Faith Ngwa woke up early to make the 90-minute drive from her home in Hagerstown, Maryland, to the campus of Howard University. She arrived promptly at 8 a.m. and was soon greeted by the one thing every student hopes to see on their college move-in day: a familiar face. Talking to an upperclassman she knew through a friend, conversation inevitably turned to the news of the summer.
“I’m so happy things worked out,” the elder student said.
Weeks before move-in day, it was unclear if Ngwa would have a spot at The Mecca. She had long wanted to attend Howard, one of the nation’s preeminent historically Black universities. In April, her phone flooded with congratulatory messages after she posted that she was going to be a Bison.
But that dream appeared to be dashed in late July, when Ngwa discovered she was one of 502 students who were unenrolled from Howard after failing to meet payment deadlines. Following a social media firestorm, about 200 of them — including Ngwa — were reenrolled. It was a whirlwind experience, lasting just a week, but it was still on her mind as she made her way to Howard’s Northwest D.C. campus for a Friday morning move-in.
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The scene was crowded but orderly. Upperclassmen went car to car, providing the freshman and their families with a cart or a helping hand. As Ngwa wrapped up her conversation with her friend, her family members, who drove down in another car, began assessing how they were going to unload. They had brought all of the dorm room staples: mini fridge, clothes, trash can, sheets, hangers, a large pink mirror. In her own car, Ngwa had snacks and toiletries.
Her sister, Lois Ngam, stood in front of a cart brimming over with lamps, dorm accessories and a suitcase, shaking her head. She was still worried, thinking back to the moment her sister lost her place at Howard shortly after purchasing many of these supplies.
“It was just like, ‘What is going on?’” Ngam recalled. “Is this going to be an every-semester thing? Or is it just the first semester? It’s just kind of uncertain.”
The pink mirror was loaded into the cart last and Ngwa’s family made their way toward the dorm. They passed other freshmen with their parents, siblings, cousins and friends — everyone scrambling around the campus, working hard to get these new Bison settled.
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Looking for Answers
On July 22, news of Howard’s mass unenrollment started to trickle into social media feeds. Some of the affected students made video testimonials, many saying they had been wronged by the school they had been planning to attend in less than a month.
Days later, the university confirmed that it had unenrolled 502 students, saying that even after “multiple communications and deadline extensions” these students “had not satisfied the University’s enrollment requirements.” At that point, the online discourse took off. Posts were made, debates were had, students were interviewed.
Ngwa posted her own video that week describing her situation. In early July, she had started receiving notices about registration holds placed on her account. Federal loans she’d taken out remained pending on the school’s financial aid portal, and she wasn’t sure why.
She called the school’s financial aid office and received a surprisingly casual response.
“[The person who picked up is] just living her best life and says, ‘Yep, you’re good. You don’t have to worry about it,’” she said in her video. “But that doesn’t make sense because on my [portal], it’s still saying past due.”
When Ngwa got the email saying she was no longer a member of the class of 2030, she was devastated. Coming from a Cameroonian-American family, she viewed the university as a “once in a lifetime opportunity” and had already started planning out the next four years. She wanted to major in communications. She wanted to take part in the school’s famous homecoming celebrations. She wanted to study abroad in Brazil. She wanted the full Howard experience.
So she went looking for answers.
“The amount of emails I sent, let’s just say I wasn’t really nice,” Ngwa recalled. “I was typing out of emotion.”
She emailed the school’s bursar. She emailed the financial aid office. She panicked. She considered driving down to D.C. to try and get some answers in person, but her family encouraged her to remain calm. Things will work out, they said
Days later, Ngwa’s online account updated and she was officially reenrolled.
In a statement issued July 30, interim President Wayne A. I. Frederick wrote that each of the 502 student accounts affected had been reexamined. The Washington Post later reported that roughly 200 of those 502 students were reinstated.
When contacted by NOTUS, a Howard spokesperson said the school does not comment on individual student accounts but pointed to Frederick’s statement.
‘Truth and Service’
On a warm Sunday evening two days after move-in, Howard’s incoming freshmen filtered into the university’s football stadium to take the final symbolic step toward becoming Bison: the pinning ceremony. It’s a tradition that has grown in scale over the years, where members of the new class get a small pin featuring Howard’s insignia and motto: “Veritas et Utilitas.” Truth and service.
The sun began to set as the freshmen, donned in white, filled the bleachers on one side of the stadium field. Thousands of parents, siblings and other family members packed bleachers on the opposite side and the field.
Ngwa had spent the weekend getting acclimated to her new living space. She and her roommate, Meonna Acree, had become fast friends. Acree had also been unenrolled and reenrolled last month. They walked around together, wearing dresses they had bought specifically for the pinning ceremony. Ngwa walked gingerly. She had injured her leg at some point over the weekend, but decided to wear heels anyway.
“Beauty is pain,” she said.
As the ceremony began, student leaders riled up the freshmen, encouraging them to yell in response to their dorms being called out — Annex, College Hall North, the Quad. A small section of freshmen screamed in excitement as the musician Usher walked past; he was there to see his son join the class of 2030.
One parent in the crowd, who asked to remain anonymous in order to candidly discuss Howard’s enrollment process, said she had mixed emotions being at the pinning ceremony. Her daughter had narrowly avoided disenrollment over the summer after a miscommunication about payments.
“My child turned down quite a few other schools because she wanted to be here,” she said. “Some of these kids, [financial aid] is their only way in. [Howard] needs to be more transparent with everything.”
As celebratory music began playing, she looked out over the crowd of proud parents in Howard gear.
“I’m happy to be here. But I’m a little upset thinking to myself, ‘There are parents that should have been here who are not here.’ I’m fortunate enough to be here but I could’ve been one of those parents. I know that [unenrollment] would’ve devastated my child because she wouldn’t have come back the next year. I would not have allowed her to.”
Students, alumni and administrative leaders spoke one after the other. They talked about tradition and growth. They joked about the school’s rivalry with Hampton University. They used words like “legacy” and “becoming.”
“Remember, Howard chose you,” one speaker said.
But there was no acknowledgement of the experience 200 of the freshmen had gone through. Nor was there a mention of the 300 students who were missing from the ceremony.
“Everybody has no choice but to move on, despite what has happened,” Ngwa said later. “But it’s like at some point, the administration has to mention it and learn from it in order for this to not happen again.”
She was already looking forward to the week following the pinning ceremony. “Bison Week” is filled with activities: A D.C. night tour where students would bring boomboxes to dance in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Information sessions on study abroad. A “Taste of Howard” event in the yard, where members of the Greek organizations would stroll and step, introducing the students to the true HBCU experience.
“I’m very excited,” she said. “I do want to run for a lot of things, join a lot of organizations because hey, if Howard has already stressed me out this much, I might as well take full advantage.”
At the end of Sunday night, when relatives were encouraged to find their Bison and help them affix the pin to their lapel or dress, Ngwa’s family got caught up in the crowd. She believes they “weren’t really understanding the assignment” and were trying to get a photo of Usher.
“So I had to pin myself,” she said. “But that’s okay. I got a pin.”
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