When college officials across the country talk about their final tally of Fall 2012 enrollment, the discussions produce assessments that are all over the map. Some institutions, like Hampton University, are pleased to see their enrollment declining. Others, like Florida A&M University, are wondering how they are going to make up for revenue…

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…

In 2003, two cases came before the Supreme Court that presented the stiffest challenge to affirmative action in decades. A White applicant to the University of Michigan's law school sued the school, claiming that she had been rejected on the basis of her race. Similarly, two White applicants to the University of Michigan's undergraduate school…

In a move to increase its out-of-state and international student enrollment, officials at the University of Iowa are stepping up their global recruitment efforts--even in the face of criticism that the school may be losing sight of its mission. The goal is to increase enrollment across the board, with both in-state as well as out-of-state and…

Ruth Simmons made a big news splash a decade ago when she was named president of Brown University, making her the first Black president of an Ivy League institution. She made another splash three years later by naming a committee to investigate Brown's role in the slave trade and make recommendations on possible reparations. Reflecting on her…

Faced with budget cuts, some cash-strapped state universities are stepping up their recruitment of higher paying out-of-state undergraduates, a move that critics say is unfair to the states' residents and could affect in-state minority applicants. The University of California system and the University of Washington in Seattle have openly declared…

The United Negro College Fund has recently initiated the first round of competitive grant funding made available to several UNCF member schools under the organization's new Institute for Capacity Building. As one of the first major new programs to emerge during the presidency of Dr. Michael Lomax, ICB deepens the level of support the nation's…

The U.S. Department of Education classifies a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) as a non-profit institution that has at least a 25 percent Hispanic full-time equivalent enrollment. At least half of the Hispanic student population must also be low income. This is also known as Title V status. There are more than 200 American colleges and…

As the floodwaters drowning New Orleans recede, they may well be swamping historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) across the country as they gear up to deal with a rising tide of displaced college students in search of shelter from the storm. More than 9,100 HBCU students, plus thousands more faculty and staff, have been directly…

Colleges and universities in other parts of Louisiana and the nation are opening their doors to the 72,000 college students in the greater New Orleans area who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Dr. E. Joseph Savoie, Louisiana's commissioner of higher education, says the state's board of regents is making arrangements to allow the students to…

For decades three historically Black colleges and universities have called New Orleans home: (1) Southern University-New Orleans (SUNO), founded in 1956 as a branch of a system known for producing a majority of the state's Black lawyers; (2) Xavier University of Louisiana, founded in 1915 and long known for sending the most African-American…

It's all about the mission at Berea College. Founded on a Utopian dream, Berea has been doing diversity longer than any school in the South. Berea College isn't a product of the civil rights movement. Not even close. The school pre-dates Reconstruction. In fact, at 150 years old, the first integrated, co-educational school in the South pre-dates…