False Panic Over Howard? Official Calls 'Gone in 3 Years' Letter 'Unduly Alarming'

If Renee Higginbotham-Brooks, the vice chair of Howard University’s board of trustees, was hoping to bring attention to the school’s financial situation in a letter she wrote that was published last week in the Chronicle of Higher Education, she was successful. In it, Higginbotham-Brooks predicted that, barring major changes to the school’s finances, it would shut down within three years. No big surprise: Her letter inspired shock and dismay in the HBCU community and beyond.

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Addison Rand, chair of the university’s governing board, sent a message to the Howard community on Monday saying that “without proper context [, the letter] paints an unduly alarming picture of the University’s condition.” Read an excerpt (pdf):

Howard, like all segments of the higher education community — and indeed all sectors of theU.S. economy — is still recovering from the effects of a great recession. We have takennumerous steps to enhance the University’s financial standing, including reducing administrativecosts, and made difficult decisions to realign the staffing structure. The University has takenadditional steps to achieve efficiency, reinvest in strategic areas, and increase our focus onfundraising.

Despite these challenges, Howard continues to grow. This spring, the University broke groundon two new residence halls and an interdisciplinary research building. The projects will increaseour competitiveness and position the University to continue to attract talented students andextraordinary faculty from around the nation and the global community.

As the University’s governing body, the board welcomes and is extremely sensitive toexpressions of concern and input from various stakeholders and interested constituencies, bothfrom inside and outside the institution. In fact, such expressions are fairly common for alluniversity boards, especially when difficult decisions must be made.

While the board works with the Administration and continues to take appropriate and strategicactions to address normal operational and strategic challenges, it will do so with appropriatetransparency and sensitivity to the concerns and well-being of the institution and to all membersof the Howard University community.

Through it all, we will continue to work prudently to ensure a vibrant and prestigious futurefor the University and community we love.

Read more at the Huffington Post.

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