A new paper, published by Stanford University’s Center for Education Policy Analysis, explores the relationship between Black student enrollment and state-level hate crime rates. The research finds a moderate but consistent connection between increases in a state’s reported hate crimes and increases in Black students attending historically Black colleges and universities in that state.
The “genesis” of the idea for this study was “if students and families make decisions based on economic conditions – an example being a higher likelihood of enrollment during recessions – it is plausible that they are also making decisions about college enrollment based on sociopolitical climates, and particularly their experiences with racial climates where they live,” wrote Dr. Tolani Britton, assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California Berkeley, in an email to Diverse.
“In some ways, the larger question is: how do students and families make decisions about the optimal learning environment in higher education?”
Notably, the research shows that a standard deviation increase in reports of state-level hate crimes predicts a 20% increase in Black first-time student enrollment at HBCUs, about 33 students.
The “most suggestive” finding was that, regardless of the type of hate crimes, as reported hate crimes “increased in a state, we found evidence that Black students were predicted to enroll at higher rates at HBCUs,” said co-author Dr. Dominique Baker, assistant professor of education policy at Southern Methodist University.
And in states that saw an increase in reported race-based or anti-Black hate crimes specifically, Black students’ enrollment fell at non-HBCUs. As a caveat, the report stresses that hate crimes are underreported, which limits the data.
“It’s critical to say we’re looking at all reports of hate crimes, not all hate crimes,” Baker said. “That means that people’s lives, people’s decisions, are going to be affected by things we don’t know about.”
