Enrollment at black colleges is on the upswing — and it’s not just because students are seeking “safe spaces.”
In the decade from 2006 to 2015, bachelor’s-degree-granting black colleges posted a 6-percent drop in enrollment across the board, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, even as black enrollment nationwide increased. But the tide appears to be turning as several historically black colleges and universities are once again seeing their student populations tick upward. In the fall of 2016, 11 HBCUs had record enrollments, and several saw increases this past fall after years of decline.
What’s causing the resurgence?
Racially charged incidents at colleges around the country have reignited conversations about “safe spaces” and how students of diverse backgrounds are welcomed on campuses. And experts say the campus climate — and more profoundly, the current political climate under the Trump administration — may be leading more minority students to seek refuge where they have always been welcome: historically black colleges.
“The HBCU consumer is being very savvy and really researching these schools,” says Steve D. Mobley, an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. “They read the news and keep their ears to the ground with what’s going on at college campuses” — including a surge in activity by white-supremacist groups — “and a lot of them are deciding they want to be in a predominantly black environment for four years.”
Marybeth Gasman agrees there is evidence of an uptick in student interest in attending HBCUs, anecdotal as it may be. “Even prior to Trump becoming president, there were racial issues that administrators were not handling well,” says Gasman, a professor of higher education at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Penn Center for Minority-Serving Institutions. “And in many ways, that has made parents and students rethink HBCUs.”
Further, she notes, HBCUs are not simply sitting on the sidelines waiting for students to come to them; many have been actively making prospective students aware of their academic offerings. Those offerings, along with the campus atmosphere and “family” environment that has long been a calling card for black colleges, help students make informed decisions.
“It’s assessing realistically what the challenges might be in different institutions and choosing to attend an institution that offers specific things they are looking for,” says Ruth J. Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, in Texas.
The former president of Brown University and the first black president of an Ivy League institution, Simmons attended Dillard University, in Louisiana, as an undergraduate. “I know how important historically black colleges and universities are for kids like I was,” she says.
Simmons argues against the notion that black colleges are simply “safe spaces” for black students. “I’m trying to push them. I’m trying to do a lot of things that wouldn’t be called ‘safe,’” she says.
Still, students who choose black colleges “may be looking for a satisfying social life,” she continues. “They may have grown up in conditions in which they felt isolated, and they may be looking for an opportunity just to feel like a normal person where they are like others in the environment and they don’t stand out.”
That may help explain the growth of freshman classes at black colleges in recent years. In 2015, at least 48 of them had larger freshman classes than in the previous year, according to a Chronicle analysis, and that trend has largely continued.
But the rise in black-college enrollments cannot be attributed only to black students’ interest. Just as colleges of all kinds have had to maneuver to stay afloat in the wake of enrollment declines over the last decade, black colleges have actively worked to change their fortunes — even with limited resources.
Student bodies at black colleges are diversifying: “We are seeing a lot of enrollment diversity with Asian and Latino students,” Mobley says. Some black colleges have started collaborating with Hispanic-serving institutions to receive training on attracting Latino families. Morgan State University, in Baltimore, is seeking to diversify its staff to more aggressively recruit other minority students.
Kentucky State University recently boasted about its diversity — its enrollment is now half black and half nonblack. “It’s rare for an institution to be at the midpoint,” says M. Christopher Brown II, the university’s president.
But pushes for greater diversity to expand enrollments do not come without some concern — namely, that the historical mission of black colleges might be lost. However, experts say those concerns, often expressed by alumni, are typically overblown.
“If you look at predominantly white institutions that are more diverse, they still have their predominantly white core,” Gasman says.
And as long as the political climate is what it is, and black colleges continue to spread the word about their mission, she says, the enrollment growth is likely to continue.
Dan Bauman contributed to this article.
Adam Harris is a breaking-news reporter. Follow him on Twitter @AdamHSays or email him at adam.harris@chronicle.com.
