White enrollment grows at historic black colleges


E

EB

Well-Known Member
White enrollment grows at historic black colleges

Date: Friday, December 10, 2004
By: SHERREL WHEELER STEWART, BlackAmericaWeb.com

Historically black colleges and universities aren?t all that black anymore, according to data from National Center on Education Statistics.

White enrollment at HBCUs jumped significantly, by more than 10,000 between 1980 and 1990, and the numbers have increased incrementally in recent years. The enrollment of whites peaked in 1995 with 35,963 at the nation's historically black colleges and universities. Then after a few years of decline, white enrollment at these schools rose back to 34,908 in 2001, the last year analyzed by NCES for the report.

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?Whites often are attracted to the programs and the atmosphere at historically black colleges and universities,? said William Harvey of the American Council on Education. ?They are discovering what blacks have known all along ? HBCUs have strong programs and a student-friendly environment that inspires achievement.?

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At Kentucky State University, a school with a 35-percent white student population, people are drawn by programs such as aquaculture, which teaches future farmers how to raise catfish and prawns, said David Shabazz, the school's spokesman.

Harvey said that graduate and professional school programs at HBCUs also attract large numbers of whites because of the quality of the programs. .

Schools like Kentucky State, as well as Tennessee State University, North Carolina A&T, Alabama State and Alabama A&M were included in federal lawsuits to put them on par with their state?s historically white institutions. As a result, the schools were required to try to recruit and attract white students.

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Mandy Mankin, who is white and a 26-year-old junior majoring in journalism at Lincoln, said that university was a natural fit for her. ?I knew Lincoln had good programs, and it was convenient,? she said.

Though a majority of students at the school are white, everything from sports to other special events continues to have the cultural flavor of an HBCU, and Mankin said she enjoys it. ?I go to parties and other events, but the general composition of the student body is not reflected in a lot of the activities,? she said. ?It?s usually the same whites who attend events.?

Mankin writes for the school newspaper and said she has had opportunities to transfer and go elsewhere. ?But I wouldn?t want to do that,? she said. ?I am learning a lot and my best friends are here.?

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Whites are not going to HBCU's because of the atmosphere, they are going because it's cheaper.
 



I think it's the (unique) programs offered & convenience, (in the sense that students may be slightly older &/or have families.)
 
i agree with both of yout but they attend primarily because it is literally free to "minorities". they can enroll as much as they want into jsu as long as jsu remains jsu and we keep our hbcu status. it is not worth losing our heritage.
 
dSWACizJSU said:
i agree with both of yout but they attend primarily because it is literally free to "minorities". they can enroll as much as they want into jsu as long as jsu remains jsu and we keep our hbcu status. it is not worth losing our heritage.
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A lot of us attend graduate programs and doctoral programs at "white" universities because its literally free to us to a "minorities". Turn about is fair play. In the next 50 years the faces of HBCUs will change drastically. JSU will always be historicallly black, but don't be suprised if it is 20 to 30 percent white in 30 to 40 years. Times are changing. HBCU programs are making great strides in what they offer academically. I started JSU in 1994. The facilities and programs and reputation of JSU academically has grown by leaps and bounds in that short 10 years. When I got their everything in the paper about the school was negative. Now 95% of the academic and administrative reports are positive. More & more white people are realizing the cheaper, convenient, excellent programs that HBCUs are now offering. Once a few of them made it through and they realized black folks don't mind having white folks on campus, the word started spreading. And word of mouth is a mutha. When I started in 1994 you saw one, maybe two white people on campus, by the time I left grad school I saw 3 or 4 in every class. Times change.
 
HBCU's are gaining ground in providing educational programs that are competing with I-A schools with larger budgets. For instance, Southern may have it's problems, but Southern is still a school of choice. The LAW Program, arguably one of the best in the country. THe Engineering, Computer Science, Urban Forestry, and other programs in the system are leading in the U.S.
 
I also think that whites are finding-out that the smaller student-to-teacher ratios at HBCUs are making them more attractive (academically) as well.

That, coupled with the fact that our 'urban' culture is being assimiliated by whites, is making them less afraid to venture into historically black 'circles', whether they be educational, commercial, residential and/or spiritual....

The Great Melting Pot truly is 'hot' these days.....

:read:
 
Its "jacked up"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Turn about is fairplay my azz. Things have never been fair. And remember why we were founded in the first place. Northern missionaries wanted to educate the newly freed coloreds. You all are way to leniant(sp) for me. How soon we forget.
 
Taylor-Made'90 said:
I also think that whites are finding-out that the smaller student-to-teacher ratios at HBCUs are making them more attractive (academically) as well.

That, coupled with the fact that our 'urban' culture is being assimiliated by whites, is making them less afraid to venture into historically black 'circles', whether they be educational, commercial, residential and/or spiritual....

The Great Melting Pot truly is 'hot' these days.....

:read:
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They just get to attend our schools for free. Just plain old economics.
 
northern tiger said:
Its "jacked up"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Turn about is fairplay my azz. Things have never been fair. And remember why we were founded in the first place. Northern missionaries wanted to educate the newly freed coloreds. You all are way to leniant(sp) for me. How soon we forget.
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But what can you do about it??? HBCUs are in no position to turn-away ANY students, moreless a non-minority one..... We can't afford to be selective.....
 
northern tiger said:
Its "jacked up"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Turn about is fairplay my azz. Things have never been fair. And remember why we were founded in the first place. Northern missionaries wanted to educate the newly freed coloreds. You all are way to leniant(sp) for me. How soon we forget.
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Nobody has forgotten ****. The whole civil rights movement was about equality and gaining equal opportunity for all of us. A lot of that has been achieved, not all of it. But if you want to have access to everything and have equal opportunity, you can't turn around and do the same thing to them that they did to you for so long. That makes you a hypocrite. Point blank, you can either hang on to the past or you can prepare for the future. Jackson State was founded in 1877, my dad went there during the turbulent 60s. I went there in the mid 90s. My experience at JSU was totally different from his. Because the only thing that is constant is change. JSU will change. You will see more non-black students there. Just like you see more non-white students at white schools. You either roll or get rolled over. JSU and most HBCUs are improving drastically because they are adapting to their changing environment. Those improvements are making those schools appealing to everybody and making the schools more competitive with "white" schools. A lot of "non-traditional" students have now grown up in mixed high schools or predominantly black high schools. They have no fear or apprehension about being in a class or school that is mostly black. The word is spreading about improved HBCUs. Adapt or get left behind.
 
northern tiger said:
They just get to attend our schools for free. Just plain old economics.
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You know how many graduate schools drooled over me and offered me free rides just to get more minorities at their predominantly white graduate schools. They all pointed out to me that my grades and test scores were good enough to get me in anywhere, but the fact that a lot of them were trying to attract more minorities was the reason that they found ways to give
me a free ride. They are the minority on JSU's and any HBCU campus. JSU knows a lot of that money that they are getting is tied to "diversifying" the student population. That's why they are trying to entice "non-traditional" students. And why should you be mad because of handful of white folk are getting free rides, how many of us are getting free rides at "white" schools.
 
it is not white people attending the school i have a problem with. i think it is wonderful for hbcu's to get a facelift. however, i do not want our institutions to lose their hbcu status. tennessee state is not longer an hbcu because of the "other" enrollment. at one time ole miss was in the talks of taking over jsu. my point is i want hbcu's to keep their status and heritage.
 
dSWACizJSU said:
it is not white people attending the school i have a problem with. i think it is wonderful for hbcu's to get a facelift. however, i do not want our institutions to lose their hbcu status. tennessee state is not longer an hbcu because of the "other" enrollment. at one time ole miss was in the talks of taking over jsu. my point is i want hbcu's to keep their status and heritage.
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I remember when certain people brought up the idea of annexing some of the HBCUs maybe a decade or so ago. I was at JSU at the time. That was nothing but talk. I don't recall it as Ole Miss, but a few politicians suggesting Ole Miss take over JSU. It came at the time JSU was in such a mess that they couldn't even audit their own campus. There was missing equipment, lack of internal controls, weak graduation rates, outdated facilities, and a uncreative, lazy faculty & administration. ****, truthfully somebody needed to step in at JSU. It was in a mess. Everything coming out of the university academically was bad news. Even then JSU would have been too large for Ole Miss to digest. Now Alcorn or Valley maybe. JSU has twice the enrollment as both of those schools and more than nearly 60% of Ole Miss enrollment total and has been growing over the past five years has increased from about 6,500 students to nearly 8,000, (7,815 according to the Mississippi Board of Trustees official count). So would it have been impossible, probably not, but highly, highly unlikely that any Mississippi school would have been able to annex JSU.

But Tennessee State University is still an HBCU. HBCU, which I'm sure you know, stands for "historically black colleges and universities". The key word is historically, not currently. They could have 70 percent white enrollment and still be historically black. JSU will always be an HBCU and will most likely remain predominantly black for a long, long time to come, but the face of JSU, like every other HBCU will become more and more diverse. That's not a matter of what we won't or don't want, that reality.

Hell, Florida State University was once an all-female college named the Florida Female College in the early 1900's. Times change.
 
So if you live in a diverse enviroment, and hbcus are transitioning their population why attend? You might as well enroll locally and bump the expensive out-of-state fee. HBCUs are for us. I don't want to see anyone else there. Serves no purpose for our race.
 



northern tiger said:
So if you live in a diverse enviroment, and hbcus are transitioning their population why attend? You might as well enroll locally and bump the expensive out-of-state fee. HBCUs are for us. I don't want to see anyone else there. Serves no purpose for our race.
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You sound just like the good ole boys from Ole Miss in the 60's.

"HBCUs are for us. I don't want to see anyone else there. Serves no purpose for our race."

Sounds like Ole Miss in the 60's with James Meridith. Now Ole Miss has a 13% black enrollment, has a black basketball coach, is seriously interviewing a potential black football coach at this time. Mississippi State already has one. We got them to change, but we are going to stay the same. That's stupid.

HBCU's know their mission is changing. Do you?
 
jaydog said:
Exactly! Just plain ignant! :shame:
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KNEEGROW, who in da h@ll you calling ignorant. You don't NO sh@t about the enviroment I grew up in. I already had diversity. If I WANTED to go to college with WHITE PEOPLE, I would have went to Southern or Northern Illinois. I wouldn't have hopped my happy azz in my car and drove 750 miles one way to attend college with black ignant folks as yourself. Just shake my head sometimes. My comment earlier was not in reference to the civil rights movement, but slavery. No, its a shame when black folks FORGET, how much of the enemy WHITE FOLKS is. Always be screaming that desegregation "whitey" is our friend. And out of all people, you all should know better. Yaw know slaves STILL swinging from trees. Ain't sh@t changed. But oh well. I guess we just that desperate to increase enrollment. Let them enjoy the amenities that we didn't have. Well they build up our institutions to attract them anyway because they know we will accept anything.
 
Based on a 1968 suit, Tennessee State eventually could not identify itself as an HBCU. But after the settlement in 2000, they can.

I do not have a problem with Whites at Black schools. My problem comes when states force percentages of like 30% on HBCUs when a lot of folks will not pressure the White schools to admit Black students at the same percentages. At Tenn. State the school had to have the same number of Whites as Blacks. I sure do not know what PWC had that kind of order put upon them.

The problem is not Whites being at HBCUs. I have gotten along with White faculty, staff and students. The problem is when the brunt of "integration" is put upon the HBCUs.

TSU desegregation suit?s spark looks back 32 yearshttp://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/01/01/01756532.shtml

http://www.tbr.state.tn.us/general_counsel/consent_decree_summary.htm

http://www.tnstate.edu/opr/docs/history.htm
.....
It was in 1968 that a TSU faculty member named Rita Sanders filed a lawsuit alleging a dual system of higher education in Tennessee based on race. An agreement in this case, which over the years evolved into Geier v. Tennessee, would not be reached for over 30 years.
.....
 
northern tiger said:
KNEEGROW, who in da h@ll you calling ignorant. You don't NO sh@t about the enviroment I grew up in. I already had diversity. If I WANTED to go to college with WHITE PEOPLE, I would have went to Southern or Northern Illinois. I wouldn't have hopped my happy azz in my car and drove 750 miles one way to attend college with black ignant folks as yourself. Just shake my head sometimes. My comment earlier was not in reference to the civil rights movement, but slavery. No, its a shame when black folks FORGET, how much of the enemy WHITE FOLKS is. Always be screaming that desegregation "whitey" is our friend. And out of all people, you all should know better. Yaw know slaves STILL swinging from trees. Ain't sh@t changed. But oh well. I guess we just that desperate to increase enrollment. Let them enjoy the amenities that we didn't have. Well they build up our institutions to attract them anyway because they know we will accept anything.
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Nobody has forgotten slavery. My great-grandfather was a slave and was alive and in his right mind during my early childhood. So I know and saw living history. I know what the struggle was and what they fought for. They fought for equality, not separation. We live in an increasingly more diverse world. You say ain't **** changed. That's stupid. I live and grew up in Mississippi where Emmitt Till was mutilated for whistling at a white woman, Medgar Evers was assassinated for trying to help black folks, deadly riots happened on college campuses, a black man could barely get a "good" job despite having good education. You gone tell me that ain't **** changed. ***** please. I, like most of the kids in my family, have more opportunity and have achieved more than my parents and grandparents combined. My grandfather fought in WWII and couldn't even get a job. My father was only the second person in my family to go to college. Now all thirty something of my siblings and cousins, have gone to college, not all finished, but dammit you went. Most of us make more money and live a lot better than our parents did at anytime in their life. ****, I haven't even hit 30 yet and I make more money than my father ever made. My children and the children of most black people will have even more opportunity than we did. That's progress.
Is everything perfect? Hell naw, but to say ain't **** changed is to discount the blood, sweat, and tears of our ancestors, the work of Martin, Malcolm, Medgar, Fannie Lou, Dubois, Washington, and countless others who changed the way we live now by sacrificing then. It discounts my grandmother's work in registering people to vote in the 60's and having crosses burnt on her yard, it discounts my great-grandfather and my grandfather raising "real" men to know how live righteous lives and survive and thrive in a country that was set up for them to fail, and it discounts my father and 8 uncles that taught all of their sons and daughters that we can be and achieve anything we wanted to and to never let anyone be it black, white, green, yellow, or purple to tell us what to think or be. Now that's my black history. That's what I know. I ain't forgot ****. You learn from the past, yes, but you spend your whole life staring at it and dwelling on it, you will miss your future. Use your future to create change for the better, not stare at what's behind you, or you will be like Lot's wife in the Bible, frozen in time. Kinda describes you. :shame:
 
EB said:
Based on a 1968 suit, Tennessee State eventually could not identify itself as an HBCU. But after the settlement in 2000, they can.

I do not have a problem with Whites at Black schools. My problem comes when states force percentages of like 30% on HBCUs when a lot of folks will not pressure the White schools to admit Black students at the same percentages. At Tenn. State the school had to have the same number of Whites as Blacks. I sure do not know what PWC had that kind of order put upon them.

The problem is not Whites being at HBCUs. I have gotten along with White faculty, staff and students. The problem is when the brunt of "integration" is put upon the HBCUs.

TSU desegregation suit?s spark looks back 32 yearshttp://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/01/01/01756532.shtml

http://www.tbr.state.tn.us/general_counsel/consent_decree_summary.htm

http://www.tnstate.edu/opr/docs/history.htm
.....
It was in 1968 that a TSU faculty member named Rita Sanders filed a lawsuit alleging a dual system of higher education in Tennessee based on race. An agreement in this case, which over the years evolved into Geier v. Tennessee, would not be reached for over 30 years.
.....
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Valid point, but not being able to call yourself an HBCU and not being an HBCU are two different things. Just because you can't legally say we're a historically black college and university doesn't mean you are not a historically black college and university.

I also agree about the mandated percentages. I don't agree with that.
 
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