When she attended the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff to earn her bachelor’s degree in biology, one alumna racked up nearly $30,000 dollars in debt because her family was not poor enough to receive scholarships, or wealthy enough to pay her tuition. It was that debt, and her not receiving a job in her field, that made her pause when she went to get her masters and then doctoral degree. She went to college to get a good job, but that is not always the case.

Today Patricia Swinton, a teacher at Mills University Studies HIgh School and former English professor at Philander Smith College, is trying to earn her master’s degree at University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and has over $100,000 in student loan debt, she said.

“It’s just going to be another bill I’m going to have to pay monthly probably for the rest of my life,” Swinton said.

Arkansas has four historically black universities, Philander Smith College, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Shorter College and Arkansas Baptist College, according to College Scorecard.

All four Arkansas historically black institutions and colleges have a higher median debt than the average $9,185, according to College Scorecard.

Because of this, students may have to borrow at higher rates at historically black universities than at other institutions, according to the UNCF report Fewer Resources, More Debt: Loan Debt Burdens Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Raven Cook, an educator at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the founder for Foundations: Black History Educational Programming, attended the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff briefly before transferring to the University of Arkansas Fayetteville to major in African American history, she said.

“It’s an honor to go to (a historically black college or university), but it’s also really expensive,” Cook said.
Historically black colleges and universities are institutions founded during the Jim Crow era, or during segregation. In 1896, separate institutions and facilities were created for African Americans under the Separate but Equal doctrine, Cook said.

Today, African American students attend historically black colleges and institutions to become more connected to black culture or to experience it for the first time along with receiving an education, Cook said.

“It’s a very rich environment to learn about being black,” Cook said. “And it’s the subtle things, like always speaking to a black professor as they’re walking up or down the side walk, going to classes and hearing the subtle integration of black history with what you’re learning. The buildings you walk into are even named after black people sometimes.”

Some African American students, like Cook, might choose predominately white institutions or other types of colleges over historically black colleges and institutions because their degree program might be more focused there, or they might have better access to jobs, Cook said.

Philander Smith College a private historically black college has the second highest first-generation student loan debt at $20,000, $500 less than Hendrix University a private liberal arts college which has the highest first-generation student loan debt, according to College Scorecard.

Philander Smith College also has the third highest median student loan debt in Arkansas at $19,000, and the highest median and first-generation student loan debt for all historically black universities, according to College Scorecard.

Philander Smith College may have the highest median and first-generation student loan debt because it has an open-door policy, where students that may have not taken the ACT can attend, Swinton said.

“A lot of the students that go are poor to medium income students that normally wouldn’t have had a chance to attend college if Philander didn’t reach out to them,” Swinton said.

First-generation and low-income students who are accepted then must take out loans to pay for their tuition because Philander Smith College is a private university, Swinton said.

On-campus students at Philander Smith College pay a direct cost, or what students usually pay to attend Philander Smith College, of $20,814 and off-campus students paying a direct cost of $12,564, according to Philander Smith College’s cost of attendance 2016-2017.

At the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, sophomore Kabryn Williams expects to graduate with $20,000 in student loan debt. He is paying for college himself, and while he has scholarships it did not cover everything, which is why he took out student loans, he said.

While he is taking out loans to cover his tuition, he doesn’t think people should have to, Williams said.

“Everyone should get the opportunity to learn,” Williams said.

Nearly 64 percent of historically black colleges and university graduates borrowed over $20,000 in loans in comparison to 37 percent of non- historically black colleges and university students. Four-year historically black colleges and universities cost on average $21,707, less than four-year non-historically black colleges and university, which are on average $30,108, according to the UNCF report.

Shorter College is trying to educate students about student loan debt, said Bryan Neal a sophomore at Shorter College.

Neal is a general studies major at Shorter College, and is planning on going to either University of Arkansas Little Rock or University of Central Arkansas after he graduates to get a bachelor’s in economics and finance. When he is done, he expects to have $30,000 in student loan debt, $10,000 of which from Shorter College, he said.

Neal thinks Shorter College is more concerned about education and what its students can afford. The financial aid department visits classes and has an orientation about student loan debt, where faculty warns students about taking out more than they can afford, he said.

This is not always the case though, as former RA and Philander Smith College graduate Tarai Rolle noticed from his experience at Philander Smith College. While Rolle was an international student and could not take out student loans from the government, loans were the talk of the town especially when it came to students’ difficulties applying and receiving loans at Philander Smith College, he said.

This is not an uncommon problem among historically black colleges and universities. While he can only speak for Philander Smith College, many of his peers that attended historically black universities and colleges have come across the same issue with financial aid offices not educating students on how to properly apply and take out loans, or even when those loans have been taken out, he said.

This is because historically black colleges and universities are often smaller, with two to three people running a department that is trying to meet the needs of thousands of people. At Philander Smith College, where many students are on financial aid or are taking out loans, the financial aid department might be overloaded with work, Rolle said.

“I think is just overwhelming for them so they have to do their job as efficiently as they can and sometimes it’s just not done the best way,” Rolle said. “They just make sure they get the job done.”

Departments at historically black universities and colleges are typically not as large as predominately white institutions. Because of a lack of funding, grants and donations that larger institutions draw in historically black universities and colleges financial aid is its largest obstacle, Cook said.

“When I went to an (historically black college and university) I absolutely loved it, it was so much fun,” Cook said. “But I will say financial aid was a huge challenge for me, and I think there has to be a push on all levels to get students conscious of opportunities that they have.”
A way to decrease the amount of debt historically black colleges and universities and non- historically black colleges and universities is for federal policymakers to reshape federal student aid policies and programs to help students secure more resources, according to the UNCF report.

Cook thinks that politicians, and African American people, should invest more into education and historically black colleges and universities to make sure they stay alive. Efforts could also be made to find alternative housing for students that is more affordable to reduce tuition costs, and to give students a larger scope to live instead of just campus, she said.

“Every level has to have people committed to working to make sure HBCUs are really, really protected and valued as they should be because they are really special spaces that have kept us going for a long time,” Cook said.