“I’m definitely not really over that,” Clark said.
While administrators prefer that students, faculty and alumni focus on the school’s new academic year, much of the community’s attention is still trained on the unenrollment debacle. More than 500 incoming first-year students were unenrolled for missing a July tuition payment deadline, the university said. About 200 students have had their enrollment restored.
It was also reported Aug. 7 that Howard unenrolled the students about a month after offering voluntary early retirement buyouts to 600 eligible employees. But Howard University said in a statement that the employee buyouts were unrelated and part of a plan for “long-term financial sustainability.”
For some in the Howard community, the bitter experience has raised questions about the legacy of one of the country’s most revered historically Black colleges and universities. Others say such administrative matters won’t lessen the career impact a Howard diploma can have.
The loss of HBCU luster
Zy’Aira Blackmon had her heart set on attending Howard, seen as the preeminent Black university in the nation.
But, after her enrollment status was revoked and then reinstated within days, the 18-year-old from Grand Rapids, Michigan, doesn’t feel the same way. The luster Howard once held has been dulled.
“After this situation, most people are going to ignore all the good things Howard has to offer,” said Blackmon, who now will study at Western Michigan University.
When Howard took away 17-year-old Yuisa Davis’ enrollment, her mother hopped on a plane July 28 from the family’s Puerto Rico home to get answers. An administrative official told Karina Polen-Davis and her husband, who was on speakerphone, that she couldn’t answer their questions. Then the official called security.
The Davises say they paid what they thought they owed but the university rescinded enrollment without explanation or recourse.
The school never budged.
“It’s very disheartening just because there’s so many opportunities that’s kind of just been taken from me without me being able to” find a resolution, said Yuisa Davis, who often visited Howard as a child.
Now, Davis is working with The New School in New York City on possible financial aid.
“The difference in how we’ve been treated has been night and day,” Kenneth Davis said.
