School Name: Kentucky State University
Median Cost of Attendance: $20 447
Undergraduate Population: 2 606
Endowment Needed: $1 065 697 600
Analysis: Kentucky State University needs approximately $1 billion dollars for its entire student body to attend debt free. This is an HBCUs with one of the highest European American populations (20%) so it presents a bit of a conundrum on strategy. Given HBCUs low alumni donor rate there is not a lot if any information on European Americans that attend HBCUs and their giving pattern either as undergraduates or graduates. Interestingly enough while Kentucky State University strives for “diversity” its counterpart University of Kentucky maintains a 90% European American population and a 5.5% African American population. The endowment at Kentucky State University, currently at $8.8 million, would put 0.8% of its undergraduate population through school debt free annually. It is hard to know what the future of KSU holds as it seems to be trending toward that of past HBCUs like West Virginia State University and Bluefield State College. In a state with a less than 8% African American population and KSU being the only HBCU in Kentucky it makes KSU geographically vital but without a stronger buy in from the African American population in Kentucky its endowment could rest strongly in the hands outside the African American community.
As always it should be noted that endowments provide a myriad of subsidies to the university for everything from scholarship, faculty & administration salaries, research, and much more.
HBCU Money 