Guest columnist
The nation's historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have a remarkable legacy. They were the main vehicle for lifting the former slave population that had been deliberately kept in ignorance, both before and to a lesser extent after emancipation, into literacy and knowledge.
But sometimes success creates new conditions in which the old solutions are not applicable. Black students are no longer excluded from mainstream universities -- they are instead actively and aggressively sought. While African-Americans have not necessarily reached full numeric parity in mainstream academia, their presence there is increasing. For instance, in the 11 colleges in the University of North Carolina system that are not HBCUs, blacks represent more than 20 percent of the student population at two schools and less than five percent of the student body at only two others.
In fact, HBCUs only educate about 20 percent of all African-Americans today.
Not only are blacks attending mainstream colleges, but more students of other races are attending HBCUs, particularly the public schools.
So, as segregation becomes more a part of the distant past, what is the role of HBCUs? Are they merely an unnecessary vestige of a bygone era, or are there valid reasons why such schools should maintain their racial identity and culture?
Certainly many African-Americans have a strong emotional attachment to the HBCUs, and naturally wish that they retain their cultural identities. After all, they were started as (nearly) the only places blacks could get an education during the era of segregation, and they have become a great source of pride.
One reason commonly given for the continued existence of HBCUs is that black-majority campuses provide black students with a critical mass of black role models and mentors that does not exist on other campuses. Supporters of HBCUs also say that having a large black majority on campus permits them to concentrate on their studies without having to deal with vexing aspects of race.
But this reasoning raises the question the question whether, if it is beneficial for black students to learn in such an environment, is it better for all students to learn on segregated campuses where the emphasis is on their own specific sub-culture?
The evidence of HBCUs' performance is conflicting. They seem to do a better job of educating African-Americans in the most demanding and in-demand majors. Yet a 2009 Associated Press study revealed that only 37 percent of students at HBCUs graduate within six years. This is four points lower than the 41 percent rate for black students at non-HBCUs, and much lower than the national rate for all students of 56 percent.
Another important issue: Is it proper for the government to run racially focused schools? Should a state actively promote the idea that a public university exists primarily to serve a particular race? Private colleges, by virtue of the right to free association, can emphasize the culture of a specific group of people, whether it is based on ethnicity, religion, or gender. But there are no publicly funded institutions of higher education with a religious emphasis, and only two publicly funded degree-granting colleges with a stated emphasis on women are left.
The existing legal standard is in favor of states ending the separate status of public universities. In a series of landmark decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1992 and 1995 that Mississippi had failed to satisfy its obligation to dismantle its dual higher education system of five white colleges and three black schools under the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The state argued it had acted in good faith to eliminate race-based policies. Yet the Supreme Court differed, saying the state had to not just eliminate policies based on race, but also had to remove "race-neutral" policies that continued to support the dual system.
Mississippi also contended the continuation of a dual system was the result of individuals' choices. Yet the court decided Mississippi could do more to influence the decisions of prospective students to favor greater diversity in the university system.
One way to encourage more white students to choose HBCUs that has gained popularity is to end the "unnecessary duplication" of "non-core or non-essential programs." (This was included in Justice Byron White's majority opinion).This is accomplished by adding new programs that do not duplicate existing curricula. For example, the high demand for a non-elite law school in the Triangle Region has attracted so many non-black students to the law program at N.C. Central University that African-Americans are now a minority of students.
With public HBCUs moving toward the mainstream, perhaps it might be better to leave schools with a racial emphasis to the private realm. Many private HBCUs are not faring well, and some are in dire straits. They face severe financial pressures, declining enrollments and, in the worst cases, loss of accreditation.
These private HBCUs tend to have very low endowments, which cause their revenues to be driven by enrollment. The fact that highly state-subsidized public HBCUs (and state non-HBCUs) charge much less in tuition almost certainly contributes to the private schools' woes.
As the country's segregationist past becomes more of a distant memory, the status of HBCUs will continue to change. This evolution will be particularly evident at the state-run schools. If some of them become mainstream campuses, many African-Americans might be tempted to feel as if their legacy is being taken from them. Perhaps they should instead feel pride that their tiny colleges, which often started as two-year normal schools to educate black elementary school teachers and defied the odds for many years, have grown and developed into major universities for everyone.
Jay Schalin is a senior writer for the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. This is the second of two columns on historically black colleges and universities. Part one appeared Thursday. Longer versions of both columns originally were published on the center's Web site, http://www.popecenter.org/news/article.html?id=2269.
