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Challenges, Opportunities and Traditions

A Snapshot Look at Today’s HBCUs
by Stephen Pelletier


Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) add a rich texture to the fabric of higher education in the United States. Their legacy is one of access and opportunity.

Like every institution of higher learning, HBCUs must work continually to sustain quality. Always a test, that’s even more difficult in today’s economic climate. While in many ways the issues that HBCUs face mirror those of all universities, the unique HBCU mission adds an overlay of additional factors that must be considered. At times, presidents of HBCUs must feel like they’re walking a tight rope in a typhoon.

In a series of recent interviews, the leaders of several HBCUs in the AASCU membership shared their perspectives on some of the key challenges they face today. Their observations provide a snapshot look at the current state of public HBCUs.

Money, Money, Money

To a significant extent, the financial fates of public universities rise and fall depending on their state’s fiscal health. Today’s tight times have largely meant that HBCUs have had to tighten their belts.

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, for example, had to absorb a $6.5 million cut in its state allocation this year, following a $6 million reduction last year. Concerned about how the cuts will affect daily operations, Florida A&M President James H. Ammons also worries about the potential long-term impact.

The cuts come, Ammons says, “at a time when our institutions, and this nation, have some of the biggest challenges that I think we have ever confronted, especially as it relates to the competitiveness of the United States on a global scale.” Less money translates into larger class sizes and not as many course sections, he says, and may impact research opportunities. That’s not the direction we need to be going, he suggests, if the nation wants to keep pace with the academic achievements of students abroad.

Ammons believes the issue boils down “to a concern about how higher education—and really education in general—is being valued in this economy.”

Money is also tight in Kentucky, where Kentucky State University’s appropriation was cut this year by $1.6 million. That’s better than the $4 million cut that legislators originally proposed, says KSU President Mary Sias, but a series of recent budget cutbacks have meant that her institution is back to the same level of funding it had in 2005. The upshot is that the university is in a mode of continuous belt-tightening. “We have made operating budget cuts,” Sias says. “We’re looking at greater efficiency and effectiveness.”

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