Student rode bus from Cleveland to plead with Howard after unenrollment
Howard University has begun reinstating some of the students it permanently unenrolled for missing tuition deadlines, allowing them to move into dorms for the fall semester — though the reversal has left some students uncertain about whether their enrollment will hold.
The university unenrolled hundreds of incoming first-year students who did not submit tuition payments by a July deadline, despite notifications that began months earlier. The move marked the second consecutive year that Howard students faced registration disruptions tied to unpaid balances.
Nikiyah Clark, 17, of Cleveland, Ohio, was among those affected. Weeks before move-in day, university administrators told Clark she had been permanently unenrolled. She rode a bus from Cleveland to the Washington, D.C., campus to plead her case in person.
“I didn’t just lose my dream. I lost my way out,” Clark told the AP. The 17-year-old had pinned her hopes on Howard as a peaceful environment and a path to financial freedom after years of growing up in what she described as “survival mode.”
Clark left that meeting in tears. Shortly after, the university notified her she was welcome to enroll again.
She moved into her Howard dorm on Thursday, arriving with five boxes and a backpack — belongings she had packed for a moment she was told weeks earlier would never come.
Despite the reinstatement, Clark remains uneasy. She said she worries the university might reverse its decision again and hopes Howard will make changes so that other students are not wrongfully unenrolled.
Howard’s initial unenrollment of 502 incoming students in late July prompted colleges and universities nationwide to open late-admissions windows for the displaced students (MSI, July 24; MSI, July 28).