Transcripts For CSPAN2 Panelists Discuss Future Of HBCUs 20170526

In 1997, i had an opportunity to work on an educational project with a gentleman named doctor samuel proctor. A number of you know him as a form present of North Carolina a t, hbcu, former president of Virginia Union university, private hbcu. He spent time in washington, d. C. , as a kennedy appointee to the peace corps but a number of you know him to his work as a pastor of the baptist church. In 1997 when opportunity to sit at a very lovely room similar to this with a donor and a donor who owns a very large and Famous Family foundation. The head of the walked into the room and made exchange niceties she said and ask you one question . He said yes. Is there a need for black colleges today . And doctor proctor leaned back in his seat having her discretion of most of life and he said maam, if you make him can restructure the question . The question is not whether there is a need for hbcus today. The question is, what would america be today without the hbcus . And so she nodded to dr. Proctor, and the conversation begin. It made an impact on me. I was in my late 20s then. For two particular reasons. Number one, it showed 142 years after the conclusion of the civil war the question about black Higher Education, hbcus and, frankly, the question of black people in the American Social order were still on the table for conversation. Number two, the conversation was about hbcus but also about the importance of american Higher Education and its imprint not just domestically but on foreignpolicy, on foreign economic systems and on foreign government. Our role these institutions have played. Fast forward to may 2017 and we are having a conversation about hbcus and the road ahead. Why is that important . For over 150 years hbcus has been an important part of the american Higher Education landscape. Like many other post secondary institutions that challenges in the regulatory scheme as well as with School Finance and other things. But because hbcus on average educate more students are firstgeneration, maybe for low income, students of color but, frankly, all students from different races, backgrounds and creeds, there a unique role that the plate in American Education and particularly are lawmakers should keep that in mind. While we seem some great things from our institutions, the large number of people tha reproduce t go on to earn phd is in those and number professions going goes to become schoolteachers. There are a number as well. We had the closure of st. Paul college in my state of virginia. We have a number of the schools that are on the brink of bankruptcy and number of our students are leaving colleges saddled with a and so this is accomplished by Higher Education and particularly the role of a hbcus in it. Today we have four people who are wellversed in this conversation. For those of you are watching via aei live stream or cspan, the hashtag for this event is stateofhbcus. Send a question, oftentimes i will read a question i receive on my phone. Number two, we are going to have four speakers. They will come appear one at a time. It will provide an overview and some remarks were about ten minutes. After the conclusion of the last week were all going to make our way over here for a dialogue. We will talk about 2025 minutes and then we will open it up for question, audience q a. I will invite our first speaker to the lectern is dr. Michael lomax, the president United Negro College fund. He represents 37 private hbcus in the united states. Not only does he know this issue aas a president of the nonprofit but also is a graduate of morehouse college, former president of Dillard University and sent as he is ready to get up your i will not steal any more of this fund and i will invite dr. Lomax to the lectern. [applause] thank you very much, gerard. I want to thank you for your leadership in bringing this i think very important conversation to the American Enterprise institute. I live in the neighborhood some also going to welcome you. Ive watched this renovation occurred and said when are going to bite me inside. Glad to be here. You know, i think we often to talk about hbcus looking in the rearview mirror. Its very important now to take this occasion to talk about the road ahead. To talk about the future, to talk about innovation, to talk about change. We recognize the importance of institutional change to our advocacy and work to build institutional capacity. We understand the Higher Education is at a crossroads where institutions need to be to reorient the Business Model to be more student ready. Uncf is providing scholarships for students for nearly 75 years now and we award about 100 million of scholarships annually to over 10,000 students. Since our our founding we have assisted nearly half a Million Students earn college degrees. And during that period we have witnessed a significant shift in student demographics and expectations. Today, students are radically different from those of yesteryear. And todays students grew up with a world at their fingertips. And 140 characters or less. Technology connects this generation in a way i could not imagine back in the dark ages of my youth. So technology is moving at a pace significantly faster than Higher Education. Underscore, faster pace than Higher Education, requiring most institutions, not just hbcus to reimagine what it means to effectively teach and learn and very importantly, prepare students for careers in the 21st century workforce where Education Matters more than ever before. By 2025, 65 of all new jobs will require post secondary training. Within the fastestgrowing fields, stem and healthcare, 92 and 95 respectively of all new jobs will require postsecondary training. Credentials. Today, the pipelines of graduates to fill these jobs across all demographics is insufficient. And for africanamerican students, these concerns are more acute as they are significantly underrepresented in the requisite majors such as Computer Science and engineering. And there is still a penalty for being black. This is my visual. Im not going to talk much about it but it what you do know have a visual. [laughing] this is why we, and im trying to be energetic, are excited with a longterm support of we are working with a longterm support and partner of uncf, the Lilly Endowment incorporator of indianapolis, indiana. To assist 24 Higher Education institutions including 23 historically black colleges universities, and one predominately black institution as they seek to ensure our institutions are graduating students that are ready to survive and thrive in the 21st century workplace. And were doing that with a 50 million grant from lily. An investment in forward thinking and innovation. Other institutions, our institutions are pursuing a threepronged approach to improving outcomes for their respective institutions, and it is going to go over those quickly. If you want more detail go to our website are asked me questions. The first thing were doing is were trying to change that fouryear, fiveyear, secure experience would like to have more of a fouryear experience from being opaque for the student to being transparent, from being sort of allover the opportunity landscape to being more narrowly focused. And we call that creating intentional guided pathways for students. And an order to create those intentional transparent guided pathways for students, we are going to have to take on some of the sacred cows on the institutional campus. And gerard noted on a former president. Im a former faculty members will and i can tell you the last, the hardest thing to do is to change curriculum. But for students who are spending an awful lot of money to get an education, and all too often not find Employment Outcomes at the end of the rainbow, we cant keep doing what we are doing. We had to do things differently and it has to begin by building foundational tenets not just of a liberal education, but reimagining content and its delivery to ensure what we are teaching in the classroom is applicable outside the classroom, that it leads to not just a degree, but meaningful employment and to careers. And finally are increasing expectations to ensure students at the necessary experiential opportunities as well through integrated cocurricular engagement. And i will tell you that internships are not nice to have any more. Internships are absolutely essential. Employers are looking earlier and more often and more carefully at talent and they want to see how that talent translates what i learned in the classroom to what i learned in the workplace. And we see that figure in the technology, but they are just leaders in this. We all have to be fast followers. Followers. While the primary outcome of this work is gainful employment for our graduates, we also seek to improve outcomes along the way focusing on improving overall retention rates, Graduation Rates, and very important, time to degree. Six years is too long and too expensive. Five years is too long and too expensive. And the shorter we can make this, the less expensive we can make it and the more efficient we can make it, the better for our students. Some institutions or even developing stackable credentials whereby it students need to step out before completion of the bachelor degree, they will at least have a credential that they will give them a leg up on the labor market they can be employed meaningful and return mr. Because so many people are episodically now going in and out of Higher Education, and not going immediately to degree attainment. The success of this initiative is not just determined by the outcome of the 55,000 students, the cbi Career Pathways Initiative Institution serve annually. For uncf success also means we document what we are learning and share that information to ensure that other education institutions can learn from the innovative model that we set forth by our cohort institutions. To do this uncf partners with visitations by providing them with the necessary Technical Assistance to improve their institutions capacity, to execute this work and my documenting what we are learning to develop models that lead to outcomes we seek. The work of these institutions are endeavoring to do now will be critical to the success of the future. I look forward to discussing the details of this more fully with you, but just remember as we think about this, the investment that these young people are making, and not so young people, are making in their education in terms of time and cost are significant. Today, the outcomes dont always warrant that investment. Africanamerican unemployment for college, black college graduate, not just a stroke the black colleges for all graduates is double that of their peers. Unemployment is at a staggering 50 . We have to keep faith with the expectation of these students by delivering to them not just the transformational element of a liberal Arts Education, but also the real and practical returns of career and implement. I look forward to discussing this innovative work that we are doing with you this morning. Thank you. [applause] our next speaker is Lezli Baskerville who is the president and ceo of naeohe, the National Association for equal opportunity in Higher Education. She is its first female president , and in a role she has a unique opportunity to work that only with predominantly hbcus but also but only like institutions which she will share more with you. For arriving to naeohe she had a long career in the Legal Profession having worked for the naacp, Field Organization including also having served as an appeals administered of judge in the District Of Columbia and also leadership position with the college here in washington, d. C. Would like to bring president baskerville to the lectern and lets welcome her. [applause] thank you so very much, gerard, and to aei, to all of the colleagues who are here. Thank you so much for choosing to be here. I see representatives from the white house, and i need to call out to ron smith was in the office of white house policy. Thank you so much for being here, and i feel the presence of omarosa was in the white house three times hbcu, director of communications whose voice along with that of jurong smith has kept the hbcu community on the mind of this administration. And i believe has something to do with the fact that we are here today. Naeohe is the nations only National Membership association of 106 historical black colleges and now roughly predominantly and 80 predominantly black institutions. Our position is to provide voice to this richly Diverse Community of colleges and to connect all of the colleges with opportunities to enhance their infrastructure and to better serve their goals. Naeohe is a table of which is the first and sometimes Diverse Group of president s and chancellors come together, and they suppress their individual goals for the goals of the whole, for the whole of the committee. And its been my privilege to serve with 20 is as outside pro bono counsel litigating in 18 states with the states have a starkly black, historically public black college in the historically public wh white colleges. We represent this community in judicial fora, before congress and the state legislators and administrative bodies. And it is my humble privilege to serve at this helm and to move this community forward. It is from advantage that i believe that in order for us to move the communities forward, in order for us to take full advantage of the types of opportunities that Michael Lomax pointed out, and those that are on the horizon, in order for us to get the types of supports that we need to move our committee forward, the first thing we have to do is change the narrative. We have to change the narrative so that when you are defining this richly Diverse Community of colleges, we do not accept the designation of these colleges as colleges for educational income firstgeneration students. They do, in fact, do that and her students are disproportionally low income firstgeneration. By definition their mission must be the education of the american site system or African Americans, but these institutions are richly diverse. We have ten institutions that a research intensive here they are graduating 42 of africanamericans that go on to get advanced degrees in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics. We have four medical schools and large number of dental schools of Public Health school. These visitations are graduating 60 of africanamericans in health professions. And so the first step to moving on and the first step to being heard and received as the innovators that they are is to change the narrative. I was adding beating saturday, and someone referenced a book, small change, and it talked about the history of involvement and investment in hbcus. And the reality is that as long as we define ourselves as small and underfunded and failing and for firstgeneration low income people will not be inspired and will not invest in us. The narrative is as reality is an data suggest that while we do that and we do an outstanding job, and many of our institutions will continue to do that, we are diverse. And america cannot realize any of its goals for excellence and diversity in the workforce for justice, for leadership at the helms of the multinational corporations without thriving diverse hbcus across the gamut. And so the first step is changing the narrative. Hbcus are a 13 billion shortterm business. Thats important. If people think that were coming hat in hand when members of Congress Called me, they said we want to come and talk about how we can help you, and i said im delighted to come and talk with you about how we can help you. Because if you need to shore up the infrastructure in america, you cannot do that and have an excellent and Diverse Workforce without my institution. If you want a thriving, richly diverse teacher corps and principal core, doctor sanders, you cant do that without hbcus. Because i have 50 of their graduating today 50 of africanamerican Public School teachers. And so the dialogue goes on but the reality is, this is a time for hbcus to tell the narrative about our return on investment. So for example, a question came up about hbcu Capital Financing program that is central to hbcus have been new classrooms, new laboratories, strong infrastructures. And the question was raised about whether or not these institutions need to be reviewed because they are a suspect category because they are for hbcus. Those of you in this room and those of you on cspan2 and others are listening need to be able to tell the story. Hbcus are missionbased. They are not racebased. They are not ethnicitybased. They are not a suspect category. With hbcus that are on average 30 student diverse, faculty, sometimes as much as 40 diverse faculty. With hbcus, five which are predominately white. Hbcus have as their mission from the founding and today educating a black students but have been open to all and theyre doing a better job than many other groups. So we have to tell that story, too. And the reality is, without the racial, base or ethnicity base at all, we are not a suspect category. In order to get new programs into sustained them, we have to show that there is a reasonable basis and we put before congress, we put before administered body and others at every opportunity we get, a strong, compelling basis with regard to the hbcu Capital Financing program, the data show and theres a recent duke study that it still costs hbcus more to get into the bond market and it costs hbcus more to sell bonds. And as long as that disparity continues, they will be a need for the Capital Finance program. Another data point i want you to be able to tell so that we can get to these specific programs adjourned about and some other ones you and the discussion is that the endowments of hbcus are 1 8 the size of the store the white colleges and universities. This is because the country and philanthropist and others have not invested in hbcus commensurate with the output. So you got to tell the story to get them to look at us so that when the invest they see that the return is actually higher than others. So with that as a background, naeohe isnt a number of banks and ill talk specifically about some of the Public Policy things that were doing, but i want to share with you hbcu fund, hbcu Endowment Fund. And as we continue to get the public to invest in our institutions as the best return on the Higher Education dollar, we also want to get the africanamerican extended family but a broad swath of americans to invest in hbcus, to approve our endowment for word. So we are launching a social Marketing Campaign to tell the story about hbcus, and then we have a goal of establishing initially through investments from the black community to faithbased organizations, we talked about that on friday from social and civic and fraternal organizations, from entertainers and athletes and anyone who has dollars they believe in and understand, were moving America Forward to invest onetenth of 1 of their net income. Collectively, we have 1. 3 trillion expendable income in the Africanamerican Community. And if we invest just 1 10 of 1 of those dollars, we can realize the goal of having a 1 billion sustainable Endowment Fund so that we can begin to invest in the tremendous institutions that yes, as with others and as your opening remarks suggest, they have some challenges. But the remarkable outputs that they are having even though the investment are not commiserate with return on investment, suggest that if we invest more in the endowments we can move them forward. During question and answers ill talk to you about some of the things were doing at the federal level, at congress and with state legislators. Thank you so very much for this opportunity. [applause] i mention introducing present baskerville that she spent a part of her career in the Legal Profession. Shes also a Howard University graduate in keeping with the vision i hear a clip on the site, so theres another hbcu person in the room. We are now going to turn to the president and ceo of the Thurgood Marshall college fund, Johnny Taylor. Johnny taylor has done a tremendous job of expanding the conversation about public hbcus. Often we think about private sometimes public we dont often make the distinction. Hes got nearly 47 of institutions educating nearly 300,000 students annually. Hes done hes done a tremendous job. But prior to becoming the president hepresident and ceo ofe Thurgood Marshall college fund, he spent time in the private sector. Also an attorney who spent time with organizations like viacom paramount studios allows lock buster. And so he brings his conversation and we have private sector background but of particular interest in making sure that Public Institutions typically hbcus have a role to play in Higher Educational landscape and we will now bring up Johnny Taylor. [applause] you know the downside to being 371 has said what youre going to say. Im sitting there writing my notes, scratching apart was going to say. Thanthank you, michael and lezl. Lezli, i wont say what i said the other day. She could be hard time yesterday because i got on the stage and i said i barely missed the millennial era. And i said it, i said they missed it. I barely missed it. But she said that was cruel. You dont say that to a woman. Good morning. [laughing] good morning. And by the way as is want of your i realized a warrior could not of been involved in this set thdesign. This is an accident waiting to happen. I took my time walking up here because i would be glad to rename the building the Johnny Taylor building. If i fall, yall got a problem. [laughing] it is so good to be back here at aei. I got to tell you, so gerard, thank you. Thank you for addin having us h. The head of aei also brooks and i had dinner just recently and we were here for the trump listening session when they brought African American leaders. Lezli, you are here and several in the room were, were likely when we began talking about the transition and what we should think about and talk about with respect to not just the hbcu community but the Africanamerican Community, the black community, whatever term you want to use. Im really glad to be here. As i thought about what i might say in nine minutes or so, it was, we just have a Board Meeting. The Thurgood Marshall college fund board which is about 18, about 20 people, and there was a real discussion. I think it sets the tone for the road ahead for hbcus. What came out of it and no dvd, take you to the end of it and walk you back but we ended with one statement that i think really, it may be kind of stop and reflect. We thought about hbcus. All of us love hbcus. We wear tshirts. We are proud of the alumni at hbcus. Black or white. I mean, my board is half white, republicans can very wealthy, from the midwest and they give us a lot of money. People are proud of hbcus. The question becomes what does the future look like for the hbcu . And one statement that came out of our work, we engaged boston consulting group, ecg, and theyve been very expensively ii might add talking to us about the future of hbcus and how tmcf should play in this space. Looking at the world. We are hopeful but not optimistic. I hope that set the tone for this discussion because too often we come to these decisions and have a rock n roll event talking about what is great and what we do and what we have done but to do this right you have to sit down and really look at what you are doing. You have to be critical, not destructively critical but constructively critical. That is the way we are going to ensure that hbc yous are around, not just surviving the thriving 100 years from now so we can consider sending our childrens one of these institutions. They wont be around if we are not prepared to have those discussions was the initial work found hbc yous were 8 so that means 92 of us are making decisions to send our children to majority institutions. You have to ask as much as you love mcdonalds, why are you in the burger king drivein lot . It is a fair question and if we probe those questions and respond to those questions we can save hbc yous and grow the enrollment. If we dont look at it that way we struggle. One is government, attack the industry as we explore what they look like. Taxis grudgingly took credit card, i want cash, credit cards are coming around and they woke up and overcame around and now they wake up, driverless uber will come around. The entire sector was disrupted but if you dont get with that apple will take you over because apple will own a driverless car ended wont be over. They own a gps system. We have to do that as a sector. This, only here talking about hbcus but this is a broader higherend conversation that black america gets the call, the reality, the idea that we have to look at this closely. The other area is k12 with some lessons there. There were traditional schools and there were traditional Public Schools and private schools, look at what has happened. You saw the migration of magnet schools and Charter Schools and private Charter Schools, the whole landscape changed, and i submit our history is important you must look at the future and figure out what hbcus have to look at, not five years because disruption is so fast, as we engage in this discussion today we all love hbcus. I dont have to ask if they are relevant. The better question is will they exist . You can be relevant and not be in business because you cant make the model work. That is more than the dollars and cents. You have to look at who do we recruit, how do we serve . We talk about six year graduation. A lot of folks dont have three. I remember when someone graduated college at 20, you were impressed. Now look at the headlines, people graduate at 18, could the coming up with two years because of dual enrollment. The model has changed and we have got to get with it if we genuinely care for hbcus. At the end of the Board Meeting after bcg shared their findings, we pooled the board and said what are we going to do . We see we are part of a shrinking sector. There are fewer students on hbcu campuses this year than last year. The trend is not our friend and so the question was how do we, Thurgood Marshall college fund, do that . We went far. We represent black students, doesnt matter where they go to school. Thurgood Marshall College fund, maybe not limited to hbcus, we find the students, do we represent the institutions with the students . Fair question. I am pleased to say to you that very diverse board said hbcus are important. If we abandon it it will give others the license to abandon support for the institutions so we have committed ourselves to dig in and support hbcus, and be appropriately critical, constructively so, because that is how we will ensure hbcus are here for our children. I have to shout out, we came up with a strategy a couple years ago, we have to figure out what industry works, no question how can hbcus serve industry . Industry wants black folks. There is a supply and demand issue and the bigger problem is and supply because coming from industry we wanted black folks. There is a supply challenge and we need to sort that. As you heard several years ago apple gave us 47 million to solve that. They said we cant talk about diversity in silicon valley, we designed a plan. The initial design was giving 20 engineers, this is not the genius bar. Im talking about product people, rocket scientists working on these autonomous driving cars. They wanted us to find the myth that you will be lucky if you get 20. We gave them 33. We are up to 45. The talent is there but you have to show it. We are doing that thanks to their generosity and charles koch set down and said because we have a supply problem it is not enough for hbcus but figure out what is happening in our communities. What are the barriers, how to ensure we have sufficient supply of people going into this channel so we have a pipeline. We have to look at k12 education and criminal Justice Reform and entrepreneurship, those three areas. Because of this generosity, 26 million, we are working on trying to figure out what are those obstacles . If we remove them, if those were removed, we can ensure hbcus have a vibrant, healthy pipeline of students, no matter what you want to say the reality is if we are forced to bring in kids reading on a fourth or fifth grade reading level we all not graduate them in three years. Math doesnt work that way. It will take 6, 7 or 8 years. In a larger sphere where people graduate more prepared in a shorter time the only way we can do this is to ensure we remove the obstacles and ensure the k12 programs bring us the better prepared student so that we can really shine. Thank you and i look forward to your questions. [applause] thank you so much. We have an opportunity to hear from three people who represent hbcus and have an opportunity to hear from Beverly Hogan in mississippi. She has been president of 2002, and his experience as jackson state. And State Government and institutions. The end of the day residents are responsible for managing multimillion dollar institutions. Thank you for this dynamic discussion. If i stumble, you have all these to witness it. I want to add my thanks, and my appreciation to the national leaders, spokespersons for the historically, and it is an exciting and challenging time, and you have to have hope and optimism when you are in these positions, and see the entire purpose, it is all about the creation of the future. If we are stuck in todays activities, working to effectuate. There is a lot of inspiration comes from students, what this means, what it means to the nation and globalization around the world, i want to talk about the college, and Thurgood Marshall. It is an independent historically black college in jackson, mississippi, it is founded by American Missionary Association known as the United Church of christ. We offer 29 majors in education, the humanities, natural science, social science and two graduate degree programs. We provide the academic social and professional tools. It is a challenge, to be productive in their time. They receive a topquality, our students today, looking for something a little different, we must be willing and flexible to revisit our vision, to determine if it is appropriate, the emerging needs of our society in businesses they are in. 60 of graduates go on to graduate and professional schools immediately following graduation. They are prepared and inspired by qualified, competent and committed faculty so they are able to graduate a lot more timely and some hbcus but it is a challenge for us. We serve 85 eligible students and our Graduation Rates stave off 50 because most of our students come needing to work to finance their education. The need for scholarships and opportunities for students, financial assistance, move through school, it is something all our hbcus share. They become leaders in their professional disciplines and productive citizens. Naomi sheldon can testify as one of our outstanding graduates. It is a Small College with 100,000 students. Its impact has been tremendous. In the state of mississippi alone, leslie or someone else mentioned a number of graduates going into medical and science fields. In the state of mississippi, 40 of africanamerican healthcare professionals, doctors, hospital administrators, nurses, any professionals alone along with 35 of educators whether they are classroom teachers, our College President s and 35 attorneys. Our graduates spread throughout the nation, Small College with large impact. Were living and learning environment, our students come wanting different things, come with seven more devices with infrastructure. To accommodate all of that. Living and learning environment to latest technologies to facilitate work and learning and keep pace with rapidly changing hightech global society. You cannot serve students today without the appropriate technology. We have smart classrooms the technologies employed in key academic buildings and most open spaces on campus, a lot of land sitting on 500 acres, 100 acres designated for college expansion, the other acres are dedicated to investment and development. We have access to wireless technology. When they go out there on the Basketball Court or the tennis court or wandering through the woods. They want that technology to work but most of the open spaces have that. We have unified Campus Security system that offers coverage to every building and other areas. There have to be very much aware of that. To prepare students through intellectual development, to become thoughtful ethical leaders who can meet the challenges. We want to inform the future with vision and justice and charity and contribute to a more inclusive, fair and humane world for all humankind because the world is changing. Combining the strength of academic offerings, the college continues its timeless legacy of excellence, relevance and influence. We are keenly aware of the importance of academic excellence, providing quality education, students can see that they are entering the world and accomplish their aspirational goals whether they want to become a scientist or a doctor or lawyer, architect, we want them to have those skills and the knowledge and understanding of what it means to accomplish that. We want relevance. To glue historic significance run deeply, going back to our founding in the civil rights movement, but that is not relevant today. We have 2, as institutional leaders if our past every becomes greater than our vision for the future, we will become something else. We have to put that there every day as our curriculum is relevant to students, is it interspersed with Specialized Knowledge areas and professional certificate students need to pair that with good quality liberal Arts Education and the influence which is evident to our graduates once they leave our institution and the quality of their contributions to large society. I often say the true success of the institution is not measured by how smart our students are when they come to us or how well they do when they matriculate enough but the true measure is determined by the quality of their contributions to the larger world as they leave institutions and we have to stay focused on that. Students today want a unique and relevant curriculum. They want diversity and technology. Many of our small hbcus that tougaloo are no different. We dont necessarily have diversity of students on our campus but that doesnt mean we cant achieve it. Collaboration, tougaloo has a 53 Year Partnership with brown university, not only the factual exchange or Student Exchange but joined research, it wont teach there but we also have relationships in International Communities as many hbcus do. Our students get that experience, Exchange Programs with majority institutions and even in mississippi we have a fine Engineering Program at Mississippi State university. These are the things we must look at. We started the 3 3 program at the law school in Mississippi College students. Students come to hbcu for three years, have degrees from both institutions in that area. Engineering programs bringing diversity in, sending students out so their worldviews can be enlarged because we dont want to send them out in a world of broad diversity and they are not exposed to where they are, not just the faculty but we need to have the student relationship. Recently doctor lomax talked about that earlier. We were, for the last two or three years, talking about redesigning our general education curriculum, looking at opportunities we can transform our learning environment and bring it into the 21st century, learning experiences for our students, with the help of an endowment program, Pathway Initiative funded through un cf, Tougaloo College for the consortium with two other hbcus institutions, talladega and oakwood and in addition these institutions came together, put together a focus on how we would look at the guided pathways, how we do curriculum reform and how to connect with Career Services. But Tougaloo College, we focus on collaborating to redesign our academic offerings in oakwood and talladega and Career Services to better aligned them where our students to have targeted focus whether majoring in history or biology. One of the most exciting things we did is establishing this portal called connections which provides a unique opportunity to bring together many interrelated components of academic offerings through a datadriven but outcomebased streamline unified system to close the gap in a number of trained, qualified and available workers in local and global communities and with connections to connect to Network Partners and corporate partners, agency heads, foundations and other alumni who are all three institutions, they are more engaged in internship opportunities, Work Experience and mentorship to gain skills to repair that knowledge and gains in the classroom with skills they are developing in the workforce. This will be a powerful tool for all three institutions because we are able to track students, not only their progress but as they go through graduate school, go into the workforce. We brought into alignment our general education program, first your Spirits Program and Career Services and doing these kinds of things have impacts on our students. Time is waiting for me, everything you need to tell in 10 minutes, let me briefly say aligning with student and labor market demands, we can address those urgent questions that face us today plus the return on our best bet, is College Education worth the cost. Will students have the ability to earn more money than student led debt loans. Because in all of us to be mindful that our institutions to provide leadership and service for america. Lets resist the urge to marginalize historically black colleges and universities of technical, traditional professional jobs. It is important to tell industry that we need students and internships that will lead to that because with growth and minority population over the next 25 to 30 years, it is all of our minority students who are considered low income and underprepared going into the technical, traditional technical professional jobs, then we have a dearth in our nation that will undermine our democracy because we will not have enough to go into leadership roles. A majority with minority control and power and influence. We will continue to do that. On my way to germany sunday morning to meet with German Companies looking at germanbased company so that we are able to pair what they need another institutions like ours to bring to the table. And happy to talk more about this. Thank you so much. [applause] you have an opportunity to hear great information about hbcus in particular but also the state of Higher Education in the united states. We have heard about investments, talked about innovation, the need to change and talked about our students. The first question for everyone on the panel, what are we doing for faculty as our schools . I live knowing the importance of faculty and what it means for our schools which i start with doctor lomax. Critical to the work we do with Career Pathways is to engage faculty. The two elements that are most essential to an institution of Higher Education a great students, outstanding and challenging faculty but ill too often our faculty and faculties across Higher Education dont give opportunities for enrichment, challenge, renewed experiences and new learning so one of the elements, we rely on these faculties to transform their curricula and educational outcomes for our students, we are investing in faculty, giving them externships, sending them into the marketplace, giving them the opportunity we are seeing that in the area of technology where we will be sending faculty into google and other places but also bringing those folks to our campuses, not as recruiters but as faculty as well, giving our students an opportunity to see the learning experience is not just limited to what happens in the classroom but the continuing work and what they learned today they have to have skills and capabilities to continue to learn and upgrade if they meet the demands of the marketplace. I would agree with that. You have to engage faculty, we know curricula, the domain of faculty. Faculty must be engaged at the point of talking about curriculum reform so that you get that buyin on the front end but also with research and teaching and service all a part of our mission we have to make sure those faculty members that are involved in curriculum reform and using research for classroom teaching, that is the release time so they are all the responsibilities of teaching, doing the research, serving on committees and advising students. We have to be flexible and one of the things i learned working with my faculty is a are valued and respected for their role and want to have a voice in what is happening on campus. And the Faculty Development center at tougaloo offering continuous dialogue and discussions and trading for faculty. We also like many of the other hbcus, have a partnership with new york faculty resource, training there but faculty and students are really the core of our education institution. There will be no need for any of the rest of us. That is what we have to focus on every day, how to keep them engaged and refreshed, how to keep them their ideas flowing and contributors to that. I have seen that on the front end doing that, getting their ideas, helping them guide the process. General education reform was guided by the faculty and driven by the faculty but driven to what focused on helping develop skilled students need today and they feel good about products they produce. No question we all have to invest in faculty. I consider investment in every one of the pitches, not just a Student Perspective that we ask for money but we ask for faculty and faculty investment. You cant get one without the other. I remember when i went first to talk about that investment, it was easy to think it was a scholarship. They have to tell us, you can be a great professor, but if you are teaching irrelevant things, ill tell you, ill say the names of the people in the school, but i know we are publicly supported and the school of medicine which is private but publicly supported. We had a graduate of one of our schools who went, we placed her, she was put into the job and she came to us in tears. She said im working the Technology Department of a Non Technology company and she said, i have a fourpoint oh, but i am so behind all of my fellow colleagues. She said at my school we work on 1994 platforms and these folks are working on 2004 platforms purchaser and just at a disadvantage. This woman had to start her job and go to Community College in the local market to get up to speed. She loved her professors. Her professors loved her. They just werent giving her the most uptodate and relevant skills but she went into the market at a disadvantage although she finished 40000 in student loan debt. Thats the reality. We make that case. We are now getting ready to announce a new partnership and we said thats agribusiness and you need to work with our faculty to ensure that the faculty are preparing and equipping the students with the skills they need to use. Finally, i talked about the program, our first big event, well talk about brown versus board of education and whether or not the promises were fulfilled. I invite you out to our headquarters for a very interesting discussion. A big part of that component is to invest in faculty. Three quarters of the grant is going directly to faculty. I think you have to invest in faculty. I agree with what my colleague josette and i want to highlight a couple things we are doing with regard to faculty. We have student internships with about 14 federal agencies but we also have faculty fellowships were put faculty in Scientific Labs that are available to them. Some leave for a year. We get there spot funded because most of the host institutions cannot afford to have them leave so we get the funding for someone to sit in there spot for a year for them to go to a strong Scientific Lab and return. There is a no poaching requirement. We do that, we also are working with the state high red executive officers, you may recall last year about 100 of the nations most competitive colleges and universities have a problem with students feeling a lack of a welcoming environment. We have been in discussions about Student Exchanges, but also faculty exchanges so we can get the benefit of diverse faculty from other campuses and they can get the benefit of ours. We are working with Danny Davison on Global Research and Industrial Park that will place our faculty, along with the best faculty from around the globe in a Central Place where they can do shared research and other things. The last thing i will mention in the interest of time is a new partnership with the business roundtable. They have about 144 heads of corporation. They speak and do a number of strategic things to attain diversity, and one of the things were working with them, they have a number of student centered projects and were expanding that to include faculty in their efforts to achieve diversity. I just want to add, one other thing we think about, we all hear the headlines, university we want them to increase their diversity. Where do you think theyre coming from . In many ways we are cannibalizing, we have this challenge. We give them the opportunity, they get the degrees and then they work in the majority institutions. One of our Biggest Challenges is recruiting our students out of graduate stools schools, getting them to stay, giving them resources and labs and assistants, they are not teaching a class is a year, they have smaller teaching loads and thats a real challenge, how to attract. Its easy to say you want the best faculty but its far more difficult to keep the best faculty. I graduated from howard in 1991. My wife and i have three daughters. Our oldest daughter graduated from howard in 2016. When im having conversations with my colleagues, i say we kept the tradition, but a number said thats great but worsening our daughter or son to another school. Question of relevancy, question of tradition, how does this play out in our world. First of all, i think there is a zerosum notion that as more africanamericans attend majority institutions, thats taking away. The fact is there are more africanamericans, more people of color pursuing postsecondary degrees than ever before. Its in the millions, annually, and thats good news. If we are successful in what we are attempting to do to reform k12 education there will be even more students of color who will graduate High School College ready with expectations that an advanced postsecondary degree is there life, if not beyond. We see a growing opportunity. There are only 100 for historically black colleges. They obviously have some capacity but they dont have the capacity to teach the entire community of africanamericans, and they are diverse institutions. If you go on our campuses today, private and public you will see they are not just black students or they are not just american black students, they are latino, they are muslim, theyre arab, theyre coming from across the world and across the country. They are finding a new marketplace. They are under resourced in terms of their ability to package their students, and i would just say we need to do, we need more investments to be able to make the opportunity available to students who want to attend these institutions. Applications are up, but enrollment remains relatively flat. While we used to be 10 , its not just because the people are leaving, but the pie is getting larger. These are the right institutions for the students who choose them. What we want to do and i think what makes america such an extraordinary landscape is that one size does not fit all. Its diverse and there are catholic institutions and womens institutions, there are a range of different kinds of institutions and i think we need to speak forcefully. I dont have hope about the future because hope is not a strategy. What i have is in tension and determination that we will continue to persist to ensure that these institutions are strong and vital and meet the expectations of a demanding student body that wants the best. I attended graduation last week and watched over 300 extraordinary young men walk across the stage and the two Co Valedictorians and the salutatorian who spoke about their experience on that campus was both preparing them to compete at the highest levels and preparing them for life. It was an experience that they could not have gotten according to their testimony from any other institution. That was the right institution for them, just as attending a predominantly White Institution is right for the students who select them. Lets let you weigh in and then opened up for questionandanswer period so on the question of relevancy and tradition, when we think about relevancy, we think about tradition, the hbc tradition has been excellence and it was grounded in education theology and liberation. From there pounding into th this day, our institutions are teaching students in their discipline in teaching the pedagogy but if there preparing teachers, there preparing them not only to go out and be a teacher but to teach students how to live. If there preparing medical professionals there preparing doctors but there preparing people dealing with the mind, the body and the soul. Boyars are focused on judgeship but a portion is focused on justice. If anybody wants an excellent education grounded in the best underpinnings of the teachings and pedagogy and so forth with the education liberation theology, then they should come to an hbc you. Having said that, i want all of our students to go to the best institution, aligned with their preparation, aspiration and ability to cobble together the resources. The other part of that is Donnie Taylor says 8 were getting. That means 92 are not coming to hbc you. That goes back to the whole thing about getting firstgeneration low income, while the community, the nation as a whole is becoming low income firstgeneration students of color. Thats a good thing. Thats a growth vision for us, but until the nation invests in our institution commensurate with their output, we will not have some of the things that make it competitive and we will have a challenging time getting a larger market share. We will keep pushing on that. We will push on our alumni and our friends in the extended community of colleges, those who were watching will pick up the phone and write a check so that we will have all of the best infrastructure to bring a Broader Market share and make sure they have the best experience. What i want to do now is turn it to the audience for questions. We have a couple people here, weve got a microphone to my right and we will have a microphone to the back. Two things. Tell us your name and affiliation and ask a question, try not to give a speech because i will weigh in and so we will start on the side. Before i do that we want to say hello to doctor Lauren Haynes and also former director on hbcus. [applause] im jennifer from respectability. Thank you for those outstanding presentations. Doctor you talked about intentionality, mr. Taylor you talked about looking at the downstream issues. I wanted to ask about people of color with disabilities since one out of every five people has a disability and disparate fortunately, people with color are the most likely to go into incarceration or homelessness or be killed by police. What are the historically black colleges doing to recruit, train and prepare students with disabilities to really thrive throughout your institution . Thank you. We are sort of fortunate in that because we represent Public Institutions its a requirement. State institutions, not just the programs that will support them but the physical plan have to embrace and be up to date, compliant with ada, et cetera. You really raise a very interesting issue and that is that that too is an opportunity for us to specifically target a population and make them feel welcome on our campus. Im always looking at it from a standpoint of how do you increase enrollment. If we made a targeted environment where people would be comfortable and welcome and embraced and we work to partner and place them in in internships so they can have a higher chance of getting jobs, thats what we need to do. We need to focus on placing those students. They are the silent minority. Thats an area will focus on. I just wanted to say this, i think all of us are aware of the fact that the pole of students coming out of high school is getting smaller. Movies just did, the research said this is not getting bigger. We are not looking to a robust class of 2025. But the pool is getting blacker, browner, disproportionately lower income. And they are going to minority serving programs. We were privileged to get a grant for public and private institutions in doing an internal assessment of their practices and regulation, relative to students who are differently abled. It also gave a student scholarship money so untargeted campuses, for three years they were able to make sure their campus was prepared to receive students and to afford them scholarships so they can participate. They engaged with faculty and staff in a number of efforts. I too look forward to working with you. Just one point, they talked about the disability side of your question. You also asked about incarceration. There is a huge opportunity for Higher Education to help the nation solve the reentry challenge. Ive been serving on a board and weve been looking at this , we will be issuing a report relatively soon, but we need stronger partnerships with the federal government and philanthropy to ensure that the incarcerated can get the education and training that they require to reenter the communities they have left and we know that the cycle of return is much greater for those who dont get the opportunity for education. You know, i believe there is a robust opportunity for Higher Educational institution that will think outofthebox and look at the needs that are out there for people to get the education and training and development that they need to compete in the 21st century, and weve got to look beyond the sat scores, weve got to look at human beings who have the godgiven potential to develop it. They may not look like people we think go to college and they may not have had the experiences, but when they begin to get that development and we see the outcomes, you cant tell the difference. Let me speak briefly to what you said because johnny mentioned about Public Institutions. With smaller colleges we can also target how we deliver those services to students. Im sure many institutions have done that. We have actually given special accommodations to students who had disabilities, our buildings are accommodating, but if there were classes on a different floor than we have restructured those classes of those will have their classes in a building thats more accommodating to them. Being flexible, looking at that and wanting to meet the needs of students. My name is rashad, im with the American Council of trustees and alumni in the fund for academic renewal. Im also a 2011 graduate. In a proud son of the hb you community. My question is president hogan but everyone else can comment as well, the College Readiness problem in the Africanamerican Community is substantial and a lot of students arrived on the University Campus without the grounding from their high schools and other schools to be college ready. What are you doing to make up that gap when students get to your institution. That is a challenge across america. You find those deficiencies often and one of the things that weve been very intentional about doing is how we structure our First Year Programs, testing them by skill levels because we believe if we get them, we must prepare them and sure they get out and good fashion bearing the mark of what we call it to below education. Weve revamped our First Year Program that each student has a coach who advises them and follows them through their sophomore year. Weve also established a Tutorial Center complete with computers and others in teaching and learning aids that students can go in and have tutors and whatever discipline they may find themselves challenged in, and how do we work with them. I can say that since weve started that weve had the best experience with our first year because usually when students are not doing well academically from their first year, their second semester you will see a dropout. We had the lowest attrition rate for our students with this fall semester and spring semester, and this is our second year of having this program in operation. You really have to provide them with the tools that can aid them. Students who come here, they dont come liking the academics, they like exposure. It has to do with what you know and how you apply it. We realize that are providing those tools for them. Have a question that i want to make sure we get to. Magis respond quickly. Just one second. Good morning. My name is lynn williams. Im with emerging Technology Consortium and i have a question and or request. If i could give just a brief backdrop. Its pertaining to the Defense Authorization bill, and the reason i bring that up, they gave me extraordinary opportunities to have an internship with the congresswoman and from that, everything went up for me. They gave me a chance to work for senator from my state of virginia, john warner. This is going back 30 years ago. We need the question. We created a public law. This is very important for all of us. It created a public law that created 5 . That 5 bill was bipartisan and created 70 billion worth of revenue for small minority business and hb you research. When my senator retired. Mr. Williams, i need your question. Okay, when he retired then came the policy and you know what the policy ended up doing. Heres my question or request. Here we are 30 years later, ragan increase the Defense Budget and now weve got President Trump increasing the Defense Budget 30 years later. We have an opportunity to do the same thing through your senator who is chairman of the Armed Services like john warner. My request is, can you have a meeting with your senator with the stakeholders on stage who represent the community, would you be willing to take the leadership so we can have a similar type of legislation that would create those opportunities. Im very much familiar with the act and consider it done. We are working on that. The question of preparation is an important one, and when we celebrated the fact, and we should that the collective education efforts of those here and people inside the white house yielded proposed level funding, that was the appropriate thing to do, and its a good thing. We are delighted, but where we failed is in educating this administration so far and educating others about the importance of the pipeline program. The Early Childhood education for ages three through five for they close the 40000 word usage, healthy start head start programs and trio programs, all of the programs that prepare low income firstgeneration students to be ready to come into and thrive are imperative for us to continue to work with a solid base, get them in and out of college. Thank you. A morning i am also with the emerging technologies consortium. Question. Yes, quickly. Research and development has created hundreds of millions of dollars of income and diversify the income of many predominately White Institutions. What is our strategy to ensure we get our fair share of the r d money so not only can we diversify the revenues of our school but also bring in the kinds of investment to ensure our students are technologically prepared. Very quickly, because i think mr. Williams asked that question of me because the college has established a research and foundation as part of our infrastructure and its geared toward that. How we access Greater Research dollars and promote research and development. We have got to be able to generate more resources for our institution and position our institution to be able to deliver to the marketplace with these Companies Want as well. I think this is something we all feel very strongly about and we have worked as a team to reach out to this administration and both request and challenge them to meet a higher standard of performance. I think its very important to watch the steps weve taken so far. We invite black College President s to washington, meet with them, talk to them, issue an executive order for white house executive, bring that to the center power and now a point that executive director whose competent, qualified and the board of advisors. Essential to that executive order is challenging the departments of the federal government to make Resources Available to historically black colleges in the same way that those resources are made available to majority institutions. Think we are determined to do that and youve got the leadership out there doing it, we need strong followership, we need strong advocacy and we need all of us to hold the new administration accountable. Weve had these White House Initiative since jimmy carter, and i will tell you their result have been uneven. Its the determination of the administration and the strength of the administration that will deliver changed outcomes in terms of participation and we will work hard with this administration to get the maximum we can on behalf of our institution so they can do the research and have the resources from the federal government that are appropriate for them. And a final point on that is while the white house budget is what it is, ultimately this goes to congress. So when you talk about our strategy, it is going in and having a republican think controlled congress but this is not the time to talk about followership for us to not talk to people because we dont share party affiliation. In fact if the position is were not going to talk to because we dont share party affiliation, we cannot achieve the goals you talk about. Weve got to have conversations, the three of us were meeting with bradley byrne, cochair of the. [inaudible] you must do that. Thats for the money sets. It sits in the dod. Not in the white house. I hope our followers were understand that. All good things must come to an end and i see a number of hands in the audience, some of our panelists will remain after words for you to ask questions but i just one and on a few notes. What all of them said about the importance of working across party lines in politics, i am clear no matter whos in the white house, each bc you should never be an outhouse and we work from there. Number two, 150 years from now there will be conversations about Higher Education. Im proud to say in may 2017 weve had a conversation today on the future and weve heard from people who talk about the challenges and opportunities, but more importantly opening the doors of opportunity for the next generation of americans who will strengthen the republic. With that i want to thank all of you and thank you cspan for covering us, god. , lor. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] regardless of your background, remember where you came from. Hold on to the way so many of you reached out to mentor Young Persons through the colby cares about kids. Hold on to the way you engaged in this community, and make sure to bring that commitment to whatever walk of life you choos choose. Bravery, not perfection was the key that unlocks every door i had walked through. It took me 33 years to figure out that brown girls can do things too. We want you to understand that you are here because of a lot of help and now is the time to help others. Thats what this is all about. Saturday night at 80 strength, commencement speeches including california governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at the university of houston, former Vice President joe wyden at Colby College in maine, earls who code founder, Arizona Governor doug doozy and. [inaudible] michigan Governor Rick Snyder at adrian Community College in michigan. Saturday night at eastern on cspan and cspan. Org. This holiday weekend, on book tv on cspan2 saturday at 8 30 p. M. Eastern former u. S. Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice looks at democracy around the world in her book democracy, stories from the long road to freedom. Americans in particular were blessed with Founding Fathers who understood and institutional design that would protect our liberties, our right to say what we think and worship as we please, to be free from the secret knock of police at night and have dignity have those that are going to govern you ask for consent. If we were blessed with that, and we believe we were endowed by our creator with those rights, it cant be true for us and not for them. Sunday at 2 20 p. M. , Columbia University professor on the controversies around and perceptions of sounding black in his book talking black i think we need to get comfortable think black people have a slightly different sound because they spend more time with one another just like white people sound more like one another because they spend more time together. Thats true of all human groups. Thats not racist, its just true and harmless. Monday at 43d p. M. Eastern, george w. Bush on his book portraits of courage, a commanderinchief tribute to american warriors. The first guy i painted was mr. Turner. I said why are you here. He said i cant get out of my mind seeing a buddy of mine killed. I pain from pictures or photos , and as im painting turner, im thinking what that must be like in his mind. It resulted in a naval victory for the u. S. Over japan just six months after the attack on pearl harbor. On june 2, American History tv will be live all day from the mcarthur Memorial Visitor Center in virginia for the 75th. The five star admirals who won the war at sea, Elliott Carlson with his book joes war, the odyssey of a code breaker. Anthony tully, coauthor of shattered sword, the untolds story of the battle of midway and the author of never call me a hero, a pilot who remembers the battle of midway. Watch the battle of midway 75th Anniversary Special live from the Visitor Center on june 2 beginning at 9 30 a. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan three. Next, a hearing on synthetic opioids and how to combat the problem by providing easier access to drug treatment centers. We heard testimony from u. S. Postal service were workers and officials from customs and border protection. Held by a subcommittee, this is three hours