HIGHER EDUCATION

Students from Atlanta’s historically Black colleges and universities continued their demands Tuesday for better campus housing conditions, student loan debt relief and more funding for these schools nationwide.

The protest began Monday evening and continued that night with several students sleeping in tents near its heavily trafficked library at the Atlanta University Center to publicize their concerns. They’ve vowed not to leave until their concerns are addressed by college presidents and elected officials.

Atlanta students say they are demonstrating in solidarity with a protest that began last week at Howard University, an HBCU in Washington, D.C., primarily over campus housing improvements.

A 2018 federal survey of HBCUs showed respondents said nearly half of their building space needs repair or replacement.

“Even though we are doing this in solidarity with Howard, these are our issues,” Clark Atlanta senior Alivia Duncan told students during Monday’s rally.

The protest highlights a longstanding complaint that HBCUs are inadequately funded, although they serve a higher percentage of low-income students. There are nine accredited HBCUs in Georgia, and Morris Brown College is close to becoming the 10th. Spelman College, a women’s college in Atlanta, is consistently ranked by several education publications annually as the nation’s best academic HBCU.

Michael Hodge, the Atlanta University Center Consortium’s interim executive director, said Tuesday he’s been in touch with protest organizers and waiting to get more details from them about their demands. “Our intent is to talk to them and work on their concerns,” he said. 

Morehouse College President David A. Thomas met for more than two hours with students Tuesday. In addition to clarifying opportunities available to help students, the discussion also “identified some areas the administration will work collaboratively with student leaders to address,” said school spokesman Cedric Mobley.

Spelman College President Mary Schmidt Campbell said in a statement that administrators are assessing the need for more resources to support students.

“Colleges at the AUCC recognize the multiple challenges our students faced this year,” she said.

“These challenges included the need for financial aid, housing and transportation assistance.

Each of the colleges disbursed record amounts of scholarship aid, cleared balances, and provided unprecedented amounts of emergency funding. We welcome support from the Atlanta community as we continue to seek support for our deserving high need high performing students.”

One student leader said the Morehouse meeting was productive.

Still, several tents remained up at nightfall Tuesday.

The Biden administration proposed $45 billion for HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions through his $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan. However, congressional Democrats have bickered over the size of the entire plan and one smaller version proposes $2 billion for educational programs and infrastructure for HBCUs.

U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, who represents the congressional district that includes the Atlanta HBCUs, wrote a letter Tuesday to the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor supporting additional legislation that would fund renovations and build new residential, instructional and research spaces at HBCUs. She said those schools need more than the $2 billion in the infrastructure plan.

“... (T)he limited funding for HBCUs that is currently possible through reconciliation will leave more work to do for these critical institutions,” Williams said in a statement.

Federal funding for HBCUs has increased in recent years, but industry experts and HBCU advocates say the schools need more.

For example, the federal Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities grant program’s total budget rose during the last four years from about $245 million to nearly $338 million. In April, the U.S. Department of Education discharged approximately $1.6 billion of debt provided to HBCUs that participate in a program that provides low-cost loans to finance and refinance infrastructure improvements.

“Our HBCUs have long been on an uneven playing field, financially, as compared to many other postsecondary institutions,” Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said at the time.

The uneven playing field has impacted student housing. Many colleges and universities have decades-old dorms that are in need of renovations. Clark Atlanta University had to put nearly 500 students in temporary housing before the semester started because of renovation delays to some of its student housing.

School officials said at the time the university does not have enough on-campus housing to meet student demand. Spelman’s president has also talked about the need for more residence halls.

One recent analysis found a $112.3 billion maintenance backlog on college campuses. The study was done by the company Gordian, and APPA Leadership & Educational Facilities, an association that represents more than 1,300 colleges and universities worldwide.

APPA has called for more federal funding for aging facilities and HVAC upgrades.

Experts say the problems are even greater at HBCUs. Spelman students Jahni Lane-Foster and Rimothy Miracle Bennett volunteered at a table Tuesday collecting notes from students with their complaints about housing and other issues on the campuses.

Frequent complaints included mold and mildew in dorms and washers and dryers that aren’t working.

Lane-Foster, 18, a first-year student from Richmond, Virgina, slept in a tent Monday night to highlight the concerns.

“It was worth it,” she said. “We have things we want to get done and we need (administrators) to get it done.” 

STUDENT DEMANDS

These are some of the demands from Atlanta HBCU students:

■ Meetings between student leaders and the presidents of Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse, Morris Brown and Spelman colleges to assess student housing needs and quality of life issues.

■Meetings with Georgia’s two U.S. senators and U.S. Reps. Lucy McBath and Nikema Williams to discuss the Biden administration’s proposed $45 billion in HBCU funding through an infrastructure plan.

■ Information from federal education officials outlining presidential power to cancel student loan debt.