Op-Ed: After starving Black colleges of funding for decades, government should pay up

Op-Ed: After starving Black colleges of funding for decades, government should pay up

BY GABRIELLE CHENAULT

Quick: Name a historically Black college or university. Most people would list Howard, Morehouse, Spelman or Hampton. They’re not wrong — but they are part of the problem faced by the other 103 HBCUs.

The top four receive the most media attention and donations, particularly after the spotlight of Black Lives Matter over the past year. But many others need attention and funding after years of financial struggle. As in all of higher education, their costs have steadily risen, but unlike many private colleges they can’t raise tuition steeply without excluding many students they aim to serve. And although some federal funding increases have flowed in recent years, the damage was already done from a long period of cuts. Federal dollars for HBCUs fell 42% between 2003 and 2015.

I realized the gravity of the situation when a friend of mine was told by school officials and her parents to clear out her dorm before the winter break of 2019 and start looking for a new college, because the HBCU she attended, Bennett College in North Carolina, was at risk of losing accreditation and closing. That shouldn’t be a part of anyone’s college experience.

Many small, private, historically Black colleges have struggled financially, which has sometimes put accreditation in doubt. They rely on ongoing donations, because their endowments are not wealthy enough to sustain operations. Last year, the combined endowment of all HBCUs was less than $4 billion, compared with Harvard University’s $42 billion. Even many public HBCUs are at risk because they have been chronically shortchanged in state funding.