With many students and families questioning college entirely, cost is a big factor in making the decision of where to go. Many students are facing a larger funding burden at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) than predominantly White institutions (PWIs). What gives?
This week, we want to highlight the strengths and challenges of these institutions, because despite the cost, HBCUs are still one of best return on investments around.
A Rock and a Hard Place: The Challenges
HBCUs are working with smaller pools of money, while serving similar enrollments to PWIs. When you consider endowments, comparing HBCUs to PWIs is apples to oranges. The National Center for Education Statistics(NCES) reported that in 2020, Harvard University had the largest endowment of any US higher education institution at $41 billion. Howard University had the largest endowment of any HBCU, at $712 million, and Howard's annual reportnotes that only 55% of the funds are unrestricted. The US's 100+ HBCUs have a combined endowment total of $5.2 billion.
So there is a considerable difference in what these institutions can offer in terms of financial aid, facilities, and educational offerings.
Most HBCUs were founded shortly after the Civil War or at the turn of the 20th century to educate newly-freed African Americans. The federal funding of higher education has always been a highly contested subject, but these institutions tend to be underfunded more than PWIs.
Funding inequities can be traced back to the Second Morrill Act of 1890, which created 19 public HBCUs. Century Foundation Senior Fellow Denise Smith explained, “the act declares that these land-grant institutions shall receive an appropriation from the federal government as well as a one-to-one match from the state government. However, over time, some states did not provide this one-to-one match to their 1890 institutions. The state’s refusal meant that the colleges would be punished by having to forfeit the federal portion of the funds as well, unless they sought a waiver from the federal government, which the colleges did.”
Today, many HBCUs are still suffering from the effects of the Act. In 2021, a $577 million settlement was reached between the state of Maryland and its four HBCUs, Coppin State University, Bowie State University, Morgan State University, and the University of Maryland at Eastern Shore. The state was accused of continuing, “a dual and segregated education system,” prioritizing the state’s public PWIs instead. The Maryland General Assembly then voted to pass legislation allowing the entitled funding to be allocated over the next 10 years to the four institutions based on their previous year’s enrollment.
In similar news, Tennessee State University (TSU) is owed over $500 million by the state. Tennessee State Representative Harold Love Jr. reported that from 1957 to 2007, TSU was not a state budget line item.
University President Glenda Glover said, “we’ve had students leave due to lack of funds. TSU was prevented from implementing innovative programs to be more competitive in recruiting, and not to mention the cost of lost opportunity.” Tennessee Governor Bill Lee intends to, “fulfill the commitment that we've made to TSU,” as $250 million has been allocated in the state budget to the University so far.
Lemons into Lemonade: The Strengths
Despite their financial hurdles, HBCUs are still providing high quality academic programs for students. The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) reports that more than 70% of HBCU students are Pell Grant-eligible and 39% are first generation college goers.
Even with the recent diversifying of HBCUs, they still lead the way on college accessibility for Black students and students from low-income backgrounds. UNCF describes the
access rate as the percentage of an institution’s students whose household is considered "low-income" based on their parent or guardian’s income level. HBCUs have an average 51.3% access rate, compared to 22.5% nationally, in contrast to 9.3% among
Ivy League schools.*
UNCF defines the mobility rate as, “the fraction of a college’s students who come from the bottom 40 [percent socioeconomically] and transition into
the top 60 [percent socioeconomically].” The average mobility rate of all US institutions is 15.8% and specifically 7.8% for Ivy League schools. HBCUs have an average 34.3% mobility rate. In short, UNCF noted, “this demonstrates HBCUs outsized impact on underserved communities. HBCUs serve more economically disenfranchised students than most US institutions while also facilitating the upward mobility of the majority of their
students.”
Overcoming these odds hasn’t gone unnoticed. HBCU funding was especially emphasized in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan. The Plan’s Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund provides $2.7 billion to HBCUs. Tennessee State University has been awarded $58.5 million, while Maryland’s four HBCUs were awarded a combined $153 million.
Any HBCU alum, myself included, will tell you the education they received was top notch, and the experience and connections made were life changing. Making partnerships with HBCUs and their local alumni early and often is so crucial to truly advocating
for students who wish to pursue these illustrious institutions. You owe it to your students and families to raise the value of HBCUs in the fit and match conversations to come.
*For UNCF’s research purposes, they included the eight Ivy League institutions as well as Stanford University, Duke University, University of Chicago, and MIT in their Ivy League calculations.
HBCU Graduates Income Graphic Source: The United Negro College Fund, "The HBCU Effect."
†Mobility Rates Chart Source: UNCF, “HBCUs Transforming Generations: Social Mobility Outcomes for HBCU Alumni," 2021. Endowment information pulled from the institutions' profiles here.
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