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The Biden administration understands that there are long-term impacts related to COVID-19, and that HBCUs will need support to weather these impacts. HBCUs are on their radar for long-term support.
Many of the themes in President Biden’s Executive Orders have been in previous Orders. However, an advantage that he has is in his team. He chose people to lead these initiatives who have keen and long-standing knowledge of HBCUs, who have been advocating for them regularly, and who use data and evidence to support the beautiful life experiences of HBCU students when advancing the HBCU agenda.
Realizing that information is power, and that far too many people are ill-informed about HBCUs and their contributions to students and society overall, the Biden administration is committed to “strengthening the capacity to improve the availability, dissemination, and quality of information about HBCUs.” Ensuring that the HBCU story is visible and well known is essential to HBCU sustainability.
The Executive Order is focused on student success and retention – the keys to sustaining HBCUs and moving more African Americans into the middle class. The Biden administration is keenly focused on college affordability, degree attainment, improving infrastructure, and modernizing HBCU campuses.
President Biden’s team built in an evaluation mechanism in the Executive Order so that HBCU leaders and advocates are regularly consulted on the progress made by the Initiative and to hold President Biden accountable for his support of HBCUs.
Dr. Marybeth Gasman is the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education & Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University.
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