The strategies Fortune 400 companies and government agencies use when looking to recruit new employees from historically Black colleges and universities differ from those they use for predominantly White institutions.
Fortune 400 companies and government agencies used on campus bulletin boards, alumni recommendations, networking and career development officers more frequently at PWIs than at HBCUs, according to a recent study conducted by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and researchers from Alabama A&M University.
Researchers surveyed 280 recruiters from Fortune 400 companies and career development directors at 105 HBCUs and 182 PWIs.
The study indicated that a disproportionate number of graduates from PWIs were hired over those from HBCUs. In 2006, corporations and agencies included in the study hired 31 college graduates and only four were HBCU graduates.
The strongest explanation for the disparity, suggests Dwayne Ashley, president and CEO of the TMCF, is the number of on campus visits made by recruiters from Fortune 400 companies and government agencies.
“Recruiters were not visiting enough HBCU schools. For budgetary reasons, most companies only visit one to 10 schools overall. These schools tend to be the top 10 liberal arts colleges and universities in the country,” Ashley says.
