HBCU Money

School Name: Paul Quinn College

Median Cost of Attendance: $20 800

Undergraduate Population: 200

Endowment Needed: $83 200 000

Analysis: Paul Quinn College needs approximately $83 million to allow all of its undergraduates to attend school debt free annually at its current cost of attendance and population. The little private school in Texas with big potential is in a geographic sweet spot. Located in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, it is far away from the throws of the two public HBCUs located in the more southern part of the state who have a vast amount more resources at their disposal. Paul Quinn College makes up for this with leadership focused on long-term planning to maximize the resources at their disposal. If it can connect itself as the African American institution in the area then it will have an immense opportunity to grow its population selectively as opposed to the quantity route that public universities must pursue. This quality over quantity will allow its graduates to be best in class and garner strong community and economic support from the African American community. Oak Cliff, a very prideful working class African American neighborhood in Dallas with a strong fabric would be an ideal place to start. At $83 million, this is one of the smallest amounts needed to achieve debt free status but critically vital the buy in of the AME church financially and the “adoption” of the Dallas/Forth Worth African American community since the alumni base is not that large. It is unknown if the school actually has an endowment currently but given its recent outside of the box approach via its leadership it would be highly surprising if the establishment of an endowment is not already in the works.

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.