There are many reasons for HBCUs and community colleges to form partnerships in today's higher education environment. Formally, a partnership is an agreement where two institutions come together for mutual goals. What, then, is the mutual goal between HBCUs and community colleges? It is to fight a common enemy: inequity in educational attainment and outcomes of Black students.
HBCUs represent just 3% of the nation’s institutions of higher learning, but they graduate nearly 20% of African Americans with degrees. In addition, they graduate more than 50% of African American professionals and public school teachers and most African American doctoral degree recipients. Similarly, community colleges enroll 52% of all African Americans in higher education; large percentages of these same students do not graduate or transfer to a four-year college or university.
Inequity in its various forms (economic, political and social) defines our times. Confronting inequalities has moved to the forefront of national policy debates with a consensus that all should enjoy equal access to opportunity.
Dr. Christine J. McPhail
The question then arises: If it’s that simple, why aren’t the two sectors working strategically to promote more significant outcomes for African American students? One of the reasons for a continued disconnect between the two sectors may be that each views the other as a competitor. Also, HBCUs’ and community colleges’ relationships may have been strained due to differing institutional cultures and negative media coverage of the two.
The situation is unfortunate because if the higher education leaders, students and their families fully understand the ultimate benefits that an HBCU-community college transfer agreement could have on the academic attainment of the student, educators may become more intentional about helping students navigate the complex transfer waters; they may even see the establishment of transfer agreements between the sectors as a greater priority.
Educators within community colleges and HBCUs fail to realize that they share more similarities (especially at the undergraduate level) than differences. Couple this disconnect with HBCU practitioners who may feel that the community college transfer student may not be academically prepared and the community college practitioner who may be unfamiliar with the historical success of HBCUs in educating African American students, and miscommunication and misinformation about both sectors is rife.
