Ivory Toldson, deputy director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, addresses a presidential council on HBCUs to discuss recent education proposals. (Josh Rosenblat/MNS)
WASHINGTON — Leaders of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges reviewed Wednesday ways to improve that sector of higher education, even while facing falling enrollment numbers.
Over the past ten years, state laws and universities raised entrance standards, restricting admissions at four-year schools, including HBCUs, according to Ivory Toldson, deputy director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Similarly, the rising cost of college has been a challenge for the same schools. Some schools such as Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Alcorn State in Lorman, Mississippi have cut tuitions, and thus potential revenue, in bids to attract more students.
In a meeting of the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, HBCU leaders considered some of the White House’s proposed education policies — a new federal college rating system and free community college — with an eye toward issues impacting their sector.
Education Undersecretary Ted Mitchell outlined how President Barack Obama’s framework for a new federal college rating system would “cut through the clutter.” He said a new system would promote accountability and transparency for all schools, including HBCUs. The system, Mitchell said, will measure “access, affordability and outcome.”
Mitchell faced questions from the board about how the main aspects of the rating system framework will be measured — especially in assessing educational “outcomes.” The Obama administration is still considering how to tackle what Mitchell calls “the most complex issue” of the ratings system.
For example, members of the board questioned whether statistics – such as low graduation rates at some HBCU’s — would be presented in the ratings with some type of context.
“We want to measure like institutions against like institutions,” Mitchell said. “We want to make sure the rating system reflects the different work of different institutions.”
“What is the meaning of like [to like]?” a board member Renée Mauborgne, a professor at an international business school, asked Mitchell about providing more context in the rating system. “Who are the students walking in the door?”
The president’s board also highlighted Obama’s most high-profile education proposal in years: making community college free and universally accessible to those who work for it. Toldson, who spoke at the meeting, expanded on how the program would aid historically black colleges beyond the 12 percent of the schools that are community colleges.
Toldson said the community college proposal would benefit historically black colleges because, in part, it would allow more black students to transfer to HBCUs after completing courses in community colleges.
Due to plunging acceptance rates at HBCUs nationwide, the Obama program would allow for more minorities interested in pursuing higher education to obtain an associate’s degree and then have opportunities to further their education, he said.
As of 2011, the number of students enrolled at a historically black college or university decreased from the previous year for the first time since 1995, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Mitchell, though, recognized some of the HBCU community’s concerns with the proposal and assured the group that it would be part of future discussion on altering or modifying the president’s proposal.
Hampton University President William Harvey, also the chairman of the advisory board said, “Mr. Secretary, I would urge you to…make sure we are at the table so we can discuss these things and help you perhaps find some common ground.”
