Five historically Black colleges and universities have recently announced gifts of $50 million or more in unrestricted funds from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Sott.
Prairie View A&M University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Bowie State University, Norfolk State University and Winston-Salem State University are the latest HBCUs to benefit from Scott’s philanthropy—she has already donated to at least eight other institutions this year.
On Friday, Prairie View and North Carolina A&T said they received $63 million each, the largest single gifts ever received in their histories, which follow previous gifts from Scott in 2020—$50 million to Prairie View and $45 million to N.C. A&T. Her support for each institution totals $113 million and $108 million, respectively.
Also last week, Bowie State, Winston-Salem State and Norfolk State each announced record-breaking gifts of $50 million following donations from Scott in 2020—$25 million, $30 million and $40 million, respectively.
“This gift is more than generous—it is defining and affirming,” said Prairie View A&M president Tomikia LeGrande in a statement. “MacKenzie Scott’s investment amplifies the power and promise of a Prairie View A&M University education as we advance our vision of becoming a premier public, research-intensive HBCU that serves as a national model for student success.”
Voorhees University also received a $19 million donation from Scott earlier this month, following a $4 million gift in 2020.
The five universities said they would use the donations to progress their strategic plans through funding scholarships, growing endowments, improving teaching and research, and supporting student success.
In 2019, Scott pledged to give away half her wealth in her lifetime. By 2023, her donations to educational institutions exceeded $1 billion. This year, Scott has donated $80 million to Howard University in Washington, D.C.; $38 million to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore; and $38 million each to Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University in Georgia.
“No investor in higher education history has had such a broad and transformational impact across so many universities,” said N.C. A&T chancellor James R. Martin II in a statement.
“North Carolina A&T is deeply grateful for Ms. Scott’s reaffirmed belief in our mission and for the example she sets in placing trust in institutions like ours to drive generational change through education, discovery and innovation.”
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Dive Brief:
Eight historically Black colleges and universities have received a total of $387 million in unrestricted donations from billionaire philanthropistMacKenzie Scottsince mid-October.
On Sunday, Howard University, in Washington, D.C., revealed it had received an $80 million gift from Scott, with $17 million earmarked for its medical school. The following day, Spelman College, a women’s HBCU in Georgia, said Scott had donated $38 million.
Both colleges, along with most of the six other HBCUs, previously received multimillion dollar donations from Scott during her first round of higher education giving in 2020. Each described their gift as one of the biggest — if not the largest — in their history.
Dive Insight:
In 2019, the same year Scott divorced Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, she signed the Giving Pledge, a pact directed at the world’s wealthiest people to donate more than half their wealth.
“I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott, one of the richest women in the world, wrote in her pledge statement at the time. “And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.”
She still has quite a ways to go. As of this week, Bloomberg estimated Scott’s net worth at $42 billion — up from $39.4 billion last November.
Scott is now in the midst of another significant round of donations, and the notably private donor acknowledged the attention it would attract in a rare online statement last month.
“When my next cycle of gifts is posted to my database online, the dollar total will likely be reported in the news,” she said in an Oct. 15 blog post. But she characterized that amount as “a vanishingly tiny fraction” of the hundreds of billions of dollars in annual charitable giving in the U.S. each year “that we don’t read about online or hear about on the nightly news.”
Her most recent spate of HBCU donations include:
Scott also donated $70 million in September to UNCF, the largest private scholarship provider for minority students in the U.S. The organization, which counts 37 private HBCUs as members, said the money would go to bolstering the long-term financial health of those colleges.
In 2020, Scott donated over $800 million to colleges, focusing much of the funding on HBCUs. In addition to their high-dollar value, her gifts stood out because they were unrestricted, and she did not appear to have a personal relationship with the recipients.
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education found that unrestricted contributions to surveyed colleges increased by nearly a third in fiscal 2021 compared to the year before, attributing much of that growth to Scott.
By early 2023, she had donated at least $1.5 billion to roughly six dozen colleges, with an emphasis on minority-serving institutions like HBCUs.
Foundations disproportionately give less to HBCUs compared to similar non-HBCUs, and public HBCUs have historically been underfunded by the government.
From 2015 to 2019, foundations donated a combined $5.5 billion to the eight Ivy League institutions, compared to $303 million for 99 HBCUs, according to a 2023 study. That worked out to the average Ivy League institution receiving 178 times more foundation funding than the average HBCU.
And a 2023 analysis from the Biden administration found that land-grant HBCUs in 16 states missed out on over $12 billion from 1987 to 2020 due to state underfunding.
Five years out from Scott’s first donations, research suggests those funds may help boost enrollment and retention.
A 2021 analysis of the 23 HBCUs that received a total of $560 million from Scott in 2020 found that their median new student enrollment was more than 300 students higher than HBCU counterparts that did not receive funding. Their retention rates were an average of 15% higher as well.
Colleges have reported using the money in a variety of ways.
Spelman, for example, received $20 million from Scott in 2020. Of that, $11 million went to the college’s endowment, and $1.1 million went to its Social Justice Scholars program, a spokesperson told The Atlantic Journal-Constitution. In addition, every student that year received a $3,500 scholarship. The remainder of the gift went to technology upgrades, academic programming and other improvements, the spokesperson said.
Beyond adding to a college’s coffers directly, a large dollar donation can help raise an institution’s profile.
Clark Atlanta saw a “catalytic impact” to its fundraising efforts thanks to Scott’s $15 million donation in 2020, college President George French Jr. told AJC before the latest round of donations became public.
A new report from the Center for American Progress and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund shows that historically Black colleges and universities receive a disproportionately low percentage of federal research and development funding.
While HBCUs make up roughly 3 percent of all four-year higher ed institutions, they’ve received less than 3 percent of R&D funding since at least 2010, according to the report. In recent years, between 2018 and 2023, they were awarded less than 1 percent of R&D expenditures.
Some agencies have given HBCUs a relatively high proportion of R&D funding, including the Department of Education, the Small Business Administration and the Department of Agriculture, which has required allotments for land-grant HBCUs. But the two federal agencies that award the most R&D funding annually, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense, have doled out especially low shares of those funds to HBCUs; in 2023, they awarded 0.54 percent and 0.40 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, 17 of the 43 federal agencies that supply research funding didn’t give HBCUs any R&D funds at all that year.
Sara Partridge, associate director of higher education policy at CAP and co-author of the report, said both Republicans and Democrats have sought to address inequities in R&D funding, but their efforts have been insufficient.
“In order to support these key drivers of scientific achievement and upward mobility, we need federal policymakers to commit to measurable benchmarks for the share of funds awarded to these institutions,” she said in a press release.
When the U.S. Department of Education abruptly ended grants for most minority-serving institutions last week, it raised questions about what the department would do with the hundreds of millions of dollars already slated for these programs. The department offered an answer Monday, announcing plans to repurpose funds from programs “not in the best interest of students and families” to historically Black colleges and universities, tribal colleges, charter schools, and civics education.
“The department has carefully scrutinized our federal grants, ensuring that taxpayers are not funding racially discriminatory programs but those programs which promote merit and excellence in education,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “The Trump Administration will use every available tool to meaningfully advance educational outcomes and ensure every American has the opportunity to succeed in life.”
The department promised to direct an extra $495 million to HBCUs and tribal colleges, on top of the funds already anticipated for fiscal year 2025—increases of 48.4 percent and 109.3 percent, respectively. In total, HBCUs are slated to receive over $1.34 billion and tribal colleges expect to receive $108 million this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The department is also giving an additional $60 million to charter schools and putting $137 million toward civics education grants. The department didn’t share more specifics on how it would allocate the funds to institutions.
The move has been met with mixed reactions. Some HBCU advocates are celebrating the one-time influx as a game-changer for cash-starved institutions. Others’ joy is tempered by concern that the Trump administration is uplifting some MSIs at the expense of others, sowing tensions between them.
The new funds come less than a week after the Education Department quashed grant programs for Hispanic-serving institutions and other MSIs, deeming them “unconstitutional” because they require colleges to serve a certain percentage of students from a particular racial or ethnic background to qualify. (HBCUs and tribal colleges don’t have enrollment thresholds.) This blow to MSI grants, as well as cuts to teacher prep and gifted and talented programs, is paying for the department’s recent largess, The New York Times reported, citing several anonymous sources familiar with the department’s plans.
Lodriguez Murray, vice president of public policy and government affairs at the United Negro College Fund, which represents private HBCUs, said the funds are “nothing short of a godsend” for institutions operating on lean budgets.
“Now, all of a sudden, [HBCUs] have much more wherewithal to do the things, not just that take you from year to year, but can make an impact on your campus,” he said. He foresees HBCUs using the funds to buy property, improve their campus infrastructure and invest in student and faculty supports in new ways.
Murray said he doesn’t have qualms about the money coming from the slashed MSI programs.
He claimed many of these institutions are predominantly white, tend to have higher endowments than HBCUs and serve lower shares of Pell-eligible students. (Most enrollment-based MSIs are required to serve at least 50 percent low-income students. HBCUs have no such requirement but tend to enroll at least 70 percent Pell-eligible students.)
As far as he’s concerned, the Trump administration is channeling “resources toward the institutions that seem to need it the most—and the institutions that have a better track record at taking students from underserved backgrounds and … changing the economic outlook of their lives,” Murray said. “That is the reason why we have no pause about receiving the funds this morning.”
Harry Williams, president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which represents public HBCUs, said he wants to see other types of MSIs thrive, and at the same time, he’s excited about how the new support could help HBCU students.
He didn’t know the Trump administration planned to drop millions on the institutions, he said. And while TMCF regularly lobbies for HBCU funding, “candidly, we have never made any recommendations about where the money should come from to the administration, because that’s their decision in terms of how they operate.”
He said he’s “sensitive” to the challenges facing MSIs, noting that TMCF has three predominantly Black institutions among its members. TMCF put out a statement last week in support of them when the department said it was ending MSI grant programs, including PBIs.
“We do support MSIs and PBIs and all the groups in that category and recognize the importance of them having resources, too,” he said, “but our primary focus has always been working with HBCUs.”
Pitting MSIs Against Each Other
Marybeth Gasman, executive director of the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions, said HBCUs and tribal colleges deserve the money.
These institutions have “always been underfunded” and “the federal government should always be thinking about ways to enhance them, especially based on our country’s history of racism and inequities,” she said.
But Gasman believes other types of MSIs are also deserving of these resources. She pointed out that many Hispanic-serving institutions are community colleges, and they serve about a third of the country’s students over all, not just Latino students.
The Education Department is “trying to pit different types of minority-serving institutions against each other,” even though MSI leaders and advocacy groups have worked together for years toward similar policy goals, she said. “And that is really, really troubling … I hope people don’t fall for that.”
Gasman noted that department officials made a “purposeful” decision to share that new funds for HBCUs and tribal colleges came from defunded programs. She called the framing of the announcement “spiteful” and said she worries for the future of the MSI community.
“There is enough pie for all of these institutions,” she said. “It’s not like you need to take from one to feed the others.”
Dominique Baker, associate professor of education and public policy at the University of Delaware, said the funding for HBCUs and tribal colleges, while necessary, doesn’t lead her to believe the Trump administration has their best interests at heart.
The funds are “a nice way” for the administration to claim “they hold no racial animus, because look at all the money that they’ve given to HBCUs,” Baker said, at the same time as they crack down on diversity, equity and inclusion at predominantly white institutions.
“It can both be true that you are providing funding to institutions that deserve funding—and you are working to ensure that the institutions that you hold in high prestige resegregate,” she added.
Executive Branch Overreach?
The legality of the department’s move—cutting funding for some programs to be showered on others—is also a little murky. Department officials say they are relying on “existing flexibilities in discretionary grant programs” to move the money around.
Amanda Fuchs Miller, former deputy assistant secretary for higher education programs under the Biden administration and now president of the higher ed consultancy Seventh Street Strategies, said under statute, the department legally has the right to “reprogram” funds within an account.
But even if department officials are following the law, she said the “intent” of reprogramming was never to end programs authorized and continually funded by Congress, like the MSI programs. And the executive branch claiming it has the authority to declare anything unconstitutional is “the real problem.” So, as far as she’s concerned, the department went out of bounds by eliminating the MSI programs and regifting their money to other institutions.
“It’s great that the HBCUs and TCUs will get more money—they need it,” Miller said. “Those students will benefit from it. But to take away funds from one group of students to help another group of students, that’s not beneficial to anybody. We should be pushing back to help all students succeed and have these resources.”
At least seven historically Black colleges and universities across the country went into lockdown on Thursday after institutions received threats, which they did not elaborate on.
Southern University and A&M College in Louisiana asked those on campus to shelter in place in response to a “potential threat to campus safety.”
The lockdown applied to the “entire Baton Rouge landmass,” including the Southern University Law Center, the Agricultural Research and Extension Center, and the university’s Laboratory School, according to a statement from the institution.
The lockdown lifted in the afternoon, but all classes and campus activities were canceled through the weekend.
Alabama State University also received a “terroristic threat,” university officials told local media outlets, and shut down campus as law enforcement officials checked buildings. The university sent an all-clear notice later in the day, noting that “the immediate threat has been resolved,” but told students to continue to shelter in place.
Two HBCUs in Virginia were also targeted.
Virginia State University went into lockdown while local, state and federal law enforcement agencies investigated the credibility of a threat received earlier that day, according to a message from the Virginia State University Office of Communications and University Relations. University officials assured students, “No injuries or incidents have been reported in connection with the threat” and said they would be provided with meals in university housing during the lockdown.
Hampton University canceled all activities and classes for both Thursday and Friday in response to a potential threat. Students were discouraged from moving across campus unless absolutely necessary, and all nonessential employees were told to “evacuate immediately” in a notice on the university’s website.
A threat at Bethune-Cookman University in Florida also forced the university to cancel classes and go into lockdown. A notice from the university told students to go to their dorms and faculty and staff members to leave campus.
Spelman College in Atlanta didn’t receive a threat but issued a shelter-in-place order because of its proximity to Clark-Atlanta University, which did. The order was lifted around 2 p.m.
Howard University, in Washington, D.C., assured students the institution hadn’t received any threats but would maintain “heightened security.”
“At Howard, we denounce all acts of hate designed to foster fear in our communities,” an update from the university read. “Howard stands in solidarity with our fellow HBCUs.”
A predominantly white institution, the University of Central Florida, also reported receiving a threat Thursday. The Orlando Sentinel, which obtained a copy via an anonymous tipster, reported that the expletive-laden message threatened Black students and referenced the killing of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee stabbed on a train in North Carolina.
A message from the UCF Police Department Thursday afternoon said, “Similar messages have been reported at other universities around the country.” The police department added it was working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assess the threat but does not consider it “to be credible.”
In what appears to be an unrelated incident, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., went on lockdown Thursday evening after suspicious activity was reported on campus, The Baltimore Banner reported. One person was injured as Naval Security Forces cleared a building.
Florida A&M University, an HBCU, did not receive any threats but put out a statement of solidarity with institutions on lockdown.
Rep. Troy A. Carter, a Democrat from Louisiana, posted on X that he was “outraged and deeply disturbed” by the threats to HBCUs.
“These reprehensible acts are not only an attack on institutions of higher learning—they are an attack on our history, our culture, and the promise of opportunity that HBCUs represent for generations of students,” Carter wrote. In a statement, he called on the federal government “to utilize every available resource to identify, apprehend, and prosecute those responsible.”
The Congressional Black Caucus also put out a statement calling for action from the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI. Caucus members described the threats as a “chilling reminder of the relentless racism and extremism that continues to target and terrorize Black communities in this country.”
The rash of violent threats is reminiscent of a wave of bomb threats that targeted HBCUs in 2022 and prompted the FBI to get involved. The HBCU campus lockdowns also come on the heels of a series of false calls to colleges and universities about active shooters last month; an online extremist group claimed responsibility for the hoaxes.
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Several historically Black colleges and universities locked down and canceled classes Thursday after receiving threats to campus safety, according to notices from campus officials and media reports.
The affected institutions include Alabama State, Bethune-Cookman, Clark Atlanta, Hampton, Southern and Virginia State universities.
Alabama State canceled all campus activities Thursday after receiving a “terroristic threat,” according to media reports. Although university and law enforcement officials issued an all-clear notice in the afternoon, the institution said it remained closed to the public and asked on-campus students to keep sheltering in place.
At least four of Georgia’s HBCUs likewise locked down after Clark Atlanta University received a threat, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Each institution — which included Spelman and Morehouse colleges — lifted their lockdown orders by early afternoon.
In Virginia, at least two institutions also received threats.
Hampton said it would halt all nonessential activities through Friday after getting “notice of a potential threat,” according to a social media post from the institution.
Virginia State likewise went into lockdown as law enforcement investigated “the credibility of the threat” it received Thursday, the university said on social media.Later that day, Virginia State President Makola Abdullah said the lockdown had been lifted.
“To those who seek to silence or scare us: we will not be intimidated,” Abdullah said. “For over a century, Virginia State University and other HBCUs have stood as a beacon of knowledge, excellence, and resilience. Today’s events only reaffirm our commitment to providing a safe and empowering environment for our students, faculty, and staff.”
Southern University, in Louisiana, Thursday afternoon lifted the lockdown order imposed following a “campus safety threat,” it said in a social media post. However, the university canceled all classes and campus activities through the weekend.
In Florida, Bethune-Cookman officials canceled classes due to a “potential threat to campus safety,” it said in a social media post. The university ordered employees on campus to head home and others to work remotely. It also advised students to shelter in place in their dorms.
On the other side of the state, Florida A&M University had not received a threat but was monitoring the situation, it said in a social media post. “We stand in solidarity with institutions currently under lockdown or threat and extend our support during this time,” it added.
In early 2022, HBCUs received waves of bomb threats that forced them to lock down their campuses and cancel classes. Later that year, the U.S. Department of Justice said it identified a juvenile it believed to be behind what it called racially motivated threats.
Thursday’s threats came just one day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot in the neck on Utah Valley University’s campus during an event that drew some 3,000 attendees.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in April promising to “elevate the value and impact” of the country’s historically Black colleges and universities—in part by selecting an executive director for the White House Initiative on HBCUs and a President’s Board of Advisors on HBCUs.
But four months later, eight months into his second term, these roles remain unfilled.
Some HBCU advocates say months-long waits are business as usual for these positions, and they remain confident in Trump’s support for HBCUs. Others worry that HBCUs lack their most direct line of communication to the White House at a time of rapid-fire higher ed policy changes.
Since the 1980s, the executive director of the HBCUs initiative, established by President Jimmy Carter, has been responsible for advocating for HBCUs’ federal policy interests. The President’s Board of Advisors offers guidance to government officials about how to better support and strengthen these institutions.
Appointees serve as HBCUs’ “in-house advocates,” said Ivory A. Toldson, a professor of counseling psychology at Howard University and editor in chief of The Journal of Negro Education. He served as deputy director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs from 2013 to 2015 and as executive director from 2015 to 2016 under former president Barack Obama. The director and board have historically sought out federal funding and partnership opportunities for these institutions and “made sure that executive-level priorities were shaped in a way that understood the needs of HBCUs.”
Toldson said there are likely to be “missed opportunities” for HBCUs during the limbo period before an executive director is chosen. He said it’s easy for federal agencies, like the National Science Foundation or the National Institutes of Health, to overlook smaller HBCUs for grants when no one is there to champion them.
“By them not having representation within the federal government, it becomes difficult for them to advocate effectively for their needs,” he said.
Robert Palmer, chair of the education department at Howard, said he worries HBCUs don’t have their “earpiece” to the Trump administration at a time when policy shifts, such as upcoming changes to the student loan program, will affect HBCU students.
The unfilled roles are “quite concerning,” Palmer said. “It almost makes you wonder, is it a priority for him? Because that’s what it signals—that it’s not a priority.”
Mixed Views
Other HBCU advocates don’t see a problem. Lodriguez Murray, vice president of public policy and government affairs at the United Negro College Fund, which represents private HBCUs, said he isn’t troubled by the wait because organizations like his have still been able to have “high-power and high-level discussions” with the White House and Department of Education.
“We’ve been able to get every concern addressed. We’ve been able to get every email returned. We’ve been able to get every meeting request handled,” he said. “The house is not burning down for us. And I have seen no lack of continuity and engagement on our issues at the highest levels.”
He said it’s more meaningful to him that Trump issued an executive order reaffirming the White House Initiative on HBCUs within his first 100 days and fully funded HBCUs in his proposed budget. He’d also rather the administration take its time to pick “the right individuals” to fill these roles.
“There have been many individuals who have had the role of executive director of the White House initiative on HBCUs [who] have fallen below what the expectations are of this community,” Murray said. “And so, if the White House is attempting to find the right person to meet a moment and to meet expectations, that’s fine with me.”
Trump’s pick for executive director during his first term, speaker and consultant Johnathan Holifield, was met with mixed reactions by HBCU supporters because of his lack of prior experience with these institutions. Former president Obama also received criticism for some of his executive director choices, including multiple interim appointments between permanent directors.
Murray said he’s hoping for someone “with the president’s confidence” who can help bring Trump’s plans to support HBCUs to fruition and who can simultaneously “speak truth to power and express to the president the concerns of HBCUs.”
For Toldson, “institutional knowledge of HBCUs” and an “apolitical” approach will be critical to a new executive director’s success to avoid HBCUs getting mired in the anti-DEI crusade besieging other higher ed institutions.
“Regardless of who’s in office, we need representation, and I think that the right representation would be able to balance the needs of the HBCU community with the broader direction of the government,” Toldson said.
Mounting Anticipation
Harry Williams, president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which represents public HBCUs, said the amount of time it takes for presidents to fill these roles has varied historically. HBCUs have often waited months for these appointments, so the current timeline isn’t out of the ordinary, he said. Former president Joe Biden didn’t officially name an executive director until February 2022, a little over a year after his inauguration.
Still, a long wait “creates uncertainty, and it creates anxiety,” Williams said.
“We’ve gotten good information that this is something that will happen, but the timing of it has always been the challenge,” he added. TMCF is reassuring campuses that the administration plans to fill these positions, “but we don’t know exactly when.”
David K. Wilson, president of Morgan State University, said he and other HBCU presidents are eager to get started on making the promises in Trump’s executive order a reality. They were glad to see the order call on federal agencies, businesses and foundations to partner with and invest more in HBCUs.
Wilson said he hopes to see these positions filled soon “so that we can begin to express directly to the White House what some of the opportunities are for continued investment in these institutions.”
“All of them will return unbelievable dividends to the nation,” he added.
Wilson noted that Howard University recently regained Research-1 status, the coveted Carnegie Foundation classification for universities with very high research activity. Other HBCUs, including Morgan State, are poised to follow in the coming years. He wants to see appointees in place who can help maintain that momentum.
“We can’t wait to see now what this next era of HBCU investments under the Trump administration will look like,” he said. “We were on a roll, and now the question is, can we roll faster?”
Dr. Emmanuel LalandeHistorically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have always stood on the frontlines of educational equity, carving pathways to excellence for generations of Black students against overwhelming odds. Today, as higher education faces a shift driven by technology, declining enrollment, and resource disparities, a new opportunity emerges: the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reshape, reimagine, and reinforce the mission of HBCUs.
From admissions automation and predictive analytics to personalized learning and AI-powered tutoring, artificial intelligence is no longer theoretical, it is operational. At large institutions, AI-driven chatbots and enrollment algorithms have already improved student engagement and reduced summer melt. Meanwhile, HBCUs, particularly smaller and underfunded ones, risk being left behind.
The imperative for HBCUs to act now is not about chasing trends about survival, relevance, and reclaiming leadership in shaping the future of Black education.
AI as a Force Aligned with the HBCU Mission
Artificial intelligence, when developed and implemented with intention and ethics, can be one of the most powerful tools for educational justice. HBCUs already do more with less. They enroll 10% of Black students in higher education and produce nearly 20% of all Black graduates. These institutions are responsible for over 25% of Black graduates in STEM fields, and they produce a significant share of Black teachers, judges, engineers, and public servants.
The power of AI can amplify this legacy.
Predictive analytics can flag at-risk students based on attendance, financial aid gaps, and academic performance, helping retention teams intervene before a student drops out.
AI chatbots can provide round-the-clock support to students navigating complex enrollment, financial aid, or housing questions.
AI tutors and adaptive platforms can meet students where they are, especially for those in developmental math, science, or writing courses.
Smart scheduling and resource optimization tools can help HBCUs streamline operations, offering courses more efficiently and improving completion rates.
For small HBCUs with limited staff, outdated technology, and tuition-driven models, AI can serve as a strategic equalizer. But accessing these tools requires intentional partnerships, resources, and cultural buy-in.
The Philanthropic Moment: A Unique Opportunity
The recent announcement from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that it plans to spend its entire $200 billion endowment by 2045 presents a monumental opportunity. The foundation has declared a sharpened focus on “unlocking opportunity” through education, including major investments in AI-powered innovations in K-12 and higher education, particularly in mathematics and student learning platforms.
One such investment is in Magma Math, an AI-driven platform that helps teachers deliver personalized math instruction. The foundation is also actively funding research and development around how AI can close opportunity gaps in postsecondary education and increase economic mobility. Their call for “AI for Equity” aligns with the HBCU mission like no other.
Now is the time for HBCUs to boldly approach philanthropic organizations like the Gates Foundation as strategic partners capable of leading equity-driven AI implementation.
Other foundations should follow suit. Lumina Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, Kresge Foundation, and Strada Education Network have all expressed interest in digital learning and postsecondary success. A targeted, collaborative initiative to equip HBCUs with AI infrastructure, training, and research capacity could be transformative.
Tech Industry Engagement: From Tokenism to True Partnership
The tech industry has begun investing in HBCUs, but more is needed.
OpenAI recently partnered with North Carolina Central University (NCCU) to support AI literacy through its Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research. The vision includes scaling support to other HBCUs.
Intel has committed $750,000 to Morgan State University to advance research in AI, data science, and cybersecurity.
Amazon launched the Educator Enablement Program, supporting faculty at HBCUs in learning and teaching AI-related curricula.
Apple and Google have supported HBCU initiatives around coding, machine learning, and entrepreneurship, though these efforts are often episodic or branding-focused. What’s needed now is sustained, institutional investment.
Huston-Tillotson University hosted an inaugural HBCU AI Conference and Training Summit back in April, bringing together AI researchers, students, educators, and industry leaders from across the country. This gathering focused on building inclusive pathways in artificial intelligence, offering interactive workshops, recruiter engagement, and a platform for collaboration among HBCUs, community colleges, and major tech firms.
We call on Microsoft, Salesforce, Nvidia, Coursera, Anthropic, and other major EdTech firms to go beyond surface partnerships. HBCUs are fertile ground for workforce development, AI research, and inclusive tech talent pipelines. Tech companies should invest in labs, curriculum development, student fellowships, and cloud infrastructure, especially at HBCUs without R1 status or multi-million-dollar endowments.
A Framework for Action Across HBCUs
To operate AI within the HBCU context, a few strategic steps can guide implementation:
1. AI Capacity Building Across Faculty and Staff
Workshops, certification programs, and summer institutes can train faculty to integrate AI into pedagogy, advising, and operations. Staff training can ensure AI tools support, not replace, relational student support.
2. Student Engagement Through Research and Internships
HBCUs can establish AI learning hubs where students gain real-world experience developing or auditing algorithms, especially those designed for educational equity.
3. AI Governance
Every HBCU adopting AI must also build frameworks for data privacy, transparency, and bias prevention. As institutions historically rooted in justice, HBCUs can lead the national conversation on ethical AI.
4. Regional and Consortial Collaboration
HBCUs can pool resources to co-purchase AI tools, share grant writers, and build regional research centers. Joint proposals to federal agencies and tech firms will yield greater impact.
5. AI in Strategic Planning and Accreditation
Institutions should embed AI as a theme in Quality Enhancement Plans (QEPs), Title III initiatives, and enrollment management strategies. AI should not be a novelty, it should be a core driver of sustainability and innovation.
Reclaiming the Future
HBCUs were built to meet an unmet need in American education. They responded to exclusion with excellence. They turned marginalization into momentum. Today, they can do it again, this time with algorithms, neural networks, and digital dashboards.
But this moment calls for bold leadership. We must go beyond curiosity and into strategy. We must demand resources, form coalitions, and prepare our institutions not just to use AI, but to shape it.
Let them define what culturally competent, mission-driven artificial intelligence looks like in real life, not in theory.
And to the Gates Foundation, Intel, OpenAI, Amazon, and all who believe in the transformative power of education: invest in HBCUs. Not as charity, but as the smartest, most impactful decision you can make for the future of American innovation.
Because when HBCUs lead, communities rise. And with AI in our hands, the next level of excellence is well within reach.
Dr. Emmanuel Lalande currently serves as Vice President for Enrollment and Student Success and Special Assistant to the President at Voorhees University.
Dwight SanchezIn today’s hyper-competitive higher education landscape, the challenges facing Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) are immense. Declining birth rates, changing student expectations, shifting public sentiment, and persistent underfunding place extraordinary pressure on institutions that have long served as lifelines for students of color and first-generation learners. Yet amid these challenges lies an opportunity. By reimagining Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) through the lens of negotiation theory, HBCUs and MSIs can increase their strategic agility, strengthen institutional partnerships, and yield more robust enrollment outcomes.
SEM as Negotiation
Strategic Enrollment Management isn’t merely about admissions and financial aid—it’s about aligning institutional mission with market realities in ways that are both student-centered and data-informed. Viewed through the lens of negotiation, SEM becomes a dynamic system of interdependent relationships: with prospective students, families, community influencers, K-12 schools, alumni, faculty, and internal staff. Drawing from 3D Negotiation: Powerful Tools to Change the Game in Your Most Important Deals by David Lax and James Sebenius, and Essentials of Negotiation by Lewicki, Saunders, and Barry, three principles become especially relevant: setup, deal design, and tactical interaction.
Setup involves determining who needs to be at the table, what interests are at stake, and which parties have influence over enrollment decisions. For HBCUs, this means engaging not just students, but parents, clergy, high school counselors, and community mentors who shape the decision-making ecosystem.
Deal Design refers to how institutions create value through the student’s experience. It’s not just about price; it’s about crafting offers that resonate emotionally and practically with underserved populations. This might include mentorship programs, clear career pathways, and intentional support systems.
Tactics, while often emphasized, should follow—not lead—strategy. Scripts matter less than systems, and strategic enrollment leaders must know when to pivot from persuasive messaging to coalition-building and issue reframing.
The Cultural Context
The diversity within HBCUs and MSIs also means that enrollment negotiations occur across varied cultural, economic, and generational dimensions. Chapter 11 of Essentials of Negotiation reminds us that in international and cross-cultural negotiations, assumptions can be fatal. For instance, assuming that all Black or Latino students respond similarly to recruitment strategies ignores regional, familial, and economic differences. Strategic enrollment leaders must develop cultural humility and data literacy to avoid overgeneralization and instead build nuanced personas that guide outreach.
Equally important is the political environment. Public perceptions of DEI initiatives, affirmative action, and federal funding can dramatically alter an institution’s appeal and perceived legitimacy. In this context, setup becomes a shield—anticipating changes, diversifying recruitment pipelines, and framing the institutional value proposition in ways that transcend political cycles.
Leadership and Accountability
Leading enrollment through this lens requires a shift from short-term performance metrics to long-term strategy. Enrollment managers must adopt a leadership posture that blends transformational vision with collaborative execution. As Lewicki et al. note in Chapter 10, multiparty negotiations (such as cross-department SEM committees) require clear roles, shared goals, and open channels of communication. Leaders must foster psychological safety while holding teams accountable to institutional KPIs—bridging the often-siloed worlds of marketing, academic affairs, and student support.
Professional development plays a critical role here. Too often, enrollment teams are equipped with tactical training (CRM usage, phone scripts, event planning) but lack exposure to systems thinking, data storytelling, or negotiation dynamics. Embedding professional learning communities and creating leadership pipelines within SEM units allows HBCUs and MSIs to develop internal change agents who can sustain innovation over time.
The Path Forward
HBCUs and MSIs are more than educational institutions—they are engines of social mobility and cultural affirmation. But to thrive, they must adopt a strategic posture that sees every element of SEM as a negotiation: from brand positioning to student engagement, from financial structuring to internal alignment.
Consider this: An HBCU looking to boost STEM enrollment among underrepresented males recognizes that traditional outreach and scholarship packages have limited impact. Instead of only increasing merit aid, the institution reframes its offer through negotiation theory. They partner early with high schools, launch a summer bridge program co-led by STEM faculty and alumni, and guarantee every enrolled student a faculty mentor and paid internship by year two. They also engage parents and community leaders as ambassadors—tapping into local trust networks. At the internal level, they align academic and student affairs teams through shared enrollment metrics and regular scenario planning meetings, increasing accountability and cohesion.
This isn’t just marketing—it’s “setup” and “deal design” in action. It expands the scope of stakeholders, adds value beyond dollars, and creates a win-win proposition for the student, family, and institution. It also reflects a broader institutional willingness to act as a proactive negotiator in shaping its market position.
By leveraging the principles of negotiation—particularly setup, value creation, and coalition building—enrollment leaders can develop strategic enrollment plans that are not only adaptive but transformative. In doing so, they ensure their institutions remain vital pathways for generations of students yet to come.
Dwight Sanchez is the Executive Director of Enrollment Management at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.
Adult learners often come to higher education with a variety of skills and experiences that aren’t directly reflected in their academic transcripts. Credit for prior learning (CPL) is one way colleges and universities can recognize education outside of the classroom and expedite a student’s degree completion.
An April 14 webinar hosted by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning highlighted effective strategies for implementing credit for prior learning at four historically Black institutions: Elizabeth City State University, Atlanta Metropolitan State College, Morgan State University and Delaware State University.
Campus leaders shared the value of CPL policies, described how they’ve collaborated with various stakeholders at their institutions and provided logistical details for making CPL accessible for students and manageable for faculty.
Understanding the need: The administrators spoke of the importance of offering credit for prior learning to working adults seeking a credential.
“What we realized is that if you really want to continue to grow your enrollment, high school graduates cannot be the only population you serve,” said Farrah Ward, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina.
One of the signature programs at her institution is a bachelor’s degree in aviation science. A significant number of students who enroll in the program already hold a private pilot’s license, but in the past they had to take repetitive courses to fulfill degree requirements. By offering CPL, the university is now able to recognize aviation students’ licenses and reduce redundancies in their course load.
Gaining buy-in: Before launching CPL, leaders at Elizabeth City State held an event for faculty and staff to talk about how to better serve adult learners in all departments and areas of the student experience.
The university also leveraged the expertise of various campus departments, including faculty, admissions professionals, military and veterans’ affairs staff, and student affairs leaders, Ward said.
Partnering with faculty members is key to a successful CPL process, Ward said, and can mean rolling out CPL in small measures to ensure frameworks are supported by professors and aligned with the respective learning outcomes for the discipline.
Atlanta Metropolitan State College has a CPL committee, which includes four faculty members to maintain the faculty voice in decision-making, said Kokila Ravi, director of online and specialized programs.
State policyalso drives the implementation of CPL. North Carolina uses a performance-based funding model, and Elizabeth City State is evaluated on how it increases the adult learner population on campus, tying CPL directly to institutional health and funding.
Similarly, Maryland state law requires higher education institutions to offer some form of competency-based learning or credit for prior learning, said Nicole Westrick, assistant vice president and dean of Morgan State University’s College of Interdisciplinary and Continuing Studies.
Creating early awareness: Alerting studentsof CPL opportunities is key, panelists said. “Most times [the admissions team] is the first point of contact, and when they are having those conversations with potential students, we let them know that CPL is an option,” said Rolanda Harris, director of adult and continuing education at Delaware State University.
Elizabeth City State is piloting an adult learner orientation tailored toward students ages 25 and over this fall, Ward said, during which staff will specifically talk about CPL.
Morgan State hosts intensive advising appointments with incoming students, in which advisers discuss CPL and the university’s transfer evaluation system.
Easing access: College leaders also shared innovations their campuses have implemented to reduce barriers to access for learners interested in taking advantage of CPL.
Morgan State offers students the option to enroll in a two-credit elective course to help them create a portfolio. “They participate in a peer review, practice their writing, preparing the portfolio, and when they’re finished, there’s a staff review of the portfolio to make sure that they’ve done a good job of aligning that prior learning experience with the learning outcomes from courses at Morgan State,” Westrick said.
Morgan State also creates digital rubrics for faculty members reviewing the portfolio, “so that it eases the cognitive load for our faculty in finding what they’re looking for; it always follows the same format,” Westrick said.
Some of the colleges offer a wide range of applications for CPL, requiring the students to earn a certain number of credits from the institution for their degree while allowing CPL to take the place of general education and major courses.
Funding CPL: Morgan State received a $5,000 grant from the American Council on Education to standardize and scale CPL on campus. Atlanta Metropolitan State received a $25,000 grant from the Adult Learning Consortium and the University System of Georgia to kick-start the process.
Some panelists said they charge a fee for portfolio assessment, for which the average student pays between $150 and $250. A few campus leaders said they provide a stipend to faculty for reviewing portfolios, while others offer the service pro bono.
Being mission-minded: For institutions considering implementing CPL, Ward said it’s important to start somewhere, even if it seems daunting. In the same vein, remaining flexible and understanding that CPL policies may have to pivot is important, said Harris. “I would just say, ‘Stay open.’”
Westrick said starting with the institutional mission in mind is critical, because that helps ground the process in understanding who will benefit from the policy and how it can make meaningful changes in their educational goals.
Utilizing faculty champions to advertise the offering and encourage students to take advantage of CPL is another lesson to learn, Ravi said. “We are still struggling to get the word out and get students to know about it. That’s why we are relying heavily on our faculty to promote the process.”
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