Transcripts For CSPAN2 Congressional 20240703

Pleasure of serving as congresswoman alma adams first legislative director and help get the hbcu caucus started and amazing to see all that the congresswoman and staff have done since then. Today you all are joining us for a really important conversation about the ways at that government, philanthropy and business can support our hbcus and sustaining them into the future and with that im going to invite the congresswoman up to get us started. [applause] good afternoon. Good afternoon. Im still hbcu strong. Thank you all for being here today and thank you shaniqua and thank you all for joining us. Im congresswoman alma adams and it is my pleasure to represent the 12th Congressional District in North Carolina, charlotte, mecklenburg, and cabarras county. Give it up for the queen city. [applause] i want to thank especially our same guests who will participate on todays hbcu brain trust. Id like to thank the members of the first bipartisan hbcu tour here. When i started this caucus eight years ago, i had no idea that wed grow to have more than 104 members across both Political Parties and both chambers of congress. But now eight years in, i know that the strength of the caucus is a testament to how much support we have and last year, we were about to get ignite funding for our hbcus through appropriations. Because of the work we did, 50 million in grants is now available to our schools all right. To make transformative investments and Research Structure and of course, this includes research productivity, faculty expertise, graduate programs, physical infrastructure, Human Capital development and partnerships leading to increases in external funding, which is what were here to talk about today. The investments made in our schools today are an investment in the future and so, i just use myself as an example. I am a living testament to the necessity and the importance of hbcus. My mother raised me. She did the domestic work, she was not formally educated, but understood the value of education and the importance it would be in my life. She did domestic work. She cleaned other folks houses so i wouldnt have to. I need to clean my own sometimes though. But like many of the young people i taught at Bennett College for four decades of my academic career. My story is a lot like theirs and probably a lot like many of yours here today. First generation student, North Carolina State University gave this poor black girl who walked those ghetto streets of newark, new jersey a chance because they believed in an opportunity, and the fundamental importance of an education that web deboise talked about. Of all the civil rights, and struggled for 400 years the right is learn to undoubtedly the most fundamental. So were still fighting for that fundamental right. Around this country, political leaders are eliminating history from our classrooms. Three months ago, the Supreme Court struck a huge blow to the education of black students when they struck down affirmative action. So its clear that despite all of the work that weve accomplished, we still have a lot to do so its imperative that we work across industries and sectors to ensure the sustainability of our hbcus so that our students always have a place to call home to get the education that some people seem to be hell bent on keeping them from getting. So with that, id like to invite our first speaker, the honorable miguel cardona, our u. S. Secretary of education to the stage and we are going to open up this conversation. [applause] how about a round for her and what shes listen, when i came into town the first meeting i had, i knew hbcus had a fearless champion and youve lived up to it and i thank you. I want to thank you publicly for the advocacy on behalf of hbcus. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Secretary. Thank you for being here with us because the importance of hbcus and the impact that infrastructure funds has on them, as you know, is not only critical, but its certainly very, very important to me and so, when you get a chance, youve been to my district and i invite you to come back again and we can spend another day. Let me start by asking you a couple of questions. First of all, a few weeks ago, you launched a Grant Program for infrastructure in our nation historically black colleges and our tribal colleges and our minority serving institutions, based on the ignite process and the package. What is the importance of this funding and exactly how is it going to help our hbcus . Thank you for that question. Look, thanks in large part to your advocacy and the work that youve done to really bring this issue to the forefront. We first have to acknowledge that historically black colleges and universities have been underfunded for decades. Weve got to start there. Lets acknowledge that theyre punching above their weight while not getting the funding that they should have gotten. [applause] so, you know, that funding that you speak to primarily, and when i talk to hbcus president s, students, faculty, they say look, we want to make sure that our infrastructure is at the level where we could compete with other colleges for some of these large contracts, right . So we need to make sure we can do the research. We make sure we have the labs that we need. So for me by not funding at the level that is needed, were setting were not allowing hbcus to compete for some of the major grants and you know, during the pandemic, there were six, seven from the beginning of the president s administration, there were 7. 3 billion dollars directed toward hbcus and some of the dollars, as you know, with grants. There are specific things you can use them on only. We heard from hbcus early on to soften up, loosen up some of the guidelines with hbcus so they could use some of the emergency relief dollars to help with some of the infrastructure and we were able to do that because of their advocacy, because of your support. So for me, making sure hbcus have the dollars that they need for infrastructure will allow them to compete where they should be competing. Well, thank you. Thank you for that and weve got a number of president s and other folks from these colleges and universities who certainly support what youve said and who know what youre talking about is absolutely the thing, so im sure that you are aware, most of us are, of the recent unfortunate Supreme Court rulings regarding affirmative action and the Biden Administrations Student Loan Debt program. First of all, can you talk a little bit about the ways that you forsee or have you already seen the these rulings and how theyre impacting our schools, hbcus in particular . Well, the Supreme Court got the affirmative action wrong and set us back decades in this country and our resolve and strategy around making sure were working harder across the country to bring diversity into all of our campuses. Were telling College President s, you know, recruit differently. Make sure youre connecting with students. We are going to be releasing a report of some of the findings that weve gotten in conversations not only at the department of education when we held it convening, but in regional convening. So thats coming out very soon. Looking forward to sharing that, but what ive also heard from hbcus is, you know, what were finding is, black students are saying, now what . This is nonsense. I want to go to an institution that really sees the black excellence that i bring to the table. Now . Where they value me as a student. So we recognize that there are increases in enrollment in hbcus and we need to plan accordingly with funding for hbcus. [applause] im glad that theyre going to be getting more students, but im going to be very honest here, look, earlier this week, we sent out a letter to 16 governors reminding them of the morale act. There was a onetoone dollar for the land grant university, a dollar for the hbcu. That hasnt happened. And weve my next question. Good. We put it out there saying this is how much that hbcu should have if you followed if your state followed the morelle act when it was done. Millions and millions of dollars, that would have given them an opportunity to compete so theres state funding, but at the federal level, you know better than i do, i learned on the way here to this conversation that the House Speaker just gave his team the recess for the weekend. We are a week and a half away from a potential shut down ments nine days. And giving them recess . Look, you want to talk about, we proposed initially over 100 million for hbcus. The debt ceiling they held funding in hostage. Their latest proposal was like a 26 cut to the department of education. Guess who is going to suffer the most with that. So weve got to call out the nonsense, call out the drama. We are going to keep pushing for infrastructure and hold states accountable, too, to make sure theyre paying their fair share. Listen folks, we need to say this is nonsense. We need to do double, not less. Let me move just a little bit on the question about the 1890s and the oneone match. What had as not been said much and i read your letter and thank you so much for doing that and sending it to all of the governors, but one of the things that i found out was that or that i know, weve got 1862 schools as well in the same states and theyre being funded four, five times what these the 1890s are getting. So weve got to do something about that, as well. I think where am i . Ive got like three minutes and i want you to make sure we look at that. I agree with that. You know, we have a responsibility to put out on the table the cards. Be honest, be transparent. Im not telling the governors that are there now that they had anything to do with that, but we are leaders today with so much divisiveness, if we have governors that dont mind stepping up against dei, lets have governors step up. Were running out of time. Let me ask you about the Biden Administration on saving on education, we call the save act. Its going to help students in terms of looking at their income as they pay off the loans. Can you speak briefly to that. You know students that rule out college in middle school because of the cost. To me, Student Debt Relief is critical, the longest acting is the save plan, income driven repayment plan so it takes about 10 minutes to sign up. Its a new plan that we roll out. It could reduce undergraduate loan bills, loan payments in half for students that qualify. If youre making less than 32,800 a year, your payment will be zero until your salary goes up. What were trying to do here is open the door to Higher Education to students. We know graduates on average earn over a Million Dollars in their lifetime and race should not be in their place of life. Thank you, secretary, for your discussion. We know you have to move on. Thank you. Dont forget, you can come back to my district anytime. So lets give it up for secretary for that thoughtful discussion. [applause] let me just say, were getting ready to bring our next our next speaker on and i want to tell you a little about kwanzaa jones. She is a philanthropist, shes a nonprofit leader. She, along with her life partner and Business Partner founded the kwansa jones and initiative, which is a philanthropic grant making and Investment Organization that strategically partners with nonprofits and forprofits to ensure maximum impact. Ladies and gentlemen, help me welcome to the stage, ms. Jones come on up. Got a bad hat on, too, right . [applause] she wasnt told me yet her hat maker. And you havent told me yours. But she told me 1400 hats, is that it . Ive got 114 hats so youve got me by 10x. Thats all right. Youve done some great things. Thank you for joining us and coming all of this way today. Inks that are for having me. We heard from secretary cardona about the types of investments that government can make to sustain our hbcus so i want to get some ideas from you about what role you think philanthropy is in hbcus and youve been involved in hbcus. What are some of the examples of the work that youve engaged in to support our institutions . Well, thanks for that question and ill say thank you and starting with thank you because thats the foundation of the work that ive done for hbcus. Its coming from a place of gratitude and i have to have frat gratitude to my family, to my ancestors that attended hbcus and makes me feel a deep and strong connection to hbcus. I have an Honorary Degree from a hbcus, but i went to an ivy league school, but i would not have been able to do some of those things or to give back had it not been for the roots of hbcus. So ill talk to you a little about the role of philanthropy and specifically some of the things that i and my business in life partner Jose Feliciano through the initiatives, the first million that we ever gave to a college, we gave to a hbcu because thats where the commitment was for us. We gave later, 20 million to pwi, and got a lot of flak about it. Got a lot of notoriety about it, too because were the first africanamerican and the first puerto rican who ever had dorms named after them 275yearOld Institution, thats princeton university. You give to the pwis, what about hbcus. Thats what philanthropy is important for, its not just the dollars, but its the voice. Folks understand that we have been giving not so silently, but hbcu need more resources and thats the key. It is combining capital with community and connections, thats the power of what philanthropists can do because my goal is to have not an additional effect where you have one plus 10 equals 11. But you have one 10 times 10 equals 100. So if we have philanthropists and doesnt have to be a large number of them, but open their networks and their resources. Resources are what are absolutely critical, not just dollars. Once you get the dollars, how are you going to use the dollars . The people help with that. Right. Okay, so as more people, especially philanthropists like Mckenzie Scott continue to make investments in hbcus. We want to try to give some advice here and maybe some other folks to do some of the things youve done and them as well. What kinds of things or practices can we can you give us in terms of philanthropists and what basically engaging with our hbcus . Its a great question and you bring up Mckenzie Scott and she went to princeton, also, so shes a fellow tiger, too. A little bit older than i am. But i tell you one thing i wished happened, i wish mckenzie and i had a conversation because thats the starting point of what philanthropists can do to help hbcus, communicate with each other. Oftentimes philanthropists, especially when youre doing large dollar, multimillion dollar investments, its not charity, its not a donation, we want a return on our investment and a return on our investment that we want is a social impact return. It doesnt always have to be a financial return. A generational, social mobility return. So you have folks like philanthropists and you can imagine, some rooms and doors, not a lot of people that are looking like me, you, or some of us in the audience are in those rooms and doors, but when you get in through the door and into those rooms and you see folks that have access to capital, but dont have access to connections to folks who have our lived experience, then where and how they give their giving is arms length and at a distance. Oftentimes its using consultants to make the decisions, to use rubrics and which are critical, but you miss the soul, you miss the soul. I think we need to have more convenings in a conversation. Right, one of the things that our schools are almost two centuries old. Yes. The Oldest School goes back to like 185 years, and some of our buildings on our campuses are as old as our schools. Many of them on many of these campuses are closed because of the fact that they have been underfunded so they have not been able to do what they need to do in terms of keeping up with the facilities. But ive seen this year and the theme for me the past couple of years has always been about infrastructure and served on the campus for 40 years and attended a hbcu and ive visited quite a number of them. So, ive seen this year for the brain trust, its more in 24. In other words, while folks have done all that theyve done and we appreciate that, were looking ahead. Because its about not just for our schools to thrive, but that they should survive. Not that they sudden should survive, but should thrive. Sustainability. What new programs or plans do you have planned for next year, more for 24, to advance efforts to sustain our hbcus . So congresswoman adams, what i love about the more for 24 is it underlies really how i operate, how i live and thats a personal motto, own your power, live your purpose and be of service, which means its about taking action. You need services, its action oriented and thats what more for 24 does. Some of the actions are and before i even say it, i often ask the question, the question is this, if you get what you want, will you be ready for what you have . Im going to say it one more time because its critical for hbcus. If you get what you want, will you be ready for what you have, for individuals, for institutions, collectively, hbcus in order for them to be ready for what they have need to have conversations. It comes back to connections with folks like philanthropists with folks that are taking action without waiting to have huge, huge, huge, massive events to do it and understanding, the power starts in starting. One of the initiatives that i have and having been a former of hbcu in greensboro, North Carolina, right across the street from North Carolina a t, your alma mater. The premises is it takes all of us, individually and collectively to move hbcus forward. And what it does, the mission is twofold. What it does first in the mission is to equip hbcu leaders. Equip them with the tools and resources to be investment ready because what happens to your point of philanthropists who may not be doing the investment, sometimes its because they dont think the hbcus and the administration and the leaders are ready for it so the point, if you get what you want, will you be ready for what you have . You dont want your money, if its a money tree to go up in flames . The second thing that it does, it empowers those who may be philanthropists or funders of hbcus, empowers them with the connections and sort of virtual stamp of approval that, hey, youve got a billionaire philanthropist, thats me and my husband, who are donating, but we dont think of it as donating. Use it in the language that some people have, we are investing. We dont do charity, we do returns on investment. So, here is the metric, the rubric we use to make sure that we are going to see a return on our investment. Thats what hbcu forward is. Its looking at a holistically from both sides, so certainly, as you mentioned, more for 2024. Im excited about it because it launches in q1 2024. Go to hbcu forward. Us, it takes all of us to move hbcus forward. Thats what we did with Bennett College, it wasnt just the donation, it was actually the access to resources, too, through embedding into different teams, different folks who have certain types of knowledge and the willingness of the president so say, hey, okay, ive got to think strategically, ive got to interact with the board, but we will happily take the money, we will also happily take the resources of someone who can come in and give us three months, six months a year. What ends up happening . Its a connection of those two things that makes a powerful difference. Thank you very much. I think that the other the last part of the question that i had youve already answered and that was how what you do in terms of forward, how that might influence other philanthropists to get engaged and involved. Im looking across and its hard for me to see folks, is that my education bobby scott, stand up. Hes our ranking member. Thank you so much for being here. [applause] i noticed you by your hair. Thats a compliment. It is very much. So thank you very much. Of course, of course. And we are going to be looking and following you as you move forward forward. Looking forward to it. Take care. [applause] and i need to know who your hat maker is so well share. Exactly. I think im supposed to get off now, is that right . Oh, okay. All right. Well, lets give it up for our two speakers. [applause] lets give it up for the congresswoman. [applause] were going to move into the next phase of the program. First, were going to have a brief conversation with University Leaders whats going on on the campuses and then we are going to have im going to be in conversation with Business Leaders from three of the companies that are part of our hbcu Partnership Challenge to hear about the ways that they were working with hbcus. And with that, id like to bring my University Leaders up. Dr. Heidi anderson, dr. Nicola and dr. Suzanne walsh. [applause] [inaudible conversations] could we get some assistance on this mic so we can get it working . But i know were short oh, is it working . Oh, great. Thank you. Im tech support, also, in my day job. Thank you so much. You know, turn it on. Got it . Okay. Wow, you do it all. [laughter] thank you. Thank you, dr. Walsh. Testing. Thats right, thank you. Well, we can get started now that everyones technology is working well, but first i just want to ask everyone to give another round of applause for our panelists. Thank you for joining us today. [applause] as i mentioned this next part of our conversation will allow us to hear directly from University Leaders who are running three of our nations hbcus. And were just going to jump right in and we can start the first question, just kind of go down and start with you, dr. Walsh, but we were able to hear the congresswoman speak with secretary cardona and ms. Jones about their respective roles helping to sustain hbcus. Id love to hear from sus sustainability looks like on your campuses and partnered with the philanthropists or private secretary and government in achieving that sustainability. So, as youve heard, kwanzaa jones is the board chair and one of the things, yes we receive Financial Support from her, but i think its more important, through her initiatives and through her company, she gave us she actually supported for us, paid for five staff for us for a year. I know, right . Thats not going to show up on her tax its not going to show up in the places that you look for philanthropy. I say that because we were at a moment where we really needed some key staff and we couldnt afford it, but what i committed to was i said, we will internalize those, well take it in, we will absorb those roles into our budget after a year. At the same time, she also gave us, i think, at least three, there may have been sometimes four members of her staff who were also basically to us, consultants to us to help us learn how to recruit effectively i think that one way that corporations can think about how to support hbcus, yes, money, great. And also talent, what talent do you have that you can loan us or even pay for and well absorb it back into our work and i think that that really is what has allowed us to sustain ourselves. We could have breathing room and stabilize and were three years in the black and even adding those in, so thank you. Dr. Anderson . Ill be happy to answer. Well, first of all, i want to say thank you to the previous panelist who was here, but also, thank you to secretary cardona and also congresswoman adams because all of what each of you are doing is what helps us move every single day. At the university of maryland, eastern shores, which we sit on the 1,000 acres of a beautiful area in Princess Anne, maryland, and like most hbcus were unique in the sense that we are very proud. Were a very Old Institution and we happen to be one of the 19 strong in the who is we are an original 1890 land grant. So i put that in perspective so you have some context because that is important because basically, as the congresswoman said, it means that were sitting on land that basically we have been there 137 years. So a failed infrastructure. A few years ago, the Thurgood Marshall college fund, president ceo williams came to me and said, we have an opportunity here to work with some partners to help your university. Are you interested . Im like are you kidding . Bring it on. So, the partnership i want to talk to you about is with an organization, its called partnership for education advancement. Partnership for education advancement came to us right before covid and it was focusing on helping us with covid. We got through that, we were fortunate, we were the only university in the state of maryland to bring our students back and keep them in with no interruptions because of the partnership we formed, but after that, we realized we needed to sustain our institution, so to sustain us, you have to be able to leverage our partnership and leverage the opportunities that they bring. What partnership for educational advancement did with us thinking together and my Leadership Team and i, we need help with our enrollment we had been having a declining enrollment for a number of years and ive been there now, just finished five years. Lets see how we can work to help sustain this particular area and make it increase. Partnership of education advancement put in resources for our campus, but they didnt just put the resources in, they did the same thing that my president here was talking about, brought in consultants, brought in experts to help with my team. Talent is very critical and the reason i gave you the picturesque of where Princess Anne is at. Were rural. When youre rural like many of our hbcus it means youre not going to attract a lot of the talent that you need in i. T. , in the business, in the infrastructure area because ne get pulled by a lot of places. This particular Partnership Helped us not only train our admissions teams, our recruiters in a different way, but allowed us to partner with them to use technology that we could have never had so weve used Artificial Intelligence to increase our admissions, to contact with parents, to increase our recruitment to do things differently and i know that it has paid off. Because we have just enrolled six weeks ago, this fall semester, the Third Largest class that weve had in the last three years. Thank you very much because it worked because of the tools that we were able to use from the partnership and education advancement. To me thats how you want to make sure how youre leveraging this and sustain the campus. The experts are no longer there, but my people, employees, talented group of advisors are trained in a different way how to utilize the resources we could never have done without. Thank you. Doctor. My colleagues have inspired me. I want to first thank congresswoman alma adams for inviting me and having us here, appreciate you and the caucus. I have to thank congressman bobby scott, a friend to virginia State University. Thank you, sir, for everything you do. And i also happen to have soon to be newly elected senator from our area, the state senator. Forgive me, i have to thank the people that help us out. Thats okay. And we have the exact partnership that my partner has in umbs. And partnering with the university down the street to house some of our students, we dont have enough housing. Were partnering with our Current Foundation to make sure we buy additional residents halls. Were partnering with the city so that we can advance into the city of petersburg, and part of the economic driver in petersburg. Right now, this year, weve had our largest freshman class that weve ever had. Thank you, heidi. [applause] thank you. Thats on top of last years class being larger. Last years class was the record, and this years class is the record. And im sorry, weve partnered with the local Economic Development agency so that Virginia State can really be an economic driver in and around the area of petersburg. But i think that the real thing for me is how important investments in hbcus are and how important that we invest in our institutions. Our history dates back to 1882. We were founded in 1882 with the incredible political collaboration between blacks and whites that helped to bring virginia State University into existence in 1882. We are the fourth oldest Public Institution in the commonwealth of virginia. Uva. Vmi, virginia tech, which is seven years older than that us, and then virginia State University. When we were founded in 1882, we were the only state supported institution that admitted women. When we were founded in 1882, we were the only state supported institution of Higher Education than admitted women. The other institutions were all male. There was not a state institution for women founded yet. We were first, the first woman to graduate with a College Degree from a Public Institution in the commonwealth of virginia was lula johnson from virginia State University in 1895. [applause] now, let me tell the other half of it. This is the part where we talk about underfunding. When we talk with underfunding, were not talking about money, were talking about opportunities. Were talking about opportunities. Less than six years after she graduated virginia changed the constitution so africanamericans couldnt vote and eliminated the collegiate charter from virginia State University so we were no longer a college and a distinction that we would not have for another 30 years and at the same time cut our appropriation by 15 . What would virginia looked liked if virginia State University was fully funded with this collegiate charter . What would the commonwealth of virginia look like today . What would it look like . How would it have changed if thats what we were doing at an early part. When we talk about investing and Going Forward in the future. If we dont invest, the thing we look at what are we going to be missing . What are we going to be missing if we dont invest and partner with our hbcus . Thank you. [applause] i know, i want to direct the next question to you. Got to pick it back up. Dr. Abdullah, you mentioned you talked about this is the second year in a row you hit the number of students, but you mentioned you had to house students off campus. Id love to hear more. The congresswoman asked the secretary about recent affirmative action decision and i think a lot of people are imagining that more black students would be attending hbcus because of that. And for all of you, and we can come down this way, if more students show up on their campuses, what does that mean infrastructurewise, the size of your classrooms, the amount of personnel that you have to kind of take care of these students and then dorm rooms . What does that mean for you and how will you be able to handle it . Thank you so much and i appreciate how you asked the question because really, in reality you asked it in the right way. Many ask what is going to be the impact of affirmative action on hbcus . And the answer to that question is a shortterm increase in enrollment, but the real thing is whats if its not good for black people, its not good for hbcus. And so while well have a period of growth, the challenge is without the infrastructure to support the students coming in, we wont be able to house and educate all the students that need access to quality Higher Education and thats the real danger. So if, if we are now saying again, and look, i want young people to be able to choose to go to any university in the country. I happen to believe the best school is virginia State University. [applause] do not encourage him. Id like to get in a plug for Bennett College. Thank you, i all right . I have the mic right now, thank you very much. [laughter] i am the captain. I am the captain now. You started it. Look, see . But my point is i want them to choose our institution. I want them to choose them and as they choose them, i want us to be able to provide a quality education for every young person that is motivated, that has the talent, that wants to get it done. I want us to be able to do that and without adequate investment in infrastructure, many of us will not be able to be much larger than we are now. And thats going to have a huge impact on our community. Thank you, president. At university of maryland eastern shore, i know ive got some alums out there. Hawk pride . Yeah. Thank you. See there . All right. So, thank you very much for the question. The infrastructure piece is so critical at our institutions. We were founded september 13th, of 1886 which means i have buildings that are pretty old. A lot older than i am, of course. Give you an example. When i joined the campus in september of 2018, couldnt even go into the library. I could not go into the library because i tell you, were nestled between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean and hurricanes and storms came through prior to my arrival in september. We know what that Hurricane Season looks like. It destroyed the roof on the library. The Frederick Douglas library has been there for a number of years and it was throughout the entire library, it destroyed volumes and artifacts. I finally did get it back open and students moved back in, but thats one of the buildings in our academic circle, it is what we call one of our oldest historic buildings. So just think about a door you would replace normally in a place, you have to look at that in a different way. Theres ornate siding on the windows. And my cfo would give me language, it looks pretty, it looks great, youve got to get it fixed. Its tough to do in a historic building. Thats why i said thank you to the congresswoman and secretary cordona and they allowed some of that for relief. That meant a lot for my students and buildings. At university of maryland, we are one of the land grants, were steam, science, technology, math and my science lab that the students come in the first year in George Washington carver hall its abominable right now. In the older. Buildings. Thats what leveraging the resources will allow us to do. We are a Public Institution. We are so proud this week. Top 10 Public Institution of all hbcus. Thank you, thank you. But that means that i have to make sure im working with the right partners to make sure i get be able to ledge the funding to put resources into the building because i cant get all of that from the state a because i can get all of that from the state in the last thing i will say before it passed the mic on from the standpoint of growing enrollment my enrollment i know has been an upward trajectory. Not only are we counted increase this past fall at i have eight Health Professions students come a Health Profession programs and we are bursting at the scene students wanting to apply to those. My agriculture because landgrant and my faculty just approved last week to have a better Neuroscience Program on our campus. I wanted you to be aware of that. [applause] secretary vilsack and his team are helping us in that regard and want to put that up because thats going to increase, my enrollment. Even more. Thank you. So we also are seen a little bit of an uptick in our involvement but it do worry about the infrastructure. Then it was only built for 843 students anyway. Any growth we have is, its challenging. And i love that you gave that example of like what with the buildings like when you arrived atha the library. We need to open another Residence Hall for next year. How are we going to pick between the current ones that are closed that have mold, that have the feeling has caved in. These are old buildings. We havent deferred maintenance because we didnt want to handle it. Its the tradeoff would make. Weve all invested in academic programs but sometimes that means that deferred means i will say oftentimes we were amazing at the different part of deferred maintenance. Because youve got a get you got to choose something else. And so i think the trick is yes, we want to welcome all of these students. We want to welcome everyone who wants to come to our institution, and yet are we prepared . Im not sure. The lab example representative adams and ive had this conversation many a times. Secretary cardona was talking about well, we should help institutions like hbcus to be able to receive research of dollars. Well, we have received research of dollars like from nsf but because of the conditions of our lab, one of our faculty members could not complete a research because the mold spores in the room. Yes, so we were competitive, like tiny place but powerhouse, we are competitive guitarist tunes are going on to great graduate schools like columbia and nyu and brown. Imagine, imagine what we could do if our labs were up to date. Imagine what we could do if we had the most modern sort of Residence Halls. All of those things. If we didnt have to keep deferring maintenance. A poem what happens to maintenance deferred, ill share it with all of you again after this. But it isnt true. Like what does happen, you know . I waited to you all later. Yes, i will. I will have reading. Ill send a copy, yes, we will have reading later. But it is a serious question about are we prepared . We want to be prepared for the students but that Infrastructure Investment is critical. Someone to dive a a little deeper on the physical infrastructure and you just give a specific example about having the Research Dollars but not having the physical lab to do the work. It was a 2018 Government Accountability office study that found 46 hbcus need repairs and replacements on campus. I would love c if each of you could speak a bit more about what some of those updates and needut our also specifically tak about what is impact on students when they dont have that . I think that one of the things, some of it is just you want to be in the space it feels like we care about you and i think the impact on students is it doesnt always feel great and i think employees as well. So one of the things that i kept doing when i started was i was just incensed that there would be kind of like that bubbling on the wall in the classroom or in the building, and fix that come fix that. They would fix it and then we hired a new person to lead facilities and she said madame president i will fix it but the problem isnt inside. Its on the outside. We have to waterproof the brick. I did he know that was a thing. You have to waterproof brick . Do you know how much money was spent waterproofing buildings . And redoing roofs . Where im going with that is it was not getting to the root cause. I think toooo often we have trid to do cosmetic things to all students feel moreel comfortable to help employees to more comfortable but then were spending more money because were fixing that same bubbly wall. Once you start to get at the root cause and then weve had to prioritize every year we say were going to take on one building and completely we do that. Thats changed a lot, a lot of the we would budget, a lot of the we students can get excited about we are going to see change in that one building. Not were going to sprinkle a Little Something over here and maybe fix a door handle over here and minor things. This way we can do things that make a a big difference for our students and i think it feels better, healthwise. We have priority called the well bell, hopefully well student experience. You want to space to not just feel healthy but to be healthy. I think those are some of the things, impacts. Thank you. Just to piggyback onto that. The impacts on the student to something as president would really think about. I have nightmares about that to what is at in backward to be . You bring students who are to our campus, families leave them with the senator to make sure theyre going be safe and unharmed. When you have buildings that have mold in it thats one harm right there. A lot of our kids have allergies. They have asthma. That something thats going to build up with them. But ill tell you from a housing standpoint, give you that an example one, happy to say i met 100 occupancy right now. Yes. But, you can clap on that, go right ahead. Thank you very much. [applause] that it meets next you when a increasing moment even more than i did this year i have no housing. But when my students came in one you the things we learned and we saw this very well in covid, our students, this is their livelihood. They are on this all t the time and when he came into my dorms, those old dorms m i told you abt we did not have the infrastructure from the standpoint of i. T. , the broadband. You talking about watering buildings. Im like trying to run cable all around the campus and increase it because the students get what do they want to do . Gaming. Okay. Thats what theyre doing now. I look at and say one of the impacts is not just their health from this standpoint for mold and everything but from the standpoint of what theyy used to come in from home. Their training, their education is very, very different than what we had i dont know about all of you guys but i was in the classroom when we still a chalk and the c blackboard, you know . This gets look at it and say what is chock, you know . Is it an app . U. S. To get to where you are looking at the impact from their perspective as toom what it is they used too come in to do. Thats not just our dorms are the worst because we just had to retrofit and try to make sure we got that. So again w i cannot thank our secretary cardona enough because being able to use some of that funds to change the i. T. Infrastructure, that was a game changer for me on my campus in rural princess and pick the other thing i will say that ive learned from this from the impact. Because we are who we are as hbcus our students, this is their home. For me, when i sent them homen march of 2020, i had my student leaders come to meet in june 2020. They said madame president , you have to bring us back. Some of my kids went home with multiple people in household where they didnt have wifi, they could not connect. They went home to families that some of them i did know if they were figured out their gender identity and they were not even welcome at home. They said this is our home and just figure out how to bring us back to you think i did for my Team Together and say lets do this . Y lets get this gets back here. Thank you. [applause] ave much to add. They said so much. Our children deserve the very best in their education. But id like to talk a little bit about why maybe we have some infrastructure challenges. Sometimes we dont talk about why it can appear as though the challenge is ours and we created our own challenge. Most institutions if you take a look at it theres three different buckets of schools and how they started im talking public and private but all the universities were private. It wasnt until the mid1800s the state decided to get into Higher Education at all so at that point the states got into the business but it was still mostly for the elites so when you talk about an older institution most trained and raised up of the elites and thed contributed a lot to back to their universities. All of ours established in the mid1800s and some in the early 1900s were established to educate the sons and daughters with former enslaved africans and while we work hard to raise money the idea we are generally creating the first generation middleclass students means the endowments arent what some of the other institutions are and when you talk about the states investing in the state systems if you look across the states it starts to occur in the mid1900s, 1930, 1940 when all of the other institutions start to get formed so they are training a Different Group of students and they have much newer infrastructure so its important to remember weve been busting our tail to keep tuition low, trying hard to put as much money into our academic opportunities and less into deferred maintenance so it is because we are trying to do the very best to provide excellence that helps to create the infrastructure challenge. Thank you. Its important for us to remember that. The way you framed that was great. This is the final question and we will allow you all to go back to the audience and i want to start with you. We had a bit of a History Lesson but looking to the future lets say ten years what do you envision for your schools and what do you think it will take to make that vision come to life . Great question. In ten years i probably will not be there because i will be on a golf course. My vision is you know the old adage you teach a person to fish and they can eat for a day but you know the old adage. [laughter] you want to make sure they can be fed for a lifetime. I want to leave my university when im no longer there is precedent so to that its sustainable for a lifetime. What i see not only have we expanded our buildings and taken care of the infrastructure, we have over 100 million worth of deferred maintenance and so i want to see that coming down because it has to to make sure we have a good impact on our students. What i see us doing is having the growth for enrollment where it peaks and having a good revitalization with our town and heres why. I said earlier in rural towns where we are with our hbcus, we have to have that connection and partnership with our town as well so one of the things ive been working on with my team is how we revitalize to make this partnership seamless between our institution and the town so that relationship i want to see it morphed into a lot Stronger Partnership so that the students, the towns, we dont have to worry about housing because now weve got the dorms, the partners and we have those particular buildings that are necessary to house, i told you earlier agriculture, the program and the other Health Promotion preventionprograms and engineere happen to have. I think that in ten years we will know how to be a great partner meaning there will be several partnerships because i think that is the future of higher ed. We cant do this by ourselves. The government wont be enough either so i think we will have figured out how do we work most effectively with partners and those could be either government, the local communities, corporations. And what does it look like if public and private they are working together . Theres economy and scale and i dont think weve mastered that quite yet so thats going to be something that will allow us to be sustainable and a good partner for our community and for the globe. I want to thank my colleagues for the great work they do and the president of dillard thats hanging out with us today thank you so much. I in ten years i believe we dont compete with other institutions at Virginia State. Many people believe that the pwis in the areas we are competing with them. I dont believe that. I believe the largest competitor is not going to school at all, that there is a Large Population of africanamericans and young asians and hispanics who they dont know anyone who went to college. They dont know how to get to college. They couldnt figure out, they didnt know how to pave the sat test, they had trouble in high school that plummeted their gpa and they didnt go. In ten years i would love for Virginia State to be the place ellipsis theres know kids, know young person with the emotional stability they are all in college and we are providing that opportunity. [applause] thats a wonderful note to end the conversation on. Can everyone please give the panelists a round of applause . That was a great conversation. [applause] and now i will allow you all to go back down and watch the next panel and also as they stepped off the stage id like to invite the next panelist for our Partnership Challenge conversation. In whatever order you would like to come up. [applause] i should have said where each of these people works. En is the head of Community Affairs amazon. [cheering] the Vice President and deputy general counsel at cisco and at theglobal head of university tat at adobe so one more round of applause for the panelists. [applause] thank you for joining us today. Maybe we can direct the first question asked you and go down. But could each of you discuss the work your company is currently doing to invest in support hbcus and how to partnership and how you sustained it over time. Is your microphone working . Got it. Thank you. Magic. Thank you so much for being here and congresswoman adams for inviting cisco to be here. To provide a little bit of context we all know 2020 was a very difficult year for a number of reasons and cisco decided to take action and i love what doctor walsh said about the impact. We wanted to have initiatives and thoughts that would have a dome impact on the communitys and at that time we looked at the black community is the most vulnerable. Covid, george floyd. What can we do as a company to improve the state of black people in the united states. Out of that was born our social justice believes in action which we put a good amount of money to in a fiveyear period, social justice action number eight was focused on hbc you. And that youre also we made 150 milliondollar investments in hbcus which is the largest investment that we are aware of today and if it is for all hbcus. 50 million to the Freedom Initiative that provides basically Financial Instruments for students that are hbcus interested in stem to help fund their schooling and 100 million for services and Technology Related to helping them achieve their next assessment and for those of you that are unaware, the assessment is the National Institutes for standards of technology which is critical cybersecurity certification that allows them to get title iv funds and without having it certified you put roughly 1. 6 billion at risk and cisco was there to ensure that they were fortified with technology so thats how we help and how we focus on the students i talk about the student Freedom Initiative we have networking academies. They are what we have basically micro Training Institutes that are free and focus on cybersecurity and we all know cybersecurity is at the forefront of everyones mind especially these days and then we think about the communities in which they reside because we know know school is alone outside of the community that supports it so we look towards broadband so the university was our first pilot in terms of broadband not only to the hbc you but for the community. We learned how students go home and dont have broadband services. We hope to be part of the solution and as we are looking to 2024 we look to expand the program. In North Carolina, wonderful. [inaudible] [laughter] that was great to hear. Thank you for the question. Adobe is a Technology Company and our mission is to change the world through digital experiences. But a big part of that is just enabling the creators of the innovators, the real problem solvers so follows that a strategy also its very intentional. What we have put out to do with each of our partnerships is to solve big problems in the industry and community. For instance the known National Center of Academic Excellence and Cyber Defense education and we have a fantastic Cybersecurity Program so when we sat down with the Computer Science chair, we wanted to solve one big problem and that is only 9 of the Cybersecurity Workforce identifies as black. Big problem to solve, to partners coming together to solve this and thats how our Cybersecurity Program was launched. The work experience, handson professional development to students who want a career in cybersecurity. We have told students in turning this year and our example is student athlete i didnt know this but student athletes can spend up to 20 hours a week on sports alone and at the data also tells us one in five student athletes do not find the time to focus on work and internship opportunities which then brought us together with student directors of hbcus to come up with a micro Internship Program which by its format is aligned with Time Commitment of athletes. Theres a couple of examples, but in all cases and future engagements we want to solve the big problems. Thank you all so much and everyone for being here. I have the privilege of working on the Community Engagement team across the country we are working on wellness, recreation. And when i think about hbcus its been our intentional decision to focus on two things, access and innovation. From an access perspective we have a Career Choice Program which over 80,000 amazonians across the world are able to increase their learning by going to a local Community College or college in their community and we thought it would be incredibly important to make sure we include hbcus as part of the program so we are proud to announce we have over 15 hbcus across the country including those locally like morgan state fair amazonians can take College Classes while they are working and have the opportunity to have that paid for by amazon. We have need innovative projects that we are pioneering. One that i think is really neat is our aws partnership with Hampton University focusing on making sure the next generation of learners have access to the tools they need to stay competitive in the modern workforce and another one that i think is more exciting and close to home, Amazon Studios have partnered with Howard University to create an Entertainment Lab right here in dc not only showing the exciting parts of being in hollywood are making films but all the careers that are possible with entertainment. [applause] i lived in la for a little while and i learned its not just actresses and actors who make everything go around. The next set of questions will be directed at each of you individually. We can start with you. Adobe has partnerships with salem State University and youve provided about 3 million in grants to each of the schools over the last few years. Can you talk about what youve seen through these partnerships and how they are using these dollars and do you know if theres been any assessment and the infrastructure of the campuses . Talked about this before, physical infrastructure, research personnel. Yes, very excited to talk about that. For those that didnt catch that in 2021 adobe started partnerships with three minority serving institutions, winstonsalem and san jose State University. Part of the Strategic Partnership was a one milliondollar grant to each school on an annual basis. I am very excited to announce that as of today adobe has officially announced that we will be extending the Strategic Partnership again to 2 million each that brings the investment in this to 9 million. Wow, thats amazing. [applause] as excited as we are about that, biggest learning the partnerships also more than the grant itself its important that these funds come know Strings Attached to have agency to decide where to spend it. The last time it was so fantastic i wish it could have gone on more and thats what weve realized. Each is unique and has different challenges and unique capabilities they bring to the table and we want them to have that agency to decide how and where to spend the funding. Its the first time ive heard about and i dont think i will forget. We want to make sure that they are able to spend at the way they want. A couple examples, weve used part of the grant to open man entrepreneurship microphone drop. [laughter] to open and entrepreneurship learning Living Community more than 1200 students have taken advantage of this infrastructure. The innovation, entrepreneurship and funding student to start ops. We are planning collaboration creating a space on campus that students and faculty can come and collaborate for Creative Cloud tools, so that is more of the Technology Partnership and a very excited to see what the hbcus do. Wonderful. Thank you. The next question is for en. You talked about some of the partnerships you have whats going on in entertainment but also you talk about the 15 universities and colleges you are working in. I would love to hear more specifically about these start up boot camps and professional Development Programs working with hbcus on and how you see the future of the partnerships evolving and i want to add one more thing in the questions we sent you but specifically why its important for the students to have jobs modeled for them so they can kind of know whats possible. Great question and thank you. One of amazons goals is to be the best employer and if you think about that, we need to build a pipeline to have the talent ready not only when they leave college, but getting into college. So one of the great commitments we have around the country as the National Program that focuses on the stem. You may have seen the engineer program and prepares students from high school and their teachers with a professional development up to three years of that and a lot of those are minority serving districts around the country. Its also important to remember every student is not going to be fouryear hbcus ready when they leave high school so looking at that pathway for Community Colleges, minority serving institutions around the country we focus on how we can innovate. My hometown is detroit and we have an hbcus called the Lewis College of business involved in a partnership now to bring the university back online, and its original intent was making sure students were in that associate range to have the skills to go on and get jobs that were immediately available. So proud of that and the opportunity to work with those organizations. And also when you think about machine learning. We created an Hbcus Program for folks to not get far behind and how to use ai and a program we are partnering with hbcus around the country to make sure that you are ready to work on day one, and i think that as we scale things, how do we make sure that the students have access to all the different types of opportunities whether its working with our amazon. Com site of business or how we work within aws or whats going on with mine video or all these different opportunities that you need to be ready for on day one. You also talked about the investments that you are making in cybersecurity with hbcus and the investments youve made in the surrounding communities. I would love to hear why specifically you think its important that the partnerships are happening with hbcus and why it is so important to make sure that you are not just kind of directing resources only at the school but the surrounding community. I think it is know surprise to anyone to know that the u. S. Is falling behind in terms of technology. So unless we start making an investment for everyone to understand Technology Including the critical area of cybersecurity, and we have all heard about instances in the news recently. New cybersecurity attacks. I think about the ability to continue to innovate and what do they need . We we need the skill sets and what is the skill sets ally . They live in our universes, in her hbcus and in our communities with their untapped resources. So if we put our focus on the communities and on the colleges i think Society Overall will be better off. Thats just make me think about theak final comments and pulling all the students in and then you all can pick them up and make sure that their successful afterschool. So this is our last question, but is going to go to each of you. We can start with you. You all have talked about the amazing work that you are doing with hbcus and youve had success that reflected on why those partnerships have been successful. Think something everyone in the room the last panel edwin has been on stage today once to see happen is more of the successful partnerships. Could you share withto the audience what you think makes this partnership so successful, how you willt continue to use them in the future at any best practices there engaging with hbcus . Thank you for the question. First of all spend some time with rhett adams when you get the chance to come just greatly appreciate you putting this brain trust together starting to harness that power of connectivity. Theres something that weve got the opportunity at amazon is to learn and a lot of different regions. When you respect that unique identity of each school i think you really can learn something. Whenan youre down at Wiley College or in texas and her something they have learned about, can take that to other schools. I think the future looks like innovation in real time and you never know where youre going to find just something that can be a key to unlock so much more. I have a chance to travel down raleigh, you know, in ccu and he just had a chance to meet so many wonderful people and c i think getting them to step away from the competition lookhe at e Bigger Picture is one part. And the second is a a next generation. They are learning right now. They can see themselves on this stage, but not just as a present to come someone who is really leading. I think we have that opportunity and if they get done the right way, you know, the sky is the limit. Okay. The lifeblood of the economy they are creating this. If you produce more than 50 and that kind of impact cannot be in a day or years so seeing investment whether it is the sector, keep investing keep the investment and for the agency to decide. Thank you. My co panelists have said a lot of great things. What resonated with me was the lived experience in how we all have the need to bring lived experience to our workforce. Its easy for people to go about their daytoday work without understanding the experience of others within the universe where each meets was somewhat of different dimension on a quarterly basis to understand and this person can be in any part of organization but you learn something so i have a conversation so when we talk and understand what we have heard in terms of the need, it makes a light bulb go off and think about how you are situated and provide teaching and guidance and what requires that is listening, it is so important will so number eight the focus is on this and what i love about it is sits with them to understand, what are your needs and how can we help . Its so critical for any investment provided. Listening is an Important Note and we hope thats what everyone was able to do and listen to the Business Leaders here and philanthropist and University Leaders on how we can Work Together to sustain hbc you and the last thing as we are closing out, i want to give another round of applause. She has been adamant about this work. [applause] i remember when i met her and was trying to get a job working for her, was taking long so i was pretty desperate, i dont know if she could tell but spending the time i spend in her office, ive learned a lot and is the hardest ive ever worked but it carries you into the future. She cares deeply and makes sure this money do well so think you for coming to see whoever else and they can continue to support and sustain institutions. Under no if you want to come up and say anything else but you can do whatever you want. You carried the last two panels but let me think all of you not only for being here but all of our panelists and we are looking forward to 24 but i want to acknowledge staff here who worked really hard, my education. I see weve got coffee back there, most of it is gone because we paid for it but let me say how important but let me think all of you again for the investment we continue to make. Those folks know now. Many people, for two reasons we started in the second one was to educate. Often times its because you sit in positions of power it does not mean you know everything. I know some will probably say they do know everything but we dont and sometimes we dont know what we dont know so the last thing was to put together Bipartisan Legislation to help and thats what we decided for the future act and try to do to ignite and continue and its still going and i want you to know we have not given up and we want to take this because these schools need the support and when we talk about all of these things, those things that matter. Infrastructure and facilities are not what they need. Ive served 40 years probably and it was a wonderful opportunity. People ask me today, do you miss teaching . While i miss my students with all the technology, they are still keeping up with me and i tell them i dont miss teaching because i have an opportunity to do that everyday. Im still teaching, it is my retirement. 108 and the timeframe on them. But let me just again thank you. You did a fantastic job. Thank you so very much. And she did learn a lot in my office, margaret franklin. Stand up right there. Shes in politics right now, too. [applause] so i pulled those two ladies back in to help us. Because they started with us. Who is john, thats right. John is getting ready to get married. John. [applause] one of my former chiefs and he started the conference with us as well. Thank you all so much for being here. I understand there are a lot of parties going on tonight to take advantage, we dont have a party tonight. But a lot of my colleagues do come so you find a way to get there. I can get there in my pen. I dont need anything else. Just come in and say, thats what im going to do. [laughing] spec and the election. By the way, we had a luncheon tomorrow. In ballroom b. All will be, our hbcu partnership luncheon. At 12 p. M. 12 00 so please come out and join us and there will be some, the more coffee in there, ill tell you that. [laughing] we are going to do better. Thank you thank you so. God bless you all. 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