This is like SUPER spring break.

This is kind of comforting though: "Students who have a 2.5 GPA or higher and qualify to transfer to another in-state school would have their tuition paid for up to four years."

http://www.wltx.com/story/news/education/2015/02/10/subcommittee-votes-close-sc-state-university/23179483/

never heard of a college closing for 1 year. WTF

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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"One of the most important things in life is what Judge Learned Hand described as 'that ever-gnawing inner doubt as to whether you're r

kinda like i did in undergrad. but in this case EVERYBODY doin' it at the same time. and two semesters. but they'll be back. i mean, i came back. they can too, right? haha

or two.

this is sad.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

but this is South Carolina, so who knows.

I wonder if Claflin has enough of an endowment to acquire it if they do go under?

Being from Columbia, SC, I know this school has been on the brink for a while...

and now its finally going to happen...

They have had issues with finances...accreditation...for YEARS...

Them saying it will be a clean slate is BS...even if they attempt to open it...there won't be impact...

Claflin University is down the street...and it's a damn good school...

Giving back to HBCUs as Alumni is critical...this might start happening more often than not if it doesn't happen...especially at Public HBCUs...

I think they'll be back, but MUCH leaner.

There are doubts that it will pass the legislation. I don't know if it will happen.

majority of the house and senate are republicans...it's passing...

clocks ticking though.

Is this just gross incompetence from administration or is it time to recognize that they are no longer a necessary part of our society?

My uninformed analysis:
Enrollment at these schools is dropping like a rock. And that leads to a death spiral.
Enrollment drops => school loses tuition revenue => school raises tuition to make up shortfall => students can't afford new tuition => enrollment drops further.


Black students today have more options and opportunities than they did in years past. There are no longer racial barriers to enter other universities.

So is there really a need to have as many HBCUs as we do? Sure some should remain because they offer a unique experience.
But in my opinion, there are way too many HBCUs that are stretched way too thin and as a result offer lower quality educations than they should


I mean, look at all these schools. With all the competition out there, there's not enough black students to go around.

http://hbculifestyle.com/list-of-hbcu-schools/

I don't want to see HBCUs go anywhere. There's something to be said for environments that allow some students to "fit in" and be themselves without a lot of BS.

I didn't realize that there were so many HBCUs in the country, looking at that list. I'm guessing that a lot are smaller, silo'd institutions.

some of these HBCU's remind me of record labels when they first heard about Napster and file sharing. They refuse to see the writing on the wall instead of adapting to changing times.

Claflin is a much better HBCU than SCSU...

For the most part, it's simple economics. A lot of students that go to HBCUs are on financial aid. And they graduate with loads of debt. And they can't/won't support the institution after they graduate because of the amount of student loans they have to pay back.

The schools that have solid endowments and are well supported don't ever have anything to worry about.

>Is this just gross incompetence from administration or is it
>time to recognize that they are no longer a necessary part of
>our society?

Gross incompetence but not at all universities...and it's a very necessary part of our society...you can get a great education at an HBCU

>My uninformed analysis:
>Enrollment at these schools is dropping like a rock. And that
>leads to a death spiral.
>Enrollment drops => school loses tuition revenue => school
>raises tuition to make up shortfall => students can't afford
>new tuition => enrollment drops further.
Not all HBCUs are having a drop of enrollment...my alma mater NCA&T enrollment has damn near doubled since I graduated in 2004...we are currently the largest Public HBCU in the nation...


>
>Black students today have more options and opportunities than
>they did in years past. There are no longer racial barriers to
>enter other universities.
>
>So is there really a need to have as many HBCUs as we do? Sure
>some should remain because they offer a unique experience.
>But in my opinion, there are way too many HBCUs that are
>stretched way too thin and as a result offer lower quality
>educations than they should

>I mean, look at all these schools. With all the competition
>out there, there's not enough black students to go around.
>
>http://hbculifestyle.com/list-of-hbcu-schools/

There are plenty of black students to go around...more are going to college than ever before...I just think that all HBCUs aren't equal and it easily shows...I think more HBCUs need to focus on their strengths and not attempt to be great at every major...

Being from Columbia, SC...Going to South Carolina State never crossed my mind. I knew I wanted to go to an HBCU but I knew that it wasn't the one. Mainly because of all the turmoil back then in 2000...seems like they always had issues...South Carolina State used to be a great school to go to but that time has passed...

Seems like they've straightened out some things since the 90s though unlike Morris Brown.

I'm glad that we didn't even deal with that place.


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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."

Students who have a 2.5 GPA or higher and qualify to transfer to another in-state school would have their tuition paid for up to four years.


Per: http://www.wltx.com/story/news/education/2015/02/10/subcommittee-votes-close-sc-state-university/23179483/


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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."

They can find funds for the students to go elsewhere but won't fund them at sc state.

We need to support our hbcus before they are gone because they are surely under attack.

wait, can I say that if I didn't graduate?

that's what i call UMCP.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

Damn black people, we need to huddle up and turn it on in the third quarter before this shit gets away from us.

4 individually struggling hbcu's could link, and one school becomes the STEM focused campus, one gets all the art/edu majors, one 4 biz, one 4 the rest

or some other breakdown

1st 2 yrs core classes are the same at all the schools

bootleg faculty would get squeezed out

more efficient than each school running english history or russian language classes with 6 students in them

fundamentally. like, existence of hbcu's in 2015 doesnt mesh well with postracial american dreaming

so maybe he is ok with just letting all but the strongest wither and die?

Or, is he just ignoring the topic as usual (see- no CBC meeting for almost 2 years) and reading off the notes his cabinet ppl handed to him 5 min b4 the meeting

on the other hand, bad loans and bad graduation rates is a deadly combo

http://www.crewof42.com/cbc-2/president-obama-said-to-be-critical-of-hbcus-during-cbc-meeting/

http://www.bet.com/news/politics/2015/02/13/does-the-white-house-get-the-value-of-an-hbcu-education.html

President Obama was critical of Historically Black Colleges and Universities during a meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus this week according to several in attendance. The February 10 meeting was the first group gathering with the Black Caucus and the President since June 2013.

Several who attended the meeting indicated that President Obama felt that the focus of HBCU’s needs to be on the schools changing their ways of doing business rather on changes in federal policy. Those who attended said he was specifically critical of graduation rates and loan policies. The President also spoke to CBC members on his free community college plan which some HBCU advocates believe will hurt HBCUs.

The Chair of President Obama’s Board of Advisors on HBCUs, Hampton President Dr. William Harvey, was critical of the lack of input the Board had on the community college proposal during a speech in Washington to Administration officials on February 4. He also said he was “disappointed and saddened” by the lack of agency funding for Historically Black colleges and Universities.

“We are not consulted when it comes to policy changes and decisions impacting – in a major way – the institutions on whose behalf we are to advocate. It happened with Pell. It happened with Parent Plus. And, now it is happening with the new community college initiative,” President Obama’s HBCU Initiative Chairman said on Feb. 4.

HBCUs have had a tough time during the Obama Administration. In 2011, a change by the Department of Education to Parent PLUS loan standards would eventually cost HBCUs over $150 million. In August 2012, Morris Brown College filed for Chapter 11. In 2013, St. Paul College closed after 125 years. This week it was learned that South Carolina State University may close for at least a year. Title III spending on HBCUs has steadily gone down since 2009.


“Pell grants to students at HBCUs are down. Direct loans to our students are down. Graduate subsidies have been eliminated. In addition to student support, overall support to Black colleges is down,” Dr. Harvey, who has been President of Hampton since 1978, said on Feb. 4.

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), an alum of South Carolina State University, would not speak on the school’s situation. When asked to comment on what President Obama said on HBCUs at the February 10, White House meeting with the CBC, Clyburn said, “it’s for-profit schools where the graduation rate problem is — not HBCUs, the Parent PLUS loan stuff has to do with new rules on credit worthiness and I just think that in the discussion he mangled it.”

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan apologized in 2013 for the “real impact” the Parent PLUS change had on HBCUs. A modification of the Parent PLUS criteria was announced by the Department of Education in October 2014 and is set to take effect in July 2015.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), a graduate of North Carolina Central and North Carolina Central Law School, declined to comment on what the President said on HBCUs on February 10 during the CBC’s meeting with the President.

Other members commented.

“He said there were some HBCUs that were not good at graduating students and if they did not improve they’d have to go by the wayside,” said Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA).

“In other words he didn’t show much empathy for struggling HBCUs. It was like show me the numbers and if the numbers aren’t where they need to be, that’s it. It was a somewhat callous view of the unique niche HBCUs fill,” Rep. Johnson, a graduate of Clark Atlanta University, said. Rep. Johnson said there needs to be a deeper discussion with the President on HBCU issues.

“We worked on this for two years and it’s a lack of understanding with this Administration and — chart1in particular — this Secretary,” said Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL) from Florida referring to Education Secretary Duncan. Rep. Brown is a graduate of Florida A&M.

“I worked at a community college for 16 years. I worked at a Black college for four years. I worked at the University of Florida for four years. We’re talking about community colleges for everybody — we should be talking about programs and the money following the kids. They should have the option of going to wherever they want to go for those two years,” Rep. Brown added.

I work in higher ed. I worked at very expensive pwi's and state funded Hbcus.

Unfortunately, most of the leaders at HBCU's are PhD's who can recite all types of academic nonsense but can't rub two pennies together.

Where at the PWI's, ex ceo's are brought in to craft majors that draw big dollars and big donors.

HBCU's still serve a real purpose. But the leaders need to step into the 21st century, get off the government titty of grants and shift their majors to serve the consumer realities of black economics (ie Fashion, sports, health, music, television)

We always try to follow behind whitey and get into Silicon valley or Wall street. We don't need to go down that road.

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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."

This country now. Higher Ed was never meant to be a business

But the unfortunate truth is that ur absolutely right. Every thing so money driven in this society and hbcu's have go follow suit

I am not so sure academia has changed. I think higher ed has always been rooted in financial legacies. Harvard was founded off of Caribbean slave money. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2006/10/27/beneath-the-ivy-a-legacy-of/


I think these HBCU's have been able to slip under the radar because of Federal funding. But the mismanagement of Federal funds and the low enrollment revealed major administrative issues.

Plus 21st century academia requires that students work with computers, technology and STEM. America NEEDS more knowledge based workers to stay competitive.

This is a great opportunity for HBCU's. I think there is still time to change course. But there needs to be a MAJOR change in leadership.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2015/02/17/386980460/did-south-carolina-sabotage-its-public-historically-black-college

Last week, South Carolina lawmakers proposed shutting down the state's only public historically black college for two years.

"We are looking at a bankrupt institution," state House Rep. Jim Merrill told reporters. "No one takes any pleasure in recommending this."

And indeed, the school is in rough shape. It owes millions, enrollment has plummeted over the past eight years, and only about 14 percent of its students graduate in four years.

But a group of students and alumni has filed a federal suit blaming state officials for the school's current woes. They say the state has been illegally discriminating against the black university, first by underfunding it, then by allowing well-heeled nearby colleges, like the University of South Carolina, to offer academic programs very similar to those at S.C. State. That left prospective students with little reason to pass up a tonier school with the same offerings, they say, and enrollment dried up.

In essence, they say, South Carolina State was set up to fail.

It's not the first time that supporters of historically black institutions have accused states of kneecapping these schools. In 2013, a federal judge in Maryland held that persistent underfunding of the state's public black colleges had violated the Civil Rights Act's Equal Protection Clause and that by allowing similar programs at better-funded schools, Maryland had created a "separate and unequal" system of public higher education.

South Carolina State's history has been dogged by "separate but equal" questions. It was founded in 1896, at a time when black folks weren't allowed to attend other universities in the state. It was also the scene of the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre, in which three black students were killed by police during a civil rights protest on campus. The school has also played a key part in the economy of surrounding Orangeburg, which is why Robert Ford, a former South Carolina state legislator and an alumnus, has vowed to fight keep it open.

"The school's not going to close," he told the Times and Democrat. "I don't care what the General Assembly has to say about it. That's just not going to happen."

But duplicative programs and falling enrollment aren't S.C. State's only problems. The school was established as a land grant university, on federal land given to the state with the condition that any amount given to the school by the federal government each year would have to be matched by the state. There are more than 100 of these universities; Florida A & M and Tuskegee University are a couple of the better-known traditionally black schools in the bunch.

But a 2013 report found that South Carolina hasn't been playing by the land grant rules. After a number of presidents at historically black colleges and universities complained their states weren't putting in their fair share, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities looked into it. Sure enough, their research found that between 2010 and 2012, historically black land grant universities in 17 states — including South Carolina — had been shortchanged by a total of $56 million in state funding, while several predominantly white land grant colleges had gotten more than they were owed.

In fact, the study found that of the 18 land grant HBCUs in the United States, over half did not get the required amount in matching state funds in that period.

South Carolina has problems, but HBCUs have bigger ones across the board. When the Obama administration made it harder to get federally backed student loans in 2011, enrollment at many black colleges and universities predictably plunged, prompting Education Secretary Arne Duncan to later apologize for the "real impact it has had."

And last week, members of the Congressional Black Caucus bristled after a meeting with President Obama on the fate of HBCUs. According to caucus members, the president said that struggling HBCUs with low graduation rates are failing black students, and he reportedly said that the lowest-performing institutions "should fall by the wayside."

But for South Carolina State, survival might be less about what happens in Washington than what happens in Columbia, the capital. This week, students held a rally asking alumni to help save their failing school. "We need to support these schools financially," said one lawmaker who attended, "so that they don't have to depend on the Legislature that doesn't want to fund them."

Of the schools students are graduating in four years? That's abysmal

Most college students don't graduate in 4 years...I did...but it's not common...14% is a bad number...but most schools are in the 25-30% range...

They also have a six year graduation rate as well...and SCSU is above the national average...

I think SCSU just didn't keep up with the times...and it had a shady administration prior to the current administration there now...

But I also question South Carolina's history of not funding the university like they fund the other state supported schools they have...they have short changed them for years...

But this is my home state...it will shut down SCSU if they have the opportunity too...they want to change it to USC-Orangeburg...that's the end goal...