When Naimah Muhammad heard that her alma mater, Fisk University, planned to build a data center on campus, she was annoyed and confused. The announcement came just days after the spring semester ended. There were no hearings, town halls, or meetings with students or residents of the majority-Black neighborhood in north Nashville, Tennessee, she said. […]
Education
Posted inHBCUs, Higher Education
HBCU Funding Fight Puts First-Generation Students at Risk
ST. LOUIS — With a 2.0 high school GPA, Xavier Hickman thought college was unattainable. But mentors in the TRIO Upward Bound Program challenged him to not limit himself. A low GPA didn’t have to block him from going to the next level. Hickman’s family didn’t have much, and the program was designed for students […]
Posted inHBCUs, Politics & Policy
An HBCU Canceled Its MAGA Commencement Speaker, Now Republicans Want to Defund It
Less than two weeks before graduation day, students at South Carolina State University learned that a MAGA-supporting politician had been invited to speak at their upcoming commencement ceremony. The students wasted no time in taking their grievances about South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette to the school’s president and provost. Three days after the news […]
Posted inHBCUs, Sports
HBCUs Say They Stand to Lose Out if College Athlete Pay Rules Don’t Change
When Trayvean Scott was a college basketball player at Southern University in the 2000s, he says, he was never asked to throw a game in return for a payout. But more than 20 years later, he worries that the lack of a uniform policy about student athletes getting paid for their name, image or likeness […]
Posted inHBCUs, Higher Education
A Financial Crisis Could Upend Kentucky’s Only Public HBCU
Jamya Chenault is finishing her third year as a mass communications major at Kentucky State University, but the state legislature has her worried about what will happen if the state takes control. In March, a plan was unveiled in the Kentucky General Assembly that would shave Kentucky State’s academic offerings and assign it a new […]
Posted inHBCUs, Sports
After Breaking Barriers, Fisk Is Ending Its Gymnastics Program
When Liberty Mora stepped into the gym at the Super 16 gymnastics meet in Las Vegas with her Fisk University teammates to compete for the first time in 2023, the crowd rose to its feet before they even began. For a moment, the significance hit all at once: They weren’t just competing — they were […]
Posted inHBCUs, Sports
Howard’s Men’s Basketball’s March Madness Run Ends as HBCUs Make History
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The day after Howard University’s men’s basketball team had its first-ever NCAA tournament win, students on the campus were hoping for more. But the Bison’s dreams came to an abrupt end on March 19, as the team lost to the University of Michigan 101-80. Howard kept the game close, trailing by just […]
Posted inCulture, HBCUs, Sports
At Howard, Athletes Must Stand for the Anthem or Stay in the Locker Room
For years, Howard University’s women’s basketball team has been taking a knee to protest the mistreatment and brutalization of Black Americans by law enforcement. But on Wednesday night, at a game between Howard and South Carolina State University, that tradition – which had been a source of pride for many players and students – came […]
Posted inHBCUs, Politics & Policy
After FAMU Signed ICE Deal, Students Demanded Answers, and Were Met With Silence
The signs read “ICE OUT,” “REFUSE RESIST FIGHT FASCISM,” and other slogans common at protests against the federal immigration crackdown. But the protest was not in the streets of one of the U.S. cities where residents were turning out by the thousands for days on end to demand an end to the crackdown. It was […]
Posted inHBCUs, Voting
HBCU Students Walk Miles to the Polls After Campus Sites Are Cut
Dozens of North Carolina A&T State University students recently walked more than 30 minutes to a nearby polling site, holding signs that said “Aggie Votes Matter,” “Use Your Vote or Lose Your Vote,” and other signs after they found out there was no early voting site on campus. In January, the North Carolina State Board […]