Abstract
The persistence of Black college students shifts the language to focus on social connectivity. Regardless of where Black college students are enrolled, social connectivity is their sense of belonging. In the United States HBCU community, a sense of belonging is largely dependent on satisfying specific social needs, here belongingness is less complicated to develop because it is a culture-based community. HBCU's othermothering can aid in the creation of a community for Black students, adding to their desired sense of belonging, belongingness provides acceptance and confidence. Black students develop their psychosocial Blackness, Nigrescence. This model has four stages of development. The student finds a sense of belonging in their HBCU community, the community explores four factors. The connectedness between othermothering leads to belongingness, which has five areas of importance. As all identifiers work in coordination, the Black HBCU student matriculates through the college community, advances in their personhood, and persists for academic success.
TopBackground
According to Rivera (2013), Blacks that attend college most often do not complete college when compared to other groups. Not surprisingly, in 2011 the gap for baccalaureate achievements among adults is 41% white and 24% Black. And although college student persistence and the highly recognized lack of achievement among Blacks are researched, reviewed, and studied with fervor; this gap between Blacks and whites has only narrowed by one percentage point in the U.S. in the last decade (Rivera, 2013).
The Black U.S. college enrollment rate decreased by 19%, from 2.7 million in 2010 to 2.2 million in 2017 (Henry, 2021). A lowered enrollment number would lead to fewer Black college graduates as a result of the smaller number of enrollees. Percentage reports indicate Black college student graduation rates are approximately 20% lower than white college student graduates. The American College Testing (ACT) program reports that several barriers and background considerations are unique to U.S. Black college students that severely impact their ability to persist in college and matriculate to graduation. The most popular graduation barrier is academic preparedness for U.S. HBCU students when compared to students at other U.S. institutions, this stems from deficits in the high school curriculum rigor, levels of education in the household, and the necessary academic skills needed for college success (Henry, 2021).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Social Capital: A resource that reflects community members with similar values and shared norms interacting to create cohesion.
Student Persistence: The measurement of students matriculating through their selected collegiate curriculum to completion.
Student Success: The demonstration of a college student's ability to succeed despite obstacles to mastering course and subject content. This is a concept where Black people come together and formulate the national Black community, this is a spiritual bond, and it is a bond understood by the Black community but not the white community. Black people have it and understand it, white people cannot aspire to it ( Mcmillan & Chavis, 1986 ).
Community: A commonality that exists between individuals grouped in pursuit of like goals, benefiting one another through their engagement and exchanges.
Social Connectivity: Matching personas through engagements and congruency between people in settings that lack the formality of academics and family, usually activities that are not required but desired.
Othermothering: Typically, a maternal process, the support, and nurturance provided by women of African descent to motherless children in the delivery of cultural knowledge and societal mannerisms.
Nigrescence: A model that establishes the course Black Americans grow and mature in to understand their Blackness in its interaction with a society that may oppose the value of Black Americans.
Belongingness: A feeling of comfort and confidence a person has that the space occupied in and amongst a group is unchallenged, the person feels respected and accepted in genuineness with a welcomed essence.