HOWARD & TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY PROVE THAT THE HBCUS HAVE A PROBLEM

9:57 AM 8/7/2026 Fri

The recent news reports - and resulting firestorm of debate on social media - of Howard University and Tuskegee University having troubles are not isolated, one off incidents that just happen to involve the nation's Historically Black Colleges & Universities. Rather, they speak to much deeper problems imbedded within Black America itself. 

Howard University students are finding themselves disenrolled after missing July tuition payment deadlines. Over 500 incoming freshmen were removed from the rolls in a move to protect them from unmanageable student debt, while parents and families are reacting in shock over what they see as a sudden move. Some 200 freshmen students have been reinstated, but another 300-plus remain disenrolled. For the record and according to the US News & World Report's College & University rankings for 2026, yearly tuition, including fees, food and housing, comes out to a grand total of $45K USD a year, with average need based aid packages taking up roughly $25K of the slack. 

Additionally, the administration of Howard has been offering early retirement staff buyouts on their contracts, announcing some 600 voluntary separation packages for eligible faculty and staff members. Howard's top brass has cited financial pressures, shifting federal loan caps and structural institutional changes as Howard makes its bid to become a Research 1 university. 

Meanwhile, Tuskegee University finds itself under another sort of cloud - one of sliding standards of professionalism and decorum. Tuskegee has always from its earliest beginnings had a dress code and code of personal conduct expected of all its students, but said codes have been lax in enforcement in more recent years. The current president of Tuskegee, a career military man, has reinstated the dress and code of conduct and in doing so has created an impassioned debate online. Proponents argue that it's a change that's been long overdue, where overall standards of decorum have been backsliding for years; opponents argue that this is yet another example of Respectability Politics being foisted on the younger Black generation by Black America's old guard, and that demanding Tuskegee students to trade in their bonnets and durags for tailored suits for the gentlemen and dresses, skirts or pantsuits for the ladies, is tantamount to wanting them to ape White Supremacy and Patriarchy. 

These developments - which are still ongoing as we speak in both the mainstream press as well as social media discussion and debate - are again nothing new. They are only the latest in a long and ignobly embarrassing series of incidents where the HBCUs just cannot seem to get their act together. 

THE TALE OF THE TAPE - HOWARD'S MONEY PROBLEMS
Part of the problem is, as Howard's current predicament bears out, financial. It doesn't take a policy wonk to know that the HBCUs have long lagged behind donor and booster giving when compared to the "PWIs", or Predominantly White Institutions, like UPenn, Northwestern, Columbia, Stanford, University of Chicago, Duke, the Big Ten, etc. These schools have endowments running into the high billions, while Howard - one of the best known of the HBCUs and currently crying broke - remains the only one of its kind with an endowment of just over one billion dollars. Just for kicks, here are the endowment numbers of the PWIs I just mentioned: 

Stanford University: $40.8B USD

University of Pennsylvania: $24.8B USD

Columbia University: $15.9B USD

Northwestern University: $15.2B USD

Duke University: $12.3B USD

University of Chicago: $10.9B USD

Now, let's look at the endowments of the top ten of the HBCUs per US News & World Report top HBCU rankings: 

Spelman College: $475M USD

Howard University: $1.2B USD

Morehouse College: $186M USD

Tuskegee University: $135M USD

Florida A&M University: $113M USD

Xavier University Louisiana: $105M USD

Hampton University: $349M USD

North Carolina A&T State University: $165M USD

Morgan State University: $101M USD

Delaware State University: $40M USD

That's rather anemic when compared to the aforementioned PWIs - mind you, I didn't even include the real heavy hitters like Harvard, Princeton or Yale - the Big Three of the Us News & World Reports' top ten unis. They're into the stratosphere with it. 

In fact, if you were to add up ALL of the top ten HBCUs' endowments, it would total just a measly - wait for it - $2.6B USD - which wouldn't even put them on par with #42 US News ranked Boston University at $3.2B USD. 

Of course, endowments are a function of former alum donors in the main, and the simple fact of the matter is that HBCUs across the board (as their best and brightest have amply demonstrated) have had a long problem with donor fundraising. Black America has a total consumer spending power of $2.1T USD—rivaling the spending power of countries like Canada, Italy, and South Korea(!). Yet, Black alum donor and institutional funding lags far behind that of the PWIs. No doubt, systemic and even attitudinal (the latter of which is rarely discussed) forces contribute mightily to HBCU funding disparities; but one would think that such a reality would be understood by Black Americans at large to be baked in the cake of America, and that they would act accordingly—prioritizing educational funding and making it Job One in Black America. It wouldn't close the gap with the aforementioned PWIs, but it would at least give the top ten HBCUs multi-billion dollar endowments. We  wouldn't have chronic student funding issues, or the need to layoff hundreds of needed and experienced faculty and staff prematurely. Systemic and attitudinal causes on the parts of Whites matter; but our own attitudes and priorities matter, too. It seems to me that we have far more control over the latter than we do the former.

Please allow me to be clear on this. In no way am I saying that Black alums and otherwise notable Black individuals do not have legitimate concerns over the lamentable history of malfeasance, corruption, and incompetence that far too many HBCUs have demonstrated over the years—they most certainly do—and this embarrassing history accounts for at least as much of the Black Endowment Problem as anything else here. HBCU presidents, deans, and provosts have got to get out in front of these problems, fix them straight away, and demonstrate administrative fiscal discipline and transparency such that it inspires Black folk—from the high to the low—to give. Because when they do, they will know that what they give will be used responsibly to fund the future leaders of Black America.

THE TUSKEGEE PROBLEM
But the financial side of the HBCU dilemma is only part of the equation; there is a messier, cultural side as well. To put the quiet part out loud: You would be hard-pressed to find the same fierce, raucous debates over dress codes, bonnets, or basic behavioral standards dominating the discourse among Black students at UPenn, Northwestern, Columbia, or Stanford. This friction points to a uniquely HBCU struggle. Perennial news accounts of campus behavioral clashes, alongside reports of fiscal mismanagement, give the distinct impression of a deep-seated institutional culture crisis.

We must be honest about the applicant pool. The elite institutions I mentioned reside comfortably at the top of global rankings because they trade in concentrated talent, high ability, and inherited social capital. It is no accident that Black alumni from those institutions often remain quiet while internal controversies roil campuses like Howard or Tuskegee. The U.S. News & World Report rankings exist because tuition-paying parents rely on them to navigate a fiercely competitive society.

Despite the marketing, modern controversies belie a sobering reality: even top-tier HBCUs struggle to project global prestige because they remain anchored to an access mission, frequently recruiting from economically disadvantaged strata. The 'each one, teach one' ethos is a noble historic slogan, but institutional uplift faces a brutal bottleneck in a world where colleges operate as luxury brands. Today, an institution's name must instantly convey competence, leadership, and gravitas. As long as HBCUs are bogged down by administrative and cultural instability, many of Black America's hyper-elite minds will continue to choose the ready-made prestige of the Ivy League over the historic mission of Howard, Tuskegee, or Spelman.

Social media commentator The Conscious Lee has argued that bonnets and durags have nothing to do with academic performance, offering a raft of data to support his contention. He then invokes the name of W.E.B. Du Bois to shield his argument. That is a particularly bizarre historical pivot. Du Bois was 'suited and booted' from his earliest days, and famously took a dim view of lower-class Black decorum in The Philadelphia Negro during his tenure at the University of Pennsylvania.

Across the ideological aisle, Booker T. Washington expected students at the Tuskegee Institute to be immaculately dressed, well-mannered, and disciplined enough to literally build the Black community from the ground up. As history records, Du Bois and Washington were fierce, lifelong opponents—yet both advocated for personal and educational excellence as a baseline. For both men, self-presentation was a weapon of liberation.

Furthermore, the idea of 'excellence in all things' was never the exclusive preserve of the elite collegiate classes. The Nation of Islam, out of which Malcolm X emerged, maintained uncompromising standards of excellence for its members. Their radical focus on personal discipline, neatness, and professionalism became a hallmark of the movement’s heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. Malcolm X himself cut a striking, unmistakable figure in his conservative, charcoal-grey businessman suits, crisp white shirts, horn-rimmed glasses, and metered, articulate speech. Throughout his time on the speaker's stump and as an editor for the Muhammad Speaks newspaper, Malcolm constantly stressed that personal decorum and deportment were essential to psychological freedom.

To frame basic environmental standards as mere 'subservience to white norms' ignores a proud, century-long tradition of Black self-respect that flourished entirely independent of the white gaze. Consider the Harlem Renaissance—a golden era where Black folks so thoroughly defined global style and sophistication that white society scrambled to copy it. We have got to seriously re-examine the toxic contemporary notion that presenting oneself with sense, sharp speech, and poise is somehow 'selling out' or 'trying to be white.' The long, documented historical record of Black America proves otherwise. True cultural agency has always been about setting the standard, not lowering it.

ENTER THE BLACK MANOSPHERE CONCLAVE
Contrast these structural fractures of traditional higher education with the model of the Black Manosphere Conclave (BMC)—an annual global gathering of Black men united in the pursuit of absolute excellence. Founded in 2021, the BMC features its flagship Theo University STEM Program, engineered and directed by TheoWAF, our Chief Technology Officer and head instructor. Since its inception, the program has trained more than a thousand students, with well over 100 currently commanding high six-figure salaries across the global tech sector.

Beyond technology, the BMC provides comprehensive tracks for personal enrichment, spanning physical fitness, mental health, tactical self-defense, image consulting, financial literacy, and relationship dynamics. As a fellow founding father of the Conclave, I am immensely proud to state that in our five years of operation, we have never had a single instance of fraud, grifting, or the public scandals that routinely plague contemporary digital influencers.

Our motto, 'excellence in all things,' dictates our environmental standards. We enforce a strict 'business or business casual only' policy. All brothers are expected to remain professionally tailored for the duration of the three-day Conclave. Those who fail to meet the metric are turned away at the threshold and told to 'suit up' (though African-inspired cultural attire is fully welcomed). In half a decade, we have never faced a faction demanding entry looking like they stepped out of a 1990s rap video. Never.

Furthermore, admittance is not guaranteed. Applicants must clear an extensive criminal background check managed by Shannon Rawls, our Operational Chief, and pass the Theo University aptitude testing to ensure cognitive alignment with our rigorous curriculum. None of this happened by accident. In our blueprint phase, we recognized that to combat modern stagnation, we had to resurrect the architectural standards of our past. We looked directly to the pantheon of Black self-reliance: Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, and Carter G. Woodson.

This architecture is not exclusive to men. We have since established the 5F Conference for women, drawing on the legacies of Mary McLeod Bethune, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Betty Shabazz, and Coretta Scott King to construct a cultural mirror to our own. In fact, we view the 5F Conference as the Spelman to the BMC's Morehouse. That is the supreme irony: the foundational ideals of the HBCU are precisely what inspired us to build our own kingdom outside of them.

WHAT THE HBCUS MUST DO
We have to be brutally honest here. Black America, as of 2026, only boasts six accredited law schools. Worse still, Black America possesses a mere four medical schools—Howard, Morehouse, Charles R. Drew, and Meharry—to service the healthcare pipelines of an entire population. Contrast this institutional scarcity with the hyper-concentrated wealth of elite PWIs. Elon Musk, a UPenn dropout, reigns as the world's first trillionaire, joining fellow elite dropout Bill Gates of Microsoft fame by way of Harvard. To date, the only household Black name in tech finance is Robert F. Smith, who famously had to step in and personally bail out a graduating class of Morehouse students, sparing them the financial quicksand that has recently befallen Howard's disenrolled freshmen.

When the nation's top graduate business schools are listed, not a single HBCU breaks into the conversation. From its earliest beginnings, the elite 'HYP' triad (Harvard, Yale, Princeton) has disproportionately manufactured American Presidents—including the country's first and sole Black president, Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. By contrast, the highest political apex an HBCU has yielded is Kamala Harris—historic, no doubt, but a solitary peak. We have a long, treacherous way to go. Simply put, HBCUs have got to get their institutional shit together. If they do not, then by the turn of the century—if not a whole lot sooner—Black America will be left permanently behind in the global arena.

Sincerely,
Mumia Obsidian Ali
Black Manosphere Conclave
www.blackmanosphere.com