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JUDY WOODRUFF: The total
number of undergraduate college
students in the U.S. has dropped

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by almost 10 percent during
the pandemic, but it's
been a different story
for some time at many

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historically Black colleges
and universities, or
HBCUs, where interest and
funding have increased.

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Applications were up nearly
30 percent at many of these
schools between 2018 and 2021.

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And top-tier HBCUs are
increasingly becoming the first
choice for some of the country's

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most sought-after students.
Yet HBCUs face some
fundamental challenges too.

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Special correspondent Hari
Sreenivasan has this report.

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It's the first in our latest
series on Rethinking College.

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CADENCE PATRICK, College
Student: I turned down
Harvard and U.C. Berkeley.

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SEKAI PARKER, College Student:
Harvard, Penn, Yale, Duke, USC,

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Emory, right down the
street, Vanderbilt.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: These are
all the places sophomores
Cadence Patrick and Sekai Parker

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turned down to come to Spelman
College, and all-women's HBCU,

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or historically Black college
and university, in Atlanta.

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CADENCE PATRICK: There's no
you have to pass this test to
prove that you're good enough,

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to prove that you're smart
enough, because, I mean, we have
already shown our excellence.

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SEKAI PARKER: In high
school, I noticed, like,

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if I had a good academic
standing or a success,
it was more so like, wow,

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I didn't know you could do
that, rather than this is
what's expected of you here.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: For
Parker, on a premed track
with a health science major,

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it was her experience at
her majority white high
school that led her here.

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SEKAI PARKER: I feel like
I had the responsibility
to represent for the
Black community, but also

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speak for other people
about their experiences
that I have no idea about.

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It was very exhausting having
to represent all the time.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: Patrick, who
is studying computer science,

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said her parents were split on
her decision. Her dad favored
Harvard, her mom Spelman.

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For her, it came down
to a sense of belonging.

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CADENCE PATRICK: The
percent of Black students at
Ivies is very, very small.

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And so that can be a daunting
statistic to be walking into.
There's so few people that look

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like me who share my experience.
I'm going to have to prove
myself at every step of the way.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: HBCUs like
Spelman College have seen a
surge in interest. In 2014,

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more than 4,000 people
applied. In 2021, that
nearly tripled, with more
than 11,000 applicants.

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Dr. Helene Gayle took over as
the institution's president this
summer. An epidemiologist and a

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leader in public health,
she spent her career in
government and nonprofit
roles. She views what's

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happening in the admissions
office as a reflection
of the rapid social
change in the country.

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DR. HELENE GAYLE, President,
Spelman College: This
is a generation that

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grew up with a Black president.
They have gone through some of
this social unrest following

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the murder of George Floyd
and kind of the movement
around Black lives.

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Young people are choosing to
be in a place that nurtures
them, that recognizes
who they are in the

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world, and really thinks
about how they can make
this generation of young
Black people succeed.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: The
increasingly competitive
student pool comes as
no surprise to Rosalind

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Gates Brewer, a proud Spelman
alumna and the chair of the
college's Board of Trustees.

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ROSALIND GATES BREWER, CEO,
Walgreens Boots Alliance: Our
talent pools have been very

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similar to the Yale and Harvard
candidates. But Spelman is an
absolute deliberate choice.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: Before
becoming the CEO of the
Walgreens Boots Alliance
last year that operates

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some 9,000 drugstores
across the U.S., she's
also held top positions at
Starbucks and Sam's Club.

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ROSALIND GATES BREWER: About
10 percent of our class is
graduating Phi Beta Kappa.

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Now, you wouldn't see 45 to 50
Black women graduate Phi Beta

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Kappa from the Harvard or
Yale, right? But you get
that at Spelman College.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: Brewer,
a first-generation
college graduate,

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is one of only two Black females
running Fortune 500 companies.

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ROSALIND GATES BREWER:
There is something that I
will tell you that is deep
in my gut around taking

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on big challenges. And I'm not
afraid of those. And I think I
gained that at Spelman College.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: While HBCUs
account for just 3 percent of
post-secondary institutions,

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they educate about 9 percent
of all Black college students

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and produce about 13 percent
of all African American
undergraduate degrees.

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BEVERLY GUY-SHEFTALL,
Women's Research and Resource
Center, Spelman College: When

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historically black colleges
were founded, it was clearly
a racial justice initiative to

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attend to the ways in which
African Americans cannot attend
white colleges and universities.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: Professor
Beverly Guy-Sheftall has
been teaching at Spelman,

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her alma mater, for
more than 50 years.

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BEVERLY GUY-SHEFTALL: Many
of them, for the first
time, they have Black
professors. They also see a

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Black college president,
and they hear over and
over again that this is
a place made for you.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: More
than 60 percent of
HBCU students are Pell
Grant-eligible, and tuitions

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average about 30 percent
lower than predominantly
white institutions.
HBCUs also enroll more

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first-generation and
academically underprepared
students than other
four-year schools.

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DR. HELENE GAYLE: We
punch so well above our
weight when we think about

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what we're able to turn out
with less resources than many of
our peer majority institutions.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: But
there are still challenges,
with less financial help

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from state and federal
governments historically
and far smaller endowments
than other schools.

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DR. HELENE GAYLE: There's
been a bias from the very
beginning. And you can look

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at state institutions that are
predominantly Black and state
institutions that are white,

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and there's always been a huge
gap. We don't have adequate

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housing. We don't always
have adequate infrastructure,
the latest technology.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: Federal
lawmakers have increased funding
for HBCUs, providing nearly $2

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billion since 2017, as
well as an additional
$2.7 billion this year in
pandemic emergency relief.

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Alumni and philanthropists have
donated more than a billion
dollars in recent years funding

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scholarships and programs
in science, technology
and other fields. But
it's still not enough.

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NADREA NJOKU, United
Negro College Fund:
There have been lawsuits

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in states that found that
their system underfunded
their Black public colleges.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: Nadrea
Njoku heads the United Negro
College Fund's Frederick D.

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Patterson Research Institute
Here in Atlanta. She
co-authored a recent report

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calling for more funding.

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NADREA NJOKU: We did a survey
of our member institutions,
and we found a majority of them

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have at least $5 million
in deferred maintenance.
We still need those
unrestricted funds to take

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care of the facilities and
upgrade our institutions
in the ways that we

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can continue to retain the
students who have increased
interest in enrollment.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: Better-known
HBCUs, like Spelman
College, are not in danger.

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But other institutions, many of
them smaller and in rural areas,

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have not experienced the same
recent surge in interest.

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JOHN WILSON, Former President,
Morehouse College: About a third
of the HBCUs, 30 to 35 of them,

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were in the red zone,
financially precarious.
They were tuition-driven.

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And for an institution
to be tuition-driven is
like an individual living
paycheck to paycheck.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: John Wilson
served as the president
of Morehouse College and

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as a White house adviser on
historically Black colleges.

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He's writing a book about
HBCUs and says the schools
should seize the moment.

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JOHN WILSON: We have seen
it come and go in cycles.
You go back to the 1980s,

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when Ronald Reagan took office,
there was a national climate
that was more racially hostile.

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The ideal is for HBCUs to be in
charge of their own magnetism,

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to not be subject to the
whims of the marketplace, but
to control your own destiny.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: HBCUs also
play a broader role in society

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with a history of
propelling Black students
into the middle class.

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NADREA NJOKU: Their social
mobility status is transformed.

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They can go from the
bottom quintile to middle
class because of the
tools and skills that they

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get at these HBCUs. Spelman
is an incubator of Black women
who go on to STEM careers.

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Guy-Sheftall doesn't see the
interest in HBCUs declining.

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BEVERLY GUY-SHEFTALL:
To the extent that the
U.S. remains hostile to
people who are different,

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you need special mission
institutions. You need ones
that are Hispanic-serving,

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you need women's colleges,
you need tribal colleges,
desperately, and you need HBCUs.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: Despite
all the challenges facing
this group of schools,

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for sophomores Cadence Patrick
and Sekai Parker, it came
down to something very basic.

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CADENCE PATRICK: I'm able to
look around and feel like the
people around me understand me.

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SEKAI PARKER: It's
possible that I can be in
a space that is designed
specifically for me as a

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Black woman. But I can also feel
like a sense of belonging and
never have to question that.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: And that's
a powerful reason, they say,

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that students will
increasingly pick HBCUs.

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For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm
Hari Sreenivasan in Atlanta.