Trustee Says Howard University is in Financial Trouble

A vice chairwoman of Howard University’s board of trustees told the board in a report published Friday that the school “is in genuine trouble” because of financial and management problems.

“Howard will not be here in three years if we don’t make some crucial

decisions now,” Renee Higginbotham-Brooks wrote in a letter published on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s website.

Among the concerns Higginbotham-Brooks mentioned were “competition for students from less expensive public colleges, the possibility of a reduction in federal appropriations, expenses associated with the university’s hospital, the absence of a robust fundraising system to offset declines in tuition revenue and a university workforce that she said is too large.”