Research Notes: College Education: A Community Effort

As access to historically White institutions has improved and enrollments at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have dropped, the question arises of whether HBCUs are still needed. Addressing the question in "‘It Takes a Village to Raise a Child': The Role of Social Capital in Promoting Academic Success for African American Men at a Black College," Robert Palmer and Marybeth Gasman identify several qualities that make HBCUs unique and valuable in American higher education.

Students at HBCUs report tremendous satisfaction with the helpfulness and engagement of faculty, whose empathy and focus on maximizing student potential promote academic success. Similarly, administrators at HBCUs were seen as extraordinarily caring and accessible, demonstrating a level of personal interest that makes students more comfortable and confident. Peer groups provide another powerful source of social capital, and many students cited the presence of successful African-American mentors and role models as pivotal to their motivation and achievement.

This combination of characteristics suggests that HBCUs draw considerable strength from the concept of working collectively to create an environment that fosters social capital, and Palmer and Gasman recommend that all higher education institutions should observe the beneficial effects of communal effort from all levels of a university to create an environment that promotes learning and social advancement.   

This article appears in The Journal of College Student Development 49(1).