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 Norfolk State University in Virginia received nearly a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study the impact of cybersecurity policies on employees’ efficiency and performance predictability. Researchers will look at the impact that the stringency of cybersecurity protocols within an organization has on the predictability of responses of employees to security vulnerabilities. Carlene Buchanan Turner, chair of the university’s sociology department is the principal investigator for the project.
Delaware State University, a historically Black educational institution, has been awarded a $70,000 Rural Business Development Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grant will fund a fully integrated entrepreneurship and product ideation laboratory for students and faculty, as well as for local community members engaged in innovative business development and business start-up. The goal is to bring new innovative ideas as well as product and service development from vision to prototypes. It will offer programs around entrepreneurship and will provide resources to grow and sustain new business ideas.
The University of South Carolina has announced a $567,000 donation to establish The Nicole and David Tepper Scholars Program in the university’s department of sport and entertainment management. The Nicole and David Tepper Scholars Program will provide four-year scholarships to a cohort of four incoming freshmen each year. Tepper Scholars will receive $10,000 per year toward their education and will gain access to additional enrichment opportunities.
The Center for Promoting Health and Health Equity at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, received a $250,000 grant from Douglas County Health Department to help stem the spread of the COVID-19 virus among minority communities. The program is under the direction of Sade Kosoko-Lasaki, professor of medicine, associate vice provost, and co-executive director of the Center for Promoting Health and Health Equity.
Historically Black Howard University in Washington, D.C. received a $1 million donation from HBO, a division of WarnerMedia, to establish an endowed fund to benefit students pursuing careers in the arts and entertainment industries. The donation will fund stipends of varying amounts that will be awarded to students to use toward living and travel expenses related to accepting internships in Los Angeles, New York and beyond. Students from a variety of disciplines can apply, including communications, fine arts, business, and law.
Yale University’s Research Education Institute for Diverse Scholars received a $1.3 million grant from the National Institute for Mental Health for programs to enhance the abilities of underrepresented minority faculty in navigating the structural and personal challenges experienced in their early academic careers. The program is under the direction of professor emerita Barbara Guthrie, the co-director of the institute.
