-When other institutions catch a cold, HBCUs catch a flu.
You know, historically, we have been under funded,
under resourced for a long time, since our founding time.
-Historically black colleges and universities' pride
have long stood for academic greatness
and fostering the next generation of leaders of color.
Currently, there are over 100 HBCUs in the nation.
-If you did not have historically black colleges
and universities, you would have to invent them.
There are no other institutions
that can provide the wide range of services
really across a diverse set of students
thoughtfully than HBCUs.
-At a virtual commencement for HBCUs in early May,
former president Obama spoke directly to their legacy.
-Many of you could've attended any school in this country,
but you chose an HBCU,
and I'm here to tell you you made a great choice.
No generation has been better positioned
to be warriors for justice and remake the world.
-HBCUs have struggled to remain open.
At least 15 have closed.
Rising college costs,
the student loan crisis, accreditation issues,
and smaller endowments than non-HBCUs
have already threatened their existence.
Now with the COVID-19 pandemic,
many wonder how HBCUs will stay open.
-And so when you have to think about refunds to students,
when you think about being able to purchase all of the things,
the technology that is needed on a very tight budget,
it makes it extremely difficult.
-A lot of our HBCUs don't have large endowments to tap into
to begin to find some of those unbudgeted resources to do that.
So, yes, I think HBCUs have been systemically impacted by it.
-Bennett College is a private historically black
liberal arts college in Greensboro, North Carolina.
It was already financially strained and on the verge
of losing its accreditation before COVID-19
forced the university to close its campus
to 267 students in March.
Suzanne Walsh became president in the fall of 2019.
-Good morning, bells.
It's Suzanne Walsh, incoming president of Bennett College.
We start off from a place where historically we have been not
as well resourced as other institutions.
In the fall, I started August 1st,
and my task was to help to stabilize Bennett College.
Because of that uncertainty about our accreditation,
I already was thinking, "Okay, we need to plan for it,"
and the board had already started thinking about with me
how do we plan for a decline in enrollment
and therefore a decline in revenue.
So COVID-19, yes, it's a big deal,
but it didn't maybe hit us
in the same way that it might have.
-And while HBCUs like Virginia State University
received support from the coronavirus Aid,
Relief, and Economic Security act,
the assistance only goes so far.
-We did have revenue losses in the spring semester,
specifically from the rebating students
from prorated room and board,
but the federal government with the CARES act
and the stimulus and the CARES act for universities
really helped to close that gap.
And so now we're looking at the potential revenue losses,
of course, for the spring and for the fall.
Following the pandemic, to see where it goes and how
social distancing will impact the future of higher education.
-But long before the pandemic,
HBCUs and their student populations
have struggled for sufficient resources and funding,
especially compared to other public and private schools.
-Most of our students
are first-generation college students.
Many of them are Pell eligible, which as you know,
is a federal standard
as it relates to their economic circumstances.
So it puts a little more pressure on them
to actually get through school and on us to make sure
that we're giving them the kinds of wrap-around services
we know they need in order to be successful.
-The economic impact of COVID-19 is disproportionately
impacting some groups more than others,
and the health impacts of COVID-19
are also impacting some groups more than others.
And so when you factor that into the idea
also that when under-served students,
when black and brown students go off to college,
many of them are going away
for what amounts to a study-abroad experience --
leaving their communities, coming into a new community,
and to be kind of ripped away from that community.
And for some, for seniors right before graduation,
it's a very difficult thing.
-We developed a student emergency relief fund
and raised what is now about $700,000
to support a wide range of needs for our students
across a broad set of parameters.
That was particularly important for us
'cause we knew that some of them were coming back
to homes where they were now effectively head-of-household
and many of them were experiencing what a lot of us
are experiencing, which is their families,
their loved ones actually getting diagnosed with COVID-19.
So there came a set of responsibilities
that they might not have otherwise had to take on
as a student living on campus.
I should also say that we kept 200 students on campus
throughout this time.
That was largely a response to the fact that we knew
that a portion of our student population
without residential housing from Delaware State University
would effectively be homeless.
-At Bennett College, the pandemic has led
the small school to look for new partnerships.
-There's no scenario in higher education,
even pre-COVID,
where an institution can be successful
just by working by itself.
We're all starting to say,
"Well, how can we share resources?
How can we share access to courses?
Or how can we share access to other kinds of information
or maybe thinking about doing some joint purchasing together?"
So I think, in fact, this is sparking a very important moment
for innovation within the HBCU landscape.
-I think that this is a disruption
that is going to impact higher education
in ways that I'm not sure we fully understand yet.
Will all institutions make it out unscathed?
I would doubt it.
I think there are certain institutions,
private and public, that are paying very close attention
and trying to make sure
that they can make it out of this challenge in the best way.
And so I know that all of my colleagues in HBCU world
are used to having challenges and are going to fight hard
to make sure that their institution is still here
to support students.
-Almost every college is grappling with the decision
to have in-person classes in the fall.
For HBCUs, the decision is more complex.
Blacks account for a disproportionate amount
of coronavirus deaths.
And with HBCUs having a majority black and brown student body,
it may be more unsafe to open
compared to non-minority colleges.
-We're preparing for every case.
We want to open up in the fall
and provide our students with the experience
that they're used to having at Virginia State University.
So we are planning for that with social distancing.
We're also planning to go totally online,
and so we're planning for every single possibility.
-And as those decisions are made,
I believe that just our students in particular
will make a determination around do
they want to take off for a year?
Do they actually want to come to the university
in either hybrid fashion or in-person fashion
or fully online fashion?
-Walsh already found the school was at a disadvantage
because of its size and resources
during the start of the pandemic.
-We didn't have a state system to turn to.
Remember at first it was hand sanitizer?
Like, that was all anyone needed was hand sanitizer,
and then there was an immediate shortage of hand sanitizer.
Well, we were out on our own trying to find hand sanitizers,
so now when we look forward,
we're already trying to think about, okay,
how much hand sanitizer do we need, what --
the face masks, how do we have access to enough face masks?
How do we have enough access to gloves?
The challenges for HBCUs, I think the challenges
will be the unanticipated costs of everything that's related
to getting ready to bring students back.
It's not as simple as creating a budget
like you created every year.
This is a lot of very specialized,
I think, planning that we need to move towards.
-A disease like this just spotlights
the underlying inequalities
and extra burdens black communities
have historically had to deal with in this country.
We see it in the disproportionate impact
of COVID-19 on our communities.
Just as we see it when a black man goes for a jog
and some folks feel like they can stop and question
and shoot him if he doesn't submit to their questioning.
Injustice like this isn't new.
-HBCU presidents believe the students
and the institution are resilient
and will be able to survive the pandemic's impact.
-I think that part of what we've seen over and over
with all of our responses to the COVID-19 situation
is that we know our students, we care about our students.
It is a family experience to go to an HBCU.
HBCUs also are really great about slowing down and listening
and putting the student first in all that we do.
We also, I think, have an important tradition and history
of helping black students to be successful,
to weather any storm.