Several HBCUs are experiencing a significant increase in the number of Black students applying and enrolling, reversing years of declining numbers.
“The percentage of Black students enrolled at HBCUs fell from 18% in 1976 to 8% in 2014 and then increased to 9% in 2020,” according to The National Center for Education Statistics. According to Data USA, HBCUs such as Morehouse College in Atlanta have seen a 60% increase in applications in 2020 from the previous year, NPR reported.
The increase in applications and enrollments at HBCUs stems from a number of things. For starters, many Black parents and students see a safer environment at HBCUs where Black students and culture are the priority.
Many incoming students are also following the lead of Black politicians
, celebrities, doctors, and lawyers who have graduated from HBCUs. The Black Lives Matter movement and the focus on social equity have also led to more Black Americans spending their money on a Black-focused education for their children. HBCUs are also cheaper than predominately white institutions (PWIs).Sherrille McKethan-Green, whose son Gideon Green will attend Morehouse this fall, told NPR going to an HBCU will be a different experience for her son that he may never get again.
“I felt that after he graduated from college, he would have time to be a minority, but at Morehouse, he would be a majority,” McKethan-Green said.
HBCUs are paramount to the educational success of Black Americans. They produce almost a quarter (23%) of all Black college graduates. Eighty percent of Black judges graduated from HBCUs. According to The Cleveland Council of Black Colleges Alumni Association, more than 50% of Black public school teachers and 70% of Black dentists and physicians earned degrees at HBCUs.
The skyrocketing enrollments have created housing issues on some HBCU campuses.
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU
) currently has no on-campus housing left for incoming students and has been forced to assist students who have to find places off-campus and approved a proposal to acquire duplexes and condos to use for student housing. Local realtors have also stepped in to help FAMU students find apartments.Morgan State University, a Baltimore-based HBCU, unveiled a new residence hall for this fall and announced another will be built for 2024.