Institutional Transformational Change at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Racialized Models of Support

• In Event: 21st Century Black Student Success at Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Racialized Models of Support for Success

Abstract

Since their founding, Historically Black Colleges and Universities have been critical in the workforce development of African Americans in the United States. HBCUs have excelled in preparing Black students for career success graduating 80 percent of Black judges, 50 percent of Black doctors and lawyers, and 25 percent of the nation's STEM graduates (Harris, 2019). The data clearly shows the impact these institutions have on America's workforce, and specifically the careers of Black professionals.  

 

HBCUs’ impact is even more commendable because they experience inequitable federal and state funding that can affect their ability to meet their mission of producing a Black educated workforce. The inequitable distribution of federal and state funding of HBCUs hinders the capacity of faculty, staff, and administrators to focus on nurturing the academic, career, and personal development of Black students. To meet the needs of the 21st Century Workforce, twenty-four HBCUs and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs) participated in the Lilly Foundation Career Pathways Initiative (CPI). CPI is a seven-year grant pilot program that assists HBCUs in creating institutional transformative changes in guided pathways, curricular enhancements, and integrated co-curricular engagement to design an undergraduate experience that prepares students for the 21st-century workforce. As a part of this program, institutions partake in the Institutional Transformation Assessment (ITA), a tool to streamline reflection amongst campus administrators and identify areas of strength and opportunities for growth. The ITA consist of two components: a one-hundred question survey on eleven transformational change areas and a sensemaking conversation with upper administrators to review, discuss, and create actionable next steps using the ITA results. Using a phenomenological approach, this study focuses on the qualitative data produced through sensemaking conversations via focus groups to examine the successes and challenges they experienced in implementing transformational change compared to 11 transformational areas within the ITA.   

 

The racialized experiences of HBCUs and PBIs warrant a theoretical framework that recognizes the influence of racism and power structures on transformational change and organizational development.  For this study, Ray's Theory of Racialized Organizations provides a framework for examining how HBCUs took part in this Institutional Transformation Assessment for transformative change as institutions focused on Black student success. One of the goals of this paper is to assess if the HBCUs participating in the ITA are moving towards enabling more agency rather than precluding it, how these institutions acknowledge and rectify unequal distribution of resources, and how they prepare students for the workforce under the assumption that Whiteness as a credential (Ray, 2019).  

 

Implications from this study show that funding has a significant impact on HBCU's ability to advance workforce development at their institutions using racially centered organizational matter. It is important to stress that these institutions use their limited resources to institute transformational change to serve their students better.  More financial support would facilitate capacity building to allow HBCUs to reach their full potential in creating a racially center workforce model.   

Authors

• Keeley Copridge, Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute

• Natasha K. McClendon, United Negro College Fund