Howard University - An African-American Cultural Mecca

            There are more than one-hundred historically Black colleges (HBCU) and universities in the United States (College View). HBCUs offer classes that relate to the knowledge and advancement of the Africa- American culture. Howard University is a HBCU located in Washington D.C., and is considered to be the mecca of HBCUs. Howard has many cultural and historic institutions, such as the White House, within minutes of the campus. Howard is fully accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and has a notable medical department, known as the College of Medicine (Howard University). .
             Howard University: At a Glance.
             Since opening its doors, Howard has awarded 118,095 certificates and degrees (Howard University).Howard has a faculty of 1,016 professors and associates, with 57% male and 43% female (Howard University). There are 26 undergraduate degrees offered, and 54 undergraduate majors. In the fall of 2011, there were a total of 10,583 student enrolled, 1,103 of those enrolled in Pharmacy, Nursing, and Allied Health Services. Since its founding, Howard has grown from a single frame building, to 120 buildings on 4 campuses (Howard University).
             The Howard campus has many amenities. The University Center includes an art gallery, a recreation center with twelve bowling lanes, meeting and conference rooms, dining facilities, a digital auditorium, a 1500-person capacity ballroom, and lounges (Howard University) .Howard also has many cultural and historic institutions, such as the White House, within minutes of the campus.
             History.
             According Hannah Purnell, staff writer for College View wrote extensively on the topic of undergraduate studies and the college search (Hannah, College View). In the years following the Civil War, with the 13th Amendments abolition of slavery and reconstruction in the South, things began to change. In 1862, Senator Justin Morrill led a movement to improve the state of public higher education throughout the United States, putting an emphasis on the need for institutions to train Americans in the applied sciences, agriculture, and engineering ( Hanna, College View).