Black Colleges Struggle to Keep Students

An article about the enrollment struggles historically black colleges are having.  It's wonderful, of course, that predominatly white colleges are increasingly competing for black students, but this is the downside...

Page is part of a steady trickle of talented young blacks slipping away from the nation's most prestigious black colleges.

Experts say aging campuses are one reason. But other reasons cited include increasing competition from predominantly white schools that are trying to become more diverse; changes in black students' desires; and the greater opportunities available to them in a society more integrated than that of their parents.

The exodus has left some black schools struggling to market themselves to youngsters who do not feel as duty-bound to attend black colleges as their parents did.

"The issue for black colleges is not, in my view, that there are not enough students to go around," said Michael Lomax, president of the United Negro College Fund. Instead, "students have a lot more choices and those students are being careful and more selective than ever before."

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Black Colleges Struggle to Keep Students
By DIONNE WALKER , 09.25.2006, 02:10 PM

http://www.forbes.com/business/commerce/feeds/ap/2006/09/25/ap3043131.html

When Jessica Page visited Hampton University in March, she considered the trip a formality. She had already made up her mind to attend the school, considered by many a jewel among the nation's historically black institutions. Then she saw the campus.

The dorms weren't as sleek as she had pictured. Buildings seemed antiquated. Was this "The Real HU" she had heard about?

"I wasn't impressed," said Page, who later enrolled at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. "Hampton was my No. 1 choice - until I visited."