Howard U. program aims to reverse declining Black male enrollment at HBCUs

Welcome to Howard.

Words that greet a group of young, Black boys from D.C. and Prince George’s County for the university's third annual Kings of Campus Day. 

The group of boys listen to Black male leaders on Howard University’s campus about what it takes to thrive at the collegiate level.

Performances from historically Black Greek letter fraternities and panel discussions are all used to drive home the importance of Black men going to college.

“You can’t touch what you can’t see, right, and so for so many of us, college has been this distant concept,” said Calvin Hadley, the assistant provost for Student Engagement and Academic Partnerships at Howard.

Hadley said he created the event to make sure young, Black men know they are not just wanted, but needed, at Howard.

“We provide them with messages of their capabilities, messages that you are enough,” Hadley said.

The efforts to recruit and retain Black men on college campuses stems from a steady decline in the enrollment of the demographic at historically Black colleges and universities nationwide.

According to a study from the American Institute for Boys and Men, that Black males accounted for 26% of students at HBCUs — a nearly 32% decline from 1976 where the demographic made up 38% of enrollment.

The study cited three reasons for the decline: inadequate K-12 preparation, lack of Black male teachers and financial barriers.

“Unfortunately, that Black male is receiving messages of inferiority in the classroom that then permeate his understanding of who he can be in the future," Hadley said.

The percentage of Black male enrollment varies at HBCUs across the D.C. area. At Howard, Black males encompass about 19% of the student body compared to 21% at the University of the District of Columbia and 30% at Bowie State University.

“It was really shocking when I heard that,” Duke Boateng, a senior at Charles Herbert Flowers High School, said.

Boateng and Kevin Williams, a sophomore at Ron Brown College Preparatory High School, attended the program and said it encouraged them to think about applying and succeeding in college. 

“Seeing this first hand is really great, like Black men getting education, because I think we’re all similar human beings,” Boateng said.

The program has been transformative for many young boys like Ose Esene, who was part of the program’s first cohort and will graduate from Howard this May.

“There’s a lot of men that aren’t in this space that could dominate if they had the opportunity to be here. But sometimes you need to lay down that foundation and that path for people to get here because people don’t know the options that are in front of them because we have a lack of exposure,” Esene said.

Howard is also turning its focus to middle school students and growing their partnerships with nearby school districts to tackle the root problems of the statistics.