The recession is hitting Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) harder than many larger institutions. HBCUs enroll 14 percent of America's black college students despite only constituting 3 percent of the country's institutions. Because many HBCUs are small, private schools, they don't have large endowments like larger universities do, and a larger proportion of the students at HBCUs are from low- to middle-income families.  Most HBCUs rely heavily on fund raising and tuition, which are both harder to come by in a sagging economy with fewer donors and less scholarship money available.

Morehouse College, one of the few HBCUs that has an endowment over $100 million, relies on student payments for more than 80 percent of its revenue. "What's most difficult for our institutions is that they are tuition-driven," said Michael Lomax, president of the United Negro College Fund.  "They don't have large endowments, and even the ones who do, have seen a large reduction in the value of those endowments." The Associated Press reports that only three HBCUs have endowments in the top 300 in a recent survey of 791 American colleges.

Clark Atlanta University cut its faculty by 30 percent and saw 300 students not return for spring semester because of tuition costs.  "Ninety-eight percent of our students require financial aid,” said spokeswoman Jennifer Jiles.  “As that became less accessible, increasingly our students have found they were unable to return.".  The AP reports that 62 percent of students at 83 HBCUs receive Pell Grants from the federal government.

Amidst tough economic times, there is hope: The stimulus package that President Barack Obama signed into law Tuesday includes a $15.6 billion increase in Pell Grant funding as well as $800 million for HBCU specific infrastructure projects. The institutions' history of weathering bad economic times also gives hope to some. "These are institutions that have made it through the Great Depression and other cyclical downturns," said Lomax.

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