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Two black colleges may close doors
By Larry Copeland, USA TODAY
ATLANTA ? Morris Brown College here and Louisiana's Grambling State University learn Tuesday whether they will lose accreditation, which would likely doom the historically black institutions that have produced generations of professionals.
The 117-year-old Morris Brown College is more than $15 million in debt and is facing its possible demise over alleged mishandling of student financial aid. Grambling State, a 101-year-old institution known to many for its riveting marching band and legendary football coach Eddie Robinson, risks losing its accreditation because of accounting lapses.
RESOURCES
Official Web sites
Grambling State University
Morris Brown College
Accreditation is a review process that helps assure academic quality and qualifies a school for federal funds.
If the schools lose their accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the 2,500 students at Morris Brown and 4,500 at Grambling State will no longer be eligible for federal financial aid. This is a major source of revenue for both schools. They would likely have to close if they lost it.
Supporters of the nation's 105 historically black colleges and universities are watching closely to see what happens. Over the past 26 years, the number of black students in all colleges increased almost 60% to 1.6 million. In that time, 12 black schools closed, most because of money problems from decreasing enrollments and inadequate endowments.
Many historically black colleges have trouble competing for students, faculty and money at a time when they're facing greater competition for black students and teachers. Major public and private schools are aggressively recruiting black applicants.
To some, the decreasing number of black colleges means fewer places where black students can find a nurturing academic environment. To others, it simply represents market forces at work. Some question whether all of the schools are still needed.
A handful are thriving
"Supporters of Morris Brown argue that its importance lies in its dedication to those students who are slightly less academically prepared than the typical Morehouse or Spelman student but who will thrive nevertheless in a nurturing environment," Cynthia Tucker, editorial page editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote recently. "Dozens of historically black colleges in the country now claim that as their mission. Not all of them can or should survive."
Michael Nettles, a University of Michigan professor who has studied historically black colleges and universities, says they are "as necessary as every other college or university in America."
To many, it's logical that only the best-run historically black schools will survive.
Indeed, some black colleges are prospering. Morehouse College and Spelman College here, Xavier University in New Orleans and Howard University in Washington, D.C., have built multimillion-dollar endowments. They can pick and choose among black America's brightest students.
Xavier in 2001 sent more black students to medical school, 94, than any other college in the nation, says Humphrey Doermann, co-author with Henry Drewry of Stand and Prosper: Private Black Colleges and Their Students.
More than 42% of all black medical students are enrolled at Morehouse, Meharry Medical College in Tennessee and Howard. Spelman has built a $220 million endowment. Hampton University in Virginia has raised more than $200 million in recent years.
But the wealth is not equally shared among black colleges.
Morris Brown's endowment was $5 million in 2001. It is one of six black colleges that are either on probation or have been given warnings by accreditation agencies.
Many of these schools derive a large chunk of their operating budgets from student financial aid. With the faltering economy, their already-thin corporate and alumni contributions have slowed to a trickle.
This ratchets up the pressure on the schools' presidents, who usually are the chief fundraisers. In the past two years, about two dozen historically black colleges have changed presidents.
Charles Taylor, a former Wilberforce University president, has led Morris Brown since September. He was widely seen as someone who could steer the school to financial stability.
The U.S. Education Department has ordered Morris Brown to repay $5.4 million in federal financial aid it received for students who did not qualify because they had dropped out or never enrolled.
Need led to schools
Historically black colleges and universities were founded to educate African-Americans.
Before the Civil War, blacks in the South were barred from higher education either by law or public policy. Abolitionists and Quakers established schools for blacks in some northern states. The first was Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1837.
Today, there are 40 four-year public black colleges, 49 private four-year schools, 11 two-year public schools and five two-year private schools, according to the U.S. Interior Department.
It's been decades since most of these schools were all black. Historically black public colleges, which enroll almost 80% of all the students at black colleges, were forced to desegregate by the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That law bans discrimination at public colleges and universities.
Other historically black colleges were forced to change by a shrinking pool of black applicants. Top black college-bound students are aggressively recruited by predominantly white universities. From 1976 to 1999, enrollment at historically black colleges and universities increased 23% to 274,212, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Over the same period, white student enrollment at these schools increased 30% to more than 30,000.
Today, several of the schools, including Lincoln University in Missouri, West Virginia State College and Bluefield State College in West Virginia, are predominantly white. Several others have large white student enrollments.
Grambling State was founded in the hills of north Louisiana by an association of black farmers in 1901.
Morris Brown was established in 1885 and boasts that it is Georgia's only institution of higher learning founded exclusively by blacks. The African Methodist Episcopal Church started the school 22 years after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect.
By Larry Copeland, USA TODAY
ATLANTA ? Morris Brown College here and Louisiana's Grambling State University learn Tuesday whether they will lose accreditation, which would likely doom the historically black institutions that have produced generations of professionals.
The 117-year-old Morris Brown College is more than $15 million in debt and is facing its possible demise over alleged mishandling of student financial aid. Grambling State, a 101-year-old institution known to many for its riveting marching band and legendary football coach Eddie Robinson, risks losing its accreditation because of accounting lapses.
RESOURCES
Official Web sites
Grambling State University
Morris Brown College
Accreditation is a review process that helps assure academic quality and qualifies a school for federal funds.
If the schools lose their accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the 2,500 students at Morris Brown and 4,500 at Grambling State will no longer be eligible for federal financial aid. This is a major source of revenue for both schools. They would likely have to close if they lost it.
Supporters of the nation's 105 historically black colleges and universities are watching closely to see what happens. Over the past 26 years, the number of black students in all colleges increased almost 60% to 1.6 million. In that time, 12 black schools closed, most because of money problems from decreasing enrollments and inadequate endowments.
Many historically black colleges have trouble competing for students, faculty and money at a time when they're facing greater competition for black students and teachers. Major public and private schools are aggressively recruiting black applicants.
To some, the decreasing number of black colleges means fewer places where black students can find a nurturing academic environment. To others, it simply represents market forces at work. Some question whether all of the schools are still needed.
A handful are thriving
"Supporters of Morris Brown argue that its importance lies in its dedication to those students who are slightly less academically prepared than the typical Morehouse or Spelman student but who will thrive nevertheless in a nurturing environment," Cynthia Tucker, editorial page editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote recently. "Dozens of historically black colleges in the country now claim that as their mission. Not all of them can or should survive."
Michael Nettles, a University of Michigan professor who has studied historically black colleges and universities, says they are "as necessary as every other college or university in America."
To many, it's logical that only the best-run historically black schools will survive.
Indeed, some black colleges are prospering. Morehouse College and Spelman College here, Xavier University in New Orleans and Howard University in Washington, D.C., have built multimillion-dollar endowments. They can pick and choose among black America's brightest students.
Xavier in 2001 sent more black students to medical school, 94, than any other college in the nation, says Humphrey Doermann, co-author with Henry Drewry of Stand and Prosper: Private Black Colleges and Their Students.
More than 42% of all black medical students are enrolled at Morehouse, Meharry Medical College in Tennessee and Howard. Spelman has built a $220 million endowment. Hampton University in Virginia has raised more than $200 million in recent years.
But the wealth is not equally shared among black colleges.
Morris Brown's endowment was $5 million in 2001. It is one of six black colleges that are either on probation or have been given warnings by accreditation agencies.
Many of these schools derive a large chunk of their operating budgets from student financial aid. With the faltering economy, their already-thin corporate and alumni contributions have slowed to a trickle.
This ratchets up the pressure on the schools' presidents, who usually are the chief fundraisers. In the past two years, about two dozen historically black colleges have changed presidents.
Charles Taylor, a former Wilberforce University president, has led Morris Brown since September. He was widely seen as someone who could steer the school to financial stability.
The U.S. Education Department has ordered Morris Brown to repay $5.4 million in federal financial aid it received for students who did not qualify because they had dropped out or never enrolled.
Need led to schools
Historically black colleges and universities were founded to educate African-Americans.
Before the Civil War, blacks in the South were barred from higher education either by law or public policy. Abolitionists and Quakers established schools for blacks in some northern states. The first was Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1837.
Today, there are 40 four-year public black colleges, 49 private four-year schools, 11 two-year public schools and five two-year private schools, according to the U.S. Interior Department.
It's been decades since most of these schools were all black. Historically black public colleges, which enroll almost 80% of all the students at black colleges, were forced to desegregate by the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That law bans discrimination at public colleges and universities.
Other historically black colleges were forced to change by a shrinking pool of black applicants. Top black college-bound students are aggressively recruited by predominantly white universities. From 1976 to 1999, enrollment at historically black colleges and universities increased 23% to 274,212, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Over the same period, white student enrollment at these schools increased 30% to more than 30,000.
Today, several of the schools, including Lincoln University in Missouri, West Virginia State College and Bluefield State College in West Virginia, are predominantly white. Several others have large white student enrollments.
Grambling State was founded in the hills of north Louisiana by an association of black farmers in 1901.
Morris Brown was established in 1885 and boasts that it is Georgia's only institution of higher learning founded exclusively by blacks. The African Methodist Episcopal Church started the school 22 years after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect.
