University of Akron offers buy-out to 47 percent of faculty

[ucbalumnus]

@bclintonk

As far as welcome, why wouldn’t a historically black university, like any university, welcome more student interest, particularly in a time when many universities are struggling to fill seats in their classrooms?

Whether the school’s administrators would be welcoming is one thing. I think the more interesting question is whether the school’s students would be welcoming, and the answer isn’t obvious to me.

Is it an analogous issue at historically white and still very predominantly white universities (e.g. forum favorite University of Alabama)? I.e. it seems like the standard answer to many “looking for big merit scholarships” questions is “University of Alabama”, but those doing the recommendation tend not to mention any such warnings about possible unwelcoming for non-white students. If it is not any issue in these analogous cases, is there a reason to think that it is an issue for a historically black university?

@bclintonk

I know a few white students do attend HBCUs, but I wonder whether there might be a tipping point at which some black students might think too many non-black students would undercut some aspects of the school’s identity and culture that they value. I really don’t know the answer to that.

Is this by analogy to the apparent unspoken preference among many white students for white majority (or at least plurality) colleges as @Hanna once mentioned, which may be part of the reason that few white students are interested in historically black universities?