How colleges use debt during times of crisis varies greatly depending on institutional characteristics, according to a new report from Ithaka S+R funded by the TIAA Institute.
The study, released Wednesday, found that while historically Black colleges and universities tend to borrow less than non-HBCUs—a pattern that has remained relatively constant—HBCUs “became significantly more leveraged than non-HBCUs” after the Great Recession of 2008. One explanation for this was that HBCUs borrowed to weather financial hardships, rather than for capital projects such as campus residence halls.
