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.
Five historically Black universities in North Carolina were each awarded $1 million grants from the N.C. Policy Collaboratory at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for COVID-19 research and care. The participating HBCUs are Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, N.C. A&T State University, North Carolina Central University, and Winston-Salem State University.
Prairie View A&M University and Huston-Tillotson University, two HBCUs in Texas, are sharing a $133,000 donation from the Jack and Jill Foundation. The initiative provides funding that directly supports HBCU students who are in good academic standing and on track to graduate but are faced with the ever-growing problem of tuition debt.
Historically Black Morgan State University in Baltimore received a $150,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to advance community-based efforts and programs to address the critical challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The Center for the Study of Religion and the City at the university will steward the grant by tapping its existing network of community-based partnerships and alliances as a direct pipeline of access providing aid to Baltimore City communities that have been grossly impacted by COVID-19. Some of the funds will be allocated to Morgan students for research stipends to help document and reflect on the work being executed through the Center for the Study of Religion and the City.
Fisk University, a historically Black educational institution in Nashville, received a $200,000 grant from Asurion, a Nashville-based technology insurance company. The funds will establish the Asurion Data Science Scholarship at Fisk. Four to six Fisk University students pursuing computer science or data science degrees will receive a $10,000 scholarship each academic year under the program.
