<em>Guest Editorial:</em> The Rapidly Changing Landscape in Higher Education and Its Impact on African American Students

Abstract

Whether it is perceived as a means to obtaining a good job, increasing income, finding one's passion or purpose, or simply the logical next step following high school, going to and completing college can significantly impact the options and lifestyles of many Americans. Although outcomes and opportunities vary as a function of the specific school that a student attends, as well as the major selected, higher education yields a return on time and financial investment for the masses of Americans paralleled by few other experiences. While African Americans have been legally oppressed for the vast majority of their time in the United States, and have had access to formal higher education since the mid-1800s, they have been impacted by several shifts in the postsecondary landscape. The first significant shift for African Americans was the creation of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), most of which were created between 1865 and 1910. HBCUs not only provided the vast majority of African Americans with their first opportunity to seek higher education, they also made the opportunity geographically accessible via several postsecondary options in the South, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic states. Unfortunately, the U.S. allowed a two-tier system of higher education to develop in which predominantly White institutions (PWIs) occupied the top tier as a result of state, federal, and private investment in human and physical resources and HBCUs were placed at the lower tier due to a lack of state and federal support.. Nevertheless, these noble institutions persevered.Another shift in higher education that significantly impacted African Americans was the desegregation of public institutions, which included public colleges and universities in the United States that occurred during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. A small number of private colleges occasionally granted degrees to African Americans prior to the Movement, but these numbers significantly increased in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Although desegregation provided increased postsecondary options for African American students, introduced the Black athlete to NCAA Division I sports, prompted affirmative action policies, and may have assisted in reducing White prejudice toward Black people, it also devastated many HBCUs. By the early 1980s the majority of African American college students attended PWIs, which significantly decreased enrollments at HBCUs causing several of them to close their doors and others to struggle financially from then until today.There were several other noteworthy shifts in higher education that were not explicitly based on race, but have disproportionately impacted African Americans (e.g., federal financial aid policies, affirmative action rulings by the courts, and the inconsistency between high school curricula and college requirements). In the modem era, these policies have tended to work to the disadvantage of African American students for college admissions).Currently, higher education seems to be at a crossroads. Significant increases in the cost of attending college over the last twenty years have led many to question whether the degree is worth the money. Student loan debt in the U.S. is approaching the one trillion dollar mark and recently exceeded credit card debt (Brown et al. , 2012).. Student loan default rates are on the rise, state funding of public institutions is declining, and the credit ratings of many institutions have experienced recent downgrades. Furthermore, the postsecondary sector is undergoing a dramatic paradigm shift that parallels the music and publishing industries of a decade ago, catalyzed by similar forces-advances in networking technology, near-ubiquitous availability of online content, and growing consumer demand for direct access to content providers (Aman, 2013). Finally, the separate and combined impact of race, gender, and pre-college preparation on postsecondary performance is complex and continually evolving. …