Or cspan 2. This is a great day to have a conversation about Higher Education and typically the role of black universities and colleges in it. In 1997 i had an opportunity to work on educational project with dr. Samuel dewitt proctor. Many of you know him as president of north carolina. Some of you know him as president of university. He spent time in washington, d. C. As a kennedy appointee to the peace corps but a number of you know him as pastor of an stenian church. We had an opportunity to sit in a lovely room similar to this with a donor its a donor who owns a large and Famous Family sfwrags. The head of that walked into the rooms. We exchanged niceties. She said can i ask you one question . He said yes. Is there a need for black colleges today . And dr. Proctor leaned back in his chair, having heard this question for his life. The question not whether there is a need for h fwrvegs cus today. The question is where would america be today without the hbcus. She nodded. He returned the nod and the conversation began. It impacted me. I was in my late 20s then. For two particular reasons. Number one it shows that 142 years after the conclusion of the civil war, the question about black Higher Education, hcbus and franklist question of black people in the American Social order was still on the table for conversation. Number two, the conversation was about hbcus but it was also about the importance of american Higher Education and its imprint not just domestically but on foreign policy, on foreign economic systems and on foreign government, a role these institutions play. Fast forward to may 2017 and were having a conversation today about hcbus and the road ahead. Why is that important . For 150 years theyve been part of the American Educational landscape. They have challenges in the regulatory scheme as well as as finance and other things. Maybe who are low income, students of color but frankly all students from different races, backgrounds and kreeds. Theres a special unique role that they play in American Education and typically our lawmakers should keep that in mind. While weve seen some great things from our snugs, the large number of people who go on to earn ph. D. S, including the sciences and those who become schoolteachers. There are a number of challenges as well. We had the closure of st. Paul college in my state of virginia. Ef with a number of schools that are on the brink of bankruptcy, and a number of our students are leaving colleges saddled with debt. This is about particularly the role of hcbus in it. We have four people very well verse well rersed in this subject. The hashtag for this event is future state of hcbus or futue state of hrvegs cbus. Number two were going to have four speakers. Theyre going to come up here one at a time and provide an overview and remarks for about ten minutes. After the conclusion of the last speaker, well make our way over here for a dialogue. Well talk for about 20 or 25 minutes and then well open it up for an audience with q a. Im going to invite our first speaker, dr. Michael low max is the president of the United Negro College fund. He residents 37 private hcbus in the united states. Hes looking over this issue as a graduate of morehouse college, formerant of Dillard University and since i see hes ready to get up here ill invite him to the electric turn. Thank you very much gerard. I want to thank you for your leadership in bringing this, i think, very important conversation to the American Enterprise institute. I live in the neighborhood. So im also going to welcome you. Ive watched this renovation occur and said when are they going to invite me inside. Glad to be here. You know, i think we often do talk about hcbus looking in a rearview mirror. Its very important now to take this occasion to talk about the road ahead. To talk about the future, to talk about innovation, to talk about change, and at uncf we recognize the importance of institutional change. To build institutional capacity, we understand that Higher Education is right now at a cross roads where institutions need to be to reorient the Business Model to be more student ready. Unc has been providing scholarships to students for nearly 75 years now. We award about a hundred Million Dollars of similarships yunlly to our students. We have assisted nearly half a Million Students earn college degrees. During that period we have witnessed a significant shift in student demographics and expectations. Todays students are radically different from those of yesteryear. Todays students grew up with a world at their fingertips. In 140 characters orless, Technology Connects this generation a way i could not have imagined back in the dark ages of my youth. So technology is moving at a pace significantly faster than Higher Education. Underscore faster pace than meyer education, requiring most institution, not just hbcu to understand what it means to teach and learn and very importantly prepare students for careers in the 21st Century Work Force where Education Matters more than ever before. By 2025, 65 of all new jobs will require post secondary training. Within the Fastest Growing fields, stem and health care, 92 and 95 respectively of all new jobs will require post secondary training, credentials. Today the pipeline of graduates to fill these jobs across all demographics is insufficient. And for africanamerican students, these concerns are more acute as they are significantly underrepresented in the requisite majors such as computer sooinsz and engineering and there is still a penalty for being black. This is my visual. Im not going to talk much about it. I want you to know i have a visual. This is why we and im trying to be energetic are excited with a longterm supporter of event we are working with a long time supporter to assist 24 Higher Education institutions, including 23 historically black colleges and universities and one predominantly black institution as they seek to ensure our institutions are graduating students that are ready to survive and thrive in the 21st century workplace. They are were doing that with a 50 Million Dollars grant from lilly, an investment in forward thinking and innovation. Other institutions are our institutions are pursuing a threepronged approach to improving outcomes for their respective institutions. Im just going to im going to go over those quickly. You want more detail go to our website or ask a question. The first thing were doing is were trying to change that four year, five year, sixyear experience, which wed like to have as a fouryear experience from being opaque for the student to being transparent. From being sort of all over the opportunity landscape to being more narrowly focused and we call that creating intentional guided pathways for students, and in order to create those intentional transparent guided path ways for student, were going to have to take on some of those sacred cows on the institutional campus and gerard noted im a former president. Im a former faculty member as well. I can tell you the hardest thing to do is to change curriculum. But for students who are spending an awful lot of money to get an education and all too often not finding Employment Outcomes at the end of the rainbow, we cant keep doing what we are doing. We have to do things differently. It has to begin by building foundational tenants not just of a liberal education but reimagining content and its delivery to ensure what were teaching in the class room is applicable outside the class room, that it leads to not just a degree but meaningful employment and two careers. And finally, we are increasing expectations to ensure students have the necessary experience al opportunities as well. Through integrated cocurricular engagement. And i will tell you that internships are not nice to have anymore. Internships are absolutely essential. Employers are looking earlier and more often and more carefully at talent. They want to see how that talent translates what ive learned in the classroom to what i learn in the work mace, and we see that particularly in the technology, but they are just leaders in this. We all have to be fast followers. While the primary outcome of this work is gaflt employment for our graduates, we also seek to improve outcomes along the way, focussing on improving overall retention rates, graduation rates, and very important, time to degree. Six years is too long and too expensive. Five years is too long and too expensive and the shorter we can make this, the least the less expensive we can make it and the more efficient we can make it, the better for our students. Some institutions are even creating stackable credentials, where if students need to stop out before chair completion of the bachelor degree they will at least have a certification that they can be meaningfully employed and returned. People will going in and out of Higher Education and not going immediately to degree attainment. The success of this initiative is not just determined by the outcomes of the 55,000 students the cpi Career PathwaysInitiative Institutions sever annually. For the success almost means we document what we are learning and share that information to ensure that other education institutions can learn from the innovate active models that we set north by our cohort institutions to do that, uncf partners with institutions we providing them with the necessary technical institutions to improve their capacity to execute this work and by document what we are learning, academic models that lead to outcomes we seek. The work knees institutions are endeavoring to do now will be critical to the success of the future. I look forward to discussing the details of this more fully with you, but just remember as we think about this. The investment that these young people are making him and not so young people are making in their educations in terms of time and cost are significant. Today, the outcomes dont always warrant that investment. Africanamerican, unemployment for college, black college graduates, not just historically black colleges but for all graduates is double that of their peers. Underemployment is at a staggering 50 . We have to keep faith with the expectations of these students by delivering to them not just the transformational elements of a liberal Arts Education but also the real and practical returns of career and employment. I look forward to discussing this innovative work that were doing with you this morning. Thank you. [ applause ] our next speaker is leslie bass kerrville who is the president and ceo of naofoahe. She has the unique role to work with predominantly with hbcus but also predominantly black institutions. She had a long career in the legal professor having worked for the ncaa and a few other organizes, including also having served as an appeals administrative nudge in the District Of Columbia and a leadership position with the board here in washington, d. C. Wed like to bring her to the lectern and lets welcome her. [ applause ] thank you so very much, gerard and to aei, to all of the colleagues here, thank you so much for choosing to be here. I see representatives from the white house and i need to call out jer . On smith whos in the office of white house policy. Thank you for being here. I feel the presence of amma rosa man galt, the director of communications whose voice along with that of jerron schmitz has kept the hbcu community on the mind of this administration and i believe has something to do with the fact that were here today. Its the nations only National Membership association of the 1306 historically black colleges and now the 80 predominantly black institutions. Our position is to provide voice to this richly Diverse Community of colleges and to connect all of the colleges with opportunities to enhance their infrastructure and to better serve their goals. Its the table at which this diverse and sometime Divergent Group of president s and chancellors come together and they suppress their slid goals for the goals of the whole. For the whole of the community. Its been my privilege to serve with not with nafeo first, for 20 years as outside counsel litigating in states request historically public black colleges and historically public white colleges. We represent this community in judicial fora before congress and in state legislatures and administrative bodies and it is my humble privilege to serve at this helm and to move this community forward. It is from that vantage that i believe that in order for us to move the community forward, in order for us to take full advantage of the types of opportunities that michael low mac pointed out and those that are on the horizon, in order for us to get the types of supports that we need to move our community forward, the first thing we have to do is change the narrative. We have to change the narrative so that when youre defining this richly diverse kmient of colleges, we do not accept the designation of these colleges as colleges for educating low income first generation students. They do 23469 do that and our students are disproportionately low. Their mission must be the execution of the progeny of the american slave system or africanamericans, but these institutions are richly diverse. We have ten institutions that are research intensive. Theyre grauting 42 of africanamericans that go on to get advanced degrees in the sciences, technology, engineering and math maddics. We have four medical schools and large numbers of dental schools and Public Health schools. These institutions are graduating 60 of africanamericans in health professionals, and so the first step to moving on and the first step to being heard and received as the innovators that they are is to change the narrative. I was at a meeting with the place saturday Leonard Haynes and someone referenced a book small change and it talked about the history of involvement and investments in hbcus and the reality is that as long as we define ourselves as small and underfunded and failing and four first generation low income, people will not be inspired and will not invest in us. The narrative is and the reality is the data suggests that while we do that and we do an outstanding job and many of our institutions will continue to to that we are diverse. America cannot realize any of its goals for excellence and diversity in the work force for justice, for leadership at the helms of the multinational corporations without thriving diverse hbcus across the gamut. So the first step is changing the narrative. Hbcus are a 13 billion short term business, thats important. If people think that were coming understand hand when members of Congress Call me they say we wane to come and talk about how we can help you. And i say im delighted to come and talk to you about how we can help you, because if you need to shore up the infrastructure in america, you cannot do that and have an excellent and diverse work force without my institutions. If you want a thriving richly diverse teacher corps and principle corps, dr. Sanders, you cant do that without hbcus because theyre graduating today 50 of africanamerican public schoolteachers. And so the dialogue goes on but the reality is this is the time for hbcus to tell the narrative about our return on investment. So, for example, the question came up about hbcu Capital Financing program that is central to hcbus having new class rooms, new laboratories, Strong Infrastructures and the question was raised about whether or not these sniegss need to be reviewed because they are a suspect category because theyre for hcbus. Those of you in this room and others who are listening need to be able to tell the story. Hcbus are mission based. They are not race or ethnicity based. We have hcbus that are 30 diverse faculty. Sometimes as much as 40 diverse faculties. We have hcbu which are predom understandly black. Educating of black students but have been open to all. Theyre actually doing a better job than many other groups, so we have to tell that story, too. And the reality is, without the race base, race, or ethnicity basis, et al. , were not a suspect category. In order to get new programs and to sustain them, we have to show that there is a reasonable basis and we put before congress, we put before administrative bodies and others at every opportunity we get. The strong compelling basis and with regard to the hbcu Capital Financing programming, the data show. Theres a recent duke study that it still costs hbcus more to get into the bond market and it costs hrvegs cbus more to sell bonds and as long as that disparity continues, there will be a need for the Capital Finance program. Another data point i want you to be able to tell so that we can get to the specific programs that you heard about and some others youll hear in the discussion is that the endowment of hbcus are this is because the country and philanthropists and others have not invested in hbcus zmens rat with their output. We have to make sure that when they invest they see the return is actually higher than others. So with that as a background, were doing a number of things. Ill talk specifically about some of the policy things that were doing but i want to share with you hbcu fund. Hbcu Endowment Fund and as we continue to get the public to invest in our institutions as the best return on the Higher Education dollar, we also want to get the africanamerican extended family but a broad swath of americans to invest in hbcus to help move our endowments forward. So were launching a social Marketi