doctor loren blanchard college education is where you are at a we have someone who asked if you have seen a decline of attendance due to insufficient high school u.s. curriculums. wondering if you could take a look at those levels especially as students come to your college. >> yes, we spent quite a bit of time in the enrollment management work always looking at this end it really getting a better understanding of why it is that students select xavier and then why they are not. this includes why they are not in the category as well as you well know hbcu's were hit very hard not only by the recent economic recession but also with the parent plus loan debacle that we will discuss more later and what it really ended up doing was creating a difficulty for families of middle-class and as well as and other higher economic families. and so one of the things that we have had to do is to truly build our base and build stronger the base with scholarship support and work with corporations and foundations to help them to understand that while it typically, typically it's not one of the areas tha

he is loren blanchard the final in her interviews with the heads of colleges and universities. dr. blanchard thanks for joining us. guess the thank you very much for this opportunity and for the spotlight you have placed on xavier and the other hbcus.

lauren blanchard -- loren blanchard. dr. blanchard, thank you for joining us. dr.lanchard: thank you for this opportunity and for the spotlight you are placed on xavier and the other hbcus. it means a lot. pedro: eight total universities we have covered over the last month or so starting at howard university. fisk in that group.

the other historically black colleges that you have focused on here through c-span. >> host: loren blanchard of xavier university of louisiana joining us. tyrone is in baton rouge, louisiana. go ahead. >> caller: hello mr. blanchard, and thank you for taking my call. this may be mixing apples and oranges, but first i want to congratulate you on your academic excellence and your outreach to the young especially the young black students who are in eighth grade on up to try to get them to critically think. it's most important. but i want to ask you something about historically black colleges in general in regards to athletics. and this has to do with generating funds. an enormous amount of money at these big colleges like lsu who i'm sure you're familiar with florida, alabama to recruit black kids. they go to these towns and when young peewee have recruits, they recruit guys from eighth grade seventh grade. i don't see the same emphasis on them recruiting academically maybe potentially gifted kids like yourself. and i just want to try to ask your opinion even though it may not be academics -- i

he is loren blanchard the final in her interviews with the heads of colleges and universities. dr. blanchard thanks for joining us. guess the thank you very much for this opportunity and for the spotlight you have placed on xavier and the other hbcus. >> next jonathan horn recounts robert e. lee's decision to join the confederate army after being sought by the north and the south. from louisville kentucky, it's about an hour. >> it's my pleasure to introduce dr. horn. he is an author and former white house presidential speechmaker who spent years researching and writing his robert e. lee biography "the man who would not be washington" published in january of this year. jonathan has appeared as a commentator on "msnbc" and nbc radio. his writing has appeared in "the new york times"" "the weekly standard" and other outlets. during his time the white house jonathan served as a speechwriter and special assistant to president george bush and as a graduate of io university and we welcome him to louisville university. [applause] >> thank you so much for that lovely introduction judy. as w

lauren blanchard -- loren blanchard. dr. blanchard, thank you for joining us. dr. blanchard: thank you for this opportunity and for the spotlight you are placed on xavier and the other hbcus. it means a lot. pedro: eight total universities we have covered over the last month or so starting at howard university. fisk in that group. tuskegee. if you want to see all of these interviews, you can do so if you go to our website at c-span.org. they are archived for you to view. you want to thank the work of these universities. thank you for your participation. that is the washington journal for today. ♪ >> are series on historically black colleges and universities has been re-air and the past couple of days. today on c-span two starting at 6:20 p.m., our program on tuskegee university. coming up, president obama addresses the winter meeting of the democratic national committee in washington. our live coverage starts in about -- at about 11:10 a.m. eastern. next up, a potential -- a discussion on hillary clinton and a potential presidential bid. it is moderated by former a