When it comes to the future of Wilberforce University, graduating senior and student government president Brandon Harvey doesn’t see much hope. He’s afraid his alma mater—the nation’s oldest historically Black university—might not survive the next two years.
“Our graduation rate is only 32 percent; our retention rate is only 64 percent,” he said, quoting figures pulled from Collegestats.org, a site that aggregates data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Those numbers, as well as dissatisfaction over the condition of dormitories and the school’s library, and the small range of course offerings, inspired a unique protest at the small school near Dayton, Ohio. Last October, 337 students—more than two-thirds of the student body—threatened to withdraw in fall 2013 unless conditions and services improved drastically.
The students walked from their student union to the main administration building. After receiving withdrawal forms, the students marched to Central State University, a public school adjacent to Wilberforce.
Harvey said Wilberforce president Patricia Hardaway never addressed the students. After the protest, Hardaway held a press conference at her residence. She told reporters the school planned to address the students’ complaints.
“There is not a university in the universe that relishes the idea of students withdrawing. Certainly we do not relish that idea either,” she said.
Hardaway did not respond to two requests for an interview for this story.
