Governance Matters -- Confronting harsh realities: black colleges and their future

Dr. Alvin J. Schexnider is a former chancellor of Winston-Salem State University and former interim president of Norfolk State University. He is an AGB Senior Fellow and the author of “Saving Black Colleges” (Palgrave Macmillan 2013). Contact him at ASchexnider@agb.org.

RICHMOND, Virginia  -- For reasons both personal and professional, I have refused to weigh in on events swirling around two of Virginia’s tax-supported institutions. Full disclosure: I served on the Board of Visitors of Virginia State University in the 1980s and I was interim president of Norfolk State University in 2005-2006. The wise former president keeps a low profile and takes a vow of silence, particularly on matters regarding his former institution.

As someone who spent more than four decades in the academy and is a product of one of this country’s more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, I am compelled to speak.

Consequential Boards: Adding Value Where It Matters Most (.pdf)

Whether public or independent, HBCUs face an uncertain future. Ironically, 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education our public schools are now re-segregated while the majority of African-American students attend white colleges and universities. Today, 11 percent of black students attend HBCUs. From Maryland to Louisiana, every state save North Carolina enrolls more than 60 percent of its black students in a majority-white public four-year university. In Florida, 90 percent of African-American students attend a majority-white university.

HBCUs struggle to maintain market share in this competitive environment. Even in an era of increasing tuition costs, public universities, for-profit colleges, online universities and community colleges are attractive to African-American students. 

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