Determined students at Howard University are partnering with the Raising A Village to close Washington D.C.’s learning gap. Get the full story from the Howard release by Aaliyah Butler below.
Howard University Center of Career and Professional Success has partnered with Raising A Village Foundation for the upcoming school year in a collective effort to increase participation in student mentoring and tutoring.
The Center of Career and Professional Success provides career services through experiential learning and campus employment. As part of this federal work-study partnership, Howard University students will be afforded the opportunity to work with the Raising A Village Foundation’s Driven 2 Succeed program as Driven Student Guides and mentors. This experience gives them direct access to empower young scholars in D.C.’s underserved communities. Raising A Village’s goal for the school year is to ensure more than 1,000 District of Columbia Public Schools students receive quality, high-impact tutoring.
“Distance learning has significantly affected learning resources for so many students from underrepresented communities in the education system,” said Melissa Knight, interim director of the Howard University Center of Career and Professional Success. “We are excited that our federal work-study program will help bring these students back on track with their educational goals.”
This Fall, Raising A Village will facilitate an in-person tutoring model that has expanded to 12 sites across Washington, D.C. Howard University federal work-study students have the opportunity to make an impact by serving as guides and increasing access to academic interventions for D.C. Public School students.
“As an HBCU alumna, the opportunity to partner with other HBCUs like Howard University brings me joy because we can give students the ability to use their experiences and education to become difference-makers in children and families’ lives every day,” said Raising A Village Founder & CEO Jaleesa Hall.
Vielka Vasquez, a sophomore psychology major, said she’s learned that adults can really impact the lives of a child and the importance for uplifting children.
Fisk University‘s John Lewis Center For Social Justice has a new leader, and she’s a powerhouse! The hiring of Dr. Karida Brown as the new director makes her the first visiting Diane Nash Descendants Of The Emancipation Chair at Fisk. Get the full story from the Fisk official release below.
Esteemed Professor Dr. Karida Brown of UCLA, and Director of Racial Equity &Action for the LA Lakers, has been appointed to Fisk University’s inaugural Diane Nash Descendants of the Emancipation Chair at the school’s John Lewis Center for Social Justice.
The Diane Nash chair was established in May of this year through a $2.5 million grant from Amy and Frank Garrison. A portion of the grant funds the endowed chair, which recognizes the contributions of Dr. Nash, a former Fisk student and renowned Civil Rights activist.
Dr. Brown brings extensive experience as an author, educator, social scientist and organizational change leader to this important new Chair. She is assuming the role for this academic year, and will be joined in her mission, to reinvigorate Fisk’s initiatives in race and social justice, by her husband, celebrated fine artist Charly Palmer. Together Dr. Brown and Palmer will focus on infusing Fisk’s curriculum across all disciplines with action-based programming that builds social justice into the academic experience at Fisk.
“We are committed to continue to be at the center of the national conversations around race relations and social justice and are so excited by the depth of expertise, passion and leadership that Dr. Brown brings to our students and the John Lewis Center,” said Jens Frederiksen, EVP at Fisk. “We are equally excited by the partnership between Dr. Brown and Charly Palmer, a highly respected artist who has made the celebration of Black life and history his life’s work and who was asked by Time Magazine to create its cover for its important issue on racial reckoning,” said Fisk Provost John Jones.
As one of the country’s leading historically Black Universities, Fisk has a legacy of leadership in social justice. Both the late Congressman John Lewis and Diane Nash were founders of the school’s Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and led civil rights movements in the 1960’s, which led Nashville to become the first southern city to desegregate lunch counters.
“Both Charly and I have pledged to make this a year of impact. To be part of this investment by Fisk to elevate its work in social justice, speaks to our intention to be part of something bigger. We are humbled to walk these sacred grounds at Fisk where so many great Black innovators thrived, including alumni such as John Lewis, Diane Nash, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Nikki Giovanni, as well as faculty such as Aaron Douglas and Charles S. Johnson, to name a few. It is our desire to bring our combined resources to this auspicious purpose,” said Dr. Karida Brown.
Dr. Brown assumes the Chair role August 1s for a one-year appointment. Charly Palmer will also begin teaching August 1 for one year, mentoring and instructing Fisk students and Nashville’s rich community of Black artists on finding their voice in the art world, and the intersections of art, business, and race.
In commenting on this year of impact, Charly Palmer said, “Art inspires enlightenment, inspiration and motivation and that is something I can help provide to Fisk students. As Kendrick Lamar said, ‘I’ll give you the game, you go back to the turf and give it back.’ I believe that.”
Fisk University has experienced a major upswing over the past five years with enrollment growth, fundraising records, and significant increases in the academic profile of the incoming classes. The Fisk future looks brighter than ever and the University remains deeply committed to delivering an elite educational experience.
Dr. Karida L. Brown is a Professor at UCLA in the Departments of Sociology & African American Studies. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Brown University (2016), and an M.P.A. in Government Administration from the University of Pennsylvania (2011). Dr. Brown is a multifaceted oral historian, sociologist & educator. She currently serves on the boards of The Obama Presidency Oral History Project and the Du Boisian Scholar Network. In June of 2020, Dr. Brown was appointed Director of Racial Equity & Action for the Los Angeles Lakers. Karida is also a Fulbright Scholar, and her research has been supported by national foundations like the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation & the Hellman Fellows Fund.
Charly Palmer believes that “art should change the temperature in the room.” His artwork chronicles and celebrates the richness of Black life. The Atlanta-based artist has produced work for the Olympics, John Legend and Time Magazine and most recently illustrated the cover ofNBA 2K22 video games. As an instructor, he has taught design and illustration and painting, previously at Spelman College. He and his wife Dr. Karida L. Brown are also collaborating with some of today’s leading Black artists and writers to produce a children’s book,The Brownie’s Book: A Love Letter to Black Families, forthcoming with Chronicle Books in 2023.
Wilberforce University will be bringing music back to Ohio with not only a revamp of its marching band, but also a curriculum for a BA degree in music performance! Learn more in the story by Eileen McClory at Dayton Daily News below.
Credit: Wilberforce University
Wilberforce University is bringing back its music program — complete with a marching band and choir — after a years-long hiatus.
The nation’s first private Historically Black College and University recently hired a veteran music educator with a reputation for rebuilding building music and band programs, to lead the efforts. The school also added an area native and Dayton Public Schools product to the team.
James McLeod, will serve as chair of the new music department, and Virgil Goodwine, an assistant music professor, is charged with rebuilding the marching band.
The band will operate identically to other HBCU ensembles, marching at home basketball games, parades, high school football games and guest performances, the university said. WU does not a football team.
McLeod will also hire music teachers, redesign and develop the music curriculum for the degrees of Bachelor of Arts in music performance for instrumental vocal music and Bachelor of Science in music business with a technology component.
McLeod, who has a 27-year history of building such programs, said they will soon be accepting auditions for band scholarships to join the marching, band and the university choir will be next.
“The band program is an essential part of HBCU culture,” McLeod said. “The marching unit is a great source of pride and school spirit. It is our belief that in the rebuilding of the music department, the presence of a band would bring not only pride and school spirit, but also assist in reaching our enrollment goals exponentially.”
McLeod said the university expects to have an operational ensemble in the spring of 2022, pending the arrival of the equipment.
The band, like other student-driven activities, will be recruited locally from the on-campus population, he said. The university will also seek students from the surrounding cities and states.
McLeod received his bachelor’s degree in music education from Mississippi Valley State University, a master’s in music education from Jackson State University, and a Master of Science in entertainment business from Full Sail University. In between teaching applied music, music appreciation and theory, writing music, directing videos, and creating graphic designs, McLeod is presently working on his Ph.D. in music education.
Goodwine attended Colonel White School of the Performing Arts, received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Central State University, his Master of Science degree in music from the University of Dayton and his doctorate with a concentration in leadership in higher education research from Capella University. Most recently, he was a director of instrumental music for the Oak Park, Michigan schools in suburban Detroit.
Goodwine said he wanted the opportunity to build an HBCU marching band.
“Truthfully, the opportunity to create and build is the incentive,” he said. “There are various HBCU music programs dating back to the 1940s that have set traditions based on the director that began each program.”
Clinton College is offering qualifying students free tuition for the new 2021-2022 school year! Learn all about the great news and Clinton College President Lester A. McCorn’s announcement in The Miami Times article below.
Clinton College in Rock Hill, S.C., was founded in 1894 by the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church. (Credit: Clinton College)
A small historically Black college in South Carolina established in 1894 is offering all full-time students free tuition for the upcoming 2021-22 academic year.
Clinton College President Lester McCorn made the announcement last week for qualifying full-time students at the school in Rock Hill. The school had already made the commitment to slash fall tuition by 50% for its students, and offer every student a new tablet, news outlets reported.
But now the college is making tuition free as the school hopes to ensure its students receive a college education despite financial hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Each full-time student will also receive a free Microsoft Surface laptop, McCorn said.
“We want to make sure you can perform with excellence without excuse,” he said.
The school’s website lists the cost of tuition for full-time students at $4,960 per semester, while a full year costs $9,920.
Students who are vaccinated can live on campus and will still be responsible for paying room and board. Those who attend full time and live off campus can continue their courses online free of charge.
“It has been taxing for each and every one of us,” McCorn said of the pandemic. “At Clinton College, we have done our best to keep the school moving forward and providing a quality education, even in a virtual environment.”
Clinton College was one of many schools established by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church during Reconstruction years, to help eradicate illiteracy among freedmen. It has operated continuously for 120 years.
The school is among a wave of smaller colleges and universities around the state offering free tuition to students during the pandemic, local paper The Herald reported. Spartanburg Community College is currently offering students a similar deal to anyone taking a minimum of six credits – or two courses – while Denmark Technical College recently offered to waive the costs for the first 500 applicants for the fall semester.
The young students at Icon Prep, and HBCU-inspired private school are destined for greatness. FAMU pride is rampant among the staff, where many teachers are alumni. Get the full story about how students’ lives are changing “from falling behind to being at the home of the Rattlers” from Ron Matus at Redefined Online.
Students ar Icon Prep
Dwayne Raiford envisioned his “HBCU inspired” private school enrolling 60 students the first year. But as word spread, it quickly became clear he had underestimated demand.
Hundreds of parents in Tampa’s most underserved neighborhoods applied to Icon Preparatory School right off the bat. Now the K-8 school is rolling into its fourth year with nearly 400 students, 60 more on a waiting list and plans to replicate in another city next year.
“We used to go door to door, but we don’t need to do that anymore,” said Raiford, Icon Prep’s superintendent. “Parents seek us out now.”
Icon Prep is a fresh example of what happens – and who benefits – when education choice is the new normal.
In Florida, arguably the most choice-rich state in America, Black parents are gravitating to learning options that didn’t exist a generation ago. More than 100,000 Black students in Florida are now enrolled in state-supported, non-district options, whether it’s a charter school, a private school using a state school choice scholarship, or a customized learning program created with an education savings account. That number of Black students exercising choice is among the highest – if not the highest – of any state in America.
Icon Prep parents aren’t surprised.
“Options make it so that I can have school that works for my child,” said Brandi Evans, who has three children at Icon Prep. “Let me put them in private schools. Let me put them in charter schools. Whatever floats your boat and works, you go with it.”
With education choice, Evans continued, “I get to control the narrative.”
Raiford, 43, is a Tampa native with humble roots. He was the first in his family to earn a college degree; the first male on his father’s side to graduate from high school. When he got to college, he didn’t realize he’d have to buy his own books for class. Now his resume includes a doctoral degree in educational leadership from Florida A&M University, stints with Teach for America and the acclaimed KIPP charter school network, and a 20-year career that saw him rise from teacher to administrator to specialist in school turnarounds.
The Staff at Icon Prep
A few years ago, Raiford decided it was time to pursue his own vision for a school. He wanted something that could better serve students like the ones he grew up with, like the one he had been himself. So, he returned to Florida, where choice give educators options, too.
Raiford determined the best route to student success was through a private school, which offered less red tape and more flexibility. Then he put together a leadership team, many of them FAMU alum, with 70 years of combined experience teaching in public schools.
Icon Prep rents its building from a church across the street, Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist. FAMU pride is on full display. Icon Prep adopted FAMU’s colors, green and orange, and the FAMU team name, the Rattlers.
Everything about the school drives a fundamental expectation. Its halls are lined with pennants from hundreds of colleges. On some days, students wear matching T-shirts that say, “I Am College Bound.” (On others they wear matching polos – unless they’ve already completed high school courses, in which case they wear button-up shirts and ties). Last year, some students took a field trip to Clark Atlanta University. This year, the Icon Prep marching band will perform at FAMU, Bethune-Cookman University and Edward Waters University.
“If you decide college is not for you, that’s fine,” Raiford said. “But if you go to school here, you’re going to be prepared.”
The Icon Prep student drowsed up as doctor for costume parade last fall.
Nearly every student at Icon Prep uses a choice scholarship for lower-income families. (Those scholarships are administered by Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog. You can learn how to apply at this link.)
Many of them struggled in their prior schools, including Raiford’s nephew.
When he returned to Tampa, Raiford said he was stunned to find his nephew, then in first grade, reading like a beginner in kindergarten. Today, Raiford’s nephew is a fifth grader at Icon Prep – and taking ninth grade courses.
Standardized test score data (Icon Prep uses the MAP test developed by NWEA) shows Icon Prep students outpacing the national average in reading and math gains in nearly every grade. Meanwhile, about 40 students are taking high school courses, and this year, 11 of them will begin taking college courses. The latter, in math and writing, are offered through an online dual enrollment program with Saint Leo University. If all goes as planned, the number of students in that program will rise to 30 next year.
Parents couldn’t be more thrilled.
Evette Nash has three children at Icon Prep: Tyreek, Taequan and Tresean.
Taequan, now in sixth grade, was the first to enroll. In his prior school, he was diagnosed with ADHD and deemed “below grade level.” He became so frustrated, Nash said, “he would pretty much shut down.” But within a year at Icon Prep, she said, Taequan was taking classes at two grade levels above.
It is powerful, Nash said, for her children to “see people who look like them who are successful.” She said she has come to appreciate Icon Prep’s relentless push for college.
“At first I was like, OMG, these are babies. But now I see it’s a good thing,” said Nash, a compliance specialist at a health insurance company. “We sit down with our sons and let them know: You have a lot of responsibility now. You have an opportunity that your Dad and I did not. That’s what we want. For our kids to have a chance. To be what they want to be.”
Brandi Evans said putting her children at Icon Prep – Halen, Zaria and Tezric – was “the best decision I ever made.”
“Children learn better in a setting they’re comfortable in,” said Evans, a medical coder whose husband is a forklift driver. “They excel when they’re taught by those they can identify with. I don’t mean necessarily race. I mean somebody who understands them.”
Thomesha Hawkins said her daughter, Keniah, was excelling at her prior school. But the school “had nothing for students who were advanced.”
At one point, she said, Keniah’s teacher called her in for a conference. Keniah was acing her tests so quickly, she would turn them in, fidget in her seat and sometimes get up and dance. The teacher’s solution: give Keniah a spray bottle so she could clean the whiteboards. “That’s when I decided this is not for her,” said Hawkins, a former pharmacy tech who now works as a substitute teacher in district schools.
At Icon, Keniah began taking high school courses in fifth grade. Now a seventh grader, she’s in the first cohort taking college courses.
As fate would have it, Hawkins’ oldest daughter started college this month, too.
“I’m still trying to wrap my brain around it,” Hawkins said. “I literally had a ‘Whoa!’ moment.”
Benedict College is taking an aggressive step to offer healthy plant-based food options on campus. Learn more about the food agreement that Benedict is one of the first schools to sign onto in the release below.
Credit: Nohat
This joint effort comes in the wake of Benedict College’s campus-wide rollout of Meatless MondaysSHARE
Benedict College, a historically Black liberal arts college (HBCU) in Columbia, South Carolina, is among the first colleges in the country to be signed onto the Forward Food Pledge. This collaboration commits Benedict to a minimum 5% annual increase in plant-based menu offerings through 2024 and secures the college’s status as a trailblazer in the plant-forward movement.
Benedict College, which contracts its foodservice operations to Perkins Management Services, has been working with student groups and external organizations to increase its plant-based offerings. Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis, president and CEO at Benedict College, echoed the sentiment of the Benedict community in saying, “Benedict College is always seeking innovative and healthy ways to improve its food service program for students, faculty, staff and guests. As a transformative college, we support plant-based culinary cuisine as a new food option.”
Says Sam Pearson, director of dining services at Benedict, “We have built a strong partnership with the community by listening to and sharing ideas with different groups regarding healthier options. We’ve worked alongside the Student Government Association, the Student Based Food Committee and the newly appointed BCcares Health and Wellness Initiative, which involves faculty and staff.”
The Humane Society of the United States, which is part of the Forward Food Collaborative, commends Benedict College for its enthusiasm and vigor in advancing its plant-based menu offerings to better serve Benedict’s student population. In signing the Forward Food Pledge, Benedict College now has access to the Forward Food Collaborative’s ever-growing toolkit of free resources and will no doubt continue to benefit from offering delicious, cost-effective and sustainable plant-based items for years to come.
A nearly $500,000 grant is helping Miles College to restore the oldest building on campus! Learn more about Williams Hall in the article by Michael Seale at Patch below!
Source: Wikipedia
The oldest building on the Miles College campus is the focus of a preservation and restoration project, thanks to a grant received by the college from the Historically Black Colleges and Universities grant program.
Miles was awarded a $499,869 grant, funded by the Historic Preservation Fund and administered by the National Park Service, Department of Interior for the second phase of preservation and restoration of Williams Hall, erected in 1907 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Miles was one of 20 schools – and one of two schools in Alabama – to receive a portion of the $9.7 million in grants awarded during this round of funding. The monies are designated for the preservation of historic structures on campuses of HBCUs.
“We want to thank the National Park Service and Congresswoman Terri Sewell for their continued support. This grant permits us to move forward with the next phase of the restoration process to preserve this key historic landmark,” Miles College president Bobbie Knight said. “We are grateful to the Historic Preservation Fund and National Park Service for their vision to save and restore monuments significant to African American cultural history in America.”
Congress appropriates funding for the program through the Historic Preservation Fund, which uses revenue from federal oil leases on the Outer Continental Shelf, providing assistance for a broad range of preservation projects without expending tax dollars.
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) was instrumental in helping Miles College secure funding for Williams Hall through the Historic Preservation Fund.
“Each year, as Congress makes critical decisions about which federal programs to fund, ensuring that preservation projects on HBCU campuses get the robust funding they deserve remains one of my top legislative priorities,” Sewell said. “I’m thrilled to see that Alabama HBCUs are once again beneficiaries of this program.”
Once the site of several epic events during the Civil Rights Era, Williams Hall has been in disrepair for several years. The preservation, renovation, and rehabilitation of Williams Hall will document and preserve the site of many stories related to the African American struggle to gain equal rights as citizens in the 20th Century.
The school intends to restore Williams Hall to its appearance at that time while extending the usable lifespan of the building by providing modern and purposefully designed spaces for academic, teaching, and museum offerings.
Once Williams Hall has been restored, Miles College plans to use the building as a teaching museum to honor the founders, students, alumni and the school’s role in the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement.
Upon its completion, Williams Hall will also house the Miles College Center for Economic and Social Justice.
Debt is a weight that many students carry all their lives. So when HBCUs across the nation decided to wave tuitions, textbook fees and more this year, many felt like it couldn’t have come at a better time. Learn about the lives HBCUs have changed with their positive use of federal funds in the NPR article below by Deepa Shivaram.
Students applaud at the Morehouse College commencement ceremony on May 16, 2021, in Atlanta. Morehouse recently announced it would clear remaining tuition balances for students, joining several other HBCUs doing the same. Credit: Marcus Ingram/Getty Images
Carrington Wigham thought it was a normal Monday.
She was wrapping up her junior year at Florida A&M University, a historically Black university in Tallahassee, Fla., and had signed on to her online student portal to register for classes for her last year of college — a process that she said on a normal day is stressful because she had to look into her remaining tuition balance.
On a normal day, she would see she owed the school $8,000. She’d call her mom and they would try to figure out how to pay, so Wigham could graduate on time.
But this Monday was not a normal day.
Wigham was one of 7,946 students at FAMU who had their tuition balance erased thanks to funds from the CARES Act that many historically Black colleges and universities have put directly toward student debts.
Her remaining balance on this very not normal Monday was $0.
Direct investment in students helps the school, too
The CARES Act, passed in March 2020, gave $1 billion to HBCUs and Minority Serving Institutions specifically.More than 20 of the roughly 100 HBCUs around the country have been using these funds to help their students pay off debts owed to the school.
“We started looking early on what we might do to support our students,” Larry Robinson, president of Florida A&M University, told NPR.
At FAMU, more than 60% of students receive financial aid through federal Pell Grants and the average household income is less than $50,000 a year, Robinson said. Supporting students financially during the pandemic was a “natural” step.
Walter Kimbrough, president of Dillard University, an HBCU in New Orleans, said the process of HBCUs applying the funds directly to students’ bills also benefits the university.
“What you end up having happen is the students will drop out because they can’t pay the debt that they owe, then the school doesn’t have that money that they budgeted for and that student might not come back, which lowers the graduation rate,” Kimbrough told NPR.
“So for us, it makes a lot of sense because you can eliminate that debt so that the student can continue with their education and graduate,” he said. “It’s a win for everybody in this situation.”
Low graduation rates, Kimbrough said, are a constant point of criticism toward HBCUs and the low rates are often directly tied to students not being able to afford their education.
“It is one of those challenges that money actually can fix it,” he said.
Student debt impacts Black students differently
Data shows Black students take longer to pay off their debt than white students; they are also more likely to default on their loans. Additionally, Black graduates, on average, make less money than their white peers, even with a college degree. Canceling student debt, many advocates argue, is one of the fastest ways to close the Black-white wealth gap.
But Kimbrough also points out that for some HBCU students, having their tuition balances forgiven by their school isn’t necessarily related to the burden Black students face in paying off their student debt after graduation.
He says the students who need the immediate financial help sometimes aren’t able to get loans from a bank in the first place, given their current financial situation.
“These folks can’t get their money, period,” he said, “For these students, when there is a gap and they can’t pay, they just don’t finish school.”
Wigham says she’s noticed on campus when a student doesn’t return the next semester.
“When I notice students who don’t usually return from the semester, they’re like, ‘Oh, I wasn’t able to register for classes because I had outstanding balance.’ That is just so heartbreaking, but that is reality,” she said. “That narrative is way too familiar for students across this country.”
Students can look ahead with more hope
HBCU leaders like Robinson said more than anything, though, they hope helping students with their tuition balances shows how much HBCUs prioritize their students — and shows their students what it means to give back and care for people who are facing challenging times.
“We expect our students to be excellent while they’re here and do great things when they leave, but that’s not enough. … They really have to leave here with an appreciation for those have haven’t been as fortunate, those who are still struggling,” Robinson said.
And for students like Wigham, it also provides a feeling that’s hard to find when you’re young and saddled with debt: hope.
“I am just so, so, so, so hopeful the future will be bright,” Wigham said.
“Sometimes people feel like giving up, people feel discouraged but when little miracles like this happen, it’s reassurance, for sure.”
Three players took on nearly 88% of the carries out of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff backfield during the spring season.
UAPB running back Omar Allen Jr. takes a handoff during warm-ups before an April 17 home game against Prairie View A&M. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)
One of them is the returning starting quarterback, and he led the team in rushing yards. The second-leading rusher from the spring is no longer with the team.
That leaves Omar Allen Jr., a redshirt junior who prepped at Watson Chapel High School, as the elder statesman at that position for the upcoming season, which starts Sept. 4 at home against Tennessee’s Lane College. Allen rushed 42 times for 150 yards, but did not score a touchdown during the spring.
“I think Omar knows our offense very well,” running backs coach Larry Warner said. “Really smart kid, great leader and in the backfield. With those guys being young, he’s done a good job. I think those guys will push him to take the next step in the program and give everything he has.”
Warner, a 2008 Championship Subdivision All-American at Southern Illinois University, is working out a number of new faces to the UAPB backfield to take the running pressure off of fourth-year starting quarterback Skyler Perry, who rushed for 216 yards and three touchdowns in five games last spring.
Warner said Allen has done well leading the backfield during preseason camp, but that doesn’t exactly mean the Golden Lions are trying to identify a full-time featured back, two seasons after Taeyler Porter capped off back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing campaigns.
“I’m a little different,” Warner said. “I don’t believe in starters. I believe in guys who produce. We go as they produce. If we continue to produce and someone gets it rolling, he’ll be the guy for that game. We come back to work the next week, and whoever gets it going again, that guy will be the guy for that week and everybody comes in as rotators.
The Lions have brought in at least three new faces to the backfield, one of which Warner coached at the University of Central Arkansas four years ago.
Kierre Crossley, who was a senior last fall, rushed 115 times for 591 yards and four touchdowns during the Bears’ nine-game independent schedule. Warner coached Crossley as a freshman before moving on to the University of South Alabama.
True freshman Kayvon Britten has added to Coach Doc Gamble’s Cincinnati-to-Pine Bluff pipeline, although he played last year at Pittsburgh’s Steel City Preparatory Academy. Britten ran for 1,255 yards as a sophomore at Cincinnati’s Western Hills High School and finished his high school career with more than 3,000 yards and 38 touchdowns, according to statistics from FirstStarFootballReport.com and UAPB.
Daniel Ingram, a sophomore who played at Cincinnati’s Withrow High, was injured for much of the spring season but is the only other returning running back. True freshman Rico Dozier of Abbevile, Ala., started out camp as a linebacker but is now working out in the backfield.
“We’ve got a good number of linebackers, and we’re just trying to give guys looks,” Warner said of Dozier, who at one time was committed to the University of Tennessee. “He played running back in high school, so we gave him an opportunity to come over there on that side of the ball.”
Mattias Clark, who as a freshman was UAPB’s second-leading rusher (173 yards on 61 carries and two touchdowns), left the program and is now playing with Olivet Nazarene University, near his hometown of Kankakee, Ill.
In Clark’s absence, an entirely new backfield in Pine Bluff has come a long way since camp started eight days ago, Warner said.
“The guys are just paying attention to details, and I think we are moving in the right direction and improving every day like we talked about and getting the most out of them every day.”
POLL TALK
UAPB is ranked fourth in the preseason BOXTOROW Media Poll for historically Black college football teams, released Friday.
The ranking follows up predictions that UAPB won’t successfully defend its SWAC Western Division championship from the spring. The Golden Lions — who were picked fifth in the division for the fall in the conference’s preseason poll — were the highest-ranked SWAC West team in the BOXTOROW poll, conducted by the national radio show “From the Press Box to Press Row” and voted on by media members who regularly cover Black college football. The Lions finished second in the final spring BOXTOROW poll, only behind SWAC champion Alabama A&M University.
Alabama A&M earned six of the 16 first-place votes and 142 voting points to take the top spot in the BOXTOROW list, followed by North Carolina A&T State University (eight first-place votes, 116 points), SWAC newcomer Florida A&M University (one first-place vote, 107 points), UAPB (94 points), Southern University (84 points), Alcorn State University (one first-place vote, 76 points), South Carolina State University (70 points), Jackson State University (42 points), Bowie State University (37 points) and Prairie View A&M University (27 points).
MacKenzie Scott made records across many HBCUs as the highest single donor in their history. Now it is being revealed that she really did her research to figure out which ones she felt could use the funding most at the time. Read the full story from Harlem World Magazine about and why how she chose the schools in the article below.
Last year, billionaire and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott donated $560 million to 23 long-established black colleges and universities, both public and private.
For many universities, this is the largest financial gift they have received, and it has brought severely underfunded institutions into the focus of attention for decades.
Scott emphasized that her donation method is data-driven, with the focus on entrusting HBCU leaders to freely decide how to best use unrestricted funds.
Scott emphasized that her donation method is data-driven, with the focus on entrusting HBCUleaders to freely decide how to best use unrestricted funds. Scott didn’t make the decision on her own.
In a Moderate postal, from July 2020, she wrote that she has a team of non-profit consultants, “mainly representatives from historically marginalized ethnic, gender, and sexual identity groups.”
…federal data from the National Center for Education Statistics was used to determine the common ground between the institution of choice and the institution of non-selection.
A study led by a scholar at Rutgers University provides further insights. A sort of Report Based on this research and released on Thursday, federal data from the National Center for Education Statistics was used to determine the common ground between the institution of choice and the institution of non-selection.
The survey results include: HBCU that accepts donations has recruited more college students. On average, the median number of students studying for a degree for the first time in the enrollment class of the selected institution is 716, compared with 349 in other institutions. Scott’s HBCU usually also has higher tuition and the fees-the median is $10,861, which is $2,293 higher than the median fee for those who did not receive money from Scott. Their retention rate and graduation rate are also higher. On average, the retention rate of the selected HBCU is 15% higher than the retention rate of the unselected HBCU. On average, the six-year graduation rate of institutions that accept donations is 16% higher than other HBCUs.
Analyze and collect data. The author said that the report can also be a tool of HBCU itself.
The report’s lead author, Marybeth Gasman, a professor at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University, and Resche Hines, CEO of the organization Trivium BI, said these findings could help others interested in making charitable donations to minority service organizations. Analyze and collect data. The author said that the report can also be a tool of HBCU itself.
“For HBCUs, it is necessary to equip its organization with data on a regular basis. This data can be easily presented to people. If they are not satisfied with it, they can work hard to change these results,” said Gasman, who co-authored the report with Hines and Chief Data Officer of Trivium BI Architect Angela Henderson.
Another key difference, but not so obvious from the federal data, is that the selected institutions also have consistent leadership.
Another key difference, but not so obvious from the federal data, is that the selected institutions also have consistent leadership.
“You do see that full-scale agencies with strong leadership tend to get donations,” said Gasman, who is also the executive director of the Rutgers Center for Minority Services. “There are many long-term or effective leaders of organizations that don’t get it. But there may be other reasons.”
She used the examples of Alcorn State University, which received $25 million from Scott, and Jackson State University, which was not selected. Although Jackson State University outperforms Alcorn on many indicators determined by Gasman’s team of researchers, Jackson State University’s leadership changes in recent years have been greater than those of Alcorn State University.
In 2016, the former president Carolyn Meyers resigned due to criticism of the organization’s financial management; the following year, William B. Bynum Jr. served until he was arrested for a crime and resigned. After serving as acting president, Thomas K. Hudson was appointed as the official president in 2020.
Although some observers say that Scott’s philanthropic approach can serve as a model for how other donors should donate to minority service organizations, several higher education experts emphasize that such donations are made in a larger context, especially against the historical background of insufficient national funds.
Most HBCUs that received Scott donations used most of the funds to support their donations. Compared with neighboring predominantly white institutions, most of the donations were relatively low, partly because their state continued to lack funds.
In March, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan signed the bill to provide 577 million U.S. dollars.More than 10 years to the HBCU in the state. The bill settled a federal lawsuit alleging discrimination and persistent underfunding in four HBCUs in the state, including Bowie State University and Morgan State University, and the University of Maryland East Coast, which received a donation from Scott. In Tennessee, state budget officials conducted a months-long investigation exposed. Since the 1950s, a local HBCU (Tennessee State University) has underfunded as much as $544 million. Tennessee State University did not receive Scott’s donation. Similar cases of unfairness have also been observed in HBCU’s state funding Mississippi and Alabama.
“Charitable donations should supplement rather than replace state and federal support,” said Kayla C. Elliott, director of higher education policy at The Education Trust, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization.
Elliott said that while the increase in charitable funding is encouraging, the state still has an obligation to its taxpayers, students, and the institution itself to ensure that they receive adequate funding and must make up for the long-standing relationship between HBCU and PWI Inequality of resources.
An HBCU in Maryland is using the funds as a lever for the state to provide recurrent funding.
The president of Morgan State University David Wilson used the approximately US$500,000 donated by Scott to create a continuous grant of $3 million per year for the staffing and research of the Morgan State University Urban Health Equity Center. Morgan received $40 million from Scott.
Wilson said: “The new crown virus has exposed all the racial inequality surrounding public health in this country. This is very timely.” “But if we don’t get that gift, then the annual grant of $3 million will never happen. “
“It’s really a bit like the HBCU revival that you see,” Gasman said. “I hope the states will realize that HBCU is an important investment, and they should continue to increase their allocations.”
“Will it be like this?” she added. “I have no idea.”
Healthy food is on its way to Prairie View A&M University and its surrounding community thanks to a new mobile kitchen! Learn why it’s so great to have food on wheels in the PVAMU official release below!
Less than a year after its formal launch, the Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) Healthy Houston Initiative (HHI) has unveiled its new mobile kitchen unit that will soon travel around the Houston area serving various communities.
The mobile kitchen made its debut during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the PVAMU Northwest Houston Center on Thursday. The event allowed community partners to get an up-close look at the HHI’s newest tool.
The unit – adorned in PVAMU’s signature purple and gold – features an industrial-sized refrigerator, two sinks, two 4-burner gas stovetops, and a double-stack propane convection oven. It will be used at HHI events to conduct cooking demonstrations with healthy food products taken from community gardens.
PVAMU President Ruth J. Simmons said the kitchen would allow the HHI to continue its work in addressing health disparities and other pressing issues in underserved communities.
“I’m very proud of this effort,” Simmons said. “If we can expand on this and persuade our supporters that this is an effort that will make a difference in these communities, I think it can be a wonderful thing.”
The HHI is a partnership with PVAMU, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s Complete Communities Initiative, and The Texas A&M University System, with Chancellor John Sharp as a major supporter. Within PVAMU, the Colleges of Agriculture and Human Sciences, Nursing, Juvenile Justice, and Business work together to develop programming that uses a portfolio of educational, healthcare assessment, and outreach programs.
The program also partners with community- and faith-based organizations, school districts, youth agencies, and local businesses to offer nutrition and wellness workshops, virtual and face-to-face programs, health screening, nutrition demonstrations, and community gardening activities.
Since its inception, the HHI has reached 12,000 individuals in its target communities of Third Ward, Second Ward, Near Northside, Gulfton, Acres Homes, Kashmere Gardens, Sunnyside, Magnolia Park – Manchester, Alief – Westwood, and Houston – Fort Bend County.
“I believe that HHI takes our university to the people, and it’s in this spirit that we are delighted to be of service to the communities of Houston,” PVAMU College of Agriculture and Human Sciences Dean and Director of Land Grant Programs Gerard D’Souza said.
With 20% of Houston residents living in poverty and a median household income of $31,000 in high-poverty areas, HHI Program Coordinator Nkem Anyasinti believes the program is uniquely positioned to make an impact.
“Prairie View has a very strong pull in the community through the Cooperative Extension Program. They’ve been doing work in Houston for over 40 years,” she said. “But having an initiative solely for Harris County under Prairie View will be great for the community.”
Now that the mobile kitchen is ready to hit the road, it’s already in high demand.
The vehicle is currently booked through the remainder of this month and will appear at community gardens and farmer’s markets within Acres Home, Sunnyside, Second Ward, Third Ward, and other neighborhoods targeted in the Houston Complete Communities project.
Hansel Emmanuel Donato Domínguez may look a little different from the other players in the basketball games he plays due to an injury he sustained at age six, but he’s at the top of his game. Learn why Hansel is so deserving of an offer to play ball at Tennessee State University in the full story from Wajih AlBaroudi at CBS Sports below.
Credit: Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel
At age six, Hansel Emmanuel Donato Domínguez had his left arm amputated after a wall collapsed on it. He was trapped beneath the rubble for nearly two hours until his father, a former professional basketball player, rescued him.
Now, 11 years later, Donato Domínguez is miraculously following his father’s athletic footsteps. The 6-5 hooper from the Dominican Republic earned his first NCAA Division I scholarship offer from Tennessee State, an HBCU, on Thursday.
“Blessed to receive my first D1 offer from Tennessee State university,” Donato Domínguez, 17, announced to his 596,000 Instagram followers on Thursday. “Thank you for believing in my talents.”
Tennessee State could potentially be getting a scintillating talent.
Despite having only one arm, Donato Domínguez can dunk over defenders, cross them out of their shoes or splash pull-up three-pointers in their face with ease.
Donato Domínguez moved to the United States in late 2020 to play basketball at Life Christian Academy in Kissimmee, Fla. It was the continuation of a journey Hansel Salvador Donato, Emmanuel’s father, will never forget.
“My life fell apart when Hansel’s accident happened,” the father told the Orlando Sentinel. “I was the one with him and when they had to amputate his arm, I felt like it was all over. But God grabbed us and led us down this path. You remember everything [from the accident] because a blow like this is not forgotten, so quickly regardless of all that he is achieving, thanks to God.”
Faith is integral to the Domínguez family, so much so that Donato Domínguez reportedly asked for No. 7 at Life Christian to give God credit for his skills. The Academy eventually gave Donato Domínguez No. 4, but that didn’t stop him from sharing the message — just like the loss of his arm didn’t stop his athletic dreams.
“God always has a purpose,” Donato Domínguez told the Orlando Sentinel. “I am living His mission, what He wants me to do in this life. Everything I do, I do it with God first and for my family, they are everything [to me].”
Elizabeth City State University student Kenae Turner is currently learning three languages on top of 2 study abroad trips to China, and it’s all fitting into her larger master plan. Learn about how the sophomore is inspiring others to be bold and follow their dreams in the ECSU release below.
Kenae Turner is 20-years old and she’s already experienced more life than many of her fellow Elizabeth City State University students. A transfer student majoring in education, Ms. Turner has worked as a teacher in China, is learning Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean languages and has an intimate knowledge of the Chinese culture.
Transfer student Kenae Turner, far left, left her hometown of Elizabeth City to teach English in China for a year. She’s pictured with her host family.
As a teenager, Ms. Turner would not have what many, including her, might deem a normal life. She attended middle school but was home schooled in high school and then opted to get her General Education Diploma, or GED.
Then she was ready for a challenge. She wanted to work in a foreign country, most specifically Japan, and signed up with a variety of organizations seeking native English speakers to teach the language.
“China was not on my mind but a woman from a company found my application online,” said Ms. Turner, who would sign up with a firm that placed English teachers, or tutors, in China. She was 17 at the time.
Ms. Turner would move to Shenzhen, China. She would live with her host family and teach their children English.
“The first day the air felt weird and everything was different. The first week was rough,” she recalled. “I decided to be comfortable being uncomfortable and adapt to their culture.”
The family Ms. Turner stayed and worked with were wealthy and Christian. She would attend church with the mother, she said.
“They had a nanny and a driver,” she said. “They treated me as a member of the family.”
During the day, the family’s children would attend regular school. In the afternoon, they would return home and Ms. Turner would spend one-to-two hours teaching them English.
During the day, when the children were in school, Ms. Turner would explore the region, visit Buddhist temples and get to know the culture around her. She said one marked difference for her were the meals.
“It was very different as far as eating,” she said. “We would eat as if every meal was Thanksgiving. A lot of food. If you went to a restaurant, you would spend three-to-four hours there.”
At dinner, there were no cell phones and no television. The family shared food and conversation, she said.
Ms. Turner says the Chinese people left a lasting impression on her. Everyone, she said, loved one another and differences didn’t seem to be an issue for them. They, she said, loved her despite the fact that she “looked different and sounded different.”
Ms. Turner spent a total of one year in China, six months at a time. After she finished her first visit, the family invited her to return and so she did. But towards the end of her visit, the pandemic began emerging and she knew it was time to return home. She wanted to leave China before they closed their borders.
Ms. Turner returned home and began taking classes at College of the Albemarle. She transferred to ECSU this year to be an education student with a concentration in birth-to-Kindergarten.
In the meantime, she is studying Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Korean. She sees her future life spent on the Asian continent, in China and other countries, teaching English in a classroom setting.
After no HBCU player was chosen in the 2021 NFL draft, people have been trying to find ways to ensure the players get a fair shot. Now there will be an inaugural HBCU combine! Learn more about it in the full story by Mark Inabinett for AL.com below.
Alabama State’s Tytus Howard lines up at right offensive tackle for the South during the Reese’s Senior Bowl on Jan. 26, 2019, at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile.AP Photo/Butch Dill
In the 30 NFL drafts from 1966 through 1995, Grambling State had 96 players selected. In the 26 drafts since, four Grambling State players have been picked.
Compare that to Auburn’s draft numbers in those years. The Tigers had 114 players drafted from 1966 through 1995 and 90 drafted from 1996 through 2021.
Grambling State isn’t the only historically Black college and university to see its draft pipeline dry up over the past quarter-century.
In the 2021 NFL Draft, no players from HBCU football programs were selected, the ninth time that has happened since 2000. In the 2020 NFL Draft, one player from an HBCU was picked – Tennessee State offensive lineman Lachavious Simmons, who prepped at Selma.
In the past 20 NFL drafts, two players from HBCU programs have been first-round selections – Tennessee State cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie in 2008 and Alabama Stateoffensive tackle Tytus Howard in 2019. Both played in the Senior Bowl in Mobile.
Now the Reese’s Senior Bowl will be working with the NFL to widen the exposure for HBCU players in the draft process by holding the HBCU Combine in conjunction with the annual all-star game. The NFL had hoped to hold the first combine this year, but the coronavirus pandemic caused the inaugural event to be delayed until 2022.
“I don’t know if the community understands what a big deal this is for the Mobile-Baldwin County area that the NFL chose Mobile as the site for its inaugural HBCU Combine,” Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl, said on Thursday. “The Senior Bowl is not an NFL-sanctioned event. They’ve been tremendous partners over the years giving us our coaching staff, but this isn’t their event. This is Mobile, Alabama’s event, where (the HBCU Combine) is an NFL-sanctioned event, so that’s a big deal. They could have chosen any one of 32 NFL cities to put this event in. The fact that they chose Mobile, Alabama, I’m extremely grateful for it, and I know our city is going to wrap their arms around this event as well.
“We got immediate feedback after we announced it, whether it be from the alumni bases here in the Mobile community, the fraternities, our former players, everyone is excited about what this event is going to be in 2022 and then what it can become beyond 2022.”
Nagy said “the value of this year’s HBCU Combine is connecting with the 32 NFL teams.”
The players at the first combine will receive the kind of interview opportunities that allow the NFL’s personnel decision-makers to get to know players at the Reese’s Senior Bowl and the annual NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
“You never get the opportunity to really sit in front of them,” Nagy said about HBCU prospects, “and when we’re talking about late-round draft picks and priority free-agent level players, that takes a scout or a coach pounding the table for those players to get them in your building, and you’re not going to do that unless you have really spent time with them. If they’re not at an all-star game or they’re not at the regular Indy combine, sometimes those guys slip through the cracks just because you as a scout or a coach you want to feel convicted about who that person is because they are certainly going to have to overcome some odds to make your roster. If they’re coming in as a late-round pick or a priority free-agent, they’re going to have to be made of stuff a little special to overcome those odds, and the only way of knowing that is interviewing them.
“I think getting the players here for the HBCU Combine, getting them one-on-one time with the 32 NFL teams, now you will have more scouts and coaches convicted about them. When you’re in April meetings leading up to the draft, there will be guys in those meetings saying, ‘You know what? I spent a half hour with this kid from Grambling at the HBCU Combine. Here’s his story, here’s why I believe in him and here’s why I think he works in our building.’ And that’s where you’re going to see more of these guys getting opportunities whether it’s as late-round picks or priority free agents or even tryout players in tryout camps.”
The players for the first HBCU Combine will be selected mainly from schools in the CIAA, MEAC, SIAC and SWAC by the HBCU Scouting Committee, a panel of current and former NFL executives.
They’re scheduled to arrive in Mobile for the inaugural HBCU Combine on Friday, Jan. 28. The next day, the players will participate in the same athletic and position drills as those at the NFL Scouting Combine, except their day on the field will take place at South Alabama’s Jaguar Training Center. NFL interviews and programs will fill the players’ two nights and Sunday morning in Mobile, and the HBCU Combine group will depart as the Senior Bowl players start to arrive for their week of work before the Feb. 5 game at Hancock Whitney Stadium.
“Is it going to make huge difference in terms of getting guys drafted initially? I don’t know that,” Nagy said. “But I think certainly it will create more opportunities for these guys to at least get a foot in the door in the NFL.”
HBCU players’ draft exposure has dwindled as the depth of NFL-level talent at those programs has declined.
Thirty-three of the members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame played at HBCU programs. The pinnacle of HBCU football in the NFL came in the 1976 and 1977 seasons, when 20 of those future Hall of Famers were on the field.
While NFL scouts visit HBCU programs and evaluate their players, the schools don’t have the number of prospects to warrant a deep investment of time and usually don’t have pro days where scouts can get their last-minute questions answered.
Nagy said while he thought the HBCU Combine might help in the short term, a rebounding talent level at the schools could sustain any initial draft momentum the new event might provide.
“I believe the talent level in the HBCU leagues will be on the uptick when you’ve got Deion Sanders at Jackson State and Eddie George at Tennessee State,” Nagy said. “I think they’re going to start getting better players. I know the NFL, the league office and NFL Football Operations are doing a great job of putting resources into the HBCU programs. All these high school kids, the lure is the facilities, right? So when we start upgrading some of the HBCU facilities, I think you’ll see better players coming out of those programs.”
The Winston-Salem State University has helped create the Women’s Business Center on campus, making it the second of its kind at a North Carolina HBCU. Get the full story from Yes! Weekly below.
The Women’s Business Center Winston-Salem will open its doors for the first time August 12, and at the same time open a diverse wave of opportunities for entrepreneurs and start-up business in the area.
Winston-Salem State University (Credit: Woolpert)
The Women’s Business Center is the result of the vision and work of Dr. Carol Davis, the executive director of the S.G. Atkins Community Development Corporation. She researched and wrote the grant application that won the grant from the Small Business Administration (SBA) to fund the Women’s Business Center located at the S.G. Atkins Enterprise Center. The S.G. Atkins Community Development Corporation was founded by Winston-Salem State University in 1998. It bears the name of the university’s founder and first president.
The Women’s Business Center is the sixth the SBA has established in North Carolina and the second at a North Carolina Historically Black College or University.
The Enterprise Center offers start-up and emerging companies an affordable office space and exceptional level of support from the business professionals and organizations as well as faculty from WSSU. The addition of the Women’s Business Center will greatly enhance and expand its efforts.
“We are celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Enterprise Center and I am thankful that the SBA chose to add their resources here where we have 44 Black entrepreneurs working every day to grow their businesses,” said Davis. “This is a five-year commitment from the SBA that will bring SBA educational resources and access to SBA capital directly to this community”
The build out of the Women’s Business Center included an expansion of the current business development program at the Enterprise Center incubator, including an expanded business services project over the next five years.
Dr. Joy Lough was recently named the program director for the Women’s Business Center through funding from the SBA grant. She will provide classes to the current incubator occupants and entrepreneurs in the community who are start-ups or existing businesses.
“I am honored to be part of one of the first Women’s Business Centers in North Carolina that is affiliated with an HBCU,” said Lough, a business start-up and success strategist. “I am excited about our partnership with the Small Business Administration and look forward to serving women of color as they access capital, refine their business models, and implement marketing strategies.”
The Women’s Business Center, located at 1922 South Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Winston-Salem, will also promote access to SBA grant and loan programs, an advisory committee of mentors and resources to address barriers to economic mobility.
Winston-Salem State University Chancellor Dr. Elwood Robinson and SBA District Director Michael Arriola will be on hand for a 4 p.m. ribbon cutting on August 12. Following the ribbon-cutting ceremony, there will be a reception and tours. The public is invited to attend.
A new bipartisan bill is seeking to pair inmates in need of re-entry programs with HBCUs! Learn more about how politicians would like to create the unique educational opportunity in the full story The Ripon Advance.
Bipartisan legislation to help formerly incarcerated Americans transition back into society and find employment will be introduced by U.S. Rep. French Hill (R-AR).
The congressman plans to introduce the Shift Back to Society Act with cosponsors, including U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL), to establish a five-year pilot program that would provide grants to historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) for educational programming to eligible offenders to facilitate re-entry into the community, according to a bill summary provided by the lawmaker.
“All too often we lose sight of the intrinsic value of educational opportunities,” Rep. Hill said during an Aug. 6 press conference. “It is a fact that when all people are given opportunities and support, you get the best of America.”
Students at Plaquemines re-entry program(Credit: Scott Anger)
If enacted, the measure also would require matching funds for the grant program and funds from the federal government may not exceed 50 percent of the project cost, the summary says, and would provide an authorization that would not exceed $5 million annually.
“This bipartisan bill and the current efforts in Arkansas are too important – too vital – to the long-term viability and sustainability of a healthy, growing, prosperous America,” said Rep. Hill. “I thank those who have inspired this bill and our HBCUs for their legacy of and investment in quality education for Arkansans.”
During the press conference, Rep. Hill was joined by Robert Carr, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff; Carlos Clark, president of Arkansas Baptist College; Solomon Graves, secretary of corrections at the Arkansas Department of Corrections; Jerome Green, president at Shorter College; Scott McLean, founder and executive director at Pathway to Freedom; Roderick Smothers, Sr., president at Philander Smith College; and TJ West, re-entry liaison at Pathway to Freedom.
