Pointing to the job that their campuses do in educating a disproportionate number of African-American students, the leaders of historically Black colleges and universities are calling on President Obama to increase funding to their campuses at a time of serious economic strife. Read more.

The nation’s historically Black institutions, often lauded for the job they do in graduating African-American students, are doing a worse job conferring degrees than their traditionally White counterparts, according to a new survey by The Associated Press. Read the rest.

Two more historically Black colleges will disappear in an era when funding has threatened similar schools, if a legislator has his way. But Georgia senator Seth Harp says combining Black Savannah State with majority-White Armstrong Atlantic State and HBCU Albany State with nearby Darton College would end a racist legacy that forced Blacks to form their own institutions. “I think we should close this ugly chapter in Georgia’s history,” says Harp, a Republican. As chairman of Georgia’s Higher Education Committee, he proposed the plan as a remedy for $2 billion in budget shortfall. Opponents, though, say the Black schools, which have roughly 7,000 total students, should remain independent. “We can’t afford to run away from our history,” says Leonard Haynes, executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges. Harp’s proposal this week was in preliminary stages with few details about how any merger would take place.