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- <text id=89TT0740>
- <title>
- Mar. 20, 1989: Black By Popular Demand
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Mar. 20, 1989 Solving The Mysteries Of Heredity
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- EDUCATION, Page 59
- Black by Popular Demand
- </hdr><body>
- <p>African-American colleges enjoy a welcome renaissance
- </p>
- <p> As a Yale undergraduate, George Bush headed the local drive
- for the United Negro College Fund, a consortium that then
- represented 32 private black schools. Last week, as Bush
- delivered the keynote speech at the fund's 45th-anniversary
- dinner in Manhattan, and it was clear his ardor had not waned.
- "Then as now," said the President, "the U.N.C.F.") insists that
- excellence become a way of life."
- </p>
- <p> Bush's remarks come at a time of renaissance for the
- nation's 117 historically black colleges. During the 1970s, many
- of the best black students deserted such institutions for Ivy
- League schools. Today, spurred in part by racist outbreaks on
- predominantly white campuses, African-American students are
- rediscovering the nurturing atmosphere and pride in a shared
- heritage that made black campuses attractive to their parents'
- generation.
- </p>
- <p> Two-thirds of the 42 schools currently represented by the
- U.N.C.F. have seen an increase in enrollment this academic
- year. At many colleges, applications far outnumber openings.
- Last spring Virginia's Hampton University received 8,300
- applications for 900 places, making the school as popular as
- Dartmouth. Says U.N.C.F. President Christopher Edley Sr.: "Black
- students are coming back home."
- </p>
- <p> A major factor behind this shift is cost. On average,
- private black colleges charge only about half the tuition levied
- by similar white schools. As student aid has been slashed, that
- has made a difference to college-bound blacks, most of whom
- require some form of assistance.
- </p>
- <p> But economics is only part of the story. For many African
- Americans, black colleges promise a level of academic and
- social support that mostly white campuses cannot match.
- "Psychologically, a black student is going to feel better about
- himself at a black college," says Barry Beckham, editor of The
- Black Student's Guide to Colleges. At schools such as Dillard,
- Fisk, Morehouse and Howard, black students say they feel a surge
- of self-esteem directly traceable to the experience of being the
- majority race on campus.
- </p>
- <p> Black colleges are also more likely to provide vital
- encouragement to marginal students. Sulayman Clark, 35, was on
- the verge of dropping out of mostly white Temple University when
- he transferred to 152-year-old Cheyney University in Cheyney,
- Pa. Bolstered by attentive professors, he not only graduated but
- went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. "If Cheyney did not exist,
- my career would have been over," he says.
- </p>
- <p> Like their white counterparts, black-colleges have become
- savvy promoters, competing aggressively for students and
- philanthropic dollars. Gone are the days when black-college
- presidents enjoyed a near monopoly on black-college hopefuls.
- Today they are more inclined to run their schools like a
- business, placing corporate brass on their boards and going head
- to head with Brown, Duke and other top schools for the most
- promising black youths.
- </p>
- <p> The new vitality of black colleges is reflected in their
- coffers as often as it is in their classrooms. Ten years ago,
- only seven black colleges had endowments of more than $5
- million; by 1986, 19 had reached that level. Such schools are
- getting mixed messages from Washington. In his 1990 budget, Bush
- proposed $10 million in matching grants for gifts made to enrich
- the endowments of black colleges. At the same time he warned
- Congress that federal student aid might have to be cut further
- to whittle the deficit.
- </p>
- <p> Consequently, black schools have had to address one of
- their oldest financial weaknesses: small and infrequent alumni
- donations. In November, when Bill and Camille Cosby made a $20
- million gift to Spelman College, the event received widespread
- publicity; yet modest donations have been the norm. That shows
- signs of changing, however. During the past fiscal year, alumni
- support at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute topped $1 million for
- the first time, aided by three gifts of $125,000 or more.
- </p>
- <p> Despite such advances, the future remains clouded for many
- black colleges. In 1987, 17 of the U.N.C.F.'s members were in
- the red. Last summer Dallas' Bishop College went under after a
- long struggle with bankruptcy. Worse still, the overall
- percentage of African Americans going to college has been
- declining for almost a decade, shrinking the pool of potential
- applicants to black schools.
- </p>
- <p> Such worries seem far away to Angela Addison, a black
- senior at the selective Alabama School of Fine Arts in
- Birmingham, a high school where African Americans are in the
- minority. Addison could go on to almost any of the nation's
- top-ranked colleges, but she is convinced that Hampton will
- provide the right environment. "I want to go someplace
- different," she explains. "I want to go to a prestigious black
- college." So, it seems, do many others.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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