The Recession's Impact on Hbcus

The Recession’s Effect on HBCUs The economic crises of the last several years have had a very dire impact on much of the American population. Many families have found themselves facing job loss, home foreclosure, and price hikes in everyday necessities. But how is this recession impacting college age African Americans, and more specifically HBCUs and their enrollment? The number of African American students who attend college is steadily rising each academic school year, and has more than doubled in the past thirty years. Historically Black Colleges and Universities are improving their facilities, staff, and recruitment techniques to reinforce their ability to offer a quality education to prospective students. But even with said improvement, several state legislatures are cutting their higher education budgets. This is prompting institutions in some states to merge, such as Savannah State University and Atlantic State University in Georgia. Also as a result of the recession, minority students are finding themselves in more of a bind to pay tuition costs, as it is getting harder to take out both subsidized and unsubsidized loans. In future political administrations we could possibly see the cutting of federally funded programs such as PELL and MTAG which could potentially leave many students without any means of paying for college. The upside is that HBCUs are normally lower in price to attend than predominately white counterparts. This provides a gateway for higher minority enrollment among HBCUs. With increased diversifying strategies, the value in attending HBCUs has attracted a much greater non-black student