Faced with declining enrollments, many historically-Black colleges and universities are now recruiting more Latino/Hispanic students. As an article at USA Today explains, part of it is simple demographics -- the Latino/Hispanic population recently passed the Black population to become the largest racial/ethnic group in the U.S. and continues to grow at a faster rate than Blacks. But similarities in history and culture are also prominent factors:

The campuses are hiring Hispanic recruiters, distributing brochures featuring Hispanic students, and establishing special scholarships for Hispanics. At the historically black Texas Southern University in Houston, the school has started five Hispanic student organizations, including fraternities and sororities, to help make the campus more inviting. . . .

While the idea has been greeted with open arms by the college’s administrators, some students and alumni said they are mixed about actively recruiting Hispanics to historically black colleges. “I do have concerns,” said Earl Nero, a retired Atlanta businessman who graduated from Morehouse in 1974. “Since the college has determined they want to stay the same size they are, that would take away space from qualified African-American students.” But having other minorities attending a historically black college will help them get “a real life view about what black people are all about,” Nero added.

Student James Travis, who is black, said having other students of other races on a historically black campus bothers him “a little bit” because it challenges the college’s mission. “It’s supposed to maintain the historically black tradition,” said the 21-year-old student from the Atlanta suburb of College Park. “I’ll have to see how it goes before I see if I want to change the situation or not.”

Still, educators say the nation’s two largest minority groups are a natural fit on a college campus. “They are both underserved communities when it comes to higher education,” said Michael Lomax, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund. “We have got to educate them so that we can have a competitive workforce in the 21st century.”

While it’s natural for many Blacks to have concerns and reservations about increasing numbers of non-Blacks attending historically-Black schools, ultimately I feel that this is a positive development. First, just because more non-Blacks are attending does not necessarily mean that these schools have to change their fundamental mission of having a curriculum and culture focused on Black history.

In other words, welcoming more non-Blacks and maintaining a Black-centered institution should not be mutually exclusive because as many have noted, Blacks and Latinos (along with Asians and Native Americans) share many aspects of history, culture, and contemporary issues in common, not the least of which is learning how to live and work with each other as American society continues to become more diverse, multicultural, and transnational.