The fight to save one of only two all-female historically black colleges in the US?is seen as exemplifying the challenges facing small universities in the country.

Bennett College, a 145-year-old institution, needs to find $5 million?(?3.9 million) by the? to prove its financial health to an accreditor that voted last month against its continued operation.

¡°I think we¡¯re going to make it,¡± Bennett¡¯s president, Phyllis Worthy Dawkins, said amid an almost non-stop fundraising?. Bennett??and a??public ?have taken up the cause, ramping up attention through social media.

Their progress so far ¨C about $1 million in the first month, with three weeks remaining ¨C does not seem sufficient, though Dr Dawkins is also pursuing loan forgiveness options and preparing to sell campus assets as needed.

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The bigger question, if she and Bennett succeed by their 1 February deadline, may be: for how long? At least three major categories of US colleges are facing strong financial headwinds these days ¨C small?,?, and?-?¨C and Bennett is all three.

The US now has 101 historically black colleges, down from 121 in the 1930s, and about 60 women-only colleges, down from 281 in the 1960s. And while Bennett is known ¨C along with Spelman College in Atlanta ¨C for serving only black women, Dr Dawkins saw neither?category as her biggest financial burden.

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Instead, she pointed to data showing that private US colleges,? demographic changes and , are now closing at a??of about 11 per year and accelerating. Dr Dawkins needs to look only a few blocks away in downtown Greensboro to see the 12,000-student North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, another historically black college?that has the considerable advantage of public investment.

¡°It¡¯s about being a private institution without state support,¡± Dr Dawkins said of Bennett¡¯s probationary status with its accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. It is Bennett¡¯s third period of warning by Sacs since 2000. And the college¡¯s ?is barely half what it had a decade ago.

That decline stands in contrast to abundant research detailing the advantages felt by??attending , and by??attending??black?. Such institutions provide nurturing environments that produce success rates beyond what many students experience at traditional white-majority or male-dominated campuses.

Bennett is evidence, said Lisa Wolf-Wendel, a professor of higher education at the University of Kansas, that speciality-focused colleges remain?. ¡°It¡¯s one thing to admit women or to admit African Americans ¨C it¡¯s another thing to actually be institutions that??them,¡± she said.

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The??need??such places??the issue,??Walter Kimbrough, president of historically black Dillard University. ¡°HBCUs are??to run because the population has less wealth,¡± he said.

Even if Bennett succeeds this time around, Dr Dawkins acknowledged, major changes still need to be made ¨C including the??of giving up either its women-only or minority-only status.

¡°We are open to different models ¨C I don¡¯t make the final decision on that,¡± she said. ¡°As president, we just cannot be here again.¡±

paul.basken@timeshighereducation.com