According to NPR, currently, Black men make up only 26% of enrolled students at HBCUs, a significant drop from the 38% they comprised in 1976.
Per analysis from the American Institute for Boys and Men, the decline in Black male attendance at HBCUs is affected by a myriad of factors.
As their study states, “This decline in Black male students is influenced by factors such as inadequate K-12 preparation, a lack of Black male teachers, and financial barriers both individually and institutionally.”
NPR’s Joanna Summers talked to Calvin Hadley, an assistant provost for Academic Partnerships and Student Engagement at Howard University, about the university’s problems.
Hadley, a graduate of the university where he now works, told Summers that he noticed the disparities in male and female enrollment during his undergraduate education at Howard.
He continued, “And I think recent statistics said (Howard is) around 19% Black male. And so that is felt on campus, that is felt, I think, in our social clubs, it’s felt on the yard. And I think many of our male students have commented that in some of their classes, they’re the only male in their class.”
Hadley continued, indicating his concern. “At every educational institution, we want a diversity of experience. And so when you don’t have as many males in the classroom, that diversity of experience is significantly impacted. It gets even more scary when we trace it forward, right? I think we’re dealing with some really unique statistics right now. Black males are graduating at a much lower rate than Black females.”
Hadley also indicated that this problem is not limited to HBCUs.
“And so this drop in the past decade has been seen more drastically. But the reality is, this is not a Howard problem. This is not an HBCU problem. This is not a PWI problem. This is an American education problem.”
Hadley closed the interview with a direct appeal to Black men to come to Howard after pointing out that Black men are being left behind in American society and are potentially negatively impacting their future families because of a lack of a college education.
“You attend an HBCU for an education and not a degree, and as an assistant provost, that’s not a popular thing to say. The education that you receive in an HBCU transcends the classroom experience. It transcends the relationship that you have with your professor. The education exists in between the lines of the pages. HBCUs inundate you with the sense of belief. We talked about the importance of that belief on the front end, the belief gap that exists in K through 12,” Hadley stated.
Source: Black Enterprise
