Commentary: Sweep Around Your Own Front Door: Fifteen Harvard students walked out of an economics class when the faculty member posited that 99 percent of the poorest of the poor, defined as those at 50 percent or less of the official poverty level ($5,570 for an individual and $11,157 for a family of four) were suffering from economic envy and concluded that inequality hadn’t increased in the United States. This is occurring at a time when 1 in 15 Americans are considered the poorest of the poor and the same time that those fortunate enough to attend college, leave with an average of $20,000 in loan debt. At Alabama A&M, for example, the average debt was $32,000, while at prestigious Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., the debt level was only about $8,000. The question I ask us to consider together is where do HBCUs stand on these issues of ever pressing concern?
