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(RNS) — Once a week the Rev. Mitchell J. Stevens, a Baptist minister and the interfaith chaplain at Xavier University of Louisiana, hosts an intimate gathering for students at the New Orleans school’s University Center to discuss campus life over coffee and donuts.
“We have Muslims that will come, Christians, different denominational groups,” said Stevens, who used the most recent session to guide participants in talking about what was good and challenging about their fall semester and what they will do differently in the spring. “It is, across the board, to make sure that all of our students are feeling welcomed in our space of faith.”
What makes Stevens’ weekly sessions rare for a Catholic school such as Xavier is less the range of faiths represented and more that most of the students in attendance are Black.
Xavier, the nation’s only Catholic historically Black university, has fostered inclusion as a core value since it was founded 100 years ago by now-Saint Katharine Drexel of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who left behind the life of a Philadelphia socialite to minister to Native Americans and African Americans. For decades it has been recognized for producing Black students who go on to graduate from medical school.
Today, the share of the school’s student body that is Black, at about 80%, is slightly higher than other historically Black colleges and universities and vastly surpasses that of other Catholic higher education institutions.
The average Black or African American fall enrollment at HBCUs overall was 74.8% of students from 2018 through 2023, according to the United Negro College Fund’s Frederick …