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HBCU 101: Back on Campus Edition

CHI BROWN

Fall classes are underway at colleges and universities across the country, which means initial fall admissions numbers are being counted. In the wake of affirmative action being gutted — and DEI initiates being rolled back — at higher education institutions, HBCUs are seeing record high enrollment, including North Carolina Central University in Durham, while predominantly white institutions like University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill are experiencing a marked decrease in Black student enrollment.

Leoneda Inge sits down with the director of undergraduate admissions and transacts services at Central to discuss this year’s freshman enrollment spike.

Black political engagement post-Reconstruction can be tracked to the founding of the first HBCUs in the U.S. and these institutions continue to drive Black political involvement, from voting to mobilizing to running for office. Leoneda Inge chats with Deondra Rose, Kevin D. Gorter Associate Professor of Public Policy at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, for a conversation about her new book, The Power of Black Excellence: HBCUs and the Fight for American Democracy.

It’s not fall on many HBCU campuses if you can’t hear the marching bands practicing or performing at football games, rallies and competitions. Leoneda Inge visits North Carolina Central University’s campus to talk to Jovan Alexander Wilson, director of university bands, and his journey to directing, the culture of HBCU marching bands and the legendary Sound Machine.

Guests

Michael Bailey, executive director of Undergraduate Admissions and Transfer Services at North Carolina Central University

Dr. Deondra Rose, Kevin D. Gorter Associate Professor of Public Policy at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, author of “The Power of Black Excellence: HBCUs and the Fight for American Democracy.”

Jovan Alexander Wilson, director of the University Bands at North Carolina Central University.

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at WUNC as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda’s work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.
Stacia L. Brown is a writer and audio storyteller who has worked in public media since 2016, when she partnered with the Association of Independents in Radio and Baltimore's WEAA 88.9 to create The Rise of Charm City, a narrative podcast that centered community oral histories. She has worked for WAMU’s daily news radio program, 1A, as well as WUNC’s The State of Things. Stacia was a producer for WUNC's award-winning series, Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon and a co-creator of the station's first children's literacy podcast, The Story Stables. She served as a senior producer for two Ten Percent Happier podcasts, Childproof and More Than a Feeling. In early 2023, she was interim executive producer for WNYC’s The Takeaway.