Many historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are struggling to stay afloat financially, and many more are also finding it difficult to get their alumni to come together to give a helping hand.
But some HBCUs are basically having the best year ever.
HBCU Shaw University in Raleigh is managing a much-needed financial windfall in 2016.
Thanks, in part, to the Black Lives Matter movement, donations have dramatically increased by 70 percent at Shaw, according to ABC 11.
“We’ve seen an immense increase,” said Shaw President Dr. Tashni-Ann Dubroy. “We have new donors who never sent to Shaw University and believe in our vision, what we are here to do, and how it is well impact the community so they’ve been giving to Shaw as well.”
In a statement, Dubroy said that the university will restore regular wage schedules for its employees, naming “increases in enrollment, cost-saving initiatives across academic and operational budgets, and historic gains in corporate and private giving” as reasons for “the immediate cessation of a three-year old campus-wide salary reduction program.”
“While many colleges and universities are planning to permanently adopt cost-saving and efficiency models in compensation, we are honored to be among a handful of peer institutions working to make our salary structure comparable with the levels which preceded federal changes in college funding access in 2011,” the statement read. “More importantly, we see this as a foundation for our continuing efforts to make our salary scale among the most competitive in the state through new expectations for sponsored research, innovation in teaching, and philanthropic development within our academic units. Employees affected by the salary reduction initiative will see restored earning levels beginning in September.”
Fellow NC HBCU North Carolina Central University in Durham has already exceeded its fundraising goal prior to the start of the new academic year. The black college has brought in an incredible $7 million for the 2015-2016 fiscal year.
“That really means that it’ll [the university] will sustain itself for generations to come and that’s important,” said Central Vice Chancellor of Division of Institutional Advancement Harriet Davis.
“Even as we see racial relations become in the spotlight of national media and even as we see areas of improvement in everything that we do, I still believe our community can come together and that can shape what the future will look like in terms of our social progressiveness,” Dubroy said.
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