HBCUs are facing a myriad of challenges amid efforts to stay financially viable and competitive with majority counterparts. They are facing more pressure to reinvent themselves to stay alive and relevant as more and more Black students choose to attend majority institutions and private, for-profit colleges. Higher education administrators are…

Ohio State University's (OSU) Frank W. Hale Jr. Black Cultural Center is a rarity in academia, as was its namesake. When OSU named its standout Black cultural center after the civil rights activist, professor and vice provost who championed such a place, it was commemorating what Dr. Frank W. Hale Jr. stood for. He promoted academic rigor, those…

Stacyann Morgan got into biomedical engineering through a simple Google search. She got through an undergraduate program in the emerging field thanks to a federally-funded program that provided multi-layered support to Black and Latino students at City College of New York. Starting in 2001, the National Institutes of Health funded the Minority…

Institutions find success with Pearson Education's MyMathLab. The Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Memphis (UM) reported a narrowing of the achievement gap between Black and White students. According to the study conducted by UM professors and titled "The Effectiveness of Blended Instruction in Postsecondary General…

Total associate degrees conferred by U.S. institutions increased by 11 percent between academic years 2009-10 and 2010-11 to a record high of close to 950,000. Among students of color, the percentage increase was even higher: 13 percent. Students of color received nearly 300,000 associate degrees or about one-third of the 2010-11 total. Among…

Mississippi's three historically Black universities, like other HBCUs around the country, are gradually becoming more diverse, and their administrators say the shift in enrollment is enhancing their mission, not detracting from it. One of them, Alcorn State, is the first and only HBCU in Mississippi to reach a court-mandated goal of having 10…

When fans of intercollegiate basketball see the month of March approach, they know it's time for the near-marathon round of March Madness when the best of the nation's college basketball teams square off in a battle to the finish for the NCAA Division I championship. It's the month when basketball powerhouses seek to reaffirm their status and…

Within the last year, two Minnesota school districts have reached agreements with the U.S. departments of Education and Justice to settle complaints of harassment brought by Somali-American parents and a civil rights group. The complaints alleged that district officials failed to take action when students made "inflammatory and…

Which colleges and universities graduate the most Black students with bachelor's degrees who then make it through medical school and become doctors? Two historically Black schools lead the pack. Xavier University continues to dominate, with 60 of its alumni graduating from medical schools around the country last year. Howard University is next,…

Of the 11 Black students of both genders who entered Gallaudet University in 2000, just one graduated by 2006. That 9 percent graduation rate was just one indicator that all was not well at the university. In a fall 2007 survey, Gallaudet's atmosphere was described as "unwelcoming." In the spring of 2008, Gallaudet University started its "Keeping…

Academic year 2009-2010 was a banner year for associate degree conferrals in the United States. In just one year, the total number of degrees awarded increased from slightly less than 790,000 to nearly 850,000, an increase of 8 percent. Minorities receive one-third of all associate degrees conferred in the U.S., with nearly equal numbers going to…

Amid numerous efforts to increase college-going and completion rates among minority students, for-profit institutions stand out as a leader in that regard. Class flexibility for working and non-traditional students, online courses, and corporate partnerships to reimburse employees are all contributing factors to their appeal. However, along with…

The homepage of the Project on Fair Representation (POFR) features a smiling photo of Abigail Fisher, the young White woman at the center of "Fisher v. the University of Texas," which could end race as a criterion in university admissions. Edward Blum, founder of POFR, a conservative advocacy group, connected Fisher with Wiley Rein LLP,…

The Laurinburg Institute, the oldest historically Black prep school in the country, is a shell of its former self these days. Although the gym was condemned in the late 1990s after moisture caused part of the roof to fall in, the school still maintains its prestige in prep hoops. But a recent NCAA ruling is threatening to end that record. Last…

Even on the sixth anniversary of the hurricane that buckled the Crescent City in 2005, left much of Xavier University of New Orleans under water and its faculty and students scattered by the rushing winds, Dr. JW Carmichael did not expect to be talking that morning about Katrina. For him it was a horrific storm that nearly drowned a hundred dreams…