North Carolina A&T overtakes FAMU as nation’s largest HBCU

Back during his days as FAMU’s president, Frederick S. Humphries used the university’s status as the largest single campus historically black college or university (HBCU) as a selling point to raise millions of dollars for the school. It was a standard part of his sales pitch for urging Fortune 500 companies to join FAMU’s Industry Cluster and invest in the university’s growth.

But that distinction is gone today.

North Carolina A&T has taken the No. 1 spot from FAMU this fall with 10,734 students, according to the Greensboro News & Record. The newspaper also reported that Howard University is No. 2, with about 10,500 students. FAMU is No. 3 with about 10,250 students.

FAMU’s enrollment increased between the fiscal years that ended in 2009 and 2011. But FAMU and many other historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were hurt by stricter eligibility requirements for the federal PLUS Loan program that went into effect in October of 2011 and Pell Grant changes that began that same year. Those changes resulted in thousands of low-income HBCU students being denied this critical source of financial aid and either having to withdraw from school or delay their entry into college.

The federal financial aid program overhaul led FAMU to lose about 2,000 students. Declining state support and rising fees have made the situation even worse for many potential FAMU students.

North Carolina A&T is one of the HBCUs that has started to make gains in recovering from the damage caused by the federal financial aid crisis. Its enrollment increased by 1.6 percent this year.

North Carolina A&T Chancellor Harold Martin, who is an alumnus of the school, is aggressively expanding the university's enrollment and research programs in a manner very similar to what he did while he was chancellor of Winston- Salem State (2000-2006). At Winston-Salem State, his successes included doubling the enrollment and creating a School of Graduate Studies and Research.

According to Greensboro News & Record, “A&T’s enrollment goal for 2020 is 13,500 students — about where Florida A&M was at its peak.”