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.
Carlton College in Northfield, Minnesota, received a $200,000 grant from the American Physical Society for the development of a national program that will improve physics teachers’ ability to address diversity projects in the classroom. Marty Baylor, chair and professor of physics and astronomy will director the project. Dr. Baylor and other physicists will work in tandem with critical conversation specialists who have particular expertise in holding challenging conversations in the classroom.
The University of Maryland, College Park, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and historically Black Morgan State University in Baltimore are participating in a grant program to expand the pipeline of women faculty and faculty from underrepresented groups in the arts and humanities to the ranks of academic leadership. The Breaking the M.O.L.D. (Mellon/Maryland Opportunities for Leadership Development) initiative is funded by a $3 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The program will have senior faculty in the arts and humanities guide associate and full professors in skill-building seminars and leadership experiences.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences received an $18.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish a new center to study health disparities in Black and rural communities. The grant will fund the Center for Research, Health and Social Justice for five years, giving it a mandate to study ways to close the racial and rural gaps in health outcomes and access to treatment with a focus on intervention and prevention for cancer and heart disease for communities in Northwest Arkansas and the Delta.
The University of Louisville has received a five-year, $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) to help minority-owned manufacturing businesses adopt additive manufacturing and 3D printing technology. The grant will launch the Kentucky MBDA Advanced Manufacturing Center, one of only four such programs nationwide. The center will provide minority-owned manufacturing businesses with product design, technology support, talent pipeline, and business development assistance in additive manufacturing.
Historically Black Tennessee State University in Nashville, received a three-year, $300,000 grant from Waste Management Inc. The grant will fund environmental sustainability research and provide scholarships and internships for Tennessee State University students.
The Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, received $5 million in funding from the state of California. The funds will support a range of initiatives, including stipends for student research, the Black Policy Project, and Million Dollar Hoods, an ongoing study of incarceration in Los Angeles. Some of the funding will be directed to the Bunche Fellows Program, which provides stipends for students to work with leading faculty whose research has a vested interest in improving Black lives.
The Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, received a $2,650,000 grant from the Duke Endowment. The funding will be used to support community engagement programs and practices aimed at addressing barriers to research participation, increasing diversity in clinical research, building community trust, and reducing health disparities.
