HBCU ECONOMIC POWER — Historically Black colleges and universities and their students have become a key group both presidential campaigns are trying to win over. Former President Donald Trump has touted wins under his administration for the schools in his pitches to Black voters. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris — an alumna of Howard University — has launched an HBCU Homecoming Tour this month to galvanize at engaging Black voters in key battleground states. The Biden administration has secured billions for these institutions, while acknowledging their history of underfunding despite playing a major role in producing Black graduates. The United Negro College Fund wants to build on that momentum by rallying voters who care about HBCUs around their latest economic impact report. HBCUs generate $16.5 billion annually in economic impact on communities across the United States, and HBCU graduates will earn 57 percent more in their lifetime than they would without a degree. Your host spoke with Lodriguez Murray, UNCF’s senior vice president of government affairs, to break down the report. BQ: What is the one thing you want people reading the report to take away from it? LM: As important as those stats are, it’s the context. These stats come from the most dramatic years of Covid-19, and they occurred in the face of the fact that HBCUs are so underfunded. It begs the question: If there were not these decades and decades of underfunding, what would the economic impact of these institutions be? BQ: Why are you hoping to use the report to galvanize potential voters this November? LM: Every political candidate for the presidency, for Senate, for House races and down-ballot talk about HBCUs, and they use it occasionally as a dog whistle to certain populations. But it's time for HBCUs and UNCF to reclaim our acronym so that we can tell our story. We don't want to be discussed through the prism of people who solely want to talk about us but don't want to help us. What we would like to do is tell the story of HBCUs in such a way that we actually get some of the urgent needs met — that infrastructure is actually satisfied, that students get the support they need, that the Pell Grant is doubled, and that the funding inequities that have persisted since the inception of these institutions are finally done away with. We’re using the report and any interest generated by the report to get everyone who cares about HBCUs to the polls. We realize at UNCF a mind is a terrible thing to waste, but it's about time we start letting people know a vote is a terrible thing to waste as well. BQ: Are there any other ways you’d like to see this report used — anything else you’re advocating for? LM: UNCF turned 80 years old this year. Over the years, we've raised $7 billion to assist HBCUs and students. On an annual basis, UNCF awards scholarships totaling $100 million to 10,000 students at 1,100 different colleges and universities. We're impacting Black higher education — not just at our 37 member schools, not just at the 101 accredited HBCUs, but at a large swath of higher education — by helping underfunded Black and brown students get to and through college. If that doesn't deserve the Congressional Gold Medal, I don't know what does.
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