For most of her life, North Carolina Central University Chancellor Karrie Dixon considered herself to be a “first generation” college graduate. But after her father earned a bachelor’s degree in Bible studies from Piedmont International University in Winston-Salem in 2019, the narrative was a little scrambled.
Aldine Gibson’s degree earned at age 61 throws a light on the value that the Dixon family places on higher education. Dixon, a Winston-Salem native, is all in. Now, she is stepping up her game, having left her post as chancellor at Elizabeth City State to take the reins at the state’s second-biggest historically Black university in June.
It’s an exciting time for HBCUs, which are receiving record financial support while confronting many of the same challenges as other higher education peers. Examples include a $100 million Lilly Endowment donation to the United Negro College Fund; a $100 million gift to Atlanta’s Spelman College; and $36 million shared with six schools by various donors. In September 2023, a philanthropic group supported by the Gates Foundation, MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and others gave $124 million to support HBCUs.
Over the past two years, N.C. Central has received equipment and other in-kind contributions totaling about $9.4 million from Cisco, which has been a major Durham employer for many years.
Meanwhile, federal funding totaled a record $17 billion for HBCUs between 2021 and 2024. In North Carolina, the five public HBCUs in the UNC System receive about $440 million annually from state coffers.
Like many U.S. universities, HBCU undergraduate enrollment is strengthening after some flat-to-down years. N.C. Central enrolled 8,579 students this fall, 1,026 more than two years earlier. It has been the fastest-growing UNC System school for two consecutive years.
It is a good time to be at Central, Dixon says. “This is the place to be,” she says. “It’s a wonderful university. It plays a significant
role in the community. I’m really excited about the work that’s being done.”
Dixon had led Elizabeth City State since 2018, and enrollment there has gained nearly 70% since 2016 through this past fall, to about 2,160 students. The campus also raised $24 million in private gifts, while attracting nearly $300 million from state and federal partnerships.
That was no mean feat for a school that had been beset for years by a series of scandals and infrastructure problems. Prior to her arrival, enrollment had plummeted to 1,357 students.
Dixon pushed to make building repairs, secured more state funding and boosted the number of transfer students from eastern North Carolina’s community colleges. Elizabth City State also benefited as a charter member of North Carolina Promise, which lowers in-state tuition to $500 a semester.
Dixon also focused on expanding Elizabeth City State’s unusual aviation program, which provides training for air traffic control, aviation management and unmanned aircraft systems. “Chancellor Dixon was a true ambassador for Elizabeth City State and for Elizabeth City,” says the city’s mayor, Kirk Rivers, noting that she often traveled to Raleigh to make the university’s case to legislators. “The growth of ECSU allowed the city to grow.”
DOUBLING UP
At N.C. Central, Dixon succeeds Johnson Akinleye, who had the job since 2017. She is the second person to serve as chancellor at two separate universities within the UNC System. (Harold Martin, who held the position at both N.C. State A&T and Winston-Salem State, is the other). She traces her interest in higher education administration to the classroom at UNC Greensboro, where she taught in the communications department from 1998-2000.
“That was my lightbulb moment. I felt the energy in the classroom and saw the challenges students faced, especially first-year students. I knew that if I wanted to make a more meaningful impact, that meant being involved in policy,” Dixon says. “One of the most important things I’ve learned is that it’s OK to change your mind or pivot when you find a path that truly resonates with your purpose.”
Dixon earned a doctorate in education administration from NC State University in 2003, then spent four years at the Raleigh school as an assistant vice provost. Then-President Erskine Bowles tapped her for a UNC System post in 2008, and she spent 10 years there in various capacities, while developing “a love for HBCUs,” as she puts it. In 2018, then-President Margaret Spellings named her chancellor at Elizabeth City State.
At N.C. Central, Dixon joins a school ranked 15th among HBCUs and 34th for the best value among Southern schools, according to U.S. News & World Report’s most recent annual survey. U.S. News focused on academic reputation, cost of attendance, and return on investment. In social mobility, which reflects a school’s support for economically disadvantaged students, N.C. Central ranked 18th.
PLAYING CATCH UP
N.C. Central was founded in 1910 by Dr. James Shepard, whose statue stands at the gateway to the university, just off Fayetteville Street in south Durham. Shepard was a Raleigh native who trained as a pharmacist. In 1925, it became the nation’s first state-funded liberal arts college for Black students and Shepard was named president, a role he held until his death in 1947. Previous institutions for Blacks had focused on agriculture and career training.
N.C. Central has traditionally received less public and private funding than most non-HBCU peers. The imbalances limit the ability to provide student aid, and to invest in programs and infrastructure.
But the campus has benefited from major state investment in recent years. The Alston Avenue Apartments and George Street Residential Complex opened in late 2020, while the $55.4 million student center and the Lawson Street Residential Hall opened in early 2021. In March, the campus added a three-story, $39 million School of Business building that includes a 200-seat auditorium.
N.C. Central had an endowment of about $64 million in April, compared with $5.7 billion at UNC Chapel Hill and $12 billion at nearby Duke University. The two Durham schools maintain the Duke-NCCU Bridge Office, established in 2017, to advance initiatives related to workforce development, community engagement and pilot research studies. Dixon says she hopes to expand relationships with the internationally renowned university that is Durham’s largest employer.
“From the standpoint of resources, HBCUs have been historically underfunded,” says Dixon. “That gives us the motivation to tell the HBCU story. We have to ask for the resources. We have to be advocates.”
The chancellor lists infrastructure and facilities along with increasing enrollment, safety and security of the campus as her top priorities. “Infrastructure is critical. (We need) the resources to maintain that competitive edge and a high-quality education experience.”
Growing the endowment also figures prominently in Dixon’s plans. About 50 miles west of campus, N.C. A&T State University has an endowment topping $200 million, which is the largest among U.S. HBCUs.
“Fundraising and establishing more relationships with donors and partners is very important. The endowment provides stability for the institution,” she says.
Philanthropy dollars matter in higher education. “It doesn’t take much to make a difference at the margin,” says Katherine Meyer, a fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution think tank. “Even $2,000-$5,000 in debt can be enough to deter a family (from sending a child to college).”
OUTSIZED IMPACT
A decade ago, Students for Fair Admissions, brought the legal case against Harvard College and UNC Chapel Hill that would ultimately result in the abolishment of the use of race as a factor in college admissions, Admissions data released this past fall shows declining Black student enrollment at MIT, Harvard, UNC and other schools. But some peers, including Duke and the University of Virginia, have seen little impact.
“It’ll take a couple of years to see how that (the Supreme Court decision) plays out,” says Meyer. It will be “less about affirmative action and more about what (the end of affirmative action) does to the student body and how future cohorts perceive it.”
She adds that more minority students will likely be asking, “Is this a place I see myself?” It’s natural, she says, for “students to turn to HBCUs where they see people like them, where they have a sense of belonging.”
While only 3% of U.S. higher education institutions, the schools have long played “an incredible legacy of making contributions to American society,” says Deondra Rose, an assistant professor of public policy at Duke’s Sanford School and author of a recent book on HBCUs. Graduates of the schools make up 80% of Black judges, 50% of Black lawyers, and 40% of Black members of Congress, she says, citing the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Fully 25% of STEM degrees earned by Black students come from HBCUs.
Denise Smith, deputy director of higher education policy at the Washington, D.C.-based Century Foundation, says, “People are seeing the talent that’s coming from HBCUs. (They see) you don’t have to have an Ivy League education to be excellent. That’s impacting how the next generation is seeing these institutions. They can go to an HBCU and their education will take them anywhere.” ■
