GREENSBORO, N.C. – At North Carolina A&T State University, students hurry to and from class, iPod cords draped over their shoulders, past a small courtyard where a painful history is pockmarked in four brick slabs.
There, the university’s civil rights legacy is visible in bullet holes in the bricks, marking the place where the National Guard opened fire in 1969, killing a student. The old buildings at the Greensboro campus are gone, replaced by four modern residence halls named for the men who, as A&T students, went to a Woolworth lunch counter in 1960 and gave birth to the sit-in movement.
A&T, like the state’s four other taxpayer-supported historically black universities, celebrates its historic mission to educate a population that had no other opportunities in the segregated South. But the schools that are so defined by heritage are now searching for a formula to stay viable in a new era of scarce resources and unparalleled competition for students.
The squeeze became more acute this year. Enrollment declined at four of the five campuses, including a punishing 16 percent drop at Elizabeth City State University, the third slide there in three years. The northeastern North Carolina campus slashed jobs and academic programs to deal with a $5 million budget shortfall, and it expects more cuts next year. Enrollment fell 5 percent at Winston-Salem State University and nearly 6 percent at North Carolina Central University in Durham.
University leaders say the lower numbers aren’t entirely a surprise.
Tighter restrictions on some federal loans reduced access to financial aid. Higher minimum admissions standards for the UNC system were fully phased in last fall, shrinking the pool of prospective students at a time when the high school population had already stopped growing. In 2013, entering freshmen had to have at least a 2.5 high school grade point average and at least an 800 on the math and verbal portions of the SAT.
To capture the more qualified students, the historically black universities often go up against the larger, predominantly white campuses that have deeper scholarship pockets. They also vie with five private HBCUs in the state, as well as community colleges that offer students a two-year degree at affordable prices.
“The more you increase the admissions standard, the more we’re competing with other universities for the good students,” said ECSU’s interim Chancellor Charles Becton.
