President Obama Said to be Critical of HBCUs


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MetroPhillyTiger

Well-Known Member
http://politic365.com/2015/02/14/president-obama-said-to-be-critical-of-hbcus-during-cbc-meeting/

President Obama was critical of Historically Black Colleges and Universities during a meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus this week according to several in attendance. The February 10 meeting was the first group gathering with the Black Caucus and the President since June 2013.

Several who attended the meeting indicated that President Obama felt that the focus of HBCU’s needs to be on the schools changing their ways of doing business rather on changes in federal policy. Those who attended said he was specifically critical of graduation rates and loan policies

“He said there were some HBCUs that were not good at graduating students and if they did not improve they’d have to go by the wayside,” said Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA).

“In other words he didn’t show much empathy for struggling HBCUs. It was like show me the numbers and if the numbers aren’t where they need to be, that’s it. It was a somewhat callous view of the unique niche HBCUs fill,” Rep. Johnson, a graduate of Clark Atlanta University, said. Rep. Johnson said there needs to be a deeper discussion with the President on HBCU issues

What we ought to be talking about is: If there are weaknesses at certain HBCUs what do we do to strengthen those institutions?” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) who graduated from Jackson State University and Tougaloo. Both Rep. Thompson and Rep. Fudge brought up the funding disparities between HBCUs and other institutions as a big problem

Chicago Reps. Danny Davis (D-IL) and Bobby Rush (D-IL) said he had no problem with what the President said on HBCUs at Monday’s meeting.

“There are individuals who think that the community college initiative is going to damaging to HBCUs. That has not necessarily been born out yet. I graduated from an HBCU,” Rep. Davis said. “He [the President] was talking about schools whose graduation rates were not all that good. I got the impression he was saying he needed to shape up their game,” Rep. Davis added. Rep. Davis is a graduate of Chicago State University.
 
Don't agree with all of it but I have found the HBCU opposition to the free community college plan to be selfish and petty for a community that claims to care about students more than our counterparts.
 

jsupop33 said:
Don't agree with all of it but I have found the HBCU opposition to the free community college plan to be selfish and petty for a community that claims to care about students more than our counterparts.
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President Obama knows that colleges and universities are using more of a business model to generate revenue, which means less government support. Due to the deep cuts public colleges and universities in Louisiana have experienced since Jindal been the governor, they are no longer State supported. They are now considered schools that are assisted by the Statet . One thing good I can say about Jindal, his cuts just didn't target the State's HBCUs (Southern and Grambling). His cuts was across the board, but in my opinion, his cuts were way too drastic. If Jindal could have learned how to gradually phase out stuff without drastically effecting people's lives and costing the State more money, he might have been an okay Republican governor, since he is somewhat fair. HBCUs need to develop their business model to compete for those students leaving community colleges with the desire of advancing their studies.
 
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HBCUs historically take the students on the lower end of the academic totem pole, to bitch and moan about graduation rates when funding is not equal is asinine at best and racist at its worst.
 
Blankman2k5 said:
HBCUs historically take the students on the lower end of the academic totem pole, to bitch and moan about graduation rates when funding is not equal is asinine at best and racist at its worst.
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HBCUs don't have no choice but to admit those students, because most of our best and brightest don't go to our schools. You can thank the Civil Rights Era and Desegregation for that.
 
Bane said:
HBCUs don't have no choice but to admit those students, because most of our best and brightest don't go to our schools. You can thank the Civil Rights Era and Desegregation for that.
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This thinking assumes that HBCUs can only thrive in racially segregated societies. Like JAG89 said, the business model has to change for current times.
 
jsupop33 said:
Don't agree with all of it but I have found the HBCU opposition to the free community college plan to be selfish and petty for a community that claims to care about students more than our counterparts.
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We get penalized (rankings/grad rates) for caring more about the (marginal) students who are more likely to go to community colleges.
 
MetroPhillyTiger said:
This thinking assumes that HBCUs can only thrive in racially segregated societies. Like JAG89 said, the business model has to change for current times.
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At this point a new business model won't do anything because the train has left the station. You're not going to convince the majority of the best and brightest to choose HBCUs over top PWIs. That is just not going to happen.
 
I hear time and time again HBCU's don't get the best of the best black students. Yet in 2015 stats still show we account for the majority of the professional white collar black jobs. Somebody help me out with this. How is this possible if all the brightest are going to PWC's? Is this just like all black men go to jail theory?
 
Bane said:
At this point a new business model won't do anything because the train has left the station. You're not going to convince the majority of the best and brightest to choose HBCUs over top PWIs. That is just not going to happen.
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You can't just jump into a business approach that forces you to compete with the likes of a Harvard or MIT. The school's first goal should be to attract students who have the best potential to finish in a timely manner. Your marketing/business approach could be to seek out certain niche groups like folks from the local community, working adults, etc. Plus, you can't just lump all HBCUs in the same bucket. Some HBCUs are in a better position that others.
 
jag4life said:
We get penalized (rankings/grad rates) for caring more about the (marginal) students who are more likely to go to community colleges.
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Which is why you have community colleges. Community colleges are the means of evaluating the low achievers in high school and which of those low achievers are serious about continuing their education. Southern University is beginning to take advantage of this through its junior college in Shreveport. Southern is beginning to offer classes in Baton Rouge through its junior college in Shreveport. Although those students will be taking classes on the Baton Rouge campus, they would actually be enrolled at Southern University in Shreveport. The LSU System does the same thing now that LSUA is a 4-year university. Junior college students in Central Louisiana (CENLA) can attend classes at LSUA, but they would actual be enrolled at LSUE, which is LSU's junior college. Also, Southern is beginning to start transfer programs (Bears 2 Jaguars) with Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC) so that students transferring into certain programs at Southern would be a seamless process. HBCU needs to realize that they can no longer be the ones to close that gap that was created in high schools.

http://www.subr.edu/index.cfm/newsroom/detail/732
 
the bigger schools are now offering blacks/minorities who are now as low as the top 20% more financial aid money than an HBCU

they fill their quotas easier but at the same time those blacks are what we used to get easily but now their price has been inflated......sad part is, that demographic normally bombs out at the PWC and getting them to come back to an HBCU and start over is the hardest part
 

JAG89 said:
Which is why you have community colleges. Community colleges are the means of evaluating the low achievers in high school and which of those low achievers are serious about continuing their education. Southern University is beginning to take advantage of this through its junior college in Shreveport. Southern is beginning to offer classes in Baton Rouge through its junior college in Shreveport. Although those students will be taking classes on the Baton Rouge campus, they would actually be enrolled at Southern University in Shreveport. The LSU System does the same thing now that LSUA is a 4-year university. Junior college students in Central Louisiana (CENLA) can attend classes at LSUA, but they would actual be enrolled at LSUE, which is LSU's junior college. Also, Southern is beginning to start transfer programs (Bears 2 Jaguars) with Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC) so that students transferring into certain programs at Southern would be a seamless process. HBCU needs to realize that they can no longer be the ones to close that gap that was created in high schools.

http://www.subr.edu/index.cfm/newsroom/detail/732
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I knew all that... the point I'm making is that even though some of those kids who do well in community college will transfer into SU and other HBCUs, we won't get credit when they graduate due to the way the rates are calculated. We also lose the revenue from having more students enrolled at our 4 year schools for the duration.
 
jag4life said:
I knew all that... the point I'm making is that even though some of those kids who do well in community college will transfer into SU and other HBCUs, we won't get credit when they graduate due to the way the rates are calculated. We also lose the revenue from having more students enrolled at our 4 year schools for the duration.
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I think the point is that the kids who would impact the grad rate would be steered towards community colleges and the kids who are more likely to graduate would be accepted into the 4-year school. The residual effect would be a higher graduation rate among the 4-year kids.
 
MetroPhillyTiger said:
I think the point is that the kids who would impact the grad rate would be steered towards community colleges and the kids who are more likely to graduate would be accepted into the 4-year school. The residual effect would be a higher graduation rate among the 4-year kids.
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As long as we are given enough time to see the results, it's all good. It would take a good decade to see trended results. Do we keep receiving adequate funding over that time period? Can we cope with the initial loss of tuition and fee revenue?
 
Maybe some of you already caught on to this but I think Obama was getting on HBCUs with a low graduation rate because the fed is trying to crack down on for-profit schools who get federal aid but don't care about students graduating. So these for profit schools tend to have very low graduation rates. If an HBCU has a low graduation rate then the feds would have to treat them the same as the for-profit school.
 
MetroPhillyTiger said:
Maybe some of you already caught on to this but I think Obama was getting on HBCUs with a low graduation rate because the fed is trying to crack down on for-profit schools who get federal aid but don't care about students graduating. So these for profit schools tend to have very low graduation rates. If an HBCU has a low graduation rate then the feds would have to treat them the same as the for-profit school.
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No they want. Proprietary schools are treated different because the Higher Education Act specifies that they can only access Title IV if their programs lead to Gainful Employment.
 
jsupop33 said:
No they want. Proprietary schools are treated different because the Higher Education Act specifies that they can only access Title IV if their programs lead to Gainful Employment.
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Liberty University must have a ton of those programs, because they receive the most in financial aid than any school in the State of Virginia. Liberty University receives over a half of billion dollars in financial aid money.

That's not the case at Liberty, whose students this year received what campus officials estimate to be $775 million in federal aid, including loans and grants.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/14/liberty-university/2764789/
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JAG89 said:
Liberty University must have a ton of those programs, because they receive the most in financial aid than any school in the State of Virginia. Liberty University receives over a half of billion dollars in financial aid money.
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We don't know yet. The Gainful Employment regulations don't officially go into effect until July 1. The first rule got thrown out in court.
 
jsupop33 said:
We don't know yet. The Gainful Employment regulations don't officially go into effect until July 1. The first rule got thrown out in court.
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I hope so, because Liberty also has right at an $1 billion dollar endowment. IMO, schools like Liberty fight against the development of Medical Science, since the foundation of those schools were built on strong Creationism principles. If they had their way, they would turn the hands of time back in this country where everyone would be living like individuals that live in Amish communities.
 
I'm always amazed at the grad rate theory. Most of the people I know like me who worked and paid their own way thru school and finished with no student loans shouldn't hurt or get a school penalized. America is such a hypocritical place. On one hand Republicans always say pull yourself up and make a way on your own, then they turn around and penalize folks for doing it. With many plants and other type jobs offering tuition reimbursement many folks are working and taking their time graduating if they can debt free. Instead of penalizing schools this point should be brought up to the department of fake azz Ivy league education, no common sense people.
 
CEE DOG said:
I'm always amazed at the grad rate theory. Most of the people I know like me who worked and paid their own way thru school and finished with no student loans shouldn't hurt or get a school penalized. America is such a hypocritical place. On one hand Republicans always say pull yourself up and make a way on your own, then they turn around and penalize folks for doing it. With many plants and other type jobs offering tuition reimbursement many folks are working and taking their time graduating if they can debt free. Instead of penalizing schools this point should be brought up to the department of fake azz Ivy league education, no common sense people.
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a lot of folks drop out with debt. the new student loan rules penalize u for taking more than 6 years to graduate also.
 
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