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.
Drake State Community and Technical College in Huntsville, Alabama, received a $5 million gift from the E. Hart Fund to remodel and improve the community college’s automotive building. The gift is the largest donation by an individual donor in the HBCU’s history.
Spelman College and Morehouse College in Atlanta have each received a $1 million gift from siblings Christine Ruth Crawford, George Crawford, and Marcus Crawford, all of whom are alumni of the HBCUs. The Crawford family’s gifts are unrestricted, allowing Spelman and Morehouse to direct the funds toward immediate institutional priorities and financial support for students.
South Carolina State University was awarded a $499,328 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop a low-cost aquatic drone designed to strengthen water quality monitoring in South Carolina’s most vulnerable estuaries. Some of these estuaries are experiencing record levels of fecal coliform bacteria, which have forced the temporary closures of more than one-third of the state’s coastal shellfish harvesting areas. By enhancing the state’s water quality testing capabilities, the project aims to elevate quality of life for mariculture producers and coastal communities whose livelihoods depend on clean water.
