 A conversation about a story that came out in Forbes this morning, the authors Richard Beter noted in a controversial comment on HBCUs and the title of his article is diversity destroying the HBCUs and he basically makes the premise that HBCUs are suffering even in the midst of increased enrollment from a continuing flight of black students going to HBCUs. He notes some statistics that suggest that even with HBCU total enrollment across the 100 institution sector growing by 2% to just over 298,000 students nationwide in 2017, black enrollment at HBCUs fell by more than 39,000 over the same period or at least over between 2010 and 2017 and that's according to federal statistics from the US Department of Education and the reason that Dr. Beter writes is because of some research published by the Rutgers University Minority Serving Institutions Research Center and I think there are two levels that we have to get into on this conversation about diversity killing HBCUs. One, Dr. Beter's point is almost counter-cultural to its own argument because later in the essay for Forbes and I encourage everybody to check it out, we'll definitely drop a link to this in our YouTube and Instagram pages but one of the points that he makes is that diversity is killing HBCUs because more black students are going away from HBCUs than two predominantly white institutions for more scholarships, better programs but then he also says that the growth at HBCUs has been bolstered by an increase in non-black students, natively Hispanic and white students. So the point that diversity is killing HBCUs when thousands of students have increased the enrollment at HBCUs at least from a total sector perspective almost defeats the purpose of saying our institutions are being murdered. Yes, there are not as many black students as 10 in HBCUs but obviously the numbers are going up somehow and the last time I checked that even though HBCUs were founded for black students and have a mission to educate all of their students about the African American experience at no point has there ever been a prohibition on anybody coming to an HBCU nor have the numbers ever been slanted to say well HBCUs are failing because they don't have as many black students now. Some alumni have the perspective that if we are not serving a comprehensive or near total black enrollment that we are failing and that's a cultural conversation that's fair to have within a historical context however if we are only talking from an operational or a logistical standpoint of how many students do you have this year versus how many students you had last year the head count is the head count and if it's up it's up that means the revenue is up that means the fees are up that means the opportunities for federal funding are up. So I'm not sure where Dr. Vetter or the perspective on the death of HBCUs is coming from in the light of good news that's number one but again it's to be expected from Vetter who is constantly decline the value of HBCUs and the culture of HBCUs and some of the numbers that depict the operability or the operable viability of HBCUs but Vetter's point starts with the research from workers university and this was a research project that was released last month where 80 students from four HBCUs public and private throughout the country were surveyed and asked or roughly a set of questions that revolved around the principle of the hypothesis Donald Trump and the Missouri effect and racism in America at large is what's driving more enrollment to HBCUs and according to some of the qualitative data secured by these researchers at Rutgers is that we're seeing more black students taking interest in HBCUs because they are pushing back against the racism which is in the news from political perspectives racism that is taking place on predominantly white campuses all over the country and this is an outward facing rebellion I guess to a rise in racial or racist rhetoric that would make sense except we are more hopeful and I hope more optimistic that our black students make choices for their lives choices for their professions choices for their community beyond the aspect of where can I go to get away from racism it almost will suggest that because you found 80 out of 298,000 students from four schools out of a 100 school sector to say that racism played a factor in them attending HBCUs that I hope that we're not considering that this is representative of the sector at large it doesn't represent the idea that HBCUs can be a school of choice for black students racism aside or racism not even counted what if many black students just want to attend HBCUs what if a majority of students black white or otherwise just happen to like the campus climate smaller class side what if they just happen to like more affordable classes or more affordable degrees what if it's HBCUs actually increasing their degree offerings and thereby having a bigger pool with which students can be attracted what if it's more adult learners figuring out all of these things what if it's a it's the transition of adult learners and continuing learners finding HBCUs to be a legitimate college option what if it's more scholarships being instituted in states and in cities that incentivize minority students to go to HBCUs or to go to schools that that serve an HBCU like mission like a community college or like a minority serving institution there's so many factors beyond victimization that I think we have to consider in any assessment that we do about why students choose HBCUs and more specifically African-Americans because when we don't do that work when we don't do the deep dive you open the door for somebody like Richard better to be right you open the door for Richard better to go into federal statistics and tell a story that a lot of us don't want to hear and is largely devoid of context for example better's presentation suggests that between 2010 and 2017 enrollment went down down down that's also the same period that many HBCUs and many African-American students across the country were forced out of school because of the debacle with the federal plus loan issue where the plus loan rules got changed and students who were eligible from one year the next year and in consequential years they weren't eligible for certain loan packages that's something that's devoid from betters presentation that's something that's devoid of of conversations about free community college which also started to take root in states across the country starting in Tennessee and then moving on to several states in almost an excessive 10 at this point where students can go to community college roughly for the cost of what remains after they get a Pell grant or what remains after they get a federal loan so the rise in student aid programs and free community college the rise in online college the rise in for profit schools the number of of students who are opting not to go to college all of these these things play a role outside of students or black students particularly just aren't choosing HBCUs so as usual Dr. Vetter is wrong or Dr. Vetter is incomplete in his assessment but we can't ignore the fact that his incomplete assessment starts with an incomplete research base from which we're subjecting our students to the notion that the only reason we choose anything black the only reason we choose any black institution is so that we can't be victimized and truth be told we can do more than get our ass whooped and be called the n word there are more reasons that black students all across this country every day choose HBCUs and have their lives in their communities positively impacted by these schools other than to be somebody else's Negro so I think that when we have these conversations about the relevance of HBCUs and when we get into these moments where we have to defend HBCUs that we look for total context that we look for a bigger picture about what our schools are and who they serve and that we're not just limited to the same old tropes of being victims