Dive Brief:
- Students and alumni from Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, a historically black school near Philadelphia, are suing the state and federal governments, accusing them of unfairly cutting funding from the university.
- The Cheyney University National Alumni Association says the university needs more money than the other 13 state universities to make up for “decades of discrimination,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
- According to the alumni group, the university’s enrollment is down to 1,022, from its peak of 3,000 students, and the school has a deficit of $22 million. The state says the deficit is $12.3 million.
Dive Insight:
More than half of Cheney’s students are from Philadelphia. The lawsuit is seeking more funding for the university, plus facilities improvements, better equipment and marketing, and a judge overseeing any agreement or court-ordered remedy that comes from the lawsuit. A previous lawsuit led to a settlement in 1999, when the state agreed to spend $36.5 million on building and academic improvements for the university. A retired math professor from the school quoted by the Inquirer says only two buildings have been added to the campus in 30 years, and that heat and running water is sometimes lacking in some of the buildings.