Leading a historically Black college through pandemic and racial upheaval

Executive overview

Spelman College — a 2,000-student HBCU for Black women — faced simultaneous crises in 2020: a pandemic that disproportionately threatened its community, and a wave of racial violence that hit close to home, including a Spelman student being tased by police.

President Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell moved quickly to close campus, then built a phased return plan rooted in density limits, daily infection tracking, and financial triage. The financial model — 50% tuition-dependent, with room-and-board revenue cut 70% — forced furloughs even as costs held steady.

HBCUs consistently outperform better-resourced institutions on graduating low-income and STEM-focused Black students — and remain chronically under-invested.

Moving to remote and planning the return

• Spring break triggered the closure decision; predictive modeling made it clear two weeks would not be enough.
• 800 in-person courses transitioned to online; students lost access to campus computer labs and devices.
• Fall plan: 25–30% on campus (freshmen, international students, ROTC); second semester adds seniors to reach ~50%.
• Campus size (39.4 acres) made full-density return physically impossible given distancing requirements.
• Reviewed ~50 plans from peer institutions; chose a model specific to Spelman's demographics and resources.
• Daily county-by-county infection and hospitalization data drives the decision to pivot if conditions worsen.

Financial pressure and hard trade-offs

• Nearly 50% of Spelman's budget comes from tuition and fees; room-and-board adds $10M per semester.
• A 70% reduction in residential students does not produce a 70% reduction in costs — faculty, staff, and buildings are fixed.
• Furlough tiers were salary-linked: staff earning $40K or less were exempt; the president and cabinet took the most days.
• The institution has a small reserve that will not cover projected losses — fiscal discipline is existential.

Racial violence and the campus response

• Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor deaths arrived in rapid succession while the campus was already in crisis.
• A Spelman student was pulled from her car and tased; Campbell called her the next morning and described the account as "harrowing."
• Campbell's own sons (a provost, an attorney, a Navy lieutenant) and physicist husband have faced similar encounters.
• Her father sued the Philadelphia police chief for excessive force in 1969 — the same issue, 50 years earlier.
• What felt different in 2020: broader cross-racial recognition of a problem Black Americans had described for decades.

Curriculum and institutional response

• First-year interdisciplinary curriculum redesigned to tackle live social questions, including police defunding debates.
• Reed Hastings and Patty Quillen's historic gift to Spelman, Morehouse, and UNCF directed national attention to HBCUs.
• Campbell highlighted Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's plan — specific targets, dates, and timetables — as a model for corporate anti-racism commitments.
• Netflix's workforce diversification and $100M investment in Black banks cited as examples of structural rather than symbolic action.

The HBCU equity argument

• HBCUs graduate Pell-eligible students (family income ≤$40K/year) at far higher rates than predominantly white institutions.
• Spelman produces more Black women earning STEM PhDs than any other US college — with a fraction of the resources.
• NSF data consistently shows HBCUs at the top for graduating Black students in physics, engineering, math, and computer science.
• Campbell's view: the problem is not awareness alone — philanthropic and federal investment has not matched documented outcomes.

Leadership under sustained uncertainty

• Campbell favors a "culture of caring" — psychological safety for the team to flag mistakes, try new approaches, iterate.
• Crisis surfaces talent that routine work doesn't: quieter team members stepped forward with novel ideas.
• Strategic planning shifted from five-year horizons to week-by-week; vigilance against burnout became a management priority.
• She rejects the "role model" framing in favour of helping students discover multiple, fluid identities on their own terms.