An HBCU transformed: Wilberforce, the nation's oldest private Black college, emerges from one of its darkest periods just in time to celebrate its 150th birthday

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, June 15, 2006 by Ronald Roach

Few institutions have embodied African-American history as completely as Wilberforce University. Established before the Civil War, the nation's oldest private Black college was a powerful focal point in the struggle for equality and served as a destination point on the Ohio Underground Railroad. Closed briefly during the Civil War, officials with the African Methodist Episcopal church brought Wilberforce back to life in 1863, purchasing it from the predominantly White Methodist Episcopal Church. That purchase made Wilberforce the first Black college to be owned and operated by African-Americans. Some years after its revival, Wilberforce would spin off two additional Black academic institutions, Central State University and Payne Theological Seminary.

Wilberforce has played host to some of the most famous and influential African-Americans of the 19th and 20th centuries. Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, the pre-eminent Black scholar and co-founder of the NAACP, taught there for two years. The poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, who spent much of his life living in nearby Dayton, often performed his poetry readings at the small, rural campus. Other notables, including Leontyne Price and Dr. William Julius Wilson, earned their undergraduate degrees at Wilberforce.

Celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, Wilberforce continues to showcase the viability and promise of the small private, historically Black college. The sesquicentennial anniversary comes at a rime of uncertainty and financial hardship for many small Black institutions. Wilberforce itself only recently overcame arguably its largest financial crisis since the Civil War.

In 2002, the university was facing a $5 million debt, despite an $18 million annual operating budget. That year, Wilberforce installed former U.S. congressman and alum the Rev. Dr. Floyd Flake as its 19th president. Flake immediately began to make a difference, and the institution has since found its bearings under his leadership. Wilberforce's financial turnaround has sparked a new sense of optimism about the future of the university.

"Under the administration of Rev. Floyd Flake, Wilberforce has taken on a new life and is poised to grow," says James A. Padgett, an art professor and the faculty representative to Wilberforce's board of trustees.

"I would say on the broader institutional issues, Floyd has been very strong and positive on behalf of Wilberforce. He's basically taken a troubled institution, stabilized it, and gotten it in a position where it can begin to rebuild and have a positive future," adds Dr. Michael Lomax, president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund.

Wilberforce may not be as picturesque and visually impressive as some other small rural campuses in the state, like Ohio University. The buildings at Wilberforce are mostly gray concrete and sprawl across a hilly spread in southwestern Ohio. They project an austere, almost industrial look to the campus. But that cold, impersonal image is almost immediately dissolved by the palpable, family-oriented spirit that pervades the campus and manifests itself in the interactions among the faculty members, administrators and students.

It's not unusual to see Marshall Mitchell, Wilberforce's vice president for institutional advancement, winding his way through campus buildings, dispensing hugs and high-fives, teasing some students, and urging others to make appointments with him to discuss serious matters. Mitchell conducts himself like the concerned vice principal at an urban high school or the adult brother prodding younger siblings and cousins to do their best.

Rickey Jackson, a senior from Riverside, Calif., says the personal, caring spirit of Mitchell and other administrators and faculty members has sparked his own intellectual and social growth. He says that spirit helped ease the transition from his suburban Southern California life to existence in isolated, rural Ohio.

Jackson says Flake sets a strong example of how a college president can prove a motivating force to students like himself. "President Flake's very real and down to earth. You get the sense that he really cares about us," he says.

Wilberforce's faculty and staff radiate a can-do spirit that seems to be absorbed by the students. In contrast to the days when the university laid off staff, cut degree programs and instituted faculty pay cuts, administrators like Mitchell can now talk confidently about university plans to build two new dormitories to accommodate student enrollment growth. And they are stepping up efforts to secure federal dollars to enhance the research capacity of the faculty.

Currently, Wilberforce enrolls more than 800 residential undergraduates and operates a continuing education division that serves roughly 400 working adult students. Since fall 2002, tuition, fees and room and board for residential students have stayed consistent at $16,200. Ninety-five percent of Wilberforce students rely on financial aid.

"We are quite proud of the fact that we've been able to hold down tuition and fees while turning the financial situation around," Mitchell says.