HBCUs Are Building New Support Systems for Black Male Students

COLUMBIA, South Carolina – Before heading to Howard University in fall 2021, Christopher Davis was determined to be the first Black man in his family to graduate from college. Not even a pandemic or financial insecurity could keep him from his dream – or so he thought.

​​By the fall of 2023, his college future felt like it was fading. He had already unenrolled twice from Howard, each time weighed down by disappointment, doubt, and mental illness.

​“The first time [unenrolling] was really just me not knowing a lot about myself, and what I wanted to do, who I was, and just going through all that kind of coalesced,” said Davis, now 24. “Being at Howard, there is a competitiveness; there is a like, ‘Oh, I have to be this, I have to achieve this,’ or else it’s nothing.”

​​Davis’ experience isn’t isolated. Across the country, young Black men are disappearing from higher education, with enrollment rates dropping across all higher education institutions.  Although HBCUs have often been leaders in programs to recruit and retain young Black men, many are seeing a worse drop in enrollment rates than predominantly white institutions. 

Black male undergraduate enrollment across all colleges and universities declined about 22% between 2010 and 2022, according to the American Institute for Boys and Men. At HBCUs, the downturn was steeper, dropping 25%. 

Black men now make up roughly 26% of HBCU enrollment, a decrease from 38% in 1976, when Black male enrollment was at its peak, the report said. Conversely, female enrollment has increased every year since 1976, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. 

Colleges and their partners told Capital B they’ve found several reasons why Black men are slowly disappearing from higher education. Financial problems, family responsibilities, mental health and the lack of belonging were some of the driving forces. 

​Several HBCUs are using the decline as motivation to refocus and expand what it means for young Black men to feel they belong in higher education and to graduate. Through new campus-wide programs and community partnerships, HBCUs are experimenting with solutions to the enrollment decline and strengthening initiatives to ensure Black male students succeed. 

​Breaking down barriers to success 

​Despite the daunting numbers, one HBCU remains an outlier, continuing to see an increase in Black male enrollment.

​​Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, stands out for its high enrollment of Black men — more than 54% of the student body are men this year, up from at least 42% in past decades. It now ranks second only to all-male Morehouse College among HBCUs with Black male students. 

“We understand kids are different,” said Roslyn Artis, ​​Benedict’s first Black woman president. “We’re trying to create a resource-rich environment so that in all of these co-curricular curated experiences, there are ways for students to find belonging, find their people, their tribe.” 

​​Benedict’s commitment to a holistic approach to recruiting and mentoring young men is a critical part of why it’s bucking the trend of declining Black male enrollment, the school’s administrators and faculty told Capital B.

​In late August, large groups of young Black men spilled out onto the campus in between periods. Several freshmen gathered outside a week after the fall semester started at the HBCU in the state’s capital.

​South Carolina native and freshman Javarius Hunter said he was eyeing HBCUs in and out of state, but Benedict offered the best financial aid package. When he arrived, he said the administration emphasized that this is one of the largest incoming classes with a majority of Black young men.

​Benedict’s ratio of men to women is unusually high for a college campus.

​​​Yohannis ​Job, Benedict’s vice president for enrollment management, and his team closely track data on prospective and incoming Black male students.

“We have been very intentional about targeting our Black boys that are serious,” Job said. ​“When we look at our student affairs staff, our athletic staff, our enrollment management staff, it’s been predominantly men, and so something is echoing there.” 

​By tracking retention and grades, Job’s team found Black male students often leave due to financial, family, or belonging issues. They’re partnering with other faculty to recruit nationwide, break these barriers, and connect with prospective students early in the college application process.

​When off-campus students struggled to adjust, Benedict began tracking their performance and offered support through events and better financial aid packages.

Job and other male faculty members often share their phone numbers, assuring young men on campus they can reach out for anything. 

​​Open-door policies aren’t just for students but parents as well. 

​“We realized most of our first-gen students, and it sounds so simple, but they really have no conceptualization of the enrollment process,” he said. The college began offering virtual access to the campus for tours and early registration, adjusting to students’ needs and comfort. 

​J.R. Greene, a retired K-12 school superintendent in the state, said ensuring Black male students feel like they belong is essential to the college experience. The barrier grows when a student cannot rely on family members for guidance as they navigate a “foreign” experience, he continued. 

​Before Benedict launched its new Black male initiative, focus groups revealed some students already knew about campus organizations, including fraternities and Barbershop Talks, but weren’t utilizing them enough. In other instances, they either didn’t know about them or they were too prideful to reach out for support, Greene said.

​“We needed to break down this barrier where young men’s machismo prevented them from leveraging the resources that were at their disposal.”

​Greene led the launch of the B.E.S.T. (belonging, excellence, service, thoughtfulness) Men initiative, which offers mentorship, academic support, and activities. Launched this year, the project requires all incoming male freshmen to participate. A $100,000 grant from Sigma Pi Phi, the oldest Black Greek-letter professional fraternity, supports the program.

Artis regularly seeks input from older Black men on campus on how to best support Black male students. Her husband even taught students practical skills like changing a tire and oil.

​“The secret sauce is that we have men on this campus who are deeply committed to spending their off time,” she said. “It’s become a big part of the fabric of Benedict College, and we want to stand on that. We want to see the ultimate goal if we want to assess the efficacy of the program: equitable outcomes for men and women on this campus.”

​​Black men building a foundation 

​​While Benedict is seeing progress, students at other colleges echo the importance of personal support networks. 

​Like Davis, the former Howard student, Reggie Locke wanted to be the first Black man in his family to graduate from college. But unlike Davis, Locke had a community of mentors who pushed him throughout high school and now at Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis.

​Locke’s path began at University Academy in Kansas City, Missouri, where visits to HBCU campuses and encouragement from teachers and his principal were routine.

​​“The first time I went on an HBCU campus with UA was when we went to Langston [University, Oklahoma’s only HBCU]. I was like, ‘Whoa,’” he recalled. On campus, he met alumni from his high school, he said. “They were so adamant about us going to HBCUs … and we could see that it already was changing and developing them as people.” 

​​Beyond university initiatives, Locke and other Kansas City students benefited from a community that fostered belonging. Partnerships with nonprofits and K-12 schools introduced students to supportive HBCU institutions.

​His former teachers kept in touch during breaks, supporting him beyond just getting to college. Sometimes, his principal and other educators quietly offered financial help, understanding the challenges of college.

Seeing Black men in leadership at Harris-Stowe inspired Locke.​ ​He got involved, eventually serving as a residence assistant and joining student government.

​​It’s that sense of belonging that Davis missed out on. It’s not because Howard didn’t have resources; Davis either didn’t know about them or had too much pride to ask for help.

​Back in Wendell, North Carolina, he recalls how he spiraled while on campus and what he knows now. 

​Shortly before coming to Howard, he had been diagnosed with bipolar depressive disorder. In between classes and parties, Davis began smoking marijuana, which later triggered intense mental health episodes that led him to be hospitalized before the fall semester ended.

​During the pandemic, Howard students remained online for the entire 2020 academic year. Davis moved into the dorms in the fall 2021 semester, but quietly left Howard later that year. He told no one about his hospitalization. After a year of struggling, he found the courage to re-enroll in January 2023, but he unenrolled again about a year later. ​With holds on his account, increasing financial pressures, and a competitive housing market in Washington, Davis returned to North Carolina. There, he took online courses with Bellevue University.

​Still, targeted support and a greater sense of belonging might have changed Davis’ experience. He said he didn’t know what he was getting into with city life, college life, and his own mental health illness. ​

Burning fears and finding solutions

​At the same time Davis was struggling to adjust, Howard was launching its Men of the Mecca Initiative program to better support its Black male students. Despite Davis’ record of re-enrollment and mental health challenges, he wasn’t identified or recruited for the program. 

​Henri LaSane, who oversees the programming for HBCUs at Inside Track, a nonprofit focused on student success, said coaching – not academic advising – helps students instill the belief that they can continue to finish. Inside Track recently released a report detailing the results of a four-year pilot program that helped Black colleges by adding coaches to complement advising at 39 colleges. 

Like Davis, several students within the program unenrolled due to unpaid balances. Through coaching, in addition to academic advising, Inside Track was able to provide additional support, with coaches who looked like students at risk for dropping out and came from similar colleges, with several of the coaches being HBCU  graduates. 

​“If I am a coach and I am working with a Black male who is struggling and has maybe stopped out, and I’m able to explain to them that I also traversed a similar path, and we’re able to meet on common ground on that. Then it’s the old saying, no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care,” LeSane said. 

​Between fall 2021 and spring 2026, InsideTrack provided retention coaching for more than 11,000 enrolled students and re-enrollment coaching for more than 23,000 stopped-out students.

​For students like Davis, InsideTrack could have helped, but one-on-one coaching wasn’t available at Howard at the time. InsideTrack targets “stopped-out” students – those who unenroll. Of more than 43,000 Black students who received coaching at HBCUs and predominantly Black institutions, 33% were Black men; half got one-on-one coaching. Several, like Davis, left with balances just under $5,000, leading them to unenroll due to finances. More than 20% of learners revealed finances as a barrier for continuing their education, the nonprofit found. 

Nearly six years after its launch, the Men of Mecca Initiative is still active. 

​​​On Sept. 13, incoming freshmen at Howard will write down and burn their fears during an annual ceremony. It’s one of several activities that connect men, build community, and introduce campus resources like counseling.

​​Calvin Hadley, senior adviser to the president, explained that the program was still evolving during the pandemic, when some students may have needed more emotional support.

​Hadley also partners with K-12 schools in Washington to show young Black boys they have support at Howard, even if they don’t apply. He hopes the university can still serve as a bridge to higher education.

​“Success doesn’t always look like coming directly to Howard,” he said. “It could look like you are seeing yourself in a different place.” 

​Creating a strong support system and building a foundation of belonging can make the difference between dropping out and graduating, educators at several HBCUs told Capital B.

​Davis understands this even more now as he reflects on his experience at Howard. He’s working now and will earn a business degree from Bellevue in 2027. He urges students to get a mental health evaluation before arriving at college and learn about campus and city resources.

​​“Know the way each resource can work for you, make sure that you’re able to progress,” he said.

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