As NACADA strives to increase diversity in its membership, Historically Black Colleges and Universities can contribute to many aspects of the Diversity Committee’s purpose. One immediate aspect would be ethnicity. There are 103 HBCUs in the United States that range from 4-year, 2-year, private and public institutions, many of which are concentrated in Regions 3, 4, and 7.

The strongest point in this rationale is the needed platform for administrators, staff and students at HBCUs to discuss, collaborate, and share the success and challenges of advising students at these institutions at the regional or national level. Many students that attend create a profile that may be sparse at traditional institutions. However, at an HBCU, this becomes a concentrated campus-wide profile, which may therefore highlight non-traditional success and challenges.

Potential benefits of this network include:

• Can be considered a lifeline of support.
• Participate in benchmarking to identify areas of improvement.
• Encourage more involvement with NACADA at all levels.
• Can be a key source of information.
• Develop and share ideas, innovation and knowledge of best practice.