ATLANTA — For the second year in a row, a diverse group of college presidents, chancellors, deans and faculty from Historically Black Colleges and Universities spent four days strategizing over how best to meet the needs of their students.
The HBCU Student Success Summit sponsored by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) drew more than 100 participants from across the nation, with the focused goal of sharing best practices about student success and brainstorming ways to improve the overall retention and degree completion for students attending HBCUs.
“Anytime you get members of the HBCU family together to talk about current and relevant issues is a good thing,” said Dr. Cynthia Jackson Hammond, president of Central State University in Ohio. “This has been an opportunity for great minds to meet and develop strategies for our institutions.”
The workshops and plenary sessions focused on a wide range of topics, including first-year experience programs, service-learning initiatives, student assessment, eradicating hazing on campus, and finding alternative approaches to increase revenue and endowments at HBCUs.
“We are not a monolithic group,” said Dr. William B. Bynum Jr., president of Mississippi Valley State University. “We are not trying to be everything to everybody.”
In an era of fierce competition, HBCUs have to be competitive among themselves and develop a particular niche, said Dr. Mickey L. Burnim, president of Bowie State University.
Even still, as many HBCUs have been forced to slash key programs and initiatives on their campuses, Dr. Kevin Rome, president of Lincoln University of Missouri, said that his university continues to thrive.
