- Misha Maynard is CEO of Apex Solutions, a healthcare consulting group, that has provided rapid COVID test services to Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Since the spring of 2020, nationwide, U.S. colleges and universities have lost nearly 1.3 million students. And although the pandemic has created COVID-related positive enrollment trends amounting for an increase of 4.2% in higher education enrollment during the spring of 2022 compared to the spring of 2021, freshman enrollment still lags pre-pandemic numbers.
The enrollment crisis in the U.S. worsened in 2022. According to Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, this generation of college-aged students appears to be questioning the true value of a college education in this economy as they attempt to decipher whether or not “college is still the ticket to the middle class.”
Dr. Shapiro asks the American public to consider the larger issue of student debt, the rising price of college, and the diminishing returns of the labor market as factors influencing student enrollment.
A report from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) details the decline in college enrollment of recent high school graduates from 63.8% in 2017 to 52.8% in 2021. This report shows that this downward trend in enrollment has been progressing in the state over the past 5 years.
But this impact is not universal, even in Tennessee. For Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), applications rose nearly 30% between 2018 and 2021. In fact, HBCUs are becoming the top choice for many excellent students.
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Sense of community and belonging are key
Though HBCUs were originally founded to provide the opportunity to gain access to higher education for black students where there were previously none, today some HBCUs are capturing the lion’s share of highly qualified black candidates as well as enrolling up to 40% white students. Regardless of the changing demographics within HBCUs, Black traditions and culture still pervade daily university life.
Top-tier black students are receiving offers from Ivy League schools but are choosing HBCUs because the value of community and a sense of belonging is quickly becoming paramount in the current national cultural climate.
During this ongoing enrollment crisis in the United States, HBCUs like Tennessee State University (TSU), Spelman University, and Virginia State University welcome expanding groups of incoming students. Dr. Makola M. Abdullah, president of Virginia State University, is thrilled with the renewed interest in HBCUs. He believes it has to do with the changing value placed on how an institution tells its story and celebrates the culture and history of its students.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of students in this country enrolling in HBCUs went up 57% by 2022.
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Financial support is critical for students
Another HBCU benefit is how they handle financial aid and student support. To maintain and grow enrollment numbers, these schools understand that they must invest in their students and support them financially. Recently North Carolina A&T University surveyed its students to ascertain which aspects of the university caused them to enroll. The survey found that more than 14,000 students chose this university because they were “looking for a collegiate experience where they wouldn’t stand out as much.”
TSU‘s class of 2026 is positioned to be its largest freshman class in history, with the incoming freshmen having the best academic credentials in recent years. More than 2,000 freshmen have registered for the fall semester at TSU, which is in addition to almost 300 transfer students who also joined the school for the current school year. Dr. Glenda Glover, TSU’s president, had this to say about the historical incoming class: “We are excited that this is the largest first-year class in the history of TSU. This growth is very positive for TSU as more and more students seek to attend our university.”
SeKai Parker, graduating high school senior accepted at multiple Ivy League schools and offered more than $3 million in scholarships initially viewed HBCUs as academically inferior. However, after she attended Black Lives Matter uprisings in summer 2020, she started to realize that she wanted to be around students that understood her background, culture, and experiences. Parker, who chose to go to Spelman College, said:“I felt like my identities as a Black person and a woman could not coexist in the space, I was in. It’s almost impossible to discover who you are while simultaneously trying to prove that your existence as a Black woman holds value.”
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Parents express greater comfort for their children’s safety
HBCUs provide students with economic, social, and geographically diverse backgrounds as well as similar cultural and emotional experiences that help to take the feeling of isolation and anxiety away for these students.
Black parents share these concerns with their children. On NPR’s code switch, best-selling author and mother Denene Millner wrote in an opinion column she would rather know her child was safer both mentally and physically in an HBCU than pay exorbitant amounts of money to have a child live on a campus where they feel uncomfortable and have less ability to be their authentic self.
Misha Maynard is CEO of Apex Solutions, a healthcare consulting group, that has provided rapid COVID test services to Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
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