Hard Times at Black Colleges

By Ellie McGrath

Big debts and reduced aid mean fiscal trouble for one of the best

When Fisk University opened its doors, in a Union Army barracks in Nashville in 1866, it was dedicated to "the education and training of young men and women, irrespective of color." But Tennessee's segregation laws ensured that whites went to other colleges, leaving Fisk with little financial support for its student body of freed slaves. Over the years, the money problems have hardly become easier: Fisk's present endowment is a mere $3.1 million, in contrast with about $250 million for its rich neighbor, Vanderbilt University. Even so, Fisk has built a distinguished record. It was the first black college to be endorsed by the Association of American Universities, and its alumni include Philosopher W.E.B. Du Bois and Historian John Hope Franklin.

Despite that proud heritage, Fisk today is in a humbled state. It began the current school year $2.8 million in debt, and this fall Nashville Gas Co. refused to turn on the heat unless a $177,000 gas bill was paid. The bill was settled only after a community fund-raising effort that saw Fisk students in front of the gas company's offices appealing for donations. At the same time, Fisk officials were negotiating with the Internal Revenue Service about how the university could pay $500,000 in back taxes. Two weeks ago came another blow: President Walter Leonard, who was recruited from Harvard in 1977, announced his resignation. "I simply cannot beg any longer," he said.

Fisk's fiscal malaise, the result of rising costs and declining enrollment, is symptomatic of the hard times facing all of the nation's 105 historically black colleges, both private and public. The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education estimates that at least five schools are in the same financial straits as Fisk. Even Howard University in Washington, D.C., perhaps the most prestigious of the black colleges, ended its latest fiscal year with an $8.9 million deficit. Public black colleges are somewhat better off since they can count on state revenues. But even many of these colleges have been hard hit by reduced aid. Says Norman Francis, president of Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans: "Black colleges face the same societal and economic conditions that black families face. When times are tough, we suffer the most."

While tuition fees provide on average about 55% of revenues for the nation's private colleges, they account for only 34% at the 42 privately funded black colleges. These institutions must depend on the Federal Government, which distributed about $83.4 million in 1981, and the United Negro College Fund, which this year expects to raise $28 million, vs. $25.8 million last year. The revenues are not enough. Says Clinton Marsh, president of Knoxville College in Tennessee, which has a $4 million annual budget and an endowment of only $300,000: "Our financial status is borderline. Unexpected emergencies such as utility rate hikes are still cause for concern."

Officials at other black colleges, both private and state-funded, complain of decrepit buildings. John Potts, acting president of Voorhees College in Denmark, S.C., describes dormitories with missing windows and bathrooms with leaking pipes. "We're in trouble, no question, but I think we will survive," he says. At Savannah State College in Georgia, President Wendell Rayburn complains that in its oldest building "the classrooms are small, the lighting is poor and pigeons are everywhere."

Officials of black colleges also make a vital point: they teach 20% of the nation's nearly 1 million black undergraduates, but grant 40% of all degrees earned by blacks. Says Billye Aaron, a director for the United Negro College Fund: "These colleges represent the last and best hope for many young people of a way to get out of a bad situation and into the mainstream of society." Indeed, 85% to 90% of students at the black schools are first-generation college students. Black colleges are important to black society, says Benjamin Payton, president of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, "because they allow a minority not always to have to play the role of the minority." The achievements are increasingly obvious: Atlanta's Morehouse College sent 46 students out of a class of 237 to medical and dental schools last spring; Tougaloo College in Mississippi sent 26 out of 96 graduates last year to professional and Ph.D. programs.

Fisk's contributions have been equally notable, but its financial management has been less successful. Says outgoing President Leonard: "Fisk had had a heart attack when I took it over. We were able to keep the patient alive, but it has not completely recovered." At the peak of its financial health in 1968, Fisk had an endowment of $14.6 million, but in order to attract more male students, the college began offering athletic scholarships and more academic programs. Result: a string of deficits in the '70s that could be met only by digging into endowment funds.

Despite the new programs, enrollment has been steadily declining, from 1,600 in 1972 to 695 at present. Leonard explains that scholarships are attracting more black students to traditionally white colleges, "but Fisk has received no such funds to attract white students." At the same time an increasing number of black families have been unable to afford Fisk's tuition, which this year is $3,650. In addition, the Federal Government in 1980 ruled that Fisk was ineligible for National Direct Student Loans because of its failure to enforce repayment by students. Leonard estimates that the college lost $110,000 to $120,000 in funding in each of the past three years.

Trustees are in the midst of setting up a development program that they hope will raise the endowment to at least $20 million. It is not the first time that the college has had to meet a challenge: its first academic building was constructed in 1876 with proceeds from concerts by a touring Fisk chorus called the Jubilee Singers. Says Leonard: "I just ask that our institution be recognized as the asset to Nashville that it is." --By Ellie McGrath. Reported by Leslie Cauley/Atlanta and Fred Travis/ Nashville

With reporting by Leslie Cauley/Atlanta, Fred Travis/ Nashville This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.