HBCUs Show Flava in Annual Princeton Review Ratings

Photo credit: Tia Goodson/The Hilltop Hilltop Editor-in-Chief Ruth L. Tisdale, second from left, and Hilltop deputy managing editor Arion Jamerson share a laugh with Franklin Chambers, Howard's vice provost for student affairs, left, and President H. Patrick Swygert in The Hilltop office.

Since Howard University's student newspaper, The Hilltop, received the most votes nationally as the best on a college campus, the publication has prominently featured the words "#1 College Newspaper" on its front page and throughout its Web site, and interest in writing for it has blossomed.

The honors it received are just one indication of the major presence of historically black colleges and universities in the 2005 edition of The Princeton Review's annual college guide, "The Best 357 Colleges", a book released in August that ranked colleges in 70 categories based entirely on 110,000 surveys of students attending 357 top schools.

The Hilltop's ranking "shows the legacy of excellence at Howard University,” said Conrad Woody, president of the Howard University Student Government Association. “We will continue to excel in academic and social activities.”

But while the college guide noted many positives for HBCUs, black campuses accounted for four of the top five slots in the category “Long Lines and Red Tape.”

Hampton University's was ranked the seventh-worst financial aid program among the 357 universities considered.

And Spelman College was ranked No. 1 on the worst college library list.

However, the Atlanta school, which has an enrollment of 2,063 female students, did earn a 92 out of 100 for its quality of life. Morehouse was ranked No. 3 on the “Is This a Library?” list and Florida A&M University, in Tallahassee, ranked seventh.

FAMU was certainly the most distinctive HBCU this year, earning the No. 1 or No. 2 slot in four separate categories. The school ranked No. 2 in both “Great College Radio Station” and “Major Frat and Sorority Scene.”

WANM 90.5 has been dubbed “The Flava Station” because of the uniqueness of its music programming, which includes hip-hop-infused jazz and alternative-rock that features the African American experience. The station also plays gospel, reggae and dance-hall music as part of its programming from different cultures.

Virgil Miller, the FAMU student body president, considered the Princeton Review rankings “vindication” of the station's choice of programming.

“The program schedule is very unique,” said Miller, a second-year master of public health student from West Palm Beach, Fla. “They cover a wide variety of music, not just R&B and hip-hop. That is the major difference between us and other radio stations.”

The FAMU disc jockeys and the students who labor in the studio are volunteers, though the gospel music, program, music, production and promotion directors are paid. The station is primarily student-promoted and features student DJs.

“It shows their level of dedication and how much that they believe in the quality of the station and the impact they can have on their community,” Miller said. “It’s not about the paycheck, but it is about the lives they affect on a daily basis and the exposure they receive.”

The Princeton Review survey noted that FAMU is considered to have the longest lines of any university, and gave it the No. 1 ranking in “Long Lines and Red Tape.”

To address that situation, Miller noted that the newly formed Student Affairs Enhancement Task Force met for the first time in the third week of September. Members of the student government are to be appointed to the task force by Miller, who plans to serve as the co-chairperson for the committee.

For its top ranking as student newspaper, Howard University's The Hilltop was the subject of a story in the Washington Post, and 60 students attended this year's introductory meeting for those interested in writing for it.

“Even if we weren’t ranked No. 1, I’m sure students would want to become involved,” said Woody, the Howard University student body president. “But that ranking does help.”

But Howard could not escape controversy, some of it instigated by an Hilltop editorial. It argued that the administration should not have allowed the Princeton Review to include on its Web site a selection of negative comments from Howard students.

The responses said the school is in the middle of a ghetto, that there are crack fiends in the area, and that “Howard students prefer liquor and weed.”

Josef Sawyer, last year’s Hilltop editor, responded to the editorial board's stance in a letter to the editor, saying the negative comments had “some merit.”

“Putting the blame on administration won’t do much because as a former student, I expect the administration to not know what’s wrong with the University,” said Sawyer in the letter. He advised the Hilltop to instead “use the paper as a vehicle of change and put pressure on those in the administration building who are unresponsive and more concerned with their [pension] plan than the well-being of the students.”

Titus Ledbetter III is a student at Hampton University.

Posted Sept. 21, 2004