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.
Florida A&M University, the historically Black educational institution in Tallahassee, received a two-year, $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. The grant will fund the university’s Academic-Pipeline Partnerships Enhance Advanced Learning (APPEAL) project. The goal is to increase diversity in healthcare professions. The grant program is under the direction of Henry C. Talley, dean of the university’s School of Nursing.
The University of Georgia received a $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund research to treat African Trypanosomiasis, commonly known as African sleeping sickness. The disease is spread through bites of the tsetse fly. Agricultural workers in sub-Saharan Africa are most likely to be infected.
Scholars at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, will share a $136,000 grant from the American Council of Learned Societies to analyze a collection of correspondence among a family who had ties to the Ku Klux Klan. The research project is entitled “Wild Adolescence: The Pickens Family, the Ku Klux Klan and Racial Terrorism in the Alabama Black Belt.” The 20,000-piece collection is housed at the University of South Alabama.
The Thurgood Marshall College Fund received a $500,000 donation from Lowe’s to further fund the TMCF/Lowes Gap Scholarship program. The program provides funds for college seniors who need to pay their outstanding balance in order to graduate from one of 47 HBCUs that are affiliated with the TMCF.
Historically Black Texas Southern University in Houston received a $100,000 donation from James Harden of the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association. The funds will be earmarked for scholarships for students in financial need.
The University of Maryland and historically Black Bowie State University in Maryland are sharing a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education for a program to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who pursue doctoral studies in education research.
