Despite Cheyney University being rescued from the brink of collapse, some students and alumni at the nation’s oldest historically Black university think it should be so much more, writes Susan Snyder for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Cheyney, located in Thornbury Township in Delaware and Chester counties, is one of the few schools in the state university system where enrollment has grown after a dramatic decline.

But an outspoken group says years of neglect is why the school was in decline.

They want Cheyney restored to national prominence, given a budget on par with Harvard University, and designated a national historic treasure.

“They’ve got a jewel there if they only could recognize it and use it,” said Steven P. Anderson, a 1976 alumnus.

They’ve formed a nonprofit, Save the Oldest HBCU Institute, and propose that Cheyney be controlled not by the state but by the federal government, specifically the National Park Service.

The land and buildings would become a historic site but still operate as a university under an independent federal agency.

A discrimination complaint signed by more than 90 students and alumni states that academic and athletic facilities have been lost at the university and that residence halls are in poor condition.

Read more about Cheyney University and the National Park Service in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

CBS News takes a look at a PBS documentary from five years ago looking at the evolution of America’s Black colleges and universities.