a host of programs: student services, faculty and staff development, construction and improvement of campus facilities, and outreach programs that prepare students for college
Work study and other student aid would take a similar hit. The latter could have students scrambling to make tuition—a crucial source of revenue for the country’s 105 HBCUs.
Marybeth Gasman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies HBCUs, said the schools would be hard-pressed to come up with extra money for those programs.
“(HBCUs) would have to immediately start looking for other funding in order to keep some of their student-success-related programs working at full speed,” she said.
Gasman also blogs for Diverse Issues in Higher Education.
Like their counterparts at other institutions, administrators at HBCUs are waiting to see exactly how the budget cuts will take effect. Although sequestration began on March 1, many colleges and universities won’t feel the hit until they receive awards for fiscal 2013.
