Less than 30 minutes into a Love Island watch party on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, all hell broke loose. On Aug. 31, several Black student organizations had gathered in a small building to watch the popular reality TV show when a white man walked in, yelling racial slurs. […]
Higher Education
Posted inHigher Education, Politics & Policy
The Slow Disappearance of Black Studies on College Campuses
For Northwestern University alumna Keala Uchôa, the university’s recent decision to restructure its African Studies program and cut two staff positions is hardly surprising. The move isn’t isolated. Over the years, the university and students have clashed over protests, a faculty member has sued over not getting tenure, and some current and former students – […]
Posted inHBCUs, Higher Education, Mental Health
HBCUs Are Building New Support Systems for Black Male Students
This story was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program. COLUMBIA, South Carolina – Before heading to Howard University in fall 2021, Christopher Davis was determined to be the first Black man in his family to graduate from college. Not even a pandemic or financial insecurity could keep him from his […]
Posted inHigher Education
Black Academics See Their Own Struggles in the Death of a British Professor
The headlines about a Black British professor’s death in London and the plagiarism allegations about his work hit too close to home for Emmitt Riley. Jason Arday, the youngest Black professor in the University of Cambridge’s history when he was appointed in 2023, died Aug. 14 after weeks of intense scrutiny of his background and […]
Posted inEmployment, HBCUs, Higher Education, The Workplace
A Free D.C. Trade Program Is Connecting Black Students to Higher-Paying Jobs
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Marcus Bruce leaned against the tables where he and his carpentry students paused to answer questions from local middle schoolers on a recent tour of the University of the District of Columbia’s workforce campus. The young students didn’t hold back: “What happens to student loans? Will they take it from your check […]
Posted inHBCUs, Higher Education
Tuskegee Students Say the Dress Code Debate Misses the Real Issues
Payton Arentt didn’t give an extra thought to an email from the Tuskegee University administration announcing a dress code and cellphone policy — but she did wonder why people weren’t talking more about the radio silence around financial aid and housing. As a rising senior, Arentt said there’s always been an understanding on campus about […]
Posted inHBCUs, Higher Education, Student Loans
Hundreds of Howard Students Reinstated After Mass Unenrolling
It’s been a whirlwind summer for the incoming Howard University community. Three months waiting for a housing assignment at her dream school. Unenrolled along with more than 500 other students. And days later reenrolled. “My balance just kept changing, and it wasn’t consistent,” Flanders said. “I paid everything I had to pay, then they just […]
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, 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, Higher Education, Politics & Policy
A Century After Losing This Federal Funding, Hampton University May Get It Back
HAMPTON, Virginia – As part of Zuri Murph’s urban policy class at Hampton University, she was assigned a question: Do Black people deserve reparations. Murph wrote about how reparations should be paid back to Black land grant colleges. “Reparations should be paid in part to HBCUs, since y’all are already scamming us,” the graduating senior […]
