Morehouse Commencement 2019
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 2 million Black men who pursue a college degree never finish. Their reasons vary, but include family responsibilities, military service and lack of financial resources.
Morehouse College wants to help those brothers reach the goal of completing their education and getting that degree.
The historically Black men’s college in Atlanta will be offering a an online college completion program, Morehouse Online, with reduced tuition this August.
Morehouse president David Thomas got the idea from attending some alumni events shortly after he began working at the college in 2018.
“It almost never failed that someone would pull me aside and say, ‘Is there some way I can finish my degree? I feel this amazing connection to Morehouse, it did so much for me.’ But for one reason or another, they never actually got their degree,” Thomas told NPR’s All Things Considered.
Thomas said the students will be able to “set their own time clock” for completion and will no longer need to be living on campus or in the Atlanta area to attend the prestigious college. Morehouse will charge online students $600 per credit, which is half of the cost of current tuition.
Thomas said in creating this program, he was thinking about his 57-year-old brother and how Morehouse Online may also appeal to older students seeking to get a college degree.
Initially, Morehouse Online was going to open to 1,000 students over the next five years, but due to the level of interest, Thomas expects to surpass that number. “I actually think we will serve at least twice that.”
Morehouse received over 5,000 inquiries about the new online program when it was officially announced last month – more than what it received in applications for its traditional program.