Howard sits on a sprawling 258-acre campus in Northwest Washington, and has educated many of the civil rights leaders who fought to end segregation at white colleges and universities, among them Thurgood Marshall and Vernon Jordan Jr.
Historically black colleges and universities, known as H.B.C.U.’s, once held a monopoly.
Today, they struggle to compete with elite colleges that have stepped up recruiting for the best and brightest black students.
Forty-six percent of students at historically black colleges come from families with incomes lower than $34,000, and half qualify for federal low-income Pell grants, according to the United Negro College Fund, which finances scholarships for 37 private black colleges.
The organization also manages a Gates Foundation scholarship program that allows disadvantaged students to choose any institution.
Only 19 percent of the recipients have chosen black colleges.
Other uncomfortable realities include new restrictions on the federal loans that many students depend on (89 percent of Howard’s receive some sort of financial aid).
Howard’s teaching hospital has also been a drain on resources; once the sole choice for middle-class patients in a segregated society, it is now used mostly by those who cannot afford to pay.
The university has been hit with a downgrade of its credit rating by Moody’s Investors Service that makes fund-raising even more difficult.
Howard is not unique in the constellation of private and public H.B.C.U.’s.
The Department of Education recently toughened eligibility criteria for Parent Plus loans.
A coalition of black organizations have protested what William R. Harvey, president of the historically black Hampton University, called “a debacle.”
Michael L. Lomax, president and chief executive of the United Negro College Fund, has urged the department to return to the old loan policy.
As Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s congressional representative, put it: “Because of its historic reliance on government funds, that made Howard better off, but now, with the sequester, Howard, which was better off, is now worse off.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/education/edlife/a-historically-black-college-is-rocked-by-the-economy-infighting-and-a-changing-demographic.html
Historically black colleges and universities, known as H.B.C.U.’s, once held a monopoly.
Today, they struggle to compete with elite colleges that have stepped up recruiting for the best and brightest black students.
Forty-six percent of students at historically black colleges come from families with incomes lower than $34,000, and half qualify for federal low-income Pell grants, according to the United Negro College Fund, which finances scholarships for 37 private black colleges.
The organization also manages a Gates Foundation scholarship program that allows disadvantaged students to choose any institution.
Only 19 percent of the recipients have chosen black colleges.
Other uncomfortable realities include new restrictions on the federal loans that many students depend on (89 percent of Howard’s receive some sort of financial aid).
Howard’s teaching hospital has also been a drain on resources; once the sole choice for middle-class patients in a segregated society, it is now used mostly by those who cannot afford to pay.
The university has been hit with a downgrade of its credit rating by Moody’s Investors Service that makes fund-raising even more difficult.
Howard is not unique in the constellation of private and public H.B.C.U.’s.
The Department of Education recently toughened eligibility criteria for Parent Plus loans.
A coalition of black organizations have protested what William R. Harvey, president of the historically black Hampton University, called “a debacle.”
Michael L. Lomax, president and chief executive of the United Negro College Fund, has urged the department to return to the old loan policy.
As Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s congressional representative, put it: “Because of its historic reliance on government funds, that made Howard better off, but now, with the sequester, Howard, which was better off, is now worse off.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/education/edlife/a-historically-black-college-is-rocked-by-the-economy-infighting-and-a-changing-demographic.html