Sounds like preferential treatment based on race. I thought that was against the law.

ditto above

I teach at a historically black state university...

Here are some things that would help the place I work at

1) Stop allowing students to view financial aid as an "alternative income stream" (to quote ex-president Mason) and do something about allowing students to continue for too many semesters without making progress

2) Have standards. Stop passing students who are breathing and start insisting on passing due to learning an adequate amount of material. There is good reason why there are a ton of employers won't hire our graduates in many departments.

3) Practice decent management. Of all the places I have worked over the years this is the worst run. Having administrators who actually do a decent job would go a LONG way to cleaning up problems and save money.

4) Stop practicing reverse discrimination. The racist and discriminatory acts against non-african american faculty (and students actually too on occasion) is appalling. If the non-african american faculty would do to the african american majority at these schools what is done to many of them every civil liberties union in the country would want their heads on a platter.

5) Have a functional grievance system to take care of problem #4. The school I work at buys off non-african american faculty on a regular basis who have winnable EEOC complaints and lawsuits. There'd be huge problems if this was the case the other way around at a predominantly white institution and the black faculty were treated the way the non-black faculty and the grievance system was as broken. Why is it accepted and ignored by accreditation agencies, the press, the courts, the government when it is a HBCU behaving that way???

6) Related to #2 - when pushed some of these kids can perform just as well as their non-minority counterparts. Why on earth are we not insisting on this?? I get tired of some faculty justifying this lack of standards ("if you are breathing and come to most classes we will pass you) saying, "These poor kids have had a hard life. They need their piece of paper so they can get on with their lives". No what they need is a decent education so that they can actually competently do the jobs they are hired to do.

Sure more money would help - it would help any institution - but it isn't the root of the problems. What would help more is solving the structural, governance, and personnel problems that exist at, at least, the HBCU I teach at. We are doing ALL students a disservice to allow even some students to get a degree without an education; to allow them to go to school at a place that has institutionalize racism against anyone; to continue to allow poor governance to perpetuate these kinds (and other) problems... This makes sense for predominantly white institutions, why not for HBCU's? This is actually a form of racism by forgiving this kind of behavior just because the institution is an HBCU.

@jack_433 and archilochus- Both Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton reached out to historically Black colleges and universities in the same way. This is not about preferential treatment. This is about equity. HBCUs have customarily been underfunded as compared to predominately White institutions who receive a disproportionate amount of education funding. Would you then say that PWIs have received preferential treatment based on race? I thought that was against the law.

With that said, HBCUs graduate a disproportionate amount of African American students given that they enroll a smaller percentage of this population (because they represent only a small percent of IHEs). WIth growing populations of students of color in this country that are college-bound, it is imperative that the country find ways to ensure that ALL students are able to access quality educational options. HBCUs provide such an option and must be better-funded.

For years the federal governments nominal increases to the Pell Grant hurt low-income students (regardless of race) badly, further hindering their access. Increases to Pell Grants helped US citizens access higher education at higher rates. Does it matter that many of them were African American? Or is there an issue with more students of color gaining access to college? As our country loses its competitive edge partly because we aren't conferring enough degrees to our citizens, we have to find ways to shift the momentum of the higher education community and prepare, enroll and graduate more students of color for/from college.

That may be a hard pill to swallow for some who believe that focusing on a particular population is preferential treatment, but if we do not focus on this issue the US will not be competitive in the global economy. In sum, the demographics our country are changing and we must change our policies to support the success of all. And for the record, HBCUs have the most diverse faculty out of all institution types and they educate more than African Americans (yes White people go to HBCUs, too).

to annon1234 above: Your remarks would carry a lot more force if you signed your name. In my opinion, if it isn't worth signing, it isn't worth sending or submitting.

No, things are certainly not perfect at HBCUs, but the very worst things that have happened to me personally in higher education occurred before I started teaching at an HBCU five years ago.

Landrum Kelly, Jr.
Chair, Department of Political Science
Livingstone College

I'm sorry but I just don't see the point to these things today. Blacks can get into any colleges, and in fact almost all schools have an affirmative preference for Blacks. These HBCU's are almost universally poorly performing (maybe some exceptions, not sure, but I have seen lists showing that overall they perform poorly). The evidence I have seen is that annon1234 is correct in his/her assessment, named signed or not (and few give names here).

All accredited institutions of higher education receive federal funds in varying levels. Nothing in the article asserts that HCBUs are disproportionately funded by the Federal Government. I fail to see anything preferential in this article. "Minority-serving" institutions does not apply only to HCBUs.

What lists purport that HCBUs are "universally poorly performing"? Spelman, Morehouse, Howard, Hampton, Tuskegee, Xavier, and many other HCBUs have excellent graduation rates. I have not heard any complaints about the quality of their degrees either. Nothing is served by painting HCBUs with such a broad brush. According to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, graduation rates of black students are low nationally. Some colleges are doing very well, others very poorly. Any school can learn from the best practices being utilized by their peer institutions, especially as it relates to the retention and graduation of black students. If you are not satisfied with the academic standards at your institution, then you should work hard to improve them or refuse to perpetuate the situation and move on to an institution with higher standards.

#8 - the issues isn't I should improve the place or move on. The issues are the broader set of problems at exist at some/many HBCU's including incredible racism and discrimination, poor leadership, lack of expectations for student performance... Throwing money at the set of problems I mentioned won't solve those kinds of problems. Decent leadership is needed, a major culture change, and the will to not use race an excuse to behave in unprofessional ways.

#5 NPR mentioned yesterday, I believe it was, with a president of one HBCU and some researcher at U of PA, things similar to what you are saying.

#8 - that same NPR report they mentioned that some schools like Spellman had better than national average graduation rates and one school at a 9%??? (something astonishingly low) graduation rate. They said, on average, that graduation rates are well below the average graduation rates for non HBCU's; placing the blame, as far as I could tell, on socio economic status.

One of your issues (#2) was about standards. Academic standards are within the scope of faculty to address at their institution. I couldn't teach at an institution where I felt the degree had little to no market value.

I don't see HCBUs as having any problems that similarly small private liberal arts institutions don't have. Racism, discrimination, poor leadership, and lack of expectations are not the purview of HCBUs. These much broader problems exist at many other accredited institutions that received federal funds. While money won't solve the problem, neither will the lack of support. And do we really want the federal government trying to fix colleges?

HCBUs will always have skewed numbers when it comes to proportions. Since they have a predominantly black student population, their sheer numbers of black students will be higher than most other institutions. Therefore, many with lower percentages are still graduating more black students. You can take the same stats, give the raw numbers (rather than the percentages) and HCBUs would appear much more successful. If one college only has 20 students and graduates 70%, should they be treated the same as a college with 200 students and graduates 70%? Regardless of the numbers game, I would hope that the greatest factor relating to graduation is SES. That would indicate that institutional efforts pale in comparison to socio-economic circumstance. The easy answer is not to address the broader problems you mentioned, but to recruit students from a higher SES.

HBCUs are an important part of the history of higher education in the US. I would not want to see any of them disappear. I feel the same way about women's colleges. I think for certain students these environments help them to feel more comfortable accessing higher education. While more and more HBCUs are MSIs (the word historically is in there for a reason-- they are no longer exclusively African American)I think HBCUs still have a valuable role in American higher education and in the Black community.

I wonder why the 2010 National HBCU Week Conference is taking place right on top of the start of Hispanic Heritage Month. One would think it could've been scheduled for another time.

Its time to end race protectionism!... With dignity, grace and as much respect for all to join in the mainstream.

Old habits die hard. Obama set off on his calculated start and path to recognition as a "community organizer". Of course he will support separate-but-equal, special interest group treatment for HBCUs. White elites may buy into this but they are the least affected by it. Let HBCUs evolve into schools that can attract and serve everyone. Other schools with religious/ethnic identities had to do it. Are Georgetown or Notre Dame getting any special support because of past discrimination against Catholics? HBCUs can always be proud of their history, but preserving a racial label just prolongs racial divisions.

I graduated from Morgan State University...amazingly campus activities were teaming with "Africian American" activities...even graduation included tribal regalia from Africa and our roots. Most of the students couldn't find Africa on a map, let alone find their tribal roots. We are our own worst emeny by seperating ourselves from Americans, other ethnic groups and asking for preferential treatment becaue of events that occurred well before our time. Equality is what we need.

As a former student of an HBCU I'm amazed at some of the ill informed and 'off-color' comments made by some of the commentators. Some of you seem to have forgetten the history of race in this country (still prevalent today) resulting in the establishment of HBCU's during the immediate aftermath of slavery during the reconstruction period. Slaves were turned into the fields like dogs after centuries of it being illegal for them to learn to read or write. Legal discrimination persisted in the United States well before 1865 until roughly 1964 when the law enforced previously established laws under our constitutions. And still, for many African Americans admittance to institutions of higher education remained difficult. The 100 some odd schools established through the bleakest time in our country's history have managed to remain open as schools that never practiced discrimination: Meaning that from the time they opened they also trained white students. Today many of the students who attend those schools aren't even eligible for federal financial aid, and the results are that African Americans who attend such schools amass the largest amounts of private student loans. Many of the students who attend HBCUs (and I include myself in this category) attend not because it is a black school and we'll easily pass - we attend because of the strength and courage these schools have exhibited in training generations of successful black doctors, engineers, lawyers, and entrepreneurs. I attended Tuskegee University, and believe me - there was nothing substandard about the education I received. I have been to Montclair State, New York University, and Pratt Institute, and none of my curriculums have been as rigorous as Tuskegee. The education I recieved at my HBCU more than adequately prepared me to further my education; I look forward to completing my Master of Science degree this May. I applaud our federal government for recognizing the contribution of HBCUs past, present, and future. Read your history books, these schools were established after the inaugeration of President Obama...they were established after slavery and the list of achievments that stem from these institutions and their alumni should not be discredited.

I meant to say - "...these schools weren't established ater the inaugeration of President Obama..." - sorry.

Education! I say yes to education but, where is my job? I worked hard to get two masters degree in MBA and MIS at a HBCU. I have sent countless resumes to employers before and after graduation for almost 2 years now and have no job yet. I was at the top in my class with an excellent GPA. So far I have managed to go for two major interviews. In both places I passed the exam with flying colors but was denied opportunity. The point is there is no equal opportunity.
Other countries are bound to overtake our country very quickly because they go for the talents rather than looks or whatever is labeled vaguely as background. The fed support is welcome but an investment in post-seconday education may end up in idle resources unless the hiring process is devoid of bigotry.

I am a product of HBCU's. I received my undergraduate and doctorate (Howard University) from HBCU's and my father was president of an HBCU. As I review the aforementioned comments I am amazed and sad at some of the inacurate information that is so widely spread amongst so-called smart people about HBCU's as well as some the racist projections that are continually cast upon HBCU's. You may not know this but not all is fair and equal especially when it comes to state supported funding of HBCU's. For example, state supported HBCU's get the left overs of the state education budgets. Why, simply because they are HBCU's. Also, many white people teach at HBCU's as well as attend HBCU's as students. As a matter of fact, HBCU's are known for embracing and promoting academic diversity amongst its faculty and student body.
On the other hand, HBCU's are not victims. By that I mean, I do not think that leadership and alumni of HBCU's for the most part (not all HBCU's) have not envisioned or imagined a day or time when the title-designation of HBCU would be a liability-barrier verse an asset. The failure to envision such a time in some ways perpetuates some of the systemic-institutional problems that plague HBCU's.
I applaud President Obama and other presidents who have reached out to support HBCU's however, real change might mean having conversations and envisioning moving from a place of dependency to autonomy.

This has got to be racial discrimination, unless I am incorrect.. Any good attorney's looking to sue over this???