JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The absolute number of Black men enrolled at historically Black colleges and universities is the lowest it's been since 1976. That's according to recent analysis from the American Institute for Boys and Men, which crunched data from the Department of Education. In fact, Black men now currently account for only 26% of the students at HBCUs. Back in 1976, that figure was 38%. Calvin Hadley is invested in closing this gap. He's assistant provost for academic partnerships and student engagement at Howard University, and he is here in the studio with me now. Thanks for being here.
CALVIN HADLEY: Thank you so much for having me.
SUMMERS: I want to start by talking about Howard, which, of course, is one of the foremost HBCUs in this country - a long, long list that I cannot recite of incredible alumni, including Vice President Kamala Harris. Let's start there. Are you seeing this decline among Black male students where you are, there at Howard just down the road from us?
HADLEY: I am. I'm a Howard alum, and so I remember as a student, the numbers were also pretty stark at that time. I think we were around 33 or 34% when I was a student between 2004 and 2008. Now, as you announced in your introduction, Howard University is around 25% male total, and I think a recent statistic said around 19% Black male. And so that is felt on campus. That is felt, I think, in our social clubs. It's felt on the yard. And I think many of our male students have commented that in some of their classes, they're the only male in their class.
SUMMERS: So I will just say, I did not attend an HBCU. I attended a PWI, a predominantly white institution. But I have so many friends and family members who attended HBCUs. They talked to me about what that experience has meant to them, not just while they're on campus, but when they go out into their professional lives, they stay connected to the HBCU experience. So I just want to ask you, when there are fewer Black men on campus, what does that mean? What do we lose when those Black men are not as robust a presence on campuses like yours?
HADLEY: By the time students actually come to college, we're dealing with the males that have actually transcended what we call the belief gap - this gap in between what students can actually achieve and what their professors, teachers, counselors believe they can achieve. For Black males, that gap is the largest. When they get into the campus, the campus experiences is significantly impacted by the imbalance, right? At every educational institution, we want a diversity of experience. And so when you don't have as many males in the classroom, that diversity of experience is significantly impacted. I think we're dealing with some really unique statistics right now. Black males, as we will dive deeper into this in a moment, are graduating at a much lower rate than Black females.
SUMMERS: And that's across all colleges.
HADLEY: Across all colleges, not just HBCUs.
SUMMERS: Right.
HADLEY: This is not a HBCU problem. This is not a PWI problem. This is an American education problem.
SUMMERS: The study that we've been talking about, it notes that since 2010, as you point out, Black male enrollment has gone down across all colleges. And it also points out that HBCU enrollment has also decreased on the whole. But the decline of Black male enrollment at HBCUs outpaces those trends, if only slightly. Can you just explain to me how you understand that gap?
HADLEY: So I want to take a small step back. There are a number of really important things that happened between 2012 and 2022. One of those was the election of President Donald Trump. Another was the murder of George Floyd. I think when those things happened in the United States of America, the HBCU experience had now become a much more attractive proposition. You notice a significant increase in those male applications. While we received 9,700 male applications in 2022-23, we received upwards of 30,000 female applications. Black women are ripping it up. All the statistics show, from high school to college to college graduation, that the Black women, the Black female is successful today, and the trajectory is going straight up.
Unfortunately, when you look at the Black male, the exact opposite is the case. What we now will have imbalance in the community that has a significant impact on our ability to create whole families, I think on the ability for us to ensure that our generations after us have additional success and to - really, to have additional mobility.
SUMMERS: I want to end on this. You are a product of Howard University, as you point out. You now work for the university. And you are raising two young Black boys. What's your pitch for why a young Black man who might be hearing our conversation in 2024 should choose to attend an HBCU? Why...
HADLEY: Wow.
SUMMERS: ...Should they?
HADLEY: You attend an HBCU for an education and not a degree. And as an assistant provost, that's not a popular thing to say. The education that you receive in an HBCU transcends the classroom experience. The education exists in between the lines of the pages. HBCUs are created to instill you with the belief that you can be even larger than you can dream, with the sense that I am enough, I can be successful academically, but my world is not simply academics. I can be enough, and I can contribute to this society in this space. And so when I'm talking to that young man in 2024, come because we need you. Come because you're important. Come because without you, our community is hurt.
SUMMERS: Calvin Hadley, assistant provost at Howard University, thank you.
HADLEY: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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