Howard University Stares Down Challenges, and Hard Questions on Black Colleges

Tensions had been running high at Howard University (DC) even before hundreds of students began a sit-in at the school’s administration building late last month. Then news came that hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial aid had been misappropriated. Angered by what they felt was a lack of oversight, students flooded the administration building, interrupting official business for over a week. Now, weeks after the sit-in ended, the school is still grappling with its consequences and the questions that tend to surface around campus turmoil here: whether this is a moment of real change at one of the country’s most prestigious historically black colleges, and whether Howard’s problems reflect the state of black colleges nationwide.