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 Spelman College in Atlanta received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that will be used to develop curriculum and programming to increase the number of Black women in econmics Ph.D. programs. The grant will also be used to develop learning modules focused on economics for its annual summer bridge program and launch an initiative that provides financial support to African American women students with an interest in economics graduate programs.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln received a five-year, $3.56 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will fund scholarships for low-income students, specifically women, underrepresented minorities, and first-generation and rural students who pursue associate or bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and computer science.
The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, an NCAA Division II conference consisting primarily of historically Black colleges and universities, is the recipient of a $1 million grant from First Point Volleyball Foundation and USA Volleyball to support the league in sponsoring NCAA men’s volleyball programs.
Historically Black Alabama State University received a three-year, $499,968 grant from the National Science Foundation to study the common cold. Qiana L. Matthews, an associate professor of microbiology, is the principal investigator of the grant program. Matthews said the proposal will focus on clarifying interactions between adenoviruses (common cold virus) and exosomes (small vesicles that are released from donor cells and internalized by recipient cells with the vesicles carrying proteins, DNA and RNA).
The Hogan Jazz Archive of the Howard Tilton Memorial Library at Tulane University in New Orleans was awarded a grant from the GRAMMY Museum Grant Program to digitize and preserve recordings from Vernon Winslow, the first African American disc jockey in New Orleans. The GRAMMY Museum Grant Program provides funding to organizations and individuals to support the archiving and preservation of recordings for future generations and research projects related to the impact of music. Vernon Winslow (1911-1993) is best remembered for his pioneering work as “Dr. Daddy-O,” the first African American disc jockey in New Orleans. After earning a fine arts degree from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago in 1936, Winslow relocated to New Orleans, where he took a position as an art professor at Dillard University. His interest in radio eventually led to his own program on station WWEZ. His show, “Jivin’ with Jax,” became the first full-length radio show to feature a Black DJ and that catered specifically to the African American audience in New Orleans.
Historically Black Delaware State University in Dover, is the recipient of a $227,834 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense that will fund the purchase of an X-ray Diffraction System. The X-ray technology is used to see how atoms are arranged inside a solid structure. The new system will be used in research at Delaware State that analyzes the crystal structure as well as the atomic composition of thin-film materials. This will include the analysis of new two-dimensional materials that have the potential to be used as new semiconducting material for various nano-electronics.
Oklahoma State University received a five-year, $3.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation to continue funding research programs for students from underrepresented groups in STEM fields. The Oklahoma Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (OK-LSAMP) was founded in 1994. With Oklahoma State University as the lead institution, OK-LSAMP now includes 12 universities across the state, which have awarded a total of more than 13,000 bachelor’s degrees to underrepresented minorities in STEM fields.
