Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation

Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States 71
sity continues to adapt to changing social, political, economic, and academic
conditions and circumstances.
The postwar assumption that the university is an agent of democratic
change and an instrument of social reform is now well established and is
not likely to be reversed. Demographic changes—specifically those resulting
from the ebbing of the tide of applicants produced by the coming-ofage
of the postwar “baby boom” generation—are already having effects on
college admissions policies, which will in turn have significant consequences
on the social mix of future college classes. Many private colleges,
competing for their share of shrinking numbers of applicants, are beginning
to question (and to modify) the principle of “need-based” financial
aid. High tuitions and other college costs have made the greatest impact on
middle-class parents and students, and some college administrators have
been tempted to shift scholarship funds to merit-based criteria so as to attract
the most gifted student applicants. This shift has not been entirely unwelcome
to Black students and their parents. The great majority of Black
students now attending private institutions are considered “middle-class,”
but often only because both parents work full-time to make ends meet.
Need-based financial aid formulas place a heavy burden on many parents
and force students into considerable debt for their college education. Some
among them would benefit from scholarships based on achievement rather
than on need.
In any case, rising college costs, reduced federal and state assistance,
and smaller numbers of students will make a difference in the number of
Black students in college, in the socioeconomic background of those who
attend, and in the attitude of those students toward their education and the
institutions they choose. In the next decade, many Black students who
might once have attended private colleges will choose state and city institutions
instead; many will settle for community or other two-year colleges;
many others will be unable to go to college at all. The result is already being
felt in all colleges and universities: the return of de facto middle-class
higher education. For many scholars and administrators, especially those
with unpleasant memories of the tumultuous sixties and seventies, this will
be a welcome development.