CNN.com - Some historically black colleges see declining enrollment - Sep 25, 2006: RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- When Jessica Page visited Hampton University in March, she considered the trip a formality. She had already made up her mind to attend the school, considered by many a jewel among the nation's historically black institutions.
Then she saw the campus.
The dorms weren't as sleek as she had pictured. Buildings seemed antiquated. Was this 'The Real HU' she had heard about?
'I wasn't impressed,' said Page, who later enrolled at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. 'Hampton was my No. 1 choice -- until I visited.'
Page is part of a steady trickle of talented young blacks slipping away from the nation's most prestigious black colleges.
Experts say aging campuses are one reason. But other reasons cited include increasing competition from predominantly white schools that are trying to become more diverse; changes in black students' desires; and the greater opportunities available to them in a society more integrated than that of their parents.
