In an environment in which state and federal higher education appropriations are continuing a downward spiral, many public institutions are feeling the pressure of a resource deficit. For public historically Black colleges in particular, which have traditionally received less funding than their predominantly White counterparts and which typically serve students who are more financial aid dependent at a sticker price that is also often lower than their counterparts, this funding mismatch is a perennial problem.
But despite the doom-and-gloom narrative that is often projected on these institutions, three in particular are seizing an opportunity to look inward, producing new strategic plans that accentuate their strengths and build upon their weaknesses.
Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) Chancellor Elwood Robinson, who served as provost and vice president of academic affairs at Cambridge College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said that taking note of the differences in not only resources in Cambridge versus his home state of North Carolina, but the differences in student disposition, motivated him to set a tone of excellence on campus when he was named chancellor of WSSU.
“Nothing disturbed me more as a North Carolinian than living in Cambridge — and Cambridge has to be one of the most elitist places in the world [with Harvard and MIT within the city limits and Yale fewer than 150 miles away] … but every student that comes to [those institutions] comes with the notion that they’re going to change the world,” Robinson said. “Our institutions typically don’t have that; our institutions are typically rooted in a history of racism, a history of discrimination and a history of unequal access.”
But Robinson said that he doesn’t want that to be the narrative at WSSU; he is working to “create that kind of presence” that ingrains in WSSU students and graduates an expectation that they will change the world.
WSSU Provost Brenda Allen said that the institution has achieved “a good marriage between sort of an elite educational focus and some of the more practical needs of the population that we serve.”
Indeed, 2015 was, as Robinson said, “a great year” for WSSU, with statewide surveys revealing the institution as tops in job placement of graduates — 79.2 percent of graduating seniors were employed upon graduation, higher than any other school in the state system, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. WSSU was also No. 1 in the system for highest salaries for its graduates and No. 2 in job placement and salaries for those completing graduate degrees at the institution.
