here before, welcome back. i would like to say hello to those who are watching this through live stream and through c-span2. this is a great day to have a great conversation about higher education, particularly the role of historically lack colleges and universities. in 1997 i have the opportunity to work on a project with a gentleman named samuel dewitt proctor. many of you know him as a former president, some of you know him from virginia university. he actually spent time here in washington d.c. as a kennedy appointee to the peace corps, but a number of you know him through his work as the pastor at the baptist church. in 1997 we had opportunity to sit in a very lovely room with a donor who owns a very large and famous family foundation. the head of that walked into the room and we exchanged niceties and she said can i ask one question and he said yes. is there a need for black colleges today? he leaned back in his seat, having heard this question for most of his life and he said ma'am, if you make, can i restructure the question. the question is not whether there is a need for hb c used today, the question is where would america be today without them. she nodded and he returned returned the nod and the conversation began. it made an impact on me for two reasons. number one it showed 142 years after the conclusion of the civil war the question about black higher education in the question of black people in the american social order was still on the table for conversation. number two, the conversation was about hbcus but it was also about the importance of america higher education and its imprint domestically and on foreign-policy, foreign economic systems and foreign governments. fast-forward may 2017 and were having a conversation today about the road ahead. why is that important? for over 150 years hcb use have been an important part of the higher education landscape. like many other postsecondary institutions, they have challenges in the regulatory scheme as well as with school finance and other things. because on average they educate more students who are first-time college goers, lower income and others there's a special role they play and lawmakers should keep that in mind. while we've seen great things from our institutions, the large number of people who we produce who go on to earn phd's and those in a number of professions including those who become schoolteachers, there are a number of challenges. we had the closure of st. paul college in virginia, we have a number of schools on the brink of bankruptcy and a number of students leaving colleges with debt. this is a conversation about higher education and the role of hbcus and we have for people who are well-versed in this conversation. for those of you watching via lives dream or c-span the # for this event is future state of hbcus. number two we will have four speakers who will, pier one of the time. they will provide an overview and remarks for about ten minutes. after the conclusion will make our way over here for a dialogu dialogue. we will talk for 20 or 25 minutes and open it up for audience q&a. i will invite my first speaker. it's michael lomax he is the president of the 9-year-old college fund. he represents 37 private hcb use in the united states. not only does he know this issue as a president of nonprofit but he's also a graduate of moore college, former graduate of dillard university. i am by doctor womack to the podium. [applause] >> thank you very much. i want to thank you for your leadership in bringing this very important conversation to the american enterprise institute. i live in the neighborhood so i'm also going to welcome you. up watch this renovation occur and said when are they going to invite me inside, i'm glad to be here. i think we often do talk about this as we look in the rearview mirror. it's important to take this occasion to talk about the road ahead, to talk about the future and talk about innovation and change. we recognize the importance of institutional change through our advocacy and work to build institutional capacity we understand higher education is at a crossroads where institutions need to be, to reorient the business model to be more student ready. we've been providing scholarships for students for nearly 75 years. we award hundred million dollars annually to over 10000 students. since our founding we have assisted nearly half a million students earn college degrees. during that time we have witnessed a significant shift in student demographics and expectations. today's students are radically different from those of yesteryear. today's students grew up with the world at their fingertips and 140 characters or less, technology connects this generation in a way i could not have imagined back in the dark ages of my youth. technology is moving at a pace significantly faster than higher education. -underscore, faster pace than higher education requiring most to reimagine what it means to effectively teach and learn and very importantly, prepare students for careers in the 21st century workforce were education matters more than ever before. by 2025, 65% of all new jobs will require postsecondary training. within the fastest growing fields, stem and healthcare, 92% and 95% respectively of all new jobs will require postsecondary training credentials. today the pipeline of graduates to fill these jobs across all demographics is insufficient. for african-american 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. i won't talk much about it but i want you to know i have a visual. [laughter] this is why we are excited with the long-term supporter and we are working with a long-term supporter, the lilly endowment inc. of indianapolis to assist 24 higher education institutions including 23 historically black colleges and university and one predominantly black institution as they seek to ensure our institution graduating students are ready to throw and thrive in the 21st century workplace. we are doing that with a $50 million grant from lily, an investment and forward thinking and innovation. other institutions are pursuing a three-pronged approach to improving outcomes for their respective institutions. i will go over those quickly and if you want more detail, go to our website or ask me a question, but the first thing we are doing is we are trying to change that experience from being opaque for the student to being transparent, from being all over the opportunity landscape to being more narrowly focused. we call that creating intentional, guided pathways for students. in order to create those pathways, we have to take on some of the sacred cows on the institutional campus and gerard noted i'm a former faculty member as well and i can tell you the hardest thing to do is change curriculum, but for students who are spending an awful lot of money to get an education and all too often not finding employment outcomes at the end of the rainbow, we can't keep doing what we are doing. we have to do things differently and it has to begin by building foundational tenants, not just of a liberal education, but reimagining content that is delivered to ensure what we are teaching in the classroom is applicable outside the classroom and it leads to not just a degree but meaningful employment and careers. finally, we are increasing expectations to ensure students have the necessary experiential opportunities as well through integrated co- curricular engagement. i will tell you internships are not nice to have anymore. they are absolutely essential. employers are looking earlier and more often and more carefully at talent and they want to see how that translate what i've learned in the classroom to what i learned in the workplace. we see that particularly in the technology, but they are just leaders in this. we all have to be. while the primary outcome of this work is gainful employment for 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. the shorter we can make this, the less expensive we can make it in the more efficient, the better for our students. some are developing stackable credentials whereby students need to stop before completion of their bachelor degree they will at least have a credential it will give them a leg up on the labor market and they can be employed meaningfully and return if necessary because so many people are 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 55000 students the cpi, career path where initiative serve annually. it also means we document what we are learning and share that information to ensure other education institutions can learn from the innovative models that we set forth by our cohort institutions. too do this we partner with institutions by providing them with the necessary technical assistance to improve their institutions capacity to execute this work, and by documenting what we are learning to develop academic models that lead to outcomes we seek. the work 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 remember as we think about things, the investment these young people are making in their education in terms of time and cost are significant. today the outcome don't always warn that investment. african-american unemployment for college graduates, not just historically black college but for all college graduates is double that of their peers. underemployment is at a staggering 50%. we have to deliver to them not just the transformational elements of a liberal arts education, but also the real and practical returns of career employment. i look forward to discussing this innovative work that we are doing with you. thank you. [applause] our next speaker is the president and ceo of the national association for equal opportunity in higher education. she is the first female president and in her role she has a unique opportunity to work not only with prayer but dominantly hbcus but also black institutions which she will share more with you. before arriving she had a long career in the legal profession having worked for the naacp and other organizations, including having served as an appeals administration judge in the district of columbia and a leadership position with the college board in washington d.c. i would like to bring her to the podium and let's welcome her. [applause] >> thank you very much to all the colleagues who are here and aei, thank you for choosing to be here. i see representatives from the white house and i need to call out mr. smith who is in the office of white house policy, thank you for being here. i feel the presence of alma rosa who is in the white house , the director of communications whose voice along with mr. smith has kept the hbcus community on the mind of this administration and i believe has something to do with the fact that were here today. it's the nation's only national membership association of the 106 historically black colleges and now roughly predominantly, 80 predominantly black institutions. our provision is to provide voice to this diversity group of colleges and connect all the colleges with opportunities to enhance their infrastructure and better serve their goal. this is the table at which this diverse and sometimes divergent groups of presidents and actors come together and suppress their individual goals for the goals of the whole, the whole of the community and it's been my privilege to serve for 20 years is outside pro bono counsel, litigating in 18 states where they have historically public black colleges and historically public white colleges. we represent this community in judicial fora before congress and in state legislatures and administrative bodies. it is my humble privilege to serve up his home and move this community forward. it is from that vantage that i believe in order for us to move the communities forward and take full advantage of the types of opportunities that michael lomax pointed out and those on the horizon, in order for us to get the types of support we need to move our community forward, the first thing we have to do is change the narrative. we have to change the narrative so when defining this we do not accept the designation of these colleges as colleges for educating low income first-generation students. they do in fact do that and our students are disproportionately low income. by definition their mission must be the education of the proclamation of the sleep center but these institutions are richly diverse. they are graduating 42% of americans who go on to get advanced degrees. there graduating 60% of african-americans and health professions. the first step to moving on and the first step to being heard and received as the innovators they are is to change. they talked about the history of involvement in hbcus and the reality is as long as we define ourselves as small and underfunded and failing first-generation low income, people will not be inspired and not invest in us. the data suggests while we do that and we do an outstanding job in many of our institutions will continue to do that, we are diverse in america cannot realize any of its goals for excellence and diversity in the workforce, for justice or leadership at the home of the multinational corporation without thriving diverse hbcus across the gamma. and so, the first step is changing the narrative. hbcus are a 13 billion-dollar short-term business. that's important. if people think we are coming hat and handling members of congress call me, they say we want to come and talk about how we can help you, and i say i'm 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 richly diverse core you can't do that tonight without hbcus because they have 50%, there graduating with 50% of african-american public school teachers. the dialogue goes on but the reality is this is a time for hbcus to tell the narrative about our return on investment. for example, the question came up about capital financing program that is central to them having 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 c-span2 and others were listening need to be able to tell the story, hbcus our mission base. they are not ethnicity base. we are not a suspect category. we are 30% diverse, faculty sometimes as much as 40% diverse. we have five predominantly white hbcus without the ethnicity bases, we are not a suspect category. in order to get new programs and sustain them we have to show there is a reasonable basis. we put them before congress and legislative bodies every opportunity we get the strong compelling basis with regard to the hbcus capital financing program, the data show that it still cost hbcus more to get into the bond market and it cost them more to sell bonds and as long as that continues there will be a need for the capital finance program. another data point i want you to be able to tell so we can get to the specific programs that you heard about and some others you'll hear about in the discussion is that the endowments of hbcus are one eighth the size of historically white colleges and universities. this is because the country and philanthropists have not invested in hbcus commensurate with their output. we have to get them to look at us so they see the return is actually higher than others. with that as a background, we are doing a number of things and i will talk specifically about some of the public-policy things were doing, but i want to share with you hbcus endowment fund. as we continue to get the public to invest in our institution as the best return on higher education dollars, we also want to get the african-american extended family and broad swath of americans to invest in hbcus to help move our endowments forward. we are launching a social marketing campaign to tell the story about hbcus and we have a goal of establishing, through investments from the black community and faith-based organizations come social and civic and fraternal institutions and entertainers and anyone who has dollars they believe in and understand the centrality of hbcus for moving america forward to invest one tenth of 1% of their net income, collectively we have a $1.3 trillion expendable income in the african-american community. if we invest one tenth of 1% of those dollars we can realize the goal of having a $1 billion sustainable endowment fund so we can begin to invest in these tremendous institutions that have some challenges, but the remarkable output they are having, even though the investments are not commensurate with return on investment should just if we invest more in the endowment we can move them forward. during question-and-answer all talk about some of the things were doing at the federal level and state legislatures. thank you for this opportunity. [applause] >> i mentioned in introducing the president that she spent a part of her career in the legal profession, she is also a howard university graduate and keeping in the tradition, there is another hq person in the room. we now turn to the president and ceo of the thurgood marshall college fund. it's johnny taylor. he has done a tremendous job of expanding the conversation about public hbcus. often we think about private, sometimes public, we don't make the distinction. he's got nearly 47 member institutions educating 300,000 students annually. he has done a tremendous job. prior to becoming the president and ceo of thurgood marshall college fund, he spent time in the privates sector. an attorney who spent time with paramount studios and blockbuster and others. he brings an interest in making sure public institutions have a role to play in the landscape. i now bring up johnny taylor. [applause] >> the downside to being third is everyone said what you are going to say. i'm sitting there writing my notes scratching out what i was going to say. thank you michael and leslie. >> she gave me a hard time because i said i barely missed the millennial area. [inaudible] she said that was cruel, you don't say that to a woman. good morning. by the way, as i was walking up, i realized a warrior could not have been involved in this set design because this is like an accident waiting to happen. i took my time walking appear because i would be glad to rename this building the johnny taylor building. if i fall the all got a problem. [laughter] it is so good to be back here at aei. thank you for having us here, the head of aei, arthur brooks and i had dinner recently and we were here for the trump listening session when they brought in african-american leaders. some of you were here when we began talking about the transition and what we should think about and talk about with respect to not just the hbcus community but the african-american community, the black community. i'm really glad to be here. as i thought about what i might say, we just had our board meeting, the thurgood marshall college board which is about 20 people and there was a real discussion and i'd like you to go, i think it sets the tone for the road ahead, what came out of it and i'll give you, i'll take you to the end walk you back but we ended with one statement that really made me stop and reflect. we thought about hbcus. all of us love them. we are proud of being alumni, black or white, everyone is proud. the question becomes what does the future look like. one statement that came out of our work, we engaged a boston consulting group and they been very extensively talking to us about the future of hbcus and how it should play in the space. they walked out with a statement that said we are hopeful but not optimistic. that was the real deal. these are people who, they just objectively consultants said we are brought in to look up at sectors and industries. i'm from industry and that's how we look at the world. we are hopeful but not optimistic. i hope that sets the tone for this discussion because too often we come to the sessions and we have aurora event and we talk about what's great and what we do and what we've done but you have to sit down and really look at what you're doing. you have to be critical, not destructively but constructively critical. that's the way we are going to insure that hbcus are around, but they're not just surviving but their thriving 100 years from now so we can consider sending our children to one of these institutions but they won't be around if were not prepared to have those discussions. their initial work found hbcus enrolled just 8% of african-american students. that means 92% of us are making decisions to send our children to majority institutions. you've got to ask yourself, as much as you say you love mcdonald's, why are you in the burger king drive in line. it's a fair question. if we probe those questions and respond, i think we can save hbcus and grow the population and enrollment. if we don't look at it that way, i think we struggle. one of the two business sectors that we looked at, one is business someone his government was the taxi industry. as we explored what hbd the use could look at. as you remember taxis begrudgingly took credit cards but they wanted cash. but then they woke up and overcame around and now they're going to wake up and driverless uber will come around. the entire sector was disrupted, and if you don't get with it, apple will take you out because apple will own that car and it won't even be about uber because they on the gps system. we have to do that as a sector. higher education in general. today were talking about hbcus but this is a broader higher ed conversation. we often say when white america gets a cold we get pneumonia. the other areas k-12. i think there are lessons there. when you think about when we grew up, there were traditional schools, and i said we, there were traditional public schools and private schools. those were your options. look at what's happened. charter schools. you saw the migration. there were the magnet schools and then charter schools and public charter schools and private charter schools and now virtual schools. the whole landscape has changed. i will submit to you that while our history is important, we must look at the future and figure out what hbcus have to look like and how they have to perform 50 years from now, not five years from now because the disruption is so fast we talk about six-year, five you, for you. a lot of people doing it in three. back in the day someone graduated college at 20, you were impressed. now look at the headlines of your people graduating at 18. the kid to come in with two years because of dual enrollment. the whole model has changed and we've got to get with it if we genuinely genuinely care for hbcus. quickly at the end of our board meg meeting after the shared their findings, we pulled our board and we said what we going to do? we see we are part of a shrinking sector. there are fewer students in hbcu campuses this year than last year and fewer than the year before and et cetera. the train is not our friend. the question was how do we thurgood marshall college fun play in the space? we went way far. we submitted we can represent black students. that it matter where they go to school because as unkind to grow my business, my consumers the navy i am not limited to hbcus. maybe we need to go find the student of the questions to represent the institutions for the students? fair question. it was on the table. i'm pleased to say to you that that very diverse board of mine said hbcus need us. hbcus are important. if we abandon it then it would give others the license to abandon the support for the institutions. we have committed ourselves that we're going to dig in, support hbcus, look at them and be a properly critical constructively so, because that's how we're going to ensure hbcus are here for our children. i have to get some shout outs, we came up with a strategy couple of years ago as an institute. we have to pick up what industry wants. there's a question, how can hbcus serve industry and industry wants diverse and want black folks. there's a supply and demand issue and the bigger problem is in supply because common from industry we wanted to black folks. there's a supply challenge and we have to sort that. we as you all likely heard somewhere years from now, three years ago, apple gave us $47 million to solve to solve it. they said you can't talk about needing diversity in silicon valley and less you can do something about it. we designed a plan, the initial design was we would give them 20 engineers on the apple engineering team. this is not at the genius bar. not an apple retail store. i'm talking about product people. literally sort of rocket scientists who were working on this autonomous driving cars, etc. they wanted us to find them and they said you be lucky if you get 20. 20. please does that first year we gave them 33. this year we're up to 45. the talent is there but you have to show it. you can't just talk about it. you have to show them. we are doing that thanks to the generosity. charles coke, i know there folks, sat down and said accounts we have a supply problem, it's not enough to just investigate in hbcus. we've got to figure what's happening in our communities, what are the barriers that it would move them would actually have a sufficient supply people going into this channel so the wing of the pipeline. that means where to go back and look at k-12 education reform,, look at criminal justice reform, look at entrepreneurship, look at those three areas. because of his generosity, $26 million this year we are working on trying to figure out what of those obstacles, it would remove them, if those are removed we can share hbcus have a very vibrant, healthy and prepared pipeline of students because the matter what you all want to say, the reality is that if we are forced to bring kids who are reading on a fourth and fifth grade reading level will not graduate them in three years. it's just, math doesn't work that way. it's going to take you six, seven, eight years. so in a larger sphere where are saying graduate more prepared in a shorter period of time, the only way we can really do this is way to ensure that we remove the obstacles and ensure that the k-12 program brings us a better prepared student so that we can really shine as institutions. thank you and i look forward to the questions. [applause] >> thank you so much. we had an opportunity to hear from three people who represent hbcus. whenever an opportunity to hear from beverly hogan, president of to go to college in mississippi. she's been president since 2002, first female for institution, also an alumnus. not only does she bring to a present position space as a former professor also graduate of jackson state but worked in state government. she has an opportunity to the role between state government and institutions. at the end of the day, presidents are responsible for managing multimillion, sometime billion-dollar institutions and they had to do so smartly and she done so for numbered years. i want to bring president hogan to the lectern, and let's welcome her. [applause] >> good morning. and thank you also very much for this very dynamic discussion. johnny, i was very careful walking up here but i also thought about it, if i stumble may be you in your an job on the lawyers to what you said, i could get my endowment up to around what it -- [laughing] >> i want to add my thanks to aei and you particular, gerard, for hosting this type of discussion and dialogue and want to offer my appreciation to the voices of our national leaders, spokesperson for historically black colleges and universities threat the nation. you all have communicated quite well the state of hbcus. it is both an exciting and challenging time to lead historically black college and university. but you have to have a lot of hope and optimism when you are in these positions and yet to see the entire purpose, the future because our business is always about the creation of the future. if we get stuck in today's activities, we lucite of what we are working to actually effectuate. that's how i approached the position that i haven't to glue college with a lot of inspiration, a lot of students, a lot of enthusiasm. but also what this means not only to my community and the state, what it means to nation what it means to globalization across, around the world. i want to first talk to you about tougaloo college. tougaloo college is an independent historical black college located in jackson, mississippi, and was founded in 1869 by the american missionary association which is now known as the united church of christ. we offer 29 majors and education, the humana's, natural science, and social sciences. and to graduate degree programs in education and master of arts in teaching and the maste mastes and shall develop with. we provide our students with academic, social and professional tools they need for leadership and service in a changing economy. it is our charge, our responsibility, it is our challenge to prepare our students to be productive in their time. i often tell them i receive a top-quality education at tougaloo college and yes, i did graduate sometime ago, johnny, probably. and whereas some of the education is to organic in fluid, our students today looking for something a little bit different, and we must be willing and flexible to revisit our missions, to revisit our vision, to determine if it's appropriate for not only their needs and interests of her students today but the emerging needs of our society and businesses that they will be entering. over 60% of our graduates go on to graduate and professional schools immediately following graduation. they are prepared and inspired by a qualified, competent and committed faculty. so they are able to graduate a lot more timely and some hbcus, but still is a challenge for us. we serve 85% how eligible students and our graduation rate state above 50% because most of our students, needing to work to also finance their education. so the need for scholarships and opportunities there for our students come financial assistance to help them move through schools at a more timely rate certainly something that all of our hbcus share. but they become leaders in their professional disciplines, wherever they may be an productive citizens. i'm looking at naomi and i know she can testify to that is one of our outstanding graduates. tougaloo is a small college with just under 1000 students but its impact has been tremendous. in the state of mississippi alone, i think lezli, some of which is this about, about the number of us graduates go on to the medical and science deals, right in the state of mississippi alone, 40% of the african-american healthcare professionals, doctors, whether they're dentists, hospital administrators, nurses, any other professionals graduated from tougaloo college along with 35% of educators whether their classroom teachers, principals, superintendents or college presidents, and 35% of the attorneys. so tougaloo has been impactful and we have our graduates spread throughout the nation, small college with a large impact. our living and learning environment, and i brought this up because our students come today wanting different things. they come with seven more divisive and they want you to have the infrastructure to accommodate all of that. doesn't matter how he gets paid. they just want it there. but our living and learning about it provides access to the latest technology, to facilitate work in learning as well as keep pace with the rapidly changing high-tech global society. we cannot serve students today without the appropriate technology. we have smart classrooms. technology is employed in all of our key academic buildings, and even in most open spaces on our campus in tougaloo we sit on 50d for college expansion, the other acres are dedicated to investment and development. we have access to wireless technology. whether they go out there on the basketball court, on the tennis court or just wanted through the woods, they want that technology to work, but most of the open space and we have it. we have a unified campus security system that offers coverage to every building and also most open areas because what do parents what? students what safety. you want to feel their safe and we have to be very much aware of that. in this 21st century tougaloo college still though seeks to prepare and top inspire students to become thoughtful, ethical leaders who can meet the challenges. we want to inform the future with the vision and justice and charity, and contribute to a more inclusive, fair and humane world all humankind because of the world is changing. so we still instill the students and combining the strengths of academic offerings, tougaloo college continues its timeless legacy of excellence, relevance and influence. we are keenly aware of the importance of academic excellence, providing a quality education, where students can leave there and see that there in the world and they can accomplish their aspirational goals whether they want to become a scientist, doctor, a lawyer, an architect we want them to be able to have those skills and the knowledge and understanding of what it needs to be able to go out there and accomplishment. so that's important to us. we want relevance. tougaloo is in a traditional institution in the sense that with a strong legacy, historic significance run deeply in the educational streams of tougaloo college going back to our founding, going back to her role in the civil rights movement. but all of that is for not if it's not relevant today. we have to as institution leaders know that if our past and will become greater than our vision for the future, we will become dispensable. we have to put that their everyday look at, is our curriculum still relevant to students? is it interspersed with the kind of specialized knowledge areas and professional certificates of the students will need to pair that with a good, only liberal arts education? didn't we want to know about the influence each as evidenced through our graduates once they leave our institution. and the quality of their contributions to larger society. i often say that the true success of the institution is really not measured by how smart our students are when they come to us, or how well they do while they are with us, but the true measure is determined by the quality of their contributions to the larger world once they leave our institution. we have to stay focused on that. students today want unique curriculum and relevant curriculum. they want diversity and to what technology. many of our small hbcus at tougaloo not indifferent. we don't necessarily have the diversity of students on campus when we needed but that doesn't mean we can't achieve it. collaboration, tougaloo college has a 53 year partnership with brown university. not only just faculty exchange or student exchange, but joint research. faculty, teach a tougaloo. our faculty co-teacher there. but but we also have relationships in international communities as many of hbcus do. our students can go and get that experience, exchange programs with majority institutions. we haven't even in the state of mississippi with a summer science and injuring program with mississippi state university. these are the things we must look at. we started the 3+ 3+3 program fr the law school at mississippi college. students can come to tougaloo three years, they can go to miss of the college for three years. have degrees from both institutions and that area. in general programs, we've done that come bringing diversity in, sending our students out so that their worldviews can be enlarged and they can look at that because we do want to send them out in a world of broad diversity and they are not exposed to it where they are. not just to the faculty but when he does that kind of student relationship. so recently doctor lomax talked about that as early. we were for the last two or three years we're talking about redesigning our general education curriculum, looking at the ways opportunities that we can transfer are learning environment and be more into 21st century learning experiences for our students. with the help of the belly endowment -- lilly endowment program pathway and issues funded through uncf, tougaloo college form a consortium with two other hbcus, talladega and oakwood, and initiative. these institutions came together, put together a focus on how we would look at the guiding pathways, i would do curriculum reform and how we would connect with career services. so tougaloo college, we focus on collaborating to present academic offerings as at oakwood and tell a big and career services to better align them for our students so they could have targeted focus whether they're measured in history of whether measuring in biology -- majoring to what you plan to do with this? and they can to help them along a guided pathway. one of the most exciting things that we did i think is establishing this portal called connections. which provides a real unique opportunity to bring together many interrelated components of academic offerings to a data driven but outcome-based streamline and unified system to close the gap in the number of trained, qualified and available workers in both our local and global communities. and you did this digital repository called connections we will be able to connect students to career network partners who are corporate partners, agency heads, foundations, and even other alumni who are alumni both all three of our institutions. our students can be more engaged in internship opportunities, work experience and mentorship to gain skills to prepare their knowledge that gain the classroom with skills of their helping other in the workforce. i think this is going to be a powerful tool for all three institutions have access to because we able to track our students, not only th to progre, but track our students as they go through graduate school, go into the workforce. we also brought into line with our general education program and career services. we're doing these kinds of things to have him back on her. i realize that time is waning for me in terms of -- everything that you need to tell in ten minutes but let me just briefly say that outlining more closely with students and labor market demands, our institutions will be able to address some of those urgent questions that face us today. what's the return on investment? is a college education worth the cost? and will students leave institution with an ability to earn more money than student debt load? and as we really talk more about this let me just caution all of us to be mindful that our institutions do provide leadership and service for america. and as a demographic shifts, let's resist the urge to modernize our historical black colleges and universities to the technical, traditional professional jobs. it is very important that we tell industry that we need our students in leadership roles and internships that lead to that. because with the growth and minority population, over the next 25-30 years, if all of our minority students because they are considered low income and underprepared are going into the technical traditional technical professional jobs, then we will have a dearth in our nation that is going to undermine the democracy because we while not have enough prepared to go into leadership roles. we will be a majority with minority control and power influence. so we will continue to do that. i'm on my way to germany on sunday morning to meet with germany companies look at those german-based companies in mississippi so that will be able to pair with the need with what tougaloo college and other institutions like ours can be able to bring to the table when they arrived in our communities so they can be a true partnership. i will be happy to talk more about this when we meet. thank you so much. [applause] >> this is called path of a return. >> so you had an opportunity to hear great information about hbcus, in particular but also really the state of higher education in the united states. we heard about investments. we talked about innovation. we talked about the need to change. we also talked about her students. the first question is was for anyone on the panel. what are we doing for faculty at our schools? my wife is a professor, so knowing the importance of faculty what it means to our schools. so i will start with dr. lomax and we can work your way down. >> i think critical to the work we are doing with career pathways is to engage faculty. the two elements that are most essential to institution of higher education are grade students and outstanding and challenging faculty. all too often our faculty, and i think faculties across the higher education, don't be the opportunities for enrichment, for challenge, for nutrients expenses and new learning. one of the elements that we are going to rely on these faculties to transform their curricula and educational outcomes for our students is to give them enrichment. so we are investing in faculty, giving them externships, sending them into the marketplace, sending them into companies,, giving them the opportunity to see what those companies want them to teach. we are seeing that really in the area of technology in particular where we will be sending into google and other places, but also bringing those folks onto our campuses, not just as recruiters but as faculty as well. and getting our students an opportunity to see that the learning experience is not just limited what happens in the classroom. it's going to continue in working with you learn today, they'll have to have the skills and capabilities to continue to learn and upgrade if they're going to meet the demands of the marketplace. >> i agree with that. i think you have to engage faculty on the front. we know that curricula is the domain of faculty. faculty must be engaged at the very point of talking about curricular reform. redesigning curriculum so that they, you get the buying underfinanced, but also with research and teaching and service all a part of our mission, we have to make sure that those faculty members are involved in curricular reform and heavy use research to inform classroom teaching, have some release time so that they are not overly burdened with all the responsibilities on teaching, doing the research, serving on committees, advising students. we have to be flexible and one of the things i learned working with my faculty is they want to feel that they are valued and they are respected both their role and they want to have a voice in what's happening on our campus. and be involved in that. then there's the faculty fellow. we have 80 faculty development center at tougaloo where we offer continuous dialogue and discussions and training for faculty. we also like many of the common at the other hbcus, particularly in the uncf network, we have a partnership with new york university for the faculty network and we send our faculty offerin often to drink . but faculty and students are really the core of our education institutions. without faculty and students there will be no need for a president or any of the rest of us. so that's what we have to focus on every day, how do we keep them engaged, keep them refreshed, how do we keep them come the ideas flowing and so they can be contributes for that. if they're working, doing doing that, getting their ideas, helping them through the process. our general education reform was guided either faculty. it was driven by the faculty but it was driven toward a focus on helping to develop the skills students need today and a few really good about the product they produce. >> we were, there's a question that we have got all of this and faculty. i consider it an investment. every one of the pitches that we make now, it's not just the student perspective that we could ask for my butt we has to faculty, a faculty investment. you can't get one without the other. i think that's what you're hearing. i remember when i went to apple at first to talk about that investment. it was easy to say give him a scholarship because of scholarship is a transaction. many of us would think about it, i don't really remember a long time ago who put me through school. i just know i didn't come out with a lot of debt. the idea though is if we're going to really change the game went to invest in faculty. when we talk to apple we said scholarships are one component but we need to other things. we need you to allow us to bring our faculty to your location to meet with her engineers, to meet with us folks, i think you tell us because you can be a great professor but if you're teaching the wrong thing or, not wrong but it's relevant, let's put it that way, and i'll tell you and all say the names of the people in the schools of think it would represent the public. publicly support because also represent howard university in tuskegee although there technically private and the school of medicine which is private propublica supported budget was thinking -- genera speaking think of public. we place a student, put into the job and she came to us in tears prick she said i'm working the technology department of a non-technology company. this is in silicon valley and she said i have a 4.0 but i'm so behind all of my fellow colleagues. she said at my school we worked on 1994 platforms and these folks are working on 2004 platforms. she said i'm just at a disadvantage. this young woman had to start her job and go to community college in the local market at night to get up to speed. she loved her professors. her professors loved her. they just were not giving her the most up-to-date and relevant skills picture when it is market at a disadvantage although she finished $40,000 in student loan debt. that's the reality. we made th that case emanated to everyone of them. it's not just apple in the technology space. we are getting ready to announce a partnership with lgf, philip morris we said you also, that's agribusiness at the end of the day. you need to work with our faculty to ensure the faculty are preparing and equipping the students with the skills that they can use pair finally, even when i talked about the program called santa for dancing opportunity, our first big event, gerard will be with us next week, right? will talk about brown v. board of education and whether not the promises were fulfilled. i would invite you all a headquarters. there's an interesting discussion but big part of the component is to invest in faculty. so that overall grant about three cars of it is going directly into faculty. so i think you got to invest in faculty. >> ilm with everything that my colleagues have said, just what highlight a couple things that they are doing relative faculty. we have programs for student internships about 14 federal agencies but we also have faculty fellowships where the faculty mostly in scientific labs that are available to them. some of them lead for a year. we get there spot funded as most of the host institutions cannot afford to have them leave so we get funny for some dissent in the spot for your for them to go to strong scientific lab and into return. there's a no coaching requirement. we do that. we also are working with the state higher ed executive officers. you may recall last year about 100 other nations most competitive colleges and universities had a problem with diverse students feeling a lack of a warm and welcoming environment. and so nafeo offered the entire breadth and scope of historically black colleges and universities in partnership relationships. and so we had been in discussions about student exchanges, but also faculty exchanges so that we can get the benefit of diverse faculty from other campuses and they can get the benefit of hours. we are working with congressman danny davis and a group of persons on a 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 some other things. the last thing that i'll mention in the interest of time is a new partnership that nafeo has with the business roundtable, business roundtable has about 144 heads of a fortune 10500 corporations. they seek and to do a number of strategic things to octane diversity. one of the things are working with them, they have a number of student centered projects. we're expanding that to include faculty in their efforts to achieve diversity. .. one of our biggest challenges is recruiting our students out of graduate schools and give them a ton of money, resources, labs, assistance, time off, they're not teaching a class of the year. they have much smaller loads. that's a challenge for us. it's easy to say you want the best faculty, but it's far more difficult to keep the best talent. that leads me to shift to a question about tradition and relevancy. i graduated from howard in 1991. my wife and i have three daughters. our oldest daughter graduated in 2016. what i'm having conversation with my colleagues, i say we kept the tradition but a number of my friends say that's great but we are sending our daughter or son to another school. question of relevancy, how did that play out. >> first of all i think there is a zero-sum notion that as more african americans attend majority institutions that's taking away from hbcus. the fact is there are more african-americans, more people of color pursuing post secondary degrees than ever before. it's in the millions annually and that's if we are successful in what we are attempting to do to reform k-12 education, there are going to be even more students of color who will graduate high school college ready with that post secondary degree and beyond. i think we see a growing opportunity. there are only 100 for historically black colleges. they obviously do have some capacity but they don't have the capacity to teach the entire community of african-americans 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, they are arab, they're coming from all across the area and the country because they're finding a new marketplace. they are under resourced and we need to do, we need more investments applications are up and enrollment remains relatively flat. it's not just the people that 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 what makes america such an extraordinary higher education landscape is that one size does not fit all. there is diverse just as there are historically black colleges and catholic institutions and women's institutions, there are a range of institutions and i think we need to speak forcefully. i don't have hope about the future for hbcus because hope is not a strategy. what i have is intentionality and determination that we are going to continue to persist to ensure that these institutions are strong and vital and meet the expectation. i watched over 300 extraordinary young men. the valedictorian in the salutatorian's who spoke about their experience on the campus was preparing them to compete at the highest levels in the had great opportunities available to them upon graduation it prepared them for life and it was experience they could not have gotten from any other institution. >> i will let you weigh in and then open it up for you in a's with the audience. on the question of relevancy and tradition, when we think about relevancy and we think about tradition in terms of relevancy and tradition, the tradition has been excellence and it was grounded in education theology, education and liberation. from their founding and to this day, they are teaching the students in their discipline, their teaching the pedagogy but they are preparing teachers not only to go out and be a teacher, but to teach students how to live. if there preparing medical professionals their preparing doctors but people dealing with the mind, body and soul. lawyers are focused on judgeships but this disproportionate percentage are focused on justice. if anybody wants and ask on education grounded in the best underpinnings of the teachings in the pedagogy with the education liberation theology, then they should come to an hbcus. having said that, i want all of our students to go to the best institutions, aligned with their preparation, aspirations and the ability of the village to put together the resources. they said 8% were getting, that means 92% of students are not coming to hbcus. that goes back to the whole thing about getting first-generation low income. the communities, the nation as a whole is becoming low income first-generation students of color so that's a good thing. that's a growth vision for us, but until the nation invests in our institutions, 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 watching who will today pick up the phone and write a check so that we will have all of the best infrastructure that we will bring to our campus a broader market share to make sure they have the best experience. >> what i want to do is turn it to the audience for questions. we have a couple people here. we have a microphone here to my right and we will have a microphone at the back. two things, tell us your name, affiliation and then ask a question and try not to give a speech. we will start on the side. before i do that, we were mentioning hbcus. we want to say hello to doctor lauren haynes, former director of white house nation on sbu h cb use. >> 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 disproportionately, people of color with disabilities are the most likely to go into incarceration or homelessness or to be killed by police read what are the historically black colleges doing to re-creatrecruit, train and prepare students with disabilities to really thrive? hello hello hello. [inaudible] inc. all of us are aware that the pool coming out of high school is getting smaller. we are not looking for a robust class. >> the pool is getting blacker , browner, disproportionate, low income. >> and they are going to minority serving institutions they were privileged to get a grant from at&t that allowed us to engage public and private institutions in assessing and doing it internal assessment of their policies and practices and regulations, relative to students who are differently able. it also gave us some student scholarship money so that untargeted campuses it was a good subset of campuses for three years, they were able to make sure their campus was prepared to receive students differently abled and afford them scholarship so they could participate and they engage the faculty and staff and campus and a number of education opportunities. i look forward to working with you. >> just one point, they talked also about incarceration. there is a huge opportunity for higher education to help the nation solve the reentry challenge. i've been serving on a board of the american civil liberties union. we been looking at this and we will issue a report relatively soon. we need stronger partnerships with the federal government and philanthropy to ensure the incarcerated can get the education and training they require to reenter the communities they have left, and we know the cycle of return is much greater for those who don't get the opportunity for education. you know, i believe there is a robust opportunity for higher educational institutions that will think out-of-the-box and look at the needs that are out there for people to get the education and training and development they need to compete in the 21st century. we've got to look beyond the sat scores and act. we've got to look at human beings who have the god-given potential to develop and only invest in them. they may not look like people we think of college and they may not have the experiences, but when they begin to get that development and we see the outcome, you can't tell the difference. >> let me speak briefly to what you said. they mentioned about public institution but private colleges also make accommodations with students with disabilities. at smaller colleges we can also target how we deliver the services to students. i'm sure many institutions have done that. we have actually given special accommodations to students who had disabilities. our buildings our accommodating. if there were houses on a different floor and we have restructured those clashes so those with disability will have them in a building that's more accommodating to them. we want to meet the needs of our students. >> i have a? the side. >> my name is rashad thomas. i am with the american council of trustees and alumni and i'm also 2011 graduate of florida agricultural and mechanical university. i am a proud son of the hbcus community. my question is particularly to president hogan but everyone else can comment as well. the college readiness program in the african-american community is substantial and a lot of students arrive 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 in reading, math and science. one of the things this college has been very intentional about doing is how we experiencstructure our first year program. we believe if we get them to college we must prepare them and ensure they get out in good fashion during the market of a college education. we revamped the first year experience so that each student has a coach who advises them and follows them through their sophomore year. we also established a tutorial center with computers and other teaching and learning aids that students can go in there and they have tutors, and whatever discipline they may find themselves challenged and, they've already been tested for some of their weaknesses and how do we work with them. i can say that since we started that we've had the best experience with our first year because usually when students are not doing well academically in their first year, you will see a dropout. we had the lowest attrition rate for our students with the fall semester and spring semester and this is our second year having this program in operation. you really have to provide them with the tools that can aid the them. students who come to our college, they don't come whacking the academic ability they come with a lack of exposure. we realize that and we are providing those kinds of tools for them. >> i do question in the middle that i want to make sure we get to. >> can i just respond really quickly. >> let me get this question and then you can follow up. >> good morning everyone. my name is lynn william. i'm with emergent technology consortium and i have a question and/or request from doctor hogan, if i can give just a brief backdrop it's pertaining to the defense authorization bill and the reason i'm bringing that up, they gave me an opportunity to have an internship and from that everything went up for me. as i say that, gave me a chance to work for a senator from my state of virginia, senator john warner, and this was going back 30 years ago. >> we need a question. >> we created a public law that created 5% public law. that 5% bill the senator warner worked with bipartisan other senators and created $17 billion worth of revenue for small minority business and hbcus research section 1207. when my senator retired. >> mr. williams, i need a question real quick. >> when he retired, then came the policy and you know what the raw policy ended up doing. here's my question and request. here we are, 30 years later reagan defens increase the defense budget and now we have trump increasing the defense budget. we have an opportunity to do some of the same things like when john warner was chairman. my request of you, can you have a meeting with your senator, with the stakeholders on the stage who represent the hbcus community, would you be willing to take the leadership to meet with your senator so we can have a similar type of legislation that would create those kind of opportunities for our hbcus. >> i'm very much familiar with the act and consider it done. we are working on that. >> okay, 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 those inside the white house yielded to propose level funding for hbc you, that was the appropriate thing to do and it's 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 where they closed at 4000 40000 word usage in head start and early start and trio programs and the gear up programs, all of the programs that prepare low income first-generation students to be ready to come into and thrive are imperative for us to continue to work with a solid base, get them into and out of college. >> thank you. >> good morning. i am also with emerging technology consortium. very quickly, research and development has created hundreds of millions of dollars of income and diversify the incomes of many predominantly 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 investments that ensure our students are technologically prepared. >> very quickly, because i think mr. williams asked that question of me because our college has established a research and development foundation as part of our infrastructure and it's geared toward specifically that, how we access greater research dollars and promote research and development, and we are working with a lot of other hbcus. it's one of the things that were working on because you're absolutely right, we have to be able to generate more resources for institution and position our institution to be able to deliver to the marketplace what these companies want. >> 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 it's very important to watch the steps we've taken thus far. we've invited black college president to washington, meet with them, talk to them, issue an executive order to create a white house initiative, bring that initiative into the center of power, the white house and now appoint it from someone who's confident and qualified. essential to that executive order is challenging the government to find and make resources available to historically black colleges in the same way that those resources are made available to institutions. we are determined to do that. you've got the leadership out there doing it. we need strong fellowship and advocacy and we need all of us to hold the new administration to account. we've had these initiatives since jimmy carter, and i will tell you, their results have been uneven, but it's 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 appropriate for them. >> a final point on that also is that while the white house budget is what it is, ultimately this goes to congress. when you talk about our strategy, it is going in, you have a republican-controlled congress of this is not the time to talk about followership for us not to talk to people because we don't share party affiliation. in fact, if the position is we won't talk to because we don't share party affiliation, we cannot achieve the goals you're talking about. we've got to have conversations. yesterday the three of us were meeting with the bipartisan caucus, you must do that because that's where the money sits. it sits in the dod. not in the white house. i hope our followers will understand that. all good things must come to an end. [laughter] i see a number of hands in the audience, some of our panelists will remain "after words" for you to ask questions. i just one and on a few notes. number one, what all of them said about the importance of working across party lines and politics, i'm clear no matter who's in the white house, hbc you should never be an outhouse, so we work from there. [applause] number two, 150 years from now there will be conversations about higher education. i'm proud to say in may 2017 we've had a conversation today on the future of hbc you. we've heard from people who talk about the challenges and opportunities but more important, open up 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 think you see stanford covering us. [applause] >> a look at some of the live events coming up on c-span2. at 4:00 p.m. the consequences of government corruption and live at 5:30 p.m. a discussion about the future of iran. in riders today, the trump administration is close to completing a policy review to determine how far it should go in rolling back engagement with cuba. the new policy is likely to be announced in the coming months according to sources. they may recommend tightening trade and travel rules but are not expected to cut off diplomatic relations which were restored two years ago after more than five decades. you can read more at reuters.com. also today, live coverage of the white house briefing with press secretary sean spicer. it will be the first briefing since president trumps foreign trip. it's scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. eastern. before that begins we will look at some of washington's genera general -- "washington journal". again, live coverage of the white house briefing with press secretary sean spicer is set to begin in just a few minutes. before that begins we will look at some of today's "washington journal". >> host: he is back at our desk and is the policy editor of the examiner and he is going to talk about the week ahead for the trump administration after the long holiday weekend.nt one decision we know that's coming is the decision on the paris climate deal. explain where we are on that,ng reports from over the holiday weekend that the president was leaning toward pulling out of the paris climate deal. >> guest: it would be much more consistent with what the president iran on, to pull out of the deal. basically a lot of his constituency is people whose industries have been adversely affected by environmental regulations, the president has not been a very big supporter of international agreements of this kind in general, taking the viewpoint that essentially the united states would have a lot of burden while a lot of polluting countries like china would not be as affected by the regulations.ome p the president has a team that has been very divided on this question. he has some people within his w administration that want to pull out, some people want to renegotiate the deal and some think they should maintain the status quo. is it being looked at a prism through's u.s. leadership and global affairs?the pari >> i think a lot of people will perceive this, if we pull out of the paris agreement, as in evocation of u.s. leadership on environmental issues, it will be part of a series of issues on which the united states is taking a different stand than its conventional allies in europe, so some people will see this through the prism of president trumps, going it alon alone, henry mcmaster, the national security advisor has made a point of saying america first doesn't mean america only, america alone. some of these will see it through the prism of the united states doing things unilaterally.