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With each passing decade, colleges and universities are faced with the task of responding to the spirit of the times. Those that deal with these trends and issues proactively often receive great rewards. However, those that do not keep up with the times face an uncertain future and in extreme cases, failure. Recently, I spoke with Dr. Helen F. Giles-Gee to discuss some of the current issues in higher education and how colleges and universities should respond to them.

Dr. Helen F. Giles-Gee began her tenure as the 22nd president of University of the Sciences on July 16, 2012. A well-respected and nationally-known scholar, educator, and administrator, she brings more than 30 years of experience in higher education to the campus.

Q: What are the major challenges facing American colleges and universities?

A: American colleges and universities are facing many challenges. I’ll name just 10: (1) Diversifying revenue streams to adjust to government divestment in higher education; (2) Enrolling a more diverse college bound population, some of whom may be ill prepared for college-level work; (3) Informing the Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which impacts federal student aid (student affordability), fundraising opportunities because of expiring tax provisions and more; (4) Greater accountability at state and federal levels for student learning outcomes such as increasing retention and graduation rates and student academic achievement; (5) Increased competition with other colleges that are becoming entrepreneurial in their academic program development and/or are utilizing new ways to assess students’ prior learning now paid for using federal financial aid; (6) Addressing the new credentialing of competencies that may make the “credit hour” irrelevant; (7) Forecasting capital plant needs with a changing delivery market for higher education; (8) Maintaining good community relations when balancing the desire by some cities and towns for tax revenues from nonprofits; (9) Addressing risk and compliance issues associated with needs for additional security, greater internationalism and resulting visa needs, greater sensitivity to complaints of sexual harassment, whistleblowers, and other possible personnel issues; and (10) Supporting the K through 12 pipeline regarding student academic achievement by strengthening teacher education programs and their outcomes.

Q: In what areas do American colleges and universities need the most help?

A: With decreasing college bound populations, greater competition from an increased number of colleges and universities, and fewer government subsidies for financial aid, having tuition and fees as the predominant source of revenue is a recipe for disaster. Colleges with fewer than 4,000 students are especially fiscally vulnerable as they need the same core operations as larger colleges unless they possess very great endowments with payouts that contribute high percentages to operations. Small institutions that still try to “go it alone” without considering joining consortia or merging with another institution may see their coffers empty sooner rather than later. Some institutions may need assistance in considering appropriate strategies to diversify their revenues and contain costs.

Q: What is the current enrollment of University of the Sciences? What is a realistic projection of enrollment over the next five years?

A: University of the Sciences’ current enrollment is about 2,800 students. With a mission of educating students for healthcare professions, sciences and mathematics, and management and health policy, USciences aims to stay small in size and focused in its program offerings. The majority of our programs are in fields that are highly desirable by employers with 94% of students graduating in 2012 having jobs or admitted into graduate programs within six months of graduation. We currently provide three online full programs in biomedical writing, and expect to see enrollment growth occurring in new specialized online programs that are in sync with our mission.

Q: What is the approach to recruiting new students? What challenges do you face in attracting students to the school?

A: We are increasingly informing new students about our value and distinctiveness. Our strengths include: a small faculty to student ratio; an urban location amidst other great universities; collaborations with great universities and research institutes on research and academic programs; student/faculty research opportunities that result in presentations and/or publications; great possibility for graduate work; clinical practice in sites across the country; faculty who are esteemed in their fields; reputation for innovation and entrepreneurship as documented by graduates like Eli Lilly, Robert L. McNeil Jr., and others.

We are also increasing our articulations with surrounding schools and community colleges. As Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, we were the first college of pharmacy in North America. When academic programs expanded to include degrees in science as well as professional doctorates in occupational therapy and physical therapy, our name changed to Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Sciences and later to University of the Sciences. Name recognition has been a challenge that we are overcoming with greater media exposure and publicizing the positive outcomes of a USciences education.

Q: What is the graduation rate at the University of the Sciences now?

A: The six year graduation rate for the 2006 cohort is 74%. We are instituting new retention efforts and expect to see this percentage increase.

Q: Do you have any parting messages for our readers, many of whom are our current and future presidents?

A: This era calls for presidents who can lead institutions to develop tactics that effectively address new problems and who can educate boards to a changing higher education landscape. We will need to develop collaborative models within our institutions as well as with external partners. I am both humbled and challenged by the many new issues we face while knowing that when we succeed at improving higher education our students and our world will be the better for it.

Well, that concludes my interview with President Giles-Gee. I would like to thank her for taking time out of her busy schedule to speak with me.

For those who aspire to become a college/university president, one of the biggest decisions that you will make is whether a large or small college/university presidency is the right choice. For this installment of “Diverse Conversations,” I decided to interview Dr. Debra Townsley, president of Williams Peace University, to find out what it’s like to lead a small liberal arts university. Inaugurated as the 10th president of William Peace University in August 2010, Dr. Townsley oversees a student body of nearly 800 full and part-time students enrolled in WPU’s undergraduate day, evening, online and Saturday programs, and an alumni body of more than 9,000.

Q: What attracted you to a small liberal arts university?

A: Small, private institutions are connected learning communities. Faculty directly teach all students. Co-curricular programming is intentional and an integral part of the learning. Students make life-long friends and are part of a connected alumni network. I appreciate these connections and believe they lead to strong learning opportunities for everyone in the community.

Q: What do you like most about leading a liberal arts university?

A: We do make a difference in the lives of our students. I have the good fortune of hearing this when I meet alumni, who have had a chance to experience what their education has afforded them and meant to them.

Q: Has your impression of William Peace University changed since the first time you were on campus?

A: I have learned more about Peace since my first visit, but my view of WPU has not changed since my first visit. On my first visit, Peace seemed like a community with dedicated faculty and staff who cared about students’ success and a community with students and alumni who had a love for the school. These first impressions have been and continue to be true.

Q: You’ve been president of William Peace University for three years. During that time, you have been able to witness, study, and assess the trends in higher education. What trends do you see emerging in higher education?

A: Higher education is changing because of multiple external forces, such as the economy, demographics, student learning needs, technology and regulations, just to name a few. Current trends indicate that students (and families) want to know there are job opportunities upon graduation, have limited resources for higher education, and learn through new methods like hands-on learning, experiential learning, use of technology, cases, discussion and/or multiple evaluative tools, to name a few.

One trend getting much attention is the massive open online course (MOOC). There is a debate over MOOCs – their usefulness in student learning, their replacement of the classroom, their long-term costs, etc. However, this was a similar conversation several decades ago when distance or online learning options were developing. I remember a faculty member telling me 15 years ago that it was a waste to invest in online education because it would not last. Now, we know that online is here to stay and that online learning can be very successful. MOOCs are likely to further develop and take learning in new directions that we may or may not be able to imagine today.

There will likely always be a place for classroom learning, but other ways of teaching and learning have emerged and will continue to emerge. This is what makes the industry challenging, but rewarding, as we seek the best way for students to reach their potentials.

Q: What are some of the challenges facing you and William Peace University in this upcoming year?

A: Small privates are similar in our challenges. We provide a quality education with limited resources, and we are always seeking new ways to do this. We complete the matriculation of a class, while starting the process all over again. We are finalizing our admission for Fall 2013 with the largest-ever incoming class and total enrollment, but have also started receiving students for tours, inquiries and applications for the Fall of 2014. It is a continuous cycle. I do believe higher education and the expectation for higher education is continual improvement, thus continual change; and change is hard for some people. This is an increasing challenge to resolve in higher education – the conflict between status quo and change.

Q: What are you most looking forward to at William Peace University in this upcoming year?

A: I am most looking forward to the students being back on campus. The students at WPU are engaged and fun to be with. At the same time, I always look forward to graduation. It is my favorite day of the year – not because the students are leaving, but because it is gratifying to see students arrive on campus and graduate four years later with confidence and hope for their futures. Graduation is a proud day for students and families, but it is also a proud day for us as educators to believe that we made a difference in each student’s life in some small way.

Q: Do you have any parting messages for our readers, many of whom are our current and future college/university presidents?

A: I believe the presidency of a college or university is the best job. We are in a challenging, changing industry. We work with students of all ages, which keeps us young in thought. We can feel a sense of accomplishment in our daily and strategic initiatives but, more importantly, in knowing that we have truly made a difference in some way – small or large – in an individual’s life. How many jobs give you this chance?

Well, that concludes my interview with Dr. Townsley. I would like to thank her for consenting to this interview.

There are many people that believe higher education could be changed for the better if colleges and universities were to think of themselves as businesses and the students as the customers. In theory, higher education institutions would operate more efficiently, which could potentially make students more satisfied with the education they are receiving and lead to lower tuition costs. For this week’s edition of “Diverse Conversations,” I sat down with Amy Hillman, Dean of the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, to discuss the “the business of higher education.”

Q: Many people believe that colleges and universities operate optimally when they adopt a business model; this is much to the chagrin of their faculty. Should institutions operate as businesses or are the objections of the faculty warranted?

A: If we consider “adopting a business model” to mean responding to market demands, then I think it’s absolutely critical for colleges to do so. Universities need to be adaptable, embrace technology and innovation, and employ unique strategies. They should examine the needs of their surrounding communities, including businesses, which can employ future graduates.

For example, here at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, our new master’s degree in business analytics was developed as a result of industry demand for employees with strong training in analyzing big data, and more importantly, being able to make informed decisions from that data. We have also added more leadership, critical-thinking and negotiation components to our curriculum, as employers demanded more skills in those areas.

It’s important to recognize that the job market changes. For professional schools (like business schools), failure to keep up with market conditions leads to obsolescence, and students will suffer from a lack of employability. Schools need to be nimble like an entrepreneur, able to quickly respond to changes in the business environment or actions by competing institutions. Complacency within schools results in the same problems as complacency within businesses. After all, if our profession is centered on enabling student success throughout their careers, then we need to practice what we teach.

Q: When colleges discuss operating efficiently and optimally, many employees see this as code for layoffs and budget cuts. Are they right to be apprehensive?

A: Efficiency is critical for any organization, nonprofits (e.g. universities) included. Being able to do the most possible with the resources given (efficiency) means better service — and more of it — for all involved. Apprehension like you describe, however, seems to be more a matter of trust. If employers use code words to hide what is really happening, employees will lose trust, and that’s never good. It’s not good for employees or employers.

Q: Nowadays, a lot of higher education institutions are recruiting their presidents from the business world. What do you think of this trend? Does it make sense? Especially since we know that many of these recruits end up garnering mixed reviews?

A: I was unaware of this trend with the exception of the for-profit universities, in which case, it makes sense because their ultimate goal is shareholder value creation. In the context of not-for-profit universities, this is like hiring a president from the business world to run any not-for-profit. It would take a special candidate to take what is best from the business world and apply it to universities, while still keeping the mission of education at the forefront.

Q: There are people within higher education who believe that it is overly commercial, and almost becoming a caricature of itself. Is there some truth to this? What are your thoughts?

A: I would guess that this line of thought is aimed at the new and highly visible for-profit companies selling education. They have very large marketing budgets and opportunities to sometimes portray themselves in ways that don’t necessarily reflect the ideals of nonprofit universities.

As the world of higher education evolves, we need to keep the lines of communication open with both our employees and our other constituents, to create a shared vision. Big changes always seem daunting to some, but if we have a shared vision and shared goals, then we can also share a sense of accomplishment as we achieve those goals.

For example, a decade ago, the W. P. Carey School of Business became one of the first business schools to enter the relatively uncharted waters of online education from quality, traditional universities. By utilizing the same stellar faculty members in our other highly ranked MBA programs, as well as a phenomenal technical team, we have risen to the top of the offerings out there. In fact, this year, our online MBA program was ranked No. 2 in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s first-ever numerical online-MBA ranking. Faculty and staff across the board took pride in this achievement.

Q: What current trends do you see in higher education, as it pertains to how it does business? How about business innovation?

A: Beyond the increased demand for specialized master’s programs like the business-analytics degree I mentioned above, another growing trend is that of offering interdisciplinary degrees. The business world has long recognized that true innovation comes from working across functional silos. Employers are telling us they need employees with the skills to bridge the gaps between engineering and marketing, between sustainability and finance, and between legal and strategy, as examples.
This is one reason the W. P. Carey School introduced new interdisciplinary undergraduate degrees five years ago wherein a student can get a B.A. in business with a concentration in areas including communications, global leadership, legal studies, public policy or sustainability. These interdisciplinary degrees marry the knowledge from the business toolbox with broad-based thinking in other areas.

The need for interdisciplinary thinking is also the reason we have so many dual degrees. All of our master’s degrees (MBA, M.S. in Information Management, M.S. in Business Analytics, Master of Accountancy, Master of Taxation, M.S. in Management, Master of Real Estate Development) can be paired with graduate degrees in architecture, engineering or law. This is also the reason we have strong partners like the Mayo Clinic, which sends M.D. students to the W. P. Carey School to get advanced degrees, including our MBA, while they are still in medical school.

Q: As far as the “the business of higher education,” what will it look like in the future?

A: Like other businesses, the business of higher education will continue to evolve. For example, I think the talk about MOOCs (massively open online courses) is overblown.

A similar situation happened in the media industry in the early days of the Internet. Despite all the fuss about free content, The Wall Street Journal was one of the first media websites to step up and charge for access. As they say, “Content is king,” and that worked out for the newspaper.

While MOOCs may be good marketing for colleges and universities, they have no clear business model. That doesn’t mean business schools can ignore them, but rather, as with any technological improvement, we can embrace them in a way that furthers our value propositions.

Well, that concludes my interview with Amy Hillman. I would like to thank her for consenting to this interview.

Click here to read all our posts concerning the Achievement Gap.

The field of higher education has changed completely in the past couple of decades. Unlike before, when only a few talented and intelligent students went on to get a college education, now it has become a necessity as the jobs available in the new economy require more than just a high school diploma. Because of this, American institutions of higher learning are experiencing an influx of students that may not have been part of the college scene as early as a decade ago. Recently, I sat down with Dr. Stella M. Flores, Assistant Professor of Higher Education at Vanderbilt University, to discuss how institutions of higher learning can better support underserved populations.

ML: How are first-generation, low-income, and minority students faring in the modern academy in relation to the past? How can we get things to where they should be?

SF: The trends show that we have more access to higher education due to increased options via the community colleges and now online learning programs. So the modern academy does not look like an older traditional academy. However, when we account for other characteristics, the demographic trends are less favorable. We are not doing as well with some groups such as Hispanics, while we’ve seen some improvements with other groups.

First-generation, low-income and minority students fare better when they have adequate access to financial aid, support programs that properly introduce them to and sustain them through the academy, and proper high school preparation that equips them to handle the rigor of college work. The reality is that many of the high schools that launch these students have not provided this preparation placing the burden on the academy to make up for this lost ground.

ML: What can policy and decision makers do to help historically underserved students to succeed in college?

SF: First, policymakers and decision makers can come to the table as stakeholders in support of educating underserved students as a larger societal and economic mandate. Educational attainment is beyond an individual good yet we behave as if it is a zero-sum game in almost every instance. Second, succeeding in college is largely based on succeeding in high school. While it seems that aiming for the high school diploma is no longer a problem, the new battle, it seems to me, is an equity fight for the courses that lead to reasonable and serious college eligibility for all groups.

Some states have enacted policies to make the college curriculum a default curriculum. This is a great step but we have to know when policy is not enough. Stakeholders as a group can identify what levers will also have to be in place for the policy to work. Policy is an essential but insufficient step in helping students succeed in college. I would also argue it also not only the responsibility of education policymakers as health care, family, and employment decisions are especially competing options in low-income and underrepresented student lives.

At the college level, I would suggest the funding and expansion of interventions we know work for students based on their institutional culture. Institutions that enroll a moderate to high percentage of students in need of remediation will require different interventions than an institution with innovative retention programs for students with the preparation and motivation to major in a STEM field.

Third, reducing time to degree to the extent possible, will likely be a key element in all of these programming efforts. Fourth, many highly successful historically underrepresented students will point to at least one minority faculty who made a difference in their pathway to greater achievements. That is not to say that non-minority faculty members don’t play a role in this pathway to success. However, this is one element that seems to be consistent in the average underrepresented student success story. I know my life would have been different had I not seen the first Mexican-American female professor at my university.

ML: Historically underserved students are disproportionally burdened with student debt when compared to other groups. What can be done to close this gap and alleviate their burden?

SF: There is emerging research on financial literacy on how to plan for college, choose college based on options and loan debt, and the timing of the receipt of this information. One reality, however, is that many students faced with a “first” in completing college, specifically a selective college, take on more debt than they can handle in efforts to make family history. My advice would be to understand the tradeoffs in these decisions.

Second, there are many schools now that offer free tuition to high achieving, low-income students if parental contribution is under a certain amount. The lesson here is to tell the low-income eighth grader that if he or she is able to achieve at high levels, college may be reasonably affordable if not nearly free at a good school. This is of course dependent on the economy and institutional sustainability of programs. However, it seems we are providing incorrect information when we say a public school education will always be cheaper than a private school education.

One good formula to suggest to our younger students is to aim to be academically high achieving, get information on options across all institutions, don’t “undermatch” yourself, and plan to finish in time if at all possible. For those of us with loan debt, I can imagine a new pool of teachers, professors, health care professionals with simple loan forgiveness programs administered at the state or federal level. It seems to me this would be a relatively easy marketing campaign that could change the structure of the labor market in ways the labor market needs to stretch – stronger teachers in the professions, more nurses in our hospitals, etc.

ML: By 2050, Caucasians will no longer constitute a majority in the United States. What does this mean for higher education?

SF: This is an important demographic to keep in mind as we plan for a future. Will we respond with safeguarding stratification at institutions based on race, ethnicity, and income, or will we prepare leaders from all groups for all institutions? In essence, this means state economies will likely thrive or die based on how they educate their least educated group. This will have even more dire consequences for states whose least educated group is also its most populous group.

ML: What is your vision for higher education in the 21st century, and what are the key opportunities and challenges suggested by this vision?

SF: My vision for the 21st century is to more profoundly understand the potential of our individuals and institutions in the context of historical and remaining challenges. By that I mean moving past stereotypes, fears, and anxieties to a place where we have the opportunity to see all groups as equals because we have seen leadership, research, success, and vision from everyone in our circles. In my vision, we won’t second-guess each other’s talents and contributions based on what we look like.

My vision is also to speak up for each other’s educational well-being even if that person is different from ourselves. In sum, we create a vision in which all have an opportunity for a solid high school education that prepares you to succeed in college and a college education that prepares you for a job and dare I say the opportunity to attend a graduate or professional program. The challenge will be to do this in a world with exploding and evolving technology in which the “have-nots” will likely be the last in line to access the future.

Well, that concludes my interview with Dr. Flores. I would like to thank her for taking time out of her busy schedule to speak with us.

Click here to read all our posts concerning the Achievement Gap.

Growing up, many Americans are told that education is the doorway to happiness and a way to break the cycle of poverty and anti-intellectualism that pervades the country. However, when many college graduates complete their degrees and hit the job trail, their faith in conventional wisdom is often tested. Many of them have a hard time gaining professional employment, and subsequently end up unemployed or underemployed.

Because of this, many people are beginning to question the viability of obtaining a higher education. I sat down with Peter Stokes, Vice President for Global Strategy and Business Development at Northeastern University, to find out if they have a legitimate argument.

Q: More than half of college graduates are unemployed or underemployed. On top of that, many are bogged down with massive amounts of student loan debt. Because of this, many people are beginning to question the viability of obtaining a higher education. In this day and age, is college worth it?

A: According the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in April of 2013 the unemployment rate for individuals aged 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree was 3.9 percent, compared to an overall unemployment rate of 7.5 percent. That ought to be viewed as good news for those pursuing a college degree. The situation for recent college graduates, of course, is not as rosy. As Anthony Carnevale of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute’s Center on Education and Workforce points out in his May 2013 report “Hard Times,” the unemployment rate for recent college grads is 7.9 percent – not good, but not dramatically worse than the case for the population overall. However, Carnevale also notes that unemployment rates for recent college grads vary significantly by major, with nursing majors facing a 4.8 percent unemployment rate at the low end, and with information systems majors facing a 14.7 percent unemployment rate at the high end. Likewise, naturally, earnings vary considerably by major, on average, and this affects graduates’ ability to manage their debts. Whether college is worth it depends on a number of factors, including the debt required to finance college and the career earnings one can reasonably expect subsequent to attaining a degree, among other matters.

Q: Many also cite the high cost of attending American colleges as a hindrance to attendance. Is this concern justified, or just an excuse?

A: College pricing varies considerably, and potential debt levels will vary as well. Without question there are cases where individuals have paid significant sums, and incurred significant debt, to acquire a degree that lacks sufficient market currency to make managing that debt easy. And while college prices are rising faster than inflation, there’s little evidence yet to suggest that not going to college – any college – is a better economic decision than going to college for most prospective students.

Q: Are there just some students who are not college material, and for their own sakes should be counseled to pursue other avenues, like vocational schools?

A: The college participation rate has never been 100 percent. The national rate in 2012, according to BLS, was just over 66 percent, though there can be considerable variation by state, ranging from about 46 percent to 77 percent according to data from 2008. For a variety of reasons, higher education is unlikely to ever be universal. Most of the people who question whether or not attending college is worth it are analysts and commentators. How does the traditional, college aged population feel about the viability of college attendance? It’s difficult to generalize. Personally, I spend more time talking with parents of college-aged children than I do speaking with prospective students, and I live in a state where there is a very high participation rate in postsecondary education, so my perspective is limited by those and other factors. The spectrum of awareness about college costs among today’s graduating high school seniors is likely to be broad. But again, the costs of attending college can vary considerably by type of institution. I know more parents are stressed about college costs – not only from what I read, see, and hear in the media, but also from conversations with my neighbors. There’s certainly evidence that many parents are looking to economize in a wide variety of areas, including their education investments for their children. But college participation rates are not yet falling, so by and large the populations you would expect to go to college are going to college.

Q: If you had 3 wishes and make three changes in higher education, what would they be?

A: We do need greater transparency about the cost to families for sending their family members to college. Net price calculators are a step in the right direction, but we need more education to support financial literacy. I’d also like to see more analysis undertaken to examine what happens when higher education transitions from being perceived as a public good, as it was decades ago when as much as 80 percent of a public university’s expenses might be covered by the state, to being perceived as a private good, as it is increasingly viewed today and where public universities on average have only about 20 percent of expenses covered by state budgets. Sometimes those figures are in the single digits. Do economies perform better under one scenario or the other? We need a better understanding of this sort of question. And finally, I’d like to see the regulatory apparatus support increased innovation. Accreditation is – both in a good sense and a bad sense – a self-replicating process. That’s good because it sets a certain standard, but it’s bad because it limits new approaches. I’d like to see the U.S. Department of Education create a demonstration program that would allow a small number of unaccredited organizations to award degrees under close supervision to see what new models – potentially more cost effective and academically effective models – might emerge.

Well, that concludes my interview with Peter Stokes. I would like to thank him for taking time out of his busy schedule to speak with us.

Every since their inception, community colleges have always been viewed as the step children of higher education. Sure, anyone with a brain knows how significant they are and the important role that they play in America. However, many people can’t see past their perceived lack of “prestige” or “swagger” if you will. Without much acclaim or fanfare, they continue to be the backbone of America’s higher education system. I recently sat down with Dr. Alicia Dowd, associate professor of Higher Education at the University of Southern California, to talk about the importance of community colleges, as well as their problems and issues.

Q: Community colleges are often viewed as the step child of higher education, but they are critically significant. Would you explain why?

A: Community colleges are critically significant for the fact that they enroll about 7 million students; that’s more than half of all undergraduates at public colleges and universities in the United States.

Beyond that, it’s not an overstatement to say that community colleges are an integral part of the national narrative in the United States about the “American Dream.” Sandwiched between high school and four-year colleges and universities, they are an important rung in the ladder of our very stratified society and educational system. We are a “winner take all society”—we love winners, contests, and stories about elites—as the economist Robert Frank has pointed out. And you simply cannot have elites without having lower rungs of the educational ladder.

Community colleges may be viewed as step children by some, but they are the real deal to many who work and study there. And they’re often the one chance a person has for gaining social mobility. The idea that anyone can get ahead by hard work and smarts is important in the American psyche. Never mind that most students who start at a community college don’t finish and don’t end up with a degree or certificate. There’s a chance you’ll make it, it’s relatively cheap (compared to other colleges) and you don’t have to quit your job, move away from home, or be 18 years old to enroll there. Community colleges are a life raft for poor students and students who need a second (or third) chance to get an education or job skills.

Q: Aside from the lack of resources because of budget problems, what other pertinent issues affect community colleges ability to do their jobs?

A: It’s difficult to set aside budget problems, because these are very real. Students are getting turned away for lack of seats, classes are overcrowded, and it can be difficult to complete a degree program if you can’t get the classes you need. Plus if you would like help figuring out the requirements for your degree or to transfer to a four-year university, it can be a long wait. By most estimates, there are more than 1000 students for every counselor, or even as high as 1700 to one, as in the California system, which enrolls over 20% of all community college students today.

But problem-solving with the resources currently available (and continuing to advocate for a fair share of funding), it’s important to recognize that the biggest resource at any college or university are the people who work there. At community colleges, 80 percent of expenditures go towards personnel. With funding cuts, more and more faculty today are part-timers. So one big issue is being sure to give part-time faculty enough hours of teaching at each college so that they can get to know students and be a resource for them.

Plus they need to earn a living wage and receive benefits so they can feel good about teaching in these colleges. It is also important to involve part-time faculty in developing new instructional delivery models and curricula. There’s a lot of demand today for innovation, but one-size-fits all programs are not likely to work very well. Curricular and programmatic changes will need to be tailored by faculty at each college and faculty will want to feel ownership of the program before they commit to its success.

The second issue is that the diversity of the faculty doesn’t match with the diversity of the community college student body. When colleges hire they should be sure to recruit a diverse pool of eligible applicants and increase faculty diversity. Faculty demographics need to catch up with the student demographics. California, Texas, Florida, and New York have such large community college systems that they enroll over a third of all community college students in the U.S. These states also have large Latino populations and many of the colleges have been designated, based on their enrollment, as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). But the number of Latino faculty is still very small and colleges haven’t been intentional about developing their Hispanic serving identity, for example through curriculum development.

Finally, some argue that faculty unions and byzantine bureaucracies created by shared governance are major impediments to the types of innovations that are needed to do more with less in these times of budget cuts. There’s something to that, but that’s a smaller part of the problem. Faculty intransigence, such that it exists, reflects the actions of people who feel under siege. They have something valuable to protect—the community college’s unique role as an open access, “democratizing,” college—and they want to be sure to protect it. It’s important to understand their motivations and then really speak to them, as well as the community college role in promoting the public good, when attempting to institute changes.

Q: So despite their significance, community colleges have comparatively low rates of completion. Why is that, and what can be done about it? [Q: Community colleges will need to significantly increase their graduation rates for the Obama’s college completion agenda to succeed. Can they do that while many of them are fraught with severe budget crises?

A: In part it’s because some students who go to community colleges are not interested in completing a degree or certificate or they quickly move on to another institution, where they do complete their studies. Other students test the waters and decide that college is not for them. Others, including the majority who are placed in non-college-credit developmental courses after taking assessment tests, can’t get past certain gatekeeper courses, such as algebra. The students who complete degrees tend to be those who are savvy about enrolling in the right courses, self-directed, resilient, and well supported financially and emotionally by their parents, families or significant others. Even though community colleges have relatively low-cost tuition, finances do matter especially when you consider the impact lost earnings have on a low-income household. Community college students are typically working a lot of hours and of course that slows up their academic progress.

One thing that’s being done is to create more detailed data bases of student academic progress to see which students are truly being lost from community colleges (and higher education more generally) and which are “stopping out” or “swirling” for good reasons, for example taking a higher paying job or taking classes at another college closer to their home. A number of accountability strategies are also emerging, like President Obama’s College Scorecard and college completion agenda, which is backed by major philanthropies such as the Gates and Lumina Foundations, to hold colleges accountable for doing a better job in serving the students who do want to earn degrees and credentials. Redesign of financial aid, matriculation, and transfer policies to “incentivize” highly directed student enrollment behavior is also taking place, at the state, federal, and institutional levels.

Community colleges have been a focus of these initiatives because of their low completion rates. The colleges should use the new, detailed data systems that are being built up in many states to tell their success stories better as wells to identify the gatekeeper courses that are blocking student progress. Those gatekeeper courses are then ripe for reform. These should become the focus of curricular and pedagogical experiments with new course structures and culturally inclusive curricula. College leaders, faculty, and policy makers should acknowledge that faculty will need professional development and the tools for inquiry to engage successfully in these transformative change processes. At the Center for Urban Education at USC, we’ve created the Equity Scorecard to assist colleges in using their data to set equity goals for completion and design action plans to achieve those goals.

Another strategy is to redefine completion in terms of short-term, modularized, or “stacked” credentials that students can build on over a career span of lifelong learning. It might be possible to make progress towards President Obama’s goal for 10 million more graduates through this strategy. But, it would be a shame to over-rely on this approach. The considerable rhetoric that the college completion agenda has created will generate real and equitable change only if it leads to improvements in the quality of education available to all students at community colleges. Beyond the rhetoric, policy makers, funders and college leaders should make resources available for experimenting with new teaching and curricular strategies, learning from successes and failures, and participating in professional networks to evaluate and improve on new ideas.

Q: Many incoming freshman at community colleges end up taking remedial courses that are designed to prepare them for college level work. However, these courses do not count towards graduation and end up putting a band aid on academic deficiencies. What is being done about this problem? What is the role of high schools in reducing the need for remedial college courses?

A: The number one task is to improve schooling in primary and secondary schools. Number two is to vastly improve the capacity of schools and colleges to validly assess student knowledge and academic abilities. Too many assessment and placement tests are unfair and result in inequitable educational opportunities for African American and Latino students, who are disproportionately placed in and lost from remedial courses. Number three is to rethink how we teach adults and young adults who weren’t taught well the first time around. There are quite a few new models of instruction being developed, such as the Carnegie Foundation for Teaching’s Statway and Quantway curricula, various accelerated learning approaches, better curriculum alignment and clear pathways to careers and certificates.

Well, that concludes my interview with Dr. Alicia Dowd. I would like to thank her for taking time out of her busy schedule to speak with us.

Have you ever wondered how higher education is financed in other parts of the world? No matter what country you choose, you will find that the topic of financing higher education is a contentious one. Over the last decade, there has been a worldwide shift of the burden of higher education costs from governments and taxpayers to parents and students. This is much to the chagrin of parents of course. To find out more about current trends in international higher education financing, I sat down with Dr. John C. Weidman, Professor of Higher and International Development Education at the University of Pittsburgh. Without further ado, let’s begin the interview.

Q: Historically, how has financing higher education internationally differed from the American model?

A: The main differences stem from variations in the role of national governments with respect to education. In most countries, there is a national ministry that has overall responsibility for education. In some cases, there is a separate ministry for higher education but it still tends to be a national entity. Countries also vary in level of funding provided to public higher education institutions. In most countries other than the USA,

In the federal system of the USA, education is the responsibility of the states so the influence of the national government is much more limited than in most countries. In the USA, responsibility for covering the cost of higher education has been shifting continuously to the individuals benefitting, namely students, through a variety of loan schemes. At the same time, states have been reducing their contribution. Consequently, there is considerable variation by state in the types and costs of available higher education. In the USA, the most highly regarded and hence most difficult for students to gain admission are private. It is just the opposite in most other countries in the world, with public universities having the highest status.

Countries differ in their approach to meeting increasing demand for higher education. Three main ways are expanding the numbers of government-funded institutions, enabling the expansion of the private sector without significant government investment, and various combinations of public and private expansion. One reflection of such differences is the proportion of students attending private as opposed to public (government funded) institutions. According to data collected by the Program for Research on Private Higher Education (PROPHE) at SUNY-Albany, this varies from less than 10% in several European countries (e.g., Austria, Germany, Czech and Slovak Republics, Ireland, Italy, Spain), Australia, and South Africa to more than two-thirds in Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. In the USA, about 26% of all undergraduates are enrolled in private higher education institutions. This is actually below the worldwide average of 31%. All of the countries with very high private enrollments regulate student fees much more than the USA.

The third alternative is to charge higher tuition to less qualified students attending government-funded institutions. In Kenya, for example, the scores on the national secondary school leaving exam required for students to receive government scholarships to attend universities have been slowly increasing. Students whose scores to not reach the grade threshold are still eligible for university admission, but they have to pay tuition at an unsubsidized rate for “Privately Sponsored Students Programs” (PSSP).

Q: Increasing the price of tuition is usually proposed as a way to guarantee quality in higher education. Does the seemingly annual escalation of tuition worldwide make sense?

A: This notion is very possibly driven by the mistaken belief that the very high tuition, elite, private universities in the USA (e.g., California and Massachusetts Institutes of Technology, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford) that are placed in the top tier of most international rankings are the inevitable model for quality worldwide. Much lower tuition (i.e., highly government subsidized) institutions (e.g., University of California-Berkeley and the University of Michigan in the USA, Oxford and Cambridge in the UK, Tokyo University in Japan, Seoul National University in South Korea) are also highly ranked. Quality is a function of skills and academic productivity of faculty as well as institutional resources. Escalation of tuition is primarily a function of a) the increasing costs of maintaining institutional capacity (foremost among them faculty salaries and benefits along with infrastructure such as classrooms, libraries, laboratories, etc.), and b) a pattern of decreasing government funding. Unfortunately, ways of reducing costs in higher education are not necessarily related to maintaining quality.

Q: Loan systems usually mirror changes in tuition. What are the major trends in student loans internationally?

A: The main trend internationally is to reduce the amount of direct government funding of loan schemes. This means developing better ways of collecting payments on government provided loans so there is a revolving fund that does not require huge annual investments. Another trend is moving responsibility for student loan schemes from the government to the banking sector, though often not without some type of subsidy.

Q: Are there countries that you think do an exceptional job of promoting quality higher education, with access?

A: In both South Korea and Japan, virtually all secondary school graduates attend higher education. Both countries have built strong private higher education sectors to absorb the huge demand for enrollment rather than expanding public higher education. In both countries, the private higher education sector is strongly regulated, with government limits on the amount of tuition that can be charged and strong monitoring systems to make certain that acceptable levels of quality are maintained.

Q: As you look at worldwide trends in financing higher education, do they create opportunities for U.S. higher education?

A: In my view, the most important trend driving higher education finance worldwide is the increasing demand for higher education, both from prospective students and from governments aspiring to stimulate national economic development by increasing the numbers of highly educated people entering their workforces. If governments are unable to meet excess demand for admission to higher education institutions through expansion of publicly funded institutions in their respective countries, students and their families may seek opportunities in other countries. In China, for example, there are only places for about 20% of the age cohort seeking higher education admission. As a consequence, many higher education institutions in the USA (as well as other countries) have begun actively recruiting Chinese students. For public higher education institutions in the USA that charge a higher tuition for non-resident students, this is a potentially significant source of revenue. It also provides opportunity for institutions faced with decreasing enrollments due to population shifts in the USA to increase enrollments. In addition, many countries are funding scholarship programs for graduate students to pursue degrees abroad, especially in fields in which their own universities have limited space and/or quality. Those institutions recognized in widely accepted international rankings (e.g., Times Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University) as being in the highest quality tiers will continue to attract significant numbers of international applicants.

Well, that concludes my interview with Dr. Weidman. I would like to thank him for consenting to this interview and for his contributions to the field of higher education and humanity in general.

Note: The following guest post comes to us courtesy of Steve Fireng, CEO of PlattForm. He has more than 25 years of experience in the education industry covering admissions, financial aid, Group President for Career Education Corporation, and CEO and President of Embanet Compass Knowledge Group (now Pearson Embanet).
Dear College Marketing Director:

First let me say, I feel your pain. Your job has never been harder.

For the last 25 years, I’ve watched higher education undergo a vast transformation with the rise of career education, specialized institutions, distance and online learning. But we are also hearing more complaints about rising tuition and the relevance of a college education in an era of stagnant family income. Students, parents and policymakers are paying close scrutiny to their investment in higher education and questioning their return on this investment. They want to know that it is going to pay off with a degree and more importantly, job opportunities.

A generation ago, the college search/application business was pretty linear. Students talked to their high school counselors, friends, and family members and sent away for brochures. Then they typed up their college essays and sent in their applications. But with the advent of the internet and social media, that process has gone the way of the typewriter.

To succeed in this changing environment, colleges and universities have to recognize the importance of differentiation, of having and communicating the clear value. Over the next several years, the strength of marketing and brand presence could be the difference between survival and growth. It is time for universities to stake their position, clearly define their value, and own their marketplace – showcase how they’re above the competition. If they don’t, they risk failure. As a Harvard Business School professor’s dire prediction states, as many as half of the more than 4,000 universities and colleges in the U.S. may fail in the next 15 years.

Scores of colleges and universities are spending precious dollars on marketing efforts that don’t produce their intended results. The challenge of reaching students and parents on multiple devices, across multiple channels with multiple vendors has many schools scrambling to figure out how best to spend their marketing dollars. But while the multi-channel marketing mix required to reach today’s fragmented customer base has changed dramatically, there are still some marketing basics that should be followed:

Understand your market. According to research, only 15 percent of today’s college students fit the traditional model: 18-22 year olds, attending college full-time and living on campus. The fastest growing student segment in higher education is the “over 25” population. Many of these adult learners are returning to school for job training in order to stay competitive in today’s employment landscape which is increasingly STEM focused. In order to attract this growing market segment, higher education institutions need to offer flexible class options, online/distance learning opportunities, the ability to transfer credits, as well as update/add courses, majors, and curriculums that will prepare students with the highest level of 21st century skill sets to match the demands of the global job marketplace.

Be consistent. Don’t disaggregate your brand. Prospective students are reading and learning about your college or university in lots of different places. Your challenge is to deliver a consistent message, a consistent look and feel, and a consistent appeal at each stop on their journey. If your marketing team is not talking to your creative department and they are not working with your social media group, your messages and your brand will get disaggregated. If that happens, you will likely waste valuable marketing dollars.

Have a well-defined value proposition. Prospective students are looking for the education they want at a cost they can afford. Helping them find what they are looking for by providing options on how to keep tuition at an acceptable and affordable price-point turns prospects into students.

Use data to make informed decisions. The days of making decisions based on surveys and a “gut feeling” are over. We are in an industry where everything can, and should be tracked and analyzed to turn insights and measurements into buying decisions. Knowing more about your students will give you a competitive edge. The questions you need to ask yourselves are “how much do I know about my students, how do they behave, where can I find them and what message is needed to attract them?” Don’t ignore the data. You must utilize these tools to stay ahead of the competition.

Move with your market. Today’s tech-savvy students are just as likely to use their mobile and tablet devices to aid their college search process as a traditional computer. According to research, 68 percent of students said they have viewed a college website on their mobile device and 73 percent of students would download campus-specific applications for schools on their target lists. Investing in a comprehensive digital marketing campaign with content and images designed for “small screen” communications and ensuring those are consistent with print materials is crucial to delivering marketing messages with big value.

Be creative and authentic. Prospective students want to know about your school and how it can help them reach their goals so they can easily envision themselves enrolling. Creative, authentic messages and images can help answer their questions and communicate your school’s unique attributes and values across marketing channels. Develop content that answers prospective students’ questions, with messages and creative that engages and moves them through the enrollment process.

To compete effectively in today’s highly competitive environment, higher education institutions must adopt a marketing model similar to those used by companies in other sectors. Unless you are an “ivy” or high-profile, competitive school, relying on brand name recognition for meeting enrollment goals is a likely non-starter.

No question, marketing directors face challenging circumstances. As a marketing professional with a quarter century of experience, I’ve seen a lot of change and yes, in many ways, your job has never been harder. But today’s technologies are providing new opportunities for smart, cost-effective brand strategies. From where I sit, enrollment marketing presents exciting new possibilities. Never before have we had the intelligence to understand marketing performance in such a holistic way. And we can use that information to provide value to prospective students – not just noise.

Sincerely,

Steve Fireng

There’s no denying that the numbers are dismal when it comes to black young men who attend and graduate from colleges in the U.S. Statistically speaking, black men have the lowest test scores, the worst grades and the highest dropout rates – in K-12 education, and in college too. The school to prison pipeline is a real phenomenon, with state prisons systems determining their future populations with stunning accuracy based on fourth-grade reading assessment scores. The recognition of this educational crisis has led to some strong initiatives targeted at young black men with the intention of guiding them through the college years and to successful, productive lives that follow.

Any college initiatives targeted at a particular group of people are bound to see some push-back from those who are excluded. Despite the obvious need for college incentive programs for the young black men of the nation, there are plenty who complain about the special treatment these young men receive. Even highly-regarded institutions like Stanford University have alumni who have spoken out against affirmative action practices, pointing out that instead of eliminating racial discrimination, these initiatives have actually led to reverse-discrimination on college campuses.

A Gallup Poll found that 67 percent of Americans are against any type of special treatment when it comes to admittance to college based on ethnicity or race, favoring instead a system that admits students based solely on merit. The belief that black, and other minority, college students who are given special considerations for admittance and financial aid are somehow stealing opportunities from other deserving students is certainly widespread and gaining traction.

Black Women Cry Foul

Perhaps the most surprising of those who are vocally against the increasing amount of financial, mentoring and other college transitional services for black men are black women. On the surface, this would appear to be a detrimental activity. Isn’t the fight for equality and opportunities for black men really a fight for all black people? If you ask the black women who are angered by the initiatives available for their counterparts, that answer is “no.” Where is the love for black women with college aspirations – many of whom fall into disadvantaged categories themselves?

Programs like San Jacinto College’s Men of Honor target black male college students with life programs that not only aid in college graduation, but in the development of life skills and networking opportunities. The TRUMPET program implemented at Northeastern Technical College has increased the retention rate for black students from around half to nearly 90 percent. Programs like these that focus on guiding black male college students through the process appear to be working, but is it at the detriment of female black college students?

Why DO black men seem to be hogging all the college initiative programs?

Less Need for Intervention

The truth may lie in the success of black women in college settings without an overwhelming amount of extra help. Black women are enrolling in college at a higher rate than any other group, and black men graduate from college at a rate that is two-thirds lower than their female peers. Black women appear to be a victim of their own successes, it seems, when it comes to being targeted for help to get through college. Of course there are college incentive programs for black women – from on-campus initiatives to United Negro College Fund options – but the overall spotlight seems to favor black men where college encouragement is concerned. And the women resent it.

So what is it about the young women of the black community that seems to inherently better prepare them for the college setting – without as much of an external push to succeed as the black men? What is so different between a sister and brother raised in the same household that leads the female to prioritize college, while the male needs someone else to prioritize it for him?

It can all be traced back to the contemporary setup of black families. You can call it stereotyping or overgeneralizing, but 68 percent of black women who gave birth in 2012 were unmarried and 48.5 percent of black children grow up in single custodial home, with the overwhelming majority of those parents being mothers. The divorce rate for black families is higher than for white or Hispanic families. More black children grow up without the influence of their fathers than any other demographic.
As a result, black women tend to grow up with strong female role models who emulate independence and a self-sufficient lifestyle. These single moms go out and get the job done every day, and as their daughters get older, they realize that there is a better life outside of these constraints – and that college is the path that will get them there. The young men, though seeing the same role models from their mothers, do not have a male version to look up to in many cases.

Which is why college motivation within and without the black community is so vital for these young men. At this point in the nation’s history, they are in the greatest need for the lifestyle change that higher education can provide, and not just for individual growth but for the benefit of the entire nation. Black women, presumably tired of carrying the load for their community, may not be able to see beyond what they perceive as unfair when it comes to their personal circumstances to the long-term goal of a stronger black community. So while the negative feelings of black women college students regarding the advantages afforded their male peers are founded, a look at the long-term benefits of these male-centric initiatives on college campuses may change their perspective.

As college enrollment numbers rise, with Black college students at their highest enrollment levels ever, the role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, have come into question. Before 1964, and even as recently as two decades ago, an increase in the number of Black young adults with college aspirations would have been welcome news for HBCUs.

Today, more Black college students do not automatically translate into higher enrollment numbers at HBCUs because the college landscape has changed so drastically since the golden days of these institutions. Diversity recruitment programs on traditional campuses, the ease of online degree programs, and the rising credibility and offerings at community colleges have eclipsed the cornered market that was once enjoyed by HBCUs when it comes to enrolling Black and other minority students.

As a result, it’s been suggested that HBCUs are no longer relevant and their purpose is now outdated and unnecessary for the students who used to depend on their offerings. With respect to the many quality non-HBCU higher education institutions, I’d argue that HBCUs are more relevant than ever and are in many ways even MORE necessary than their counterparts. Here’s why:

HBCUs are still havens for the disadvantaged. The achievement gap in K-12 learning may be narrowing, but it is still exists. Even minority students who end up graduating from high school drop out of college at higher rates than their white peers. While all types of colleges are picking up on this weakness and looking for ways to retain students, many HBCUs stand out as examples of how to succeed at having students return after freshman year. A U.S. News ranking lists Spelman College (at 88 percent retention), Morehouse College (82.5 percent), Howard University (82.3 percent), Florida A&M University (79.5 percent) and Winston-Salem State University (78.3 percent) as the top five HBCUs for having students return to campus after freshman year.

As a comparison point, the top 10 predominantly white institutions, or PWIs, had retention rates that ranged from 97.5 to 99 percent – BUT the retention numbers for minority students was lower. The campus culture and student-centric programs at these PWIs are stellar but it also stands to reason that the students attending top PWIs, like Brown University and the University of Notre Dame, are predisposed to staying in college anyway – while HBCUs have many more obstacles to overcome when convincing and encouraging their attendees to stay. HBCUs are also proving to be thought leaders when it comes to advancing rights for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender students, with Morehouse College offering its first LGBT course this past spring.

HBCUs are blazing STEM trails. Many HBCUs are powerhouses when it comes to offering strong degree programs in science, technology, engineering and math. HBCUs are important hubs for developing the greatest STEM minds in the nation, with 65 percent of all Black physicians and half of all Black engineers graduating from HBCUs. The Tuskegee University College of Engineering and Alabama A&M University of College Engineering, Technology and Physical Sciences are not just top engineering schools among HBCUs – they are among the best in the nation. Spelman College is the second largest school in the nation that sends Black undergraduates on to medical school. Jackson State University receives the highest amount of HBCU federal research funding every year, at $68 million, and is known for its “research intensive” programs.

Claflin University students work alongside the South Carolina Center for Biotechnology and receive hands-on industry training and connections in the field long before graduation. Xavier University of Louisiana has a consistently top-ranked pharmacy program and is a sought out school for those hoping to advance to medical school. Florida A&M University consistently ranks at the top of all colleges that graduate Black students with doctorates in natural sciences and engineering. In June, Fayetteville State was awarded a $718, 000 government research grant that included plans to oversee STEM instruction to local high school students. The advancements these schools are contributing to STEM fields are not just relevant, they are groundbreaking and an asset to the industries the graduates eventually serve.

They make college more affordable. As college costs climb, HBCUs remain reasonable options for earning college degrees and come with plenty of financial aid options in the form of grants, scholarships and federal loans. HBCUs like Coahoma Community College in Clarksdale, Mississippi cost as little as $4,940 for in-state students for an entire academic year (before any grants or financial aid) or just under $7,000 for in-state students who choose to live on campus. Even out of state students get a pretty good deal – adding just $1,000 more to that total. Even HBCUs with top billing offer affordable routes for their students, like Howard University in D.C. that saw 52 percent of students in 2012 with their financial needs fully met. The financial assistance programs at HBCUs have an inherent understanding that their students come from a place where college may not be an option without sound advice and financial assistance – and they step up to meet the needs of those students.

They adequately staff the workforce – and help graduates land jobs. During the latest Recession years, college career centers faced even greater scrutiny when it comes to helping students find jobs when they leave campus. The state of unemployed college graduates reached nearly crisis proportions at one point, with college graduates returning home to live with their parents after receiving a degree. HBCUs stepped up and worked even harder to help their graduates find the work they were qualified to accomplish after graduation. The 2012 HBCU Career Center Survey found that over 90 percent of HBCUs offered career workshops, career counseling, one-on-one resume writing help, one-on-one interview coaching, on-campus job fairs and on-campus interviews from prospective employers. Nearly three-fourths of the HBCUs in the survey said they also offered career development services for alumni. HBCUs are not simply training their students and sending them off blindly into their future careers; these schools are supplying well-equipped, highly-educated workforce members through connection programs that happen long before graduation day.

They remind us that there are still battles to be fought. As much as I’m a proponent of diversity in all of our schools, from pre-K to doctoral programs, there is some solidarity at HBCUs that would be a danger to lose. Despite advancements against discrimination, it is important to remember that the fight for civil rights and equality still rages on – and it extends beyond the Black community. It is vital to remember why HBCUs were developed in the first place and what role they have played in the fight for justice – producing such civil rights trail blazers as Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall. Though the initial mission of HBCUs may have evolved with the times, the reminder that education is an inalienable right for all Americans, and those who chose to study from abroad, lives on proudly at HBCUs and will always be a necessary pillar of the U.S. college and university system.

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