Tennessee State Pilots Coronavirus Outreach Program
Tennessee’s flagship historically black institution has launched an academy designed to help residents in Nashville deal with negative health and economic outcomes associated with the COVID-19 global pandemic.
The TSU COVID-19 Academy will serve as a community-based agency connecting individuals and families with resources to secure food access, medical consultation, workforce training and placement, and more.
(Tennessee State President Glenda) Glover says the academy will connect residents with health services, such as telehealth and telemedicine providers, food banks and pantries, as well as employment and educational resources. For its online and certificate learning component, the COVID-19 Academy will conduct webinars on outreach, community gardening and preparedness, workforce development, entrepreneurship and small business development, and continuing education for healthcare individuals.
The Academy will also maintain a strong link with Nashville Nurtures, a food resources partnership between TSU and Mount Zion Baptist Church, under the auspices of the Oprah Winfrey Foundation, to serve the needs of the community.
The Winfrey Foundation recently made a $2 million donation to the Nashville Nurtures organization.
Hampton President, First Lady Donate $100,000 to Students
Hampton University President William R. Harvey and his wife Norma B. Harvey have donated $100,000 to students with financial need stemming from coronavirus pandemic response efforts.
The gift, the latest in a long list of philanthropic support from the Harveys to Hampton faculty, staff and students, matches a gift from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for student assistance. The funds will be distributed to students for travel costs associated with returning to school this fall or to retrieve belongings left on campus when the university closed for the semester.
“The financial impact that the coronavirus pandemic is having on our Hampton students causes me great concern. Mrs. Harvey and I wanted to personally be of help to the students during this unprecedented situation. It is truly important for us to be supportive during the greatest health and economic crisis in our lifetime,” said Harvey.
In 2018, the Harveys surpassed more than $4 million in total giving to the university over 40 years.
Morehouse Announces COVID-19 Budget Cutting Plan
Morehouse College will implement terminations, furloughs and program cuts in an effort to manage lost revenues associated with the coronavirus response.
The cuts will save the campus more than $3.4 million in anticipation of a potential 25 drop in enrollment. Cost-saving measures include pay reductions for all faculty and staff earning more than $55,000 annually, and freezes for merit increases, hiring, most purchasing, and travel.
Morehouse President David Thomas will absorb a 25 percent pay cut.
“This is a pivotal moment for all of higher education,” Thomas said. “Those who can adapt to this new normal will thrive, while those who continue to look backwards will struggle to survive. Since even before the Great Recession, the business model of most higher education institutions has been under pressure by changing student demographics, rising costs, and the many choices technology has provided students on how to learn.”
A smaller-scale budget reduction plan was scuttled last fall to avert a planned faculty walkout, which led to increased financial support. The college continues to seek revenue options to manage more than $5 million in monthly operational costs.
A Brief Note on HBCU Federal Contracts
Part of HBCUs’ ability to survive in the present and future coronavirus era will be their capacity to attract federal contracts. Grants may recede as national and state governments constrict to rebound from the economics of pandemic response, but the country will always need research and development to advance its causes in industry, defense, healthcare, agriculture, and environmental preservation.
Bolstering research will be the next frontier of how higher education saves itself. Before Google, Facebook, and Amazon become the world’s largest federal contractors, colleges and universities need to stake a claim in having the best minds and platforms to assist American innovation.
This means that we have to take an honest look at how contracts are coming to HBCUs, how these funds can be leveraged to help black people and our communities, and what the competition is like. It’s not a pretty picture.
A basic search on USASpending.Gov can show you a full history of funding from the federal government to public and private organizations. It takes some work, but you can also track funding trends for all federally-classified historically black institutions from all agencies dating back to 2008.
Between January 1, 2019 and today, five of the nation’s largest HBCUs secured $1.97 million through 16 federal contracts. Florida A&M University, Howard University, Jackson State University, Morgan State University, and North Carolina A&T State University got work from the Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
In comparison, the University of Mississippi secured eight contracts totaling $1.43 million from the Departments of Defense, Interior, Commerce, and Veterans Affairs.
Five of our most-research intensive HBCUs securing 16 contracts grossed just over $500,000 than Ole Miss, which received exactly half of the number of contract deals.
Not Harvard, not M.I.T. not Johns Hopkins. Ole Miss.
