Fisk Students More Needy, But Retention Rate is High

Fisk University President Hazel O’Leary told Congress today that the institution’s student body is changing.

The House Education and Labor Committee heard from presidents of several historically black colleges. In her remarks, O’Leary said that for years, Fisk was a “bastion of black middle class elitism,” but now almost all of its students come from more difficult financial situations. She says the school has an 86-percent retention rate, much higher than the rates for demographically similar students who attend mostly-white universities.

But, she says, Fisk struggles to find enough scholarship money for its students. Overall, the university is in dire financial straits.