Here is this week’s news of grants to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Historically Black North Carolina Central University in Durham received a $135,000 grant from the Duke Energy Foundation to support a three-plus-two dual bachelor’s degree program in physics and electrical engineering in partnership with North Carolina State University.
Oklahoma State University received a $11.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish the Children’s Health Equity Solutions Center. The aim of the new center will be to reduce or eliminate racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in children’s health.
The University of South Carolina received a grant from the Access Group to conduct a study of the race of first-year law students and their race-neutral identity factors such as educational circumstances and family characteristics. The research will be under the direction of Eboni Nelson, a professor at the university’s law school. The goal is to see if law schools can create a diverse student body without considering race in admissions decisions.
The University of Maryland Eastern Shore, a historically Black educational institution in Princess Anne, received a $1 million grant from Delmarva Power to launch the Green Collar Initiative. The environmental initiative will include a series of energy conservation projects. The donation is the largest ever received by the university from a corporation.
Historically Black Jackson State University in Mississippi received a grant from the Women’s Foundation of Mississippi to fund the university’s Bridge to Success: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. The program will focus on pregnancy prevention among incoming women students in an effort to boost retention rates. Tony Latiker, associate professor of elementary and early childhood education and Josie Latham, coordinator of intervention services, are co-principal investigators for the grant project.
Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, received a $350,000 grant from USA Funds for programs to increase college completion rates and improve career readiness. The grant is part of a larger $2.3 million program which targets first-generation college students from underrepresented groups at minority-serving institutions.
Historically Black Hampton University in Virginia received a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education that will fund the university’s Talent Search program through August 2021. The grant allows the university to help prepare students from local high schools for a college-level curriculum.
Paine College, the historically Black educational institution in Augusta, Georgia, received a $250,000 donation from the United Methodist Church. Paine College is currently appealing a decision to revoke its accreditation. Financial concerns are the main factor that promoted the accrediting agency to consider removing the accreditation of the college.
