White House Adviser Urges Historically Black Colleges to Change How They Are Seen

Historically black colleges are a vital part of the nation's higher-education landscape, but they need to change how they are perceived to highlight the positive work they are doing, said John S. Wilson Jr., executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

That means the colleges must not be seen only as "plaintiffs" in the struggle for civil rights but also as "partners" in reaching President Barack Obama's goal of having the highest proportion of students graduating from college in the world by 2020, Mr. Wilson said. He added that his office is working to collect better data on the successes and challenges of student retention and graduation at historically black colleges.

Demographic Shifts

Minority-serving colleges represent what the future demographic of the nation's students and work force will look like, said Deborah A. Santiago, vice president for policy and research at Excelencia in Education, a nonprofit organization that promotes education policies to improve the academic success of Latino students. So minority-serving institutions' practices and experiences will be important to all of higher education as the number of minority students continues to increase and the student bodies of all kinds of colleges diversify.