Effects of Obama Administration Ed Policies on HBCUs

In a recent airing of Carter's show, both President Brown and Dr. Leslie Baskerville, CEO of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Education (NAFEO) chide the Obama Administration for enacting policy without adequate public engagement. NAFEO has continually lobbied the administration and Congress concerning the effect its policies are having on HBCUs. President Brown suggestively quoting his own grandfather quipped, "a blind man could see what he's doing." Well, what is the Obama Administration doing? Trying to make higher education in America more lean and mean? Or trying to help HBCUs and the families they serve avoid increasing debt? Baskerville maintains that the new Parent Plus Loan criteria are a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. There is no history of failure to pay this particular loan. Is this so? More generally, can the present administration be unaware of the effects its policy is having on enrollment at HBCUs? Might such policy be tied to a failure of President Obama to appreciate the value of historically black colleges and universities? Both President Brown and Dr. Leslie Baskerville, CEO of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Education (NAFEO,) chide the Obama Administration for enacting policy without adequate public engagement. NAFEO has continually lobbied the administration and Congress concerning the effect its policies are having on HBCUs. President Brown, suggestively quoting his own grandfather, quipped, "a blind man could see what he's doing." Well, what is the Obama Administration doing? Trying to make education in America more lean and mean? Or trying to help HBCUs and the families they serve avoid increasing debt? Baskerville maintains that the new Parent Plus Loan criteria are a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. There is no history of failure to pay this particular loan. Is this so? More generally, can the present administration be unaware of the effects its policy is having on enrollment at HBCUs? Might such policy be tied to a failure of President Obama to appreciate the value of historically black colleges and universities?

Jarrett Carter's HBCU Digest on Blog Talk Radio

I am really appreciating Jarrett Carter's HBCU Digest on Blog Talk Radio, so I'm embedding his show on Enrollment and Recruitment. Please give a listen and respond at his page and here too!



Enjoy!

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What Now?

Fisk's Jubilee Hall

So, it's been more than three years since our black college tour, and it's been more than a year since my sons started college: one at Philander Smith (AR) and one at Lincoln U (MO). What occurred in that time span is too much to report, so let me just say that my suspicions back in August of 2011, when we dropped the boys off, were realized. The son who attended the state school stayed there for a full year but only because he didn't want to quit in the middle of the year. He decided pretty early on that he and the institution were not a good fit.

The spring of his freshman year, he put in many applications elsewhere, and because he had a good g.p.a. at Lincoln, he got many nice financial aid packages, especially at small, private, predominately-white institutions. In the end, however, it just made more sense for all concerned to have him attend Philander Smith, which provided him a nice award for transfer students. I'll let it suffice to say that whatever did not meet our son's needs at the state school has been well made up for at Philander Smith. The fit this time is good.

So, now, we are applying to schools again. This year, it's our daughter, and I am very happy that she is interested in attending an HBCU. She has applied to other types of schools as well, but she appears to feel a special connection to the history of black colleges. So rare these days. In any case, she already has been accepted to Howard, and when that reality sinks in we will all be doing the happy dance all around the living room, for truly the prospect of becoming a part of the Howard legacy is nothing to sniff at.

In 2010, she of course, with her brothers, toured Fisk, and I have been singing the school's praises ever since. I was more moved and touched by our experience there than anywhere else. Over the last two years, I also have followed the story of the institution's financial woes, and they are disconcerting to say the least. As much as I have wanted to push students in the school's direction, I have worried about its viability and affordability also.

But, today, for some reason, Fisk came back to my mind. There was just something about the students I met there that stayed with me. The young people there, from all over the country, impressed me in a way that is just uncommon, and I meet lots of students in my line of work. Shortly after our visit there, I remember thinking that I would love for my own brood to have a taste of whatever is in the water at Fisk. So, despite all of my reservations, our daughter will apply there, and we will leave the outcome to her and the gods.

Rust College, Holly Springs, Mississippi

There are several HBCUs in Mississippi including Rust and Tougaloo (private), Mississippi Valley State and Jackson State. Rust's homecoming was back in November. I attended and was delighted at how excited the city gets about the homecoming parade. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it. Here are a few pics including one of the college president on a Harley Davidson!

Little Rock, AR

My first time in Little Rock, Arkansas was when our son and I (and our other son) attended orientation. There is a great nearby area called Argenta. On Main Street, there are just the most interesting little curiosity shops and small restaurants. When we dropped our son off, we were in a hurry, so I had not time to investigate these places. Hopefully, by spring I can get back.

Here are a few pics of the area. From what I can tell Little Rock and North Little Rock (separated by a river) are underrated. The first two pictures (oops) are of the Clinton Center. The second is of a metal rope sculpture, which our eighteen year old couldn't resist climbing, and the third is of a public fountain in the Argenta area of I believe North Little Rock.

Growing

Needless to say, our whole family, rather than just our sons, has done lots of growing in the last year, especially since the boys left for college last fall. I am having to learn to interfere less than I'm used to, to let the two of them find solutions themselves to the rough patches they encounter, even (or maybe especially) the ones they themselves create.

Our young man who is at school in Missouri is having a harder time adjusting than the one in Arkansas. As I stated in an earlier post, the two institutions our sons attend are very different, one state-run and one private. Maybe that's the cause of the difference in their experiences but probably not. Both sons got off to a good start or an okay start in the case of Missouri. After some difficulty making friends (because of being in an upperclassmen's residence hall), our Missouri son got up the nerve to run for SGA president. He didn't win, but he signed up as a rep at large and has been very excited about that. He also called up a coach of a local high school and volunteered to assist the wrestling team. I probably wouldn't have advised him to take on two extra-curriculars, but I've stayed silent on the matter. Academically, he didn't this fall earn the kind of grades we know he is capable of. He hasn't improved, that is, upon the same C+ average he had all throughout high school. I have never gotten on him about that, hoping that self-motivation will eventually kick in.

Our Arkansas student is having, it seems, the time of his life. He too has quickly become very active on campus. He in fact participates in a group that welcomes guests to campus, and last semester he got to serve as emcee for an important lecture. Of course, we were very proud of him for this. He has also become a part of something called The Black Male Initiative. I'm not sure exactly what all is involved, but he must be getting some good mentoring, for I can see in him a major growth in confidence. Despite of being active on campus, he managed to earn all As. He phoned at midnight to tell me that!

I am compelled to try to get our Missouri guy to transfer to Arkansas. His doing so would make life easier for all concerned, at least for everyone but the two of them. (We're allowing them for the time being to have their independence.) But, I'm resisting my instinct. Even if our Missouri student graduates with a C average, I trust he will land on his feet, and, more importantly, that he will have learned how to make the best out of life even when one is not in a perfect situation. In fact, there are no perfect situations.

As for me, well, I'm enjoying watching the two of them become full-fledged men, and, completely beside the point, I have enjoyed sightseeing in their new towns. I've included here some pics of the Missouri campus and will include others of the Arkansas campus in a separate post.

An unanticipated perk of sending one's kids away from home is the travel.

Personal Attention

Our family dropped both of our sons off at their respective schools, both HBCUs, this past weekend. Of course, I am a bundle of emotions, threads and knots which I trust will slowly smooth out. My conversations this week with each of my sons began the process. While one was holded up in his dorm most of the week, feeling a little isolated as a freshman in an upperclass residence, the other seemed to be adjusting very well to a school which he argues I chose for him. At the beginning of the week, he was getting along with his roommate, had decided that the cafeteria all in all wasn't bad for his health, had priced out all of his books, and, with a few other students, was shopping at Walmart, the college having shuttled them over.

Needless to say, I was pleased at his adjustment and very impressed at the college's attention to their students' needs. As my son explained his college's generosity, I was deeply satisfied that my son was a beneficiary of it. The provision of free transportation seems such a generous accommodation, yet it reminded me that black colleges often show such generosity. It reminded me, for instance, of my own first year at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. My first return to my home in Detroit for the holidays began with a drive to the airport, a free trip provided by the college. As I recall, I was the only one on the college van, driven by one of the security guards, who instructed me to call the college to alert them of my return date. That was over twenty-five years ago, and as I have watched institutions of higher ed become more lean and mean, my heart certainly is warmed to know that, despite financial tightening, some institutions are still going out of their way to meet student needs, even needs which they would have little trouble making the case should be the students' and parents', not the institutions', responsibility.

My faith is renewed, not in black colleges, for my commitment to them has never wavered. Rather, I am just plain ol' happy that at a time when it would appear that nearly all institutions have adopted an ethic of practicality, becoming super-structured, inflexible, and, one could argue, impersonal, my son's school is relating to students as people first.

As for my other son, he is at a state-funded HBCU. He wanted a larger population than is the case at most private black colleges. He in fact wanted to be at a university rather than a college. He wanted a full sports program. My husband and I let him have his way though I was tempted, even as we drove our sons to their campuses, to talk him into the smaller school. My second son's school is larger in many other ways; the campus is bigger in terms of acreage. There are many more choices of residence halls, and all student-designated areas, including academic buildings, have more bells and whistles, such as new, plush, furniture and mounted thin-screen televisions. At orientation, my son was so impressed with the display that his decision was sealed, and the son attending the private college began to have serious doubts about his fate.

As an educator, I tend to question the real value of surface-level accommodations when compared to human relationships. In other words, while the state school clearly has more money to make its campus more comfortable, I wonder if the tendency isn't to over-rely on such conveniences to the point of discounting the building of relationships and personal generosity. At this point, I admit to being overly critical of the state-funded HBCU since personalization is in my opinion the hallmark of the black college and the very reason why I so wanted my children to experience these historic institutions.

By yesterday, my temporarily-isolated son had come out of his room, evidenced by the fact that the loneliness in his voice at 5:00 p.m., when he'd called me and tried to engage in any conversation that would keep me on the phone, and his voice at 9 p.m., when he informed me that he had no time to talk. He was busy! It will be an interesting four years, and I hope to share the best and the worst of these two types of black colleges. I suspect both are needed; some students and their parents as well naturally want more structure, more systematization, and I don't doubt that such might be good for my son, who has been just a little coddled in childhood. As for the other, his college has already renewed a faith challenged during his formative years of schooling by a strong sense of being just a number. So, I think, all is well.