School Name: Miles College
Median Cost of Attendance: $21 010
Undergraduate Population: 1 668
Endowment Needed: $700 893 600
Analysis: Miles College needs approximately $700 million to allow all of its students to attend debt free annually. Miles College is located in the heart of the capital of “Civil Rights”, Alabama or Birmingham, AL for some. This historic attachment can be leveraged for fundraising if properly used among elder African Americans. With an outstanding honors college the school is producing high quality graduates who will produce a higher median income than most of African America. This should translate with the proper cultivation from administration into consistent donations going forward. They also have the unique relationship of having an HBCU community college located within Birmingham as well. Lessening their need to develop college ready students and focus funds toward higher achievement in student development which again only adds to the quality of student they will graduate. Being located in Birmingham as with anything has its pros and cons. Birmingham is an up and coming city in the United States and should provide plenty of wealth growth through its medical and banking industries. This could produce an overall stronger city but that does not always find its way into the African American community. With the University of Alabama-Birmingham’s presence it will make the competition for city resources extremely competitive. Miles College should continue to shine and stay true to its HBCU mission and it could strongly benefit from some of its peers moving away from that mission as many in African America still looking for a true sense of community focused on themselves in higher education.
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.