or c-span 2. this is a great day to have a conversation about higher education and typically the role of black universities and colleges in it. in 1997 i had an opportunity to work on educational project with dr. samuel dewitt proctor. many of you know him as president of north carolina. some of you know him as president of university. he spent time in washington, d.c. as a kennedy appointee to the peace corps but a number of you know him as pastor of an stenian church. we had an opportunity to sit in a lovely room similar to this with a donor it's a donor who owns a large and famous family sfwrags. the head of that walked into the rooms. we exchanged niceties. she said can i ask you one question? he said yes. is there a need for black colleges today? >> and dr. proctor leaned back in his chair, having heard this question for his life. the question not whether there is a need for h fwrvegs cus today. the question is where would america be today without the hbcus. she nodded. he returned the nod and the conversation began. it impacted me. i was in my late 20s then. for two particular reasons. number one it shows that 142 years after the conclusion of the civil war, the question about black higher education, hcbus and franklist 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 american higher education and its imprint not just domestically but on foreign policy, on foreign economic systems and on foreign government, a role these institutions play. fast forward to may 2017 and we're having a conversation today about hcbus and the road ahead. why is that important? >> for 150 years they've been part of the american educational landscape. they have challenges in the regulatory scheme as well as as finance and other things. maybe who are low income, students of color but frankly all students from different races, backgrounds and kreeds. there's a special unique role that they play in american education and typically our lawmakers should keep that in mind. while we've seen some great things from our snugs, the large number of people who go on to earn ph.d.s, including the sciences and those who become schoolteachers. there are a number of challenges as well. we had the closure of st. paul college in my state of virginia. ef with a number of schools that are on the brink of bankruptcy, and a number of our students are leaving colleges saddled with debt. this is about particularly the role of hcbus in it. we have four people very well verse -- well rersed in this subject. the hashtag for this event is future state of hcbus or ##futue state of hrvegs cbus. number two we're going to have four speakers. they're going to come up here one at a time and provide an overview and remarks for about ten minutes. after the conclusion of the last speaker, we'll make our way over here for a dialogue. we'll talk for about 20 or 25 minutes and then we'll open it up for an audience with q & a. i'm going to invite our first speaker, dr. michael low max is the president of the united negro college fund. he residents 37 private hcbus in the united states. he's looking over this issue as a graduate of morehouse college, formerant of dillard university and since i see he's ready to get up here i'll invite him to the electric turn. >> 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. so i'm also going to welcome you. i've watched this renovation occur and said when are they going to invite me inside. glad to be here. you know, i think we often do talk about hcbus looking in a rearview mirror. it's 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, and at uncf we recognize the importance of institutional change. to build institutional capacity, we understand that higher education is right now at a cross roads where institutions need to be to reorient the business model to be more student ready. unc has been providing scholarships to students for nearly 75 years now. we award about a hundred million dollars of similarships yunlly to our students. we have assisted nearly half a million students earn college degrees. during that period 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 a world at their fingertips. in 140 characters orless, technology connects this generation a way i could not have imagined back in the dark ages of my youth. so technology is moving at a pace significantly faster than higher education. underscore faster pace than meyer education, requiring most institution, not just hbcu to understand what it means to teach and learn and very importantly prepare students for careers in the 21st century work force where education matters more than ever before. by 2025, 65% of all new jobs will require post secondary training. within the fastest growing fields, stem and health care, 92% and 95% respectively of all new jobs will require post secondary training, credentials. today the pipeline of graduates to fill these jobs across all demographics is insufficient. and for african-american students, these concerns are more acute as they are significantly underrepresented in the requisite majors such as computer sooinsz and engineering and there is still a penalty for being black. this is my visual. i'm not going to talk much about it. i want you to know i have a visual. this is why we -- and i'm trying to be energetic -- are excited with a long-term supporter of event we are working with a long time supporter to assist 24 higher education institutions, including 23 historically black colleges and universities and one predominantly black institution as they seek to ensure our institutions are graduating students that are ready to survive and thrive in the 21st century workplace. they are -- we're doing that with a 50 million dollars grant from lilly, an investment in forward thinking and innovation. other institutions are -- our institutions are pursuing a three-pronged approach to improving outcomes for their respective institutions. i'm just going to -- i'm going to go over those quickly. you want more detail go to our website or ask a question. the first thing we're doing is we're trying to change that four year, five year, six-year experience, which we'd like to have as a four-year experience from being opaque for the student to being transparent. from being sort of all over the opportunity landscape to being more narrowly focused and we call that creating intentional guided pathways for students, and in order to create those intentional transparent guided path ways for student, we're going to have to take on some of those sacred cows on the institutional campus and gerard noted i'm a former president. i'm a former faculty member as well. i can tell you 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 finding employment outcomes at the end of the rainbow, we can't keep doing what we are doing. we have to do things differently. it has to begin by building foundational tenants not just of a liberal education but reimagining content and its delivery to ensure what we're teaching in the class room is applicable outside the class room, that it leads to not just a degree but meaningful employment and two careers. and finally, we are increasing expectations to ensure students have the necessary experience al opportunities as well. through integrated co-curricular engagement. and i will tell you that internships are not nice to have anymore. internships are absolutely essential. employers are looking earlier and more often and more carefully at talent. they want to see how that talent translates what i've learned in the classroom to what i learn in the work mace, and we see that particularly in the technology, but they are just leaders in this. we all have to be fast followers. while the primary outcome of this work is gaflt employment for our graduates, we also seek to improve outcomes along the way, focussing 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 least -- the less expensive we can make it and the more efficient we can make it, the better for our students. some institutions are even creating stackable credentials, where if students need to stop out before chair completion of the bachelor degree they will at least have a certification that they can be meaningfully employed and returned. people will 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 outcomes of the 55,000 students the cpi career pathways initiative institutions sever annually. for the success almost means we document what we are learning and share that information to ensure that other education institutions can learn from the innovate active models that we set north by our cohort institutions to do that, uncf partners with institutions we providing them with the necessary technical institutions to improve their capacity to execute this work and by document what we are learning, academic models that lead to outcomes we seek. the work knees 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 him and not so young people are making in their educations in terms of time and cost are significant. today, the outcomes don't always warrant that investment. african-american, unemployment for college, black college graduates, not just historically black colleges but for all graduates is double that of their peers. underemployment is at a staggering 50%. we have to keep faith with the expectations of these students by delivering to them not just the transformational elements of a liberal arts education but also the real and practical returns of career and employment. i look forward to discussing this innovative work that we're doing with you this morning. thank you. [ applause ] >> our next speaker is leslie bass kerrville who is the president and ceo of naofoahe. she has the unique role to work with predominantly with hbcus but also predominantly black institutions. she had a long career in the legal professor having worked for the ncaa and a few other organizes, including also having served as an appeals administrative nudge in the district of columbia and a leadership position with the board here in washington, d.c. we'd like to bring her to the lectern and let's welcome her. [ applause ] >> thank you so very much, gerard and to aei, to all of the colleagues here, thank you so much for choosing to be here. i see representatives from the white house and i need to call out jer? on smith who's in the office of white house policy. thank you for being here. i feel the presence of amma rosa man galt, the director of communications whose voice along with that of jerron schmitz has kept the hbcu community on the mind of this administration and i believe has something to do with the fact that we're here today. it's the nation's only national membership association of the 1306 historically black colleges and now the 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. it's the table at which this diverse and sometime divergent group of presidents and chancellors come together and they suppress their slid goals for the goals of the whole. for the whole of the community. it's been my privilege to serve with not -- with nafeo first, for 20 years as outside counsel litigating in states request 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 and it is my humble privilege to serve at this helm and to move this community forward. it is from that vantage that i believe that in order for us to move the community forward, in order for us to take full advantage of the types of opportunities that michael low mac 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 community forward, the first thing we have to do is change the narrative. we have to change the narrative so that when you're defining this richly diverse kmient of colleges, we do not accept the designation of these colleges as colleges for educating low income first generation students. they do 23469 do that and our students are disproportionately low. their mission must be the execution of the progeny of the american slave system or african-americans, but these institutions are richly diverse. we have ten institutions that are research intensive. they're grauting 42% of african-americans that go on to get advanced degrees in the sciences, technology, engineering and math maddics. we have four medical schools and large numbers of dental schools and public health schools. these institutions are graduating 60% of african-americans in health professionals, 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 at a meeting with the place saturday leonard haynes and someone referenced a book "small change" and it talked about the history of involvement and investments in hbcus and the reality is that as long as we define ourselves as small and underfunded and failing and four first generation low income, people will not be inspired and will not invest in us. the narrative is and the reality is the data suggests that while we do that -- and we do an outstanding job and many of our institutions will continue to to that -- we are diverse. america cannot realize any of its goals for excellence and diversity in the work force for justice, for leadership at the helms of the multi-national corporations without thriving diverse hbcus across the gamut. so the first step is changing the narrative. hbcus are a $13 billion short term business, that's important. if people think that we're coming understand hand when members of congress call me they say we wane to come and talk about how we can help you. and i say i'm delighted to come and talk to 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 work force without my institutions. if you want a thriving richly diverse teacher corps and principle corps, dr. sanders, you can't do that without hbcus because they're graduating today 50% of african-american public schoolteachers. and so the dialogue goes on but the reality is this is the time for hbcus to tell the narrative about our return on investment. so, for example, the question came up about hbcu capital financing program that is central to hcbu's having new class rooms, new laboratories, strong infrastructures and the question was raised about whether or not these sniegss need to be reviewed because they are a suspect category because they're for hcbus. those of you in this room and others who are listening need to be able to tell the story. hcbus are mission based. they are not race or ethnicity based. we have hcbus that are 30% diverse faculty. sometimes as much as 40% diverse faculties. we have hcbu which are predom understandly black. educating of black students but have been open to all. they're actually doing a better job than many other groups, so we have to tell that story, too. and the reality is, without the race- -- base, race, or ethnicity basis, et al., we're not a suspect category. in order to get new programs and to sustain them, we have to show that there is a reasonable basis and we put before congress, we put before administrative bodies and others at every opportunity we get. the strong compelling basis and with regard to the hbcu capital financing programming, the data show. there's a recent duke study that it still costs hbcus more to get into the bond market and it costs hrvegs cbus more to sell bonds and as long as that disparity continues, there 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 the specific programs that you heard about and some others you'll hear in the discussion is that the endowment of hbcus are -- this is because the country and philanthropists and others have not invested in hbcus zmens rat with their output. we have to make sure that when they invest they see the return is actually higher than others. so with that as a background, we're doing a number of things. i'll talk specifically about some of the policy things that we're 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 african-american extended family but a broad swath of americans to invest in hbcus to help move our endowments forward. so we're launching a social marketing campaign to tell the story about hbcus and then we have a goal of establishing initially from investments from the black community through faith based organizations, through the beulah. we talked about that on sfri. social and civil -- anyone who has dollars, they believe in and understand the centrality of hbcus, for moving america forward, to invest one tenth of one percent of their net income. collectively we have a 1.3 trillion dollar expendable income in the african-american community. we invest one tebt of one percent, we could realize having a $1 billion endowment bond so that we can begin to yes, as with others and as your opening remarks suggest, they have some challenges, but the remarkable outputs that they're having even though the investments are not kmiz rat with the return on investment suggests that if we invest more in the enindictments, we can move them forward. during question and answer i'll talk to you about some of the things we're doing at the federal level in congress and with state horse. thank you so very much for this opportunity. [ applause [ applause ] she smentd part of her career in the legal field. i hear a clap on the side. there's another hu person in the room. we're not going to turn to the president and ceo of the thurgood marshall college fun jon taylor. he's done a tremendous job of expanding the conversation about public hcbus. often we think of private, sometimes public -- we don't often make the distinction. he's got nearly 47 member institutions, educating 300,000 students annually and he's done a tremendous job. prior to becoming the president and ceo of the thurgood narh shall college fund, he spent time in the private sector, also an attorney. he brings to this conversation only a private seconder background with a particular interest in making sure that public institutions, particularly hbcus have a role to play. i'll now bring up johnny taylor. [ applause ] >> wow. you know, the downside to being third is everyone's said what you were going to say, so i'm sitting there writing my notes, scratching out parts of who i was going to say. thank you michael and leslie. leslie, i won't say what i said the other day about being a millenial. she gave me a hard time yesterday saying i barely missed the millenial era. it was swaggered and leslie bass kerrville and they missed it. i barrelly missed it. they big missed ichlt. she said that was cool. you don't say that to a woman. good morning, good morning. and by the way, as i was walking up, i realize a lawyer could not have been involved in this set design. this is an extent waiting to happen. i took my time walking up here. if i fall, y'all got a problem. it is so good to be back here at aei. i got to the tell you. so gerard, thank you. thank you for having us here. the head of aei, arthur brooks and i had dinner recently and we are here for the trump listening session when they brought african-american leaders. leslie, you and stefrl others in this room were likely here when we began talking about the transition and what we should think about and talk about with respect to not just the hrvegs bcu community, but the african-american community, the black community, whatever term you want to use. i'm really glad to be here. as i thought about what i would say in nine minutes or so, it was -- we just had our board meeting. the thurgood marshall board chsz about 20 people and there was a real discussion and i'd like you to go because i think it sets the code for the road ahead for hbcus. i'll take you to the end of it and walk you back. we ended with one statement that i think really it made me kind of stop and reflect. we thought about hbcus. we wear our t-shirts. we're proud of being alumni of hbcus. my board is half white republican very wealth eye white men from the midwest and they give us a lot of money. so people are proud of hbcus. st question becomes what does the future like fike for the hbcu. one statement that came out of our work, we engaged boston consulting group, bcg, talking to us about the future of -- and how they should play in the space. did statement was we're hopeful but not optimistic. that was the real deal. these aren't people who necessarily -- they're just objectively as consultants said we're brought in to look at secretarios, at industry r industry sectors. he said i'm from industry. that's the way we look at the world. we're hopeful but not optimistic. i hope that sort of sets the tone for this discussion. too often we come to these sessions oonlds we have a ra-ra event. we talk about what's great canned what we've done. to do this work right you've go event. but you have to look at what you are doing. constructively critical and that is the way we are going to ensure that hbcus are around. not just surviving but thriving 100 years from now. so we can consider sending our children to one of these institutions. they will not be around if we are not prepared to have these discussions. bcg's initial work found that only decision to send our children to -- to majority institutions so you got to ask yourself, as much as you say you love mcdonald's why are you in the burger king drive-thru line? if we probe these questions and respond to the questions, we can grow the hbcu's population enrollment. one of the two big sectors we looked at is a taxi service. taxis grudgingly took credit cards. and then uber came around. and now they are going to wake up and driverless uber is going to come around. so the entire sector was disrupted and if you don't get with it, apple is going to take you out because apple will own that uberless car and it won't be about uber. we are going to have to do that as a sector. i am talking about hbcus, but this is a broader higher ed conversation. and we often say if -- the idea is that we are going to have to look at this closely. the other areas, k-12, there are less o lessons there. when we grew up way back in the day lezli. and i said we. look at what happened. you saw the migration, it was the magnet school and then charter schools. and now virtual schools. the whole landscape has changed and 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 perform 50 years from now. not five years because the disruption is so fast and like nothing we have ever seen. i hope that when we engage in the discussion today, we all love hbcus. will they exist? you can be relevant and not be in business because you can't make the model work. michael talked about the business model. and you have to look like whom do we recruit, how do we serve them. a lot of folks are graduating in three. when someone graduated from college at 20, and you were impressed. and look at the headlines graduating at 18. the whole model has changed and we have got to get with it if we genuinely care for hbcus. quickly, at the end of our board meeting after bcg shared with us our findings, we polled our board. there are fewer students on hbcu campuses this year than last year. so the trend is not our friend. and the question was how do we, thurgood marshall college fund play in this space. and we went way far. maybe we just represent black students. my consumers, then maybe i am not limited to hbcus. the question is do we represent the institutions or do we represent the students? fair question. it was on the table. and i am pleased to say to you that that diverse board of mine said hbcus need us. they are important. if we abandon it, it will give others the license to abandon the support. so we committed ourselves. we are going to support hbcus and be appropriately critical and that is how we are going to ensure the hbcus are here for our children. i have to give shout outs, we came up with a strategy a couple of years ago and one was we have to figure out what industry wants. how can hbcu serve industries. and industry wants diverse and they want black folks. and the big problem is supply. we wanted black folks so there is a supply challenge and we have to support that. apple gave us $47 million to help solve for that. you can't talk about needing diversity in silicon valley unless you do something about it. so we designed a plan. this is not at the genius bar, this is not in apple retail source. product people. literally rocket scientists who are working on these autonomous driving cars. they wanted us to find them and they said you will be lucky if you get 20. we gave them 33. and this year it is up to 45. so you have to show them the talent is there. and then charles coke, and said -- we have got to figure out what is happening in our communities. what are the barriers that if we removed them would ensure that we have a sufficient supply of people going into this channel some of we have to look back at k-12 education reform, criminal justice reform, and entrepreneurship, those three areas. we are working on trying to figure out what are those obstacles, if we remove, we can ensure that hbcu has a vibrant, healthy and prepared student. if we are forced to bring in kid who is are reading on a fourth, or fifth grade reading level, we are not going to graduate them in four years. so in a larger sphere, the only way we can only do this is ensure that we have the obstacles and ensure that the k-12 program brings us a better prepared children. so we can shine as an institution. thank you. and i look forward to the questions. >> thanks. thank you so much. we have had an opportunity to hear from three people who rent hbcus. we are now going to hear from beverly hogan. she has been the president since 2002 of her institution. graduate of jackson state. and worked as state government. an opportunity to see the role between state government and institutions. at the end of the day, presidents are responsible for managing billion dollar institutions and they have to do so smartly. and she has done so for a number of years. so let's bring president hogan to tup and let's welcome here. >> good morning. thank you very much for this dynamic discussion. johnny, i was careful walking up here. but i also thought if i stumble, you have lawyers in here to witness it and i can get my endowment to where i want it. i want to add my thanks to aei for hosting this discussion and dialogue. and offer my appreciation to the voices of our national leaders and spokespersons. 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 you have 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 lose sight of what we are working to actually do. a lot of inspiration, that comes from our students and enthusiasm, but what this means not only to my community and the state, but to the nation and what it means to globalization around the world. i want to first talk to you a little bit about tougaloo college. you heard from others and tougaloo college is an independent historically black college. it was founded in 1869. we offer 29 majors. in education, humanities, natural science and social sciences and two graduate degree programs in education. masters of arts in teaching, and in child development. we provide our students with the academic, social, and professional tools they need for leadership and service. and a changing economy. it is our charge our responsibility, our challenge to prepare our students to be productive in their time. i often tell my community there, i received a top quality education at tougaloo college and yes, i did graduate some time ago, johnny, proudly. and our students today are looking for something different. and we must be willing and flexible to revisit our missions, revisit our vision, to determine if it is appropriate for not only the needs and interests of our 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 in professional schools immediately following graduation. they are prepared, qualified by competent committed faculty. so they are able to graduate a lot more timely. there is still a challenge for us. most of our students come needing to work to also finance their education. so the need for scholarships and opportunities there for our students, financial assistance to help them move through school at a more timely rate is something that all of our hbcus share. but they become leaders in their professional disciplines wherever they may be and productive students. i am looking at naomi, and she can testify to that as one of our graduating students. in the state of mississippi alone, i think lezli or someone else mentioned, you did gerard, about the number of graduates who go into the medical and science fields. but in the state of mississippi, 40% of the african american health care professionals, doctors, dentists, hospital administrators, nurses, any other professionals graduated from tougaloo college. so it has been impacted. and we have our graduated spread throughout the nation. small college with a large impact. our living and learning environment, and i point this out because our students come today wanting different things. they want you to have the infrastructure to accommodate them. but our living and learning environment provides access to the latest technologies, to facilitate learning. you cannot serve students today without the appropriate technology. we have smart classrooms, technology employed in all of our key academic buildings. and even in our most open spaces, and tougaloo has a lot of land. acres are dedicated to investment and development. but we have access to wireless technology. when they go out there, and whether they are on the basketball court or tennis court or wandering in the woods, they want that technology there. what do parents want? student safety. and we have to be very much aware of that. in this 20 first century, tougaloo college still prepare students to become thoughtful ethical leaders who can meet the challenges of informed citizenship. we want them to inform the future with vision and justice and charity and contribute to a more inclusive fair and humane world. we still instill that in our students. and combining the strengths of our academic offerings, tuga loo college continues. we are keenly aware of the importance of academic excellence. where our students can leave there and entering the world and accomplish their aspirational goals whether they want to become a scientists, a doctor, a lawyer, an architect, we want them to be able to have those skills and the knowledge of understanding what it means to be able to go out there and accomplish that. that is important to us. we want relevance. tougaloo is a traditional institution in the sense that we have a strong legacy. historic significance that run deeply going back to our founding, our role in the civil rights movement. but all of that is for naught if it is not relevant today. if our past ever become greater than our vision for the future, we'll become dispensable. so we have to put that there every day and look at is our curriculum still relevant. is it interspersed with professional knowledge. then we want to know about the fluency which is evident through our graduates. once they leave the institution. i often say that the true success of any institution is not measured by how smart our students are when they come to us, or how well they do while they match tri-- matriculate wi us. students today want unique curriculum and relevant curriculum. they want diversity. we don't necessarily have the diversity of students on our campus but that doesn't mean that we can't achieve it. collaborations, tougaloo college has a 50 year partnership with brown university. not only just faculty exchange or student exchange, but joint research. we also have relationships and international communities as many of our hbcus can do. exchange program with majority institutions. we have even in the state of mississippi we have a summer science and engineering program with mississippi state university. we just started a three plus program for the law school there at mississippi college. have degrees from both institutions in that area. engineering programs, we have done that. bringing diversity in and sending our students out so their world views can be enlarged and they can look at that. we don't want to send them out in the world and not exposed to it where they are not just in the faculty but they need that student relationship. so recently, dr. lomax talked about that earlier. we were for the last two or three years talking about redesigning our curriculum. looking at ways where we can transform our learning environment. with the help of the lily endowment program, we are packed with initiatives funded by -- and initiative called tot. these institutions came together and looked at how we would do curriculum reform and how we connect with career services. so at tougaloo college, so they can have targeted focus whether they are majoring in history, or in biology, what do you plan to do with this. and begin to help them along a guided pathway. one of the most exciting things that we did is establishing this portal called connections which provide a real unique opportunity to bring together many interrelated components of academic offerings through a data driven but outcome based streamlined and unified system to help close the gap. and using this digital repository called connections, we will be able to connect students to network partners who are corporate partners, agency heads and foundations and even other alumni. our student cans be more engaged in internship opportunities and mentorship to gain skills to prepare their knowledge with skills they are developing out in the workforce. i think this is going to be a powerful tool for all institutions to have access to. we are able to track our students, not only their progress but track them as they go through graduate school, and go into the workforce. we have also brought into alignment different services and we are doing these things to have an impact on our students. i realize that time is waning for me in terms of the ten m minutes. let me briefly say that aligning more closely with student and labor market demands, our institutions will be able to address some of the most urgent questions they face today. what is the return in our investment? is the college education worth the cost? and will students leave our institutions with the ability to earn more money. and as we talk about this, let me caution all of us to be mindful that our institutions do provide leadership and service for america and as the dem graph shifts let's resist the urge to marginalize. it is important that we tell industry that we need our students in leadership roles and internships that will lead to that because with the group in minority population, over the next 25 to 30 years, if all of our minority students because they are considered low income and under prepared are going into the traditional technical jobs, then we are going to have a dearth in our nation that is going to undermine a democracy because we will not have enough prepared to go into leadership roles. we will be a majority with minority control in power and influence. i am on my way to germany sunday morning to meet with german companies so we will be able to pair what they need with what tougaloo college and other institutions like ourselves to be able to bring to the table so we can be a true partnership effective. and i will be happy to talk about this more when we meet. thank you so much. [ applause ] >> you have had an opportunity to hear great news. we have heard about investments, and talked about innovation and talk about the need for change and we talked about our students. the first question is for anyone on the panel, what are we doing for faculty at our schools? my wife is a professor so i live knowing the importance of faculty and what it means to our schools. i will start with dr. lomax. >> critical to the work that we are doing with career pathways is to engage faculty. and they are, the two elements that are most essential to an institution of higher education that is outstanding but are faculty -- don't get the opportunities for enrichment, challenges and new experiences and new learning. so since we are going to rely on this faculty to transform the curricula and the education, so we are investing in faculty giving them externships and sending them into the marketplace, sending them into companies and giving them the opportunities to see what those companies want them to teach and we are seeing that really in the area of technology in particular where we will be sending faculty into google and other places. but also, bringing those folks on fo our campuses not just as recruiters but as faculty as well. and giving our students an opportunity to see that the learning experience is not just limbed to what happens in the classroom, it is going to continue and work and what they learn today, they will have to have the skills and capabilities to continue to learn and to upgrade if they are going to meet the demands of the marketplace. >> i would agree with that. you have to engage faculty on the front end. we know that curricula, a domain of faculty. and faculty must be engaged at the point of curricula reform and you get the buy in at the front end. so also, research, and teaching and all of the part of the missions we of to make sure that those faculty members are involved in curriculum reform. have release time so that they are not overly burdens with all of the responsibilities of teaching, doing the research, serving on committees and advising students some of we have to be flexible. and one of the things that i have learned working with my faculty, is that they want to feel that they are valued and respected for their roles and they want to have a voice in what is happening on our campus and be involved in that. and then there is the faculty development. we have the faculty development center at tougaloo offering continuous dialogue and instruction and training and like many other hbcus, we have a partnership with new york university. and we send our faculty to training there. but faculty and students are really the core of our education institutions. without faculty and students there would be no need for a president or any of the rest of us. so that is what we focus on every day. how do we keep them engaged, refreshed and the ideas flowing. if they are in there on the front end and working and doing that, getting the ideas and helping them to guide the process, our general education reform was guided by the faculty, and driven by the faculty, but driven on a focus to helping to develop the skills that students need today. and they feel really good about the products they produce. >> there is no question that we all have to invest in faculty. and i consider it an investment. in every one of the pitches that we make now is not just a student perspective that we go out and ask for me. but also a faculty investment. you can't get one without the other. i remember when i went to apple at first to talk about the investment, it was easy to say give them a scholarship because it is a transaction. the idea though, that if we are going to change the game, we are going to have to invest in faculty. so when we talk to apple, we said scholarship is one component, but we need two other things, we need you to allow us to bring our faculty to meet with the engineers. so you can be a great professor but if you are teaching the wrong thing, well not relevant. we represent the public, publicly supported because we represent howard university in tuskegee, but think state schools. we had a graduate of one of our schools who went to, we placed her, so not enough to great, but get a good job. and she came to us in tears. she said i am working in a technology department of a nontechnology company. and she said i have a 4.0, but i am so behind. i am at a disadvantage even with my 4.0. this young woman had to start her job and go to a community college to get up to speed. she wasn't given the up to date and relevant skills. that is the reality. so we made that case and we make it to every one of them. it is not just apple in the technology space, we are getting ready to announce a partnership with altria, philip morris. and you need to work with our faculty to ensure that the faculty are preparing these and equipping the students with the skills. and even when i talked about the program with coke. it is called a center for advancement for opportunity. we are going to talk about brown versus board of education, and whether or not the promise is fulfilled. but a big part of that component is to invest in faculty. about three quarters of the grant is going directly to faculty. so i think you have to invest in faculty. >> i align with everything that my colleagues have said and i want to highlight a couple of things that we are doing relative to faculty. we have programs for student internships with about 14 federal agencies but also faculty fellowships where we put faculty in scientific labs that are available to them. most of them leave for a year and we get their spots funded. we get funding for someone to sit in their spot for a year for them to go to a strong scientific lab and then they return. there is a no poaching requirement. you may recall that last year about 100 of the nation's competitive colleges and universities had a problem with diverse students feeling a lack of a warm and welcoming environment. and so we offered the entire breath and scope of the historic black colleges and universities in partnership relationships. so we have been in discussions about student exchanges but also faculty exchanges. we are working with congressman danny davis and a group of persons, 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 copatenting and other things and the last thing i will mention is a new partnership that nafio has with a round table. they seek and they do a number of strategic things to attain diversity and one of the things we are working with them, they have a number of student centered projects. we are expanding that to include faculty in their efforts to achieve diversity. >> johnny? >> i want to add one of the things that we think about, we hear the headlines and we want them to enclose their diversity. where do you think they are coming from? ours. so we have this challenge, we give them the opportunity, they get the degrees and then they go off and work in the majority institutions. so one of our biggest challenge is recruiting our students out of graduate school and getting them to stay. these schools give them a ton of money, resources, labs and all of that. time off. they have much smaller work teaching loads and that is a challenge for us. it is easy to say you want the best faculty but far more difficult to keep the best talent. >> and let me shift to a question about tradition and relevancy because i hear this coming. i graduated from howard in 1991. my wife and a have three daughters our oldest daughter graduated from there in 2016. so i say we kept the tradition. but a number of my friends said that is great but we are sending our daughter or son to another school. question of relevancy or question in tradition. how does that play out? >> well, first of all, i think we are sort of the sort of zero sum notion that as more african americans attend majority institutions that is taking away from hbcus. the fact is, there are more african americans more people of color pursuing post-secondary degrees than ever before. in the millions annually and that is good news. if we are successful in what we are attempting to do to reform k-12 education, there are going to be more students of color who will graduate high school college ready with expectations in advance, post-secondary degree is their goal in life if not beyond that. so i think we see a growing opportunity. there are only 104 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. and if you go on on our campuses today, private and public, you are going to see they are not just black students or not just american black students. they are latino, muslim, arab, and coming from all 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 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% and we are now 8%, it is not just because the people are leaving but the pie is getting larger. these are the right institutions for the students who choose them. and what we want to do and i think what makes america an extraordinary higher education landscape is that one size does not fit all. they are diverse, there are catholic institutions, women's institutions and a range of different kinds of institution. 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 puersist that these institutions are strong and vital and meet the expectations. i attended graduation at my alma mater last week and watched over 300 extraordinary young men walk across the stage and the two co-valedictorians who spoke about their experience on that campus was both comparing them to compete at the highest levels and they had great employment and education opportunities available to them. but it was an experience they could have not gotten in their testimony to prepare them. >> lezli, i will let you weigh in and then open it up for q and a to the audience. you can weigh in and then i will do a q and a. >> wonderful. so on the question of relevancy and tradition, so when we think about relevancy and when we think about tradition, the hbcu's tradition has been excellent. from their founding into this day our institutions, are teaching the students in their disciplines and teaching the pedagogy, but they are preparing them not only to go out and to be a teacher but to teach students how to live. if they are preparing medical professionals, preparing doctors but preparing people to deal with the mind, body and the souls. lawyers -- so if anyone wants an excellent education with the educational liberation theology, then they should come to an hbcu, having said that, i want all of our students to go to the best institutions aligned with their preparations, aspirations and the ability of the village to cobble together the resources. johnny taylor says eight% were getting, that means 90% of african american students are not coming to hbcus. well, the nation as a whole is becoming increasingly low income. first generation of color some of that is a good thing. that is a growth vision for us. but, until the nation invests in our institution, commiserate with their output, then we will not have some of the things that make it competitive and we will have a challenging time getting a larger market share. and we are going to keep pushing on that and push on our alumni and friends of extended community of college. those who are watching will today write a check to colleges so that we will have all of the best infrastructure that will bring to our campuses a broader market share and make sure that they have the best experience. >> so what i want to do now is turn it to the audience for questions. we have a couple of people here. we have a microphone here to my right. and we will have a microphone here to the back. tell us your name and affiliation and ask a question, try not to give a speech because i will weigh in. before i do that, we have been mentioning hbcu, i want to say hello to dr. haines. [ applause ] >> so we will start on this side. >> jennifer from respectability, thanks for that outstanding series of presentations, ddr. lom with disabilities are the most likely to go into incarceration or homelessness or to be killed by police, what are the historically black colleges doing to recruit, chain, and prepare students with disabilities to really thrive throughout your institutions? >> thank you. we are sort of fortunate in that because we represent public institutions, it is a requirement now. so state institutions, not just the programs that will support them but the physical plan has to embrace and be up to date compliant with ada, et cetera. but you raise a very interesting issue and that too is an opportunity to specifically target a population and make them feel welcome on our campuses. i am always looking atmosphe it the standpoint how do you increase enrollment. if we work on a targeted environment and look to placing them. that is what we need to do. so fair enough, we need to focus on placing those students. they are the silent minority. so i just want to say this, and it was really important, all of us are aware of the fact that the pool of students coming out of high school is getting smaller and the research is saying, this is not getting bigger. kids coming out of high school now, it is not going -- we are not looking at a robust class of 2025. >> i want to respond to the question. so nafio was privileged to get a grant from at&t that allowed us to get -- assessing, doing an internal assessment of their policies and practices and regulations relative to the students who are differently abled. it also gave us some student scholarship money so that on the targeted campuses, i don't remember how many, but a good subset of the campuses, for three years they were able with intentionality make sure they were prepared their students. and they engaged the faculty and the staff and the campus and a number of education. i too look forward to working with you. >> one point, you also asked about incarcerated. and there is a huge opportunity for higher education to help the nation solve the reentry challenge. i am serving on a board that looks at this. and we will be issuing a report soon. we need stronger partnerships with the government and philanthropy to ensure those incarcerated can enter communities they have left. we know that the cycle of return is much greater for those who don't get the opportunity. 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. and we need to look beyond the s.a.t. scores and a.c.t.s. they may not look like people who have gone to college or may not have the experience, but when they get that development and we see the outcomes, you can't tell the difference. >> let me speak briefly to what you said, private institutions, independent colleges make accommodations for students with disabilities. and with smaller colleges, we can also target how we deliver those services to students. i am sure that many institutions have done that. we have given special accommodations to students who have disabilities, buildings are accommodating. but if there were classes on a different floor, we have restructured those classes so that those with disabilities will have their classes in a building that is more accommodating to that. so being flexible and wanting to meet the needs of the students. >> i have a question on this side. my name is rachad and i am with american council of trustees and alumni and i am also 2011 graduate of florida education university. and i am proud son of the hbcu community. my question is particularly to president hogan, but everyone else can comment as well. the college readiness 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 so, what are you doing to make up that gap when students get to your institution? >> yes, that is a challenge for across america. you find those deficiencies. one of the things that tougaloo college has been intentional about how we structure the program. testing them and finding their skill level. we believe if we get them to tougaloo college we must prepare them and ensure they get out in good fashion. we have revamped our first year program that each student has a coach, advises them and follows them through their sophomore years. we established a tutorial center with teaching and learning aids, that the students can go in there and have tutors. they have been tested for some of their weaknesses and how do we work with them and i can say since we started that, we have had the best experience with that first year because usually when students are not doing well academically, from the first smes tore the second smes, yeme you are going to see a dropout. we have had the lowest attrition rate between fall semester and spring smes. and this is our second year of this program in operation. so you need to provide them with the tools that aid them. students that come to our college like exposure. so we realize that. and we are providing those tools for them. >> i have a question here in the middle that i want to get to. >> may i respond to that. >> one question. i want to make sure that we get to the question and you can follow up. >> good morning, everyone, my name is lynn williams, i am with emergency technology consortium and i have a question or request for dr. hogan. if i can give a brief backdrop. it is pertaining to the defense authorization field. i am a graduate of boise state university. and from that, everything went up for me. and saying that, it gave me a chance to work for a senator for my state of virginia, senator john warner. >> we need the question. >> we created the public law. this is important for all of us. it created a public law that created 5% public law. 99661, section 1207. that created $70 billion worth of revenue for small minority businesses and hbcu research. when my senator retired -- >> i need the question real quick. >> then came a raw policy. here is my question and request. here we are 30 years later, reagan decreased the defense budget. and now we have trump increasing the defense budget. so we have the opportunity to do the same thing through your senator who was chairman of the armed services -- so my question is can you have a meeting with your senator, with the stakeholders here on the stage who represent the hbcu community. will you be able to take the leadership to meet with your leadership so we can have a similar type of legislation that will create those kind of opportunities for our hbcus? >> i am familiar with the act and consider it done. we are working on that. >> all right. >> i told lezli she can respond quickly and then i will take a question. >> 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 for hbcus, that was an appropriate thing to do and it is 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 programs and so the early childhood education for ages three through five, the healthy start, head start program, the gear up programs, all of the programs that prepare low income first generation students to be ready to come in and to thrive are imperative for us to continue to work with a solid base to get them into and out of college. >> thank you. question? >> my name is daryl, and i am with emerging tech company consortium -- >> question? >> yes. research and development has created hundreds of millions of dollars and diversified -- what is our strategy to ensure that we get our fair share of the r and d money so we can diversefy the revenue of schools and bring in the thing that ensures that our students are technologically prepared. >> tougaloo college has established a foundation and is geared towards specifically that. how we access greater dollars and promote research development and we are working with a lot of other hbcus and the national defense act is what we are going to be working on. you are absolutely right. we have to generate more research for our institutions and position our institutions and be able to deliver to the marketplace what these companies want as well. >> i think this is something that we all feel strongly about and we have worked as a team, to reach out and both request and challenge them to reach a higher performance. it is important to watch the steps that we have taken so far. we have said invite the black college presidents here to washington. and meet with them and issue an executive order. and now, appoint that executive director who is competent and qualified and a strong advocate. and essential to that executive order is challenging the departments of the federal government to make resources available to historically black colleges inco colleges in the same way those resources are made available to the majority of institutions. so i think we are determined to do that. and you have the leadership out there to do. that we need strong follow-ship. and we have had these white house initiatives since jimmy carter and i will tell you, their results have been uneven. but the determination of the administration and the strength of the administration that will deliver changed outcomes in terms of participation and we are going to work hard with this administration to get the maximum we can on behalf of our institution so we can do the research and have the resources from the federal government that are appropriate for them. >> a finer point is that while the white house budget is what it is, ultimately this goes to congre congress. so you have a republican controlled congress. so this is not the time for not for us to talk to people because we don't share party affiliation. we cannot achieve the goals that you are talking about. we have to go in and have conversations. yesterday the three of us were meeting with bradley bern. that is where the money sits. it sittins in the dod, not the white house. and i hope our followers understand that. >> all good things must come to an end. i want to end on a few notes. what all of them said about the importance of working across party lines and politics. i am clear, no matter who is in the white house, hbcu should never be in the outhouse. so we work from there [ applause ] >> number two, 150 years from now, there will be conversations about higher education, i am proud to say that in may 2017, that we have had a conversation today on the future of hbcus, heard from people who talked about the challenges and opportunities. and more importantly, opening up the toudoors of opportunities. so i want to thank you all of you and thanks c-span for covering it. [ applause ] >> on news makers this weekend, minnesota representative tim alz, the top democrat on the veterans affairs committee talks about congressional oversight of the veterans affairs department and the veterans accountability act. he shares thoughts on what the trump administration does to address veterans needs. watch the interview sunday at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. sunday on q&a. >> barack is deeply committed to presenting his story. i think that is different from history. >> part one of our interview with david garrow talking about his book "rising star the making of barack obama" which covers president obama's life until winning presidency. >> i think his political aspirations and sense of destiny lead him to push sheilaiater aside. during that time there was a well-known political figure in chicago who everyone in black chicago believed could never go higher because he was married to a white woman. so it is in the political tradition of black chicago in the late 1980s, in the early 1990s that for a black man to aspire to represent black chicago it is necessary to have a black spouse. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c' span's q&a. next education analysts talk about school choice and whether the trump administration's proposals for charter schools and other initiatives are likely to be implemented ae