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Just north of a couple hundred students have been reenrolled for a variety of reasons. Primarily, despite being late, there was some misunderstanding about what the 50% payment on the outstanding balance was, and in some of the circumstances, the documentation for scholarships and other types of aid that they had, they were able to show us. So, although it was late, we decided to offer those students an opportunity to join us in the fall.

There is a resolution for everybody, and that resolution includes that some of the students, as I said, more than 200 of them, will be with us, and unfortunately for the other students, they won’t be able to join this fall. But we’re also offering them a resolution that includes the ability to transfer, to defer their enrollment, or if they choose to enroll elsewhere, that we will help in any way that we can to get them to where they want to be.

So first, let me say while there’s been so much attention on these 500 students, 2,265 of our students met all the criteria, did everything that we asked them to do and got it right. So I’m very glad that you’re pointing out that and kudos to them. We want them to be able to come to campus and see that we’re ready to have them. And part of this is making sure that we’re ready, making sure that everything is in place. I would say it is not an unusual number, and let me be clear: as a private institution, we have a very, very high Pell Grant student base, which means we have about 40-something percent of our incoming class are coming from lower-income families.

Circumstances: we have several students that right now live in homeless shelters, even before coming to us, we have students who are not in contact with either parent. So all of those pose challenges in terms of those students being able to meet those deadlines, and we recognize that, which is why we put out our financial aid packages earlier than we’ve ever had before, as early as March. And so it is not unusual, but it is unusual as an institution, a private institution, to have such a high Pell Grant population. And so, as a result, trying to do everything earlier and trying to support the students in the best way is a very key part of our strategy.

I’m not. I don’t want to be naive that negativity in the social media realm and in the press isn’t good for us. But I also think when people start saying things like “because we’re Howard, we should accept these students if they don’t follow the procedures, etc.” I think that that’s a very misguided commentary. I also think that the commentary that suggests that we should take students just because of their circumstances is also a bad commentary because the same people will be on social media, and your media outlets will cover stories if we don’t have our dorms ready, if we don’t have adjunct faculty hired to teach the classes, etc. And to do that, not knowing who’s going to be here until the first day of class would be inappropriate.

So, from a reputational point of view, I think when you look at what we do as an institution, and the fact that we continue to put out quality grads and offer excellent programs, I think that will win the day ultimately, and that people would appreciate over time why we’re trying to get this planning done earlier and earlier, so that we can make sure that the student experience here at Howard is the best.

Well, you know, it’s unfortunate what happened, but I also think the silver lining is that people know that we are going to hold these deadlines, and we are going to over communicate as we have from March, and so I anticipate that next year we won’t have the problem because people will follow those guidelines and would recognize as well that for us to plan appropriately, we do take those guidelines seriously, and I think people will take them seriously and will follow through as well. And we will continue to make sure that we also improve our communications. We expand them as well, and that we give every student an opportunity if they are unable to meet it to try to help them.