Are Historically Black Colleges and Universities relevant in the 21st Century ?
 | IntroductionThe original purpose of Historically Black Colleges and Universities commonly known as HBCUs was to offer African-Americans the opportunity to receive advanced degrees. Legal measures taken to integrate schools significantly altered the mission of HBCUS. The future of HBCUs is now in jeopardy with millions in federal and state funding being cut from their budgets annually. Administrators are struggling to find ways to scale back while attracting top black students to enroll at these institutes, especially as the minority enrollment at predominately white institutes or PWIs continues to increase. This project seeks to investigate these issues of relevancy at HBCUs from the point of view of students, faculty members and alumni. This three-part investigative series of news packages will assess the current state of public HBCUs in Florida using Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) as a case study. |
 | The scope of this study will be limited to Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) due to the fact that, according to the US News and World Reports (2011), FAMU is ranked number one among all public HBCUs and number ten among all HBCUs overall, making it the highest ranked HBCU in Florida and the largest in terms of enrollment. |
