Virtual HBCUs, Mobile Apps, and Hip Hop Moguls

Last updated: Sunday 11/3/13 @ 9:09 am

Last month I posted a note on this blog, Booker T 2, that suggested that HBCUs should emulate Booker T. Washington's successful efforts to obtain substantial support from wealthy patrons by appealing to their patrons' abiding, deep rooted self-interest, rather than to their sporadic impulses to "do good."

Seven HBCU Strategies for Survival and Success

Impending Collapse

Like other members of the HBCU community, I have been concerned for many years about the long-term survival of HBCUs. My obsession with this question has been expressed in four notes on this blog titled, "Why Are HBCUs Still Needed?" (Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV) and related notes ("From HBCUs to BCUs", "HBCUs as a National Laboratory", etc).  But in recent months my thinking has returned to its engineering roots. Being needed is not sufficient to ensure the survival of any institutions under any circumstances. So my question has become, "What should HBCUs do to survive the impending flood of IT innovations in higher education that will overwhelm so many non-HBCUs?"