Bennett College — a private, all-women HBCU in North Carolina — is racing to meet a February 1st deadline of raising $5 million to secure its accreditation.
It’s one of many HBCUs, or historically black colleges or universities, whose accreditation status has been in limbo, or been revoked, over the last few decades. Since 1989, at least five HBCUs have closed their doors over financial shortcomings and enrollment losses, and many others remain without accreditation.
From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
From [Benjamin] Mays to [Martin Luther] King [Jr.] to Oprah to Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, HBCUs have educated countless black doctors, lawyers, theologians, entrepreneurs, journalists, teachers, entertainers and politicians.
[…] But today, the tide that brought so many African-Americans into America’s middle class seems to be shifting. In the five years following that 2010 spike, enrollment declined by 10 percent — compared to the 4 percent drop for all colleges during that period, federal data shows.
Some HBCUs reported an increase in enrollment numbers in recent years. But more broadly, enrollment is trending downward for HBCUs, as well as for small colleges nationwide. The Journal-Constitution reports that “fifty years ago, 90 percent of all black college students went to black colleges. Today, 90 percent of black students are at mostly white schools.”
Why do HBCUs remain undervalued? And when an HBCU goes away, what goes with it?
Show produced by Jonquilyn Hill. Text by Kathryn Fink.
GUESTS
Phyllis Worthy Dawkins, President, Bennett College
Adam Harris, Staff writer, The Atlantic; @AdamHSays
Gwendolyn Glenn, Reporter, WFAE; @GGonthe_air
Lodriguez Murray, Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs, United Negro College Fund
For more, visit https://the1a.org.
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