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 One Howard University student explains the impact The world calls me a third-culture kid, an international traveler, a global nomad. For six years, my life consisted of U-Haul trucks, airplane tickets, and freshly printed visas before returning to the United States to further my education. Being an expatriate for the entirety of my adolescent years provided an array of social identities that led to a period of confusion and uncertainty of who I was.
This identity crisis began during my three-year stay in Jakarta, Indonesia and has yet to end. While born into one culture, I was exposed and raised among others. Questions began to arise as I was constantly surrounded by people who did not have my melanated skin. For 1,095 days, in a city of at least 9 million, to see not a soul resemble the characteristics of being African American led to an existential crisis. What did it mean to be black? Howard University, a historically black university, located in the heart of Washington, D.C. was my escape. With family members who are proud graduates of Southern University, Dillard University, Spelman College, and University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, attending a historically black college/university (HBCU) was a legacy that undoubtedly needed to be continued to search for my answer. In the fall of 2015, I was implemented into a culture I was never immersed in. I had always been regarded as a foreigner and to be labeled as a native in a country and culture I had become distant to confirmed my lack of identity. The cultural diversity and lifestyle I was accustomed to was not the norm at Howard, so I decided it was best to become camouflaged like a chameleon. Freshman year I observed and Howard, for me, became the ‘mecca’ of African-American culture. Among the food, music, customs, traditions, values, norms, and ideas, learned from the people I interacted with, being black was more than just a colored pigmentation. Sensational. Rewarding. Unique. Strength. Persistence. Power. Perseverance. This is what I saw in addition to #blackboyjoy, #blackgirlmagic, and #blackexcellence plastered upon the steps of Founders Library, The Valley, or Douglass Hall. This defined and still defines me, my people, and my HBCU. For once, I have found a place and a culture to call my own. With the help of A Different World, Martin, Living Single, and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, whose characters wore Howard memorabilia, Netflix’s newest release of Imperial Dreams, Spike Lee’s School Daze and Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly choosing to attend this illustrious university has had a tremendous impact on how I view myself and how my school is viewed by others. It’s a magical feeling. Alexis Young Although I have yet to attend a predominantly white institution (PWI), like most if not all HBCU graduates say, ‘ain’t nothing like an HBCU experience.’ I am sure PWIs have taken initiative into diversifying their institutions, but something about learning, living, and growing, alongside people with similar backgrounds is something that I have been deprived of for so long. Despite being a sophomore, I have already had a glimpse into this popular phrase throughout my year and a half at Howard. It’s second to none. Being black at an HBCU is celebrated through the amount of love and support fellow Bison show and receive. Howard becomes your family and for me my fourth home. Howard has produced many prominent African-American figures and to know I am situated in a place of soon-to-be Toni Morrisons, Thurgood Marshalls, Zora Neale Hurstons, Stokely Carmichaels, and Elijah Cummings's reveals that Howard is more than a higher level of learning. Howard is a stomping ground, foundation, a cornerstone toward the progression of an underrepresented minority. For people to question if Howard or HBCUs in general prepare African Americans for the real world is absurd. We are pretending like there isn’t a Debbie Allen, Phylicia Rashad, Kamala Harris, Gus Johnson, or Ta-Nehisi Coates in existence. As Coates, author of Between the World and Me puts it, “The Mecca is a machine, crafted to capture and concentrate the dark energy of all African peoples and inject it directly into the student body….The legacy of influential intellectuals and activists, as well as the location of Howard University, created the Mecca, the crossroads of the black diaspora”. I have not been able to fully answer my question, but each day at the hilltop, I strive closer and closer toward my answer. For now, through Howard and Kendrick I’ve learned that “black as brown, hazelnut, cinnamon, black tea, and it’s all beautiful to me.” 
Several observers, including Gasman, primarily attribute the surge in interest to racial tensions on and off college campuses — the “push” of which Wade spoke. But others say the schools themselves deserve at least some of the credit, for making changes in everything from recruiting practices to out-of-state tuition prices. Schools reporting double-digit bumps in freshmen enrollment include Virginia State, with an increase of about 30 percent; Central State University, one of two HBCUs in Ohio, with a 21 percent increase; and North Carolina’s Shaw University, the South’s oldest HBCU, which went from 402 freshmen last year to 600 this fall — an increase of 49 percent. Louisiana’s Dillard University has seen a 17 percent increase from last year’s total. The numbers are a welcome boost for HBCUs, many of which have struggled financially and otherwise in recent years. Most of the first HBCUs were founded during Reconstruction so that freed slaves could obtain a higher education; the schools have produced such noteworthy graduates as Martin Luther King Jr. and Oprah Winfrey. But although HBCUs drew 80 percent of all black college-goers four decades ago, that number had been hovering at just over 10 percent, according to a 2013 report by Gasman. About a third of all HBCUs have seen spikes in freshmen enrollment this year. Federal loan and Pell Grant restrictions passed in 2011 didn’t help, putting four-year colleges out of reach for some low-income students.. Unsurprisingly, since the recession, there have been budget cuts and even closings. Yet now enrollments are on the rise. Different explanations are being offered for the increases. Gasman said she is hearing more than ever before from parents who “don’t want [their children] to deal with what they’re seeing in other places.” Black students, she said, “are feeling they need a place to go that has them in mind.” Such calls and emails from parents usually increase after police shootings, she said. Gasman also pointed to a Facebook group, “The HBCU vs PWI [predominantly white institution] Great Debate,” where students and parents have expressed similar feelings. At Spelman, prospective students are mentioning the social climate more often in their application essays, Hayes said. They “have a heightened sense of awareness regarding the social and political conversations that have exploded in the last several years,” and are “coming of age at a time when they’re compelled to speak up.” Schools reporting double-digit bumps in freshmen enrollment include Virginia State, with an increase of about 30 percent; Central State University, one of two HBCUs in Ohio, with a 21 percent increase; and North Carolina’s Shaw University, the South’s oldest HBCU, which went from 402 freshmen last year to 600 this fall — an increase of 49 percent. Louisiana’s Dillard University has seen a 17 percent increase from last year’s total. The numbers are a welcome boost for HBCUs, many of which have struggled financially and otherwise in recent years. Most of the first HBCUs were founded during Reconstruction so that freed slaves could obtain a higher education; the schools have produced such noteworthy graduates as Martin Luther King Jr. and Oprah Winfrey. But although HBCUs drew 80 percent of all black college-goers four decades ago, that number had been hovering at just over 10 percent, according to a 2013 report by Gasman. Analysts also point to efforts by the schools themselves. HBCUs have been trying new approaches to recruiting and admissions. At Spelman, Hayes said, the school has focused on “arranging a deep pipeline of prospective students, talking to students earlier, with more extensive conversations.”
Officials at Virginia State University and Ohio’s Central State University underlined similar efforts, as well as increased social media activity by VSU’s president and increased contact witah high school guidance counselors at CSU. “We weren’t as systematic before,” said Stephanie Krah, CSU’s vice president of student affairs and enrollment management. Another factor in Ohio: a 76 percent decrease in the surcharge for out-of-state students, Krah said. Melissa Wooten, sociology professor at the University of Massachusetts Cost has long been seen as a plus for HBCUs. Penn’s Gasman estimates that HBCU tuition rates are 50 percent lower than those of their historically white counterparts; about a third of HBCUs have tuition and fees under $15,000. As more attention is drawn to rising tuition and student debt, these schools may become more appealing, said Melissa Wooten, sociology professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of “In the Face of Inequality: How Black Colleges Adapt.” Wooten also pointed to what she called a “resurgence of HBCUs in the public conversation,” driven by everything from a Twitter trend last year, #IfHogwartsWasAnHBCU (referring to the Harry Potter school), to “Think HBCU,” a promotional campaign launched this year by Alpha Kappa Alpha, a sorority with 65,000 active members. A Gallup poll released last year of black graduates of HBCUs and other colleges also sparked conversation, noted Robert Palmer, a professor in the department of educational leadership and policy studies at Howard University. The poll results showed that HBCU graduates were about twice as likely as graduates of other colleges to strongly agree with such statements as, “my professors … cared about me as a person.” “There’s obviously something happening at a societal level,” Wooten said. “But we shouldn’t downplay what the HBCUs are doing” themselves to increase enrollment. “There’s both a push and a pull.” |
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