Creating partnerships to link students across campuses and offering online academic programs to students were two of the solutions presidents of some of the country’s historically Black colleges and universities say will help keep their institution competitive as more options for higher education emerge.
With 181 academic programs located on its Washington, D.C., campuses, Howard University has more programs than any of its competitors, said Dr. Sidney Ribeau, president of the institution.
“We have everything from your health to your soul,” he said.
But after losing almost $300 million in its endowments in the market downturn, Howard may not be able to continue to sustain those programs and Ribeau is exploring ways to technologically link to HBCU campuses so Howard students can complete programs at its sister schools. Howard would also reciprocate the opportunity for students enrolled on other campuses.
“We are all in this together,” Ribeau said Friday at the 36th annual meeting of the National Associate for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), which lobbies Congress on behalf of HBCUs and predominantly Black institutions of higher education.
“We need to think about benefiting from the programs at all of our institutions,” said Ezell Brown, chairman and chief executive of Education Online Services Corp., a Coral Springs, Fla.-based firm that works with almost 400 educational clients to set up online degree programs. He told presidents that the paradigm for securing education has shifted and HBCUs must decide if they want to be part of the future.
“Private online colleges are taking students from HBCUs,” Brown said. If 10 percent of the students enrolled in online private colleges return to HBCUs, “that is a billion dollars going back to HBCUs,” he said. Education Online Services is working with Barber-Scotia College, Jackson State University, Morris Brown College, Tougaloo College and Langston University.
