Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Historically Black Hampton University in Virginia received a three-year, $600,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the university’s new Student Success Center. The center will seek to enhance student academic achievement and improve retention and graduation rates.
The Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State University received a four-year, $2 million grant from the U.S. Health Resource and Services Administration for programs to increase diversity in nursing degree programs. The program will seek to recruit and retain students from racial and ethnic groups that are underrepresented in the nursing profession.
Fayetteville State University, the historically Black educational institution in North Carolina, received a grant of nearly $2 million to improve student success in STEM disciplines at the university. The grant is under the direction of Daniel Okunbor, a professor of computer science at the university. Dr. Okunbor is a graduate of the University of Benin in Africa. He holds a master’s degree in industrial mathematics and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Illinois.
Historically Black Tennessee State University in Nashville, Morgan State University in Baltimore, and Norfolk State University in Virginia, each received a $2 million grant from the United Negro College Fund to support the universities’ career development programs.
