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PROFILES IN INNOVATION
One on One
HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES | THE PROS AND CONS WITH TWO
LEADING AUTHORITIES ON HBCUS
by Michael Fletcher
mfletcher@ccgmag.com
Dr. Michael Lomax
President and
Chief Executive
United Negro College Fund
Dr. Ivory Toldson
Deputy Director
White House Initiative on
Historically Black Colleges
and Universities
Photo by Timothy Greenfiled-Sanders
Even as the nation’s partisan divide has grown ever sharper,
historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) have
always enjoyed strong support from both Republicans
and Democrats. That history only adds to the irony, which comes
with the recent criticism of President Obama, the nation’s first
African-American president, who has come under fire in some
quarters for pushing policies they say have harmed HBCUs.
HBCU advocates say a tightening of credit standards for
a federal loan program led to 28,000 Black students leaving
historically Black colleges. The Administration is also preparing
to unveil a new college ratings system that HBCU leaders
say could unfairly keep their schools from getting more federal
help. And after the president unveiled a new initiative to pay for
community college tuition, it angered some HBCU leaders, who
argue that their schools should also be eligible for similar help
since they also serve many low-income students.
Through it all, the nation’s 105 historically Black colleges
and universities have continued doing the yeoman’s work that
forms the core of their unrivaled legacy. Together, the schools
account for only 9 percent of Black undergraduates, yet they
award nearly 20 percent of the bachelor’s degrees earned by
African Americans, according to the National Center for Education
Statistics.
US Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine
recently spoke separately with two leading authorities on historically
Black colleges, both of whom are strong supporters of HB-
CUs but represent opposite sides of the simmering controversy.
Dr. Michael Lomax is a former president of Dillard University
who for more than a decade has been president and chief
executive of the venerable United Negro College Fund, which
in its history has raised more than $2.1 billion for the nation’s
37 private Black colleges and their students. The magazine
also spoke with Dr. Ivory Toldson, deputy director of the White
House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
The conversations follow here, beginning with Dr. Lomax:
USBE&IT: Some critics have argued that Obama Administration
policies, including tighter standards for Parent
Plus loans, a plan to offer free community college, and
ratings that single schools out for low graduation rates
and high loan default rates, are hurting historically Black
colleges. What are your thoughts on that?
Dr. Lomax: The Parent Plus loan changes, we have argued
vehemently, were bad policy badly made. We argued from
the very beginning that was going to have a disparate negative
impact on historically Black colleges. The Department of
Education argued that this was an appropriate change and they
could mitigate the impact on historically Black colleges. As this
has turned out, they have issued a study themselves which has
affirmed what we suggested from the very beginning: that this
was a policy that would have an adverse impact on historically
Black colleges and the students that attend them. Enrollment
is down significantly. The good news is that we have adjusted
those credit standards. We believe they are better now, but we
can’t undo the impact that they had. I think Department of Education
policy that would hold schools responsible for graduation
rates would also adversely impact HBCUs. When you look at
HBCUs and say, “Well, only 33 percent of their students gradu-
www.blackengineer.com
USBE&IT I FALL 2015 11