**Statement of Ms. Hazel O'Leary**

**President**

**Fisk University**

**Nashville, TN**

Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the importance of Historically
Black Colleges and Universities to the nation. It is my intention that
this conversation yields a better understanding not only of their
historical significance but also of their current contribution to this
nation's process of social mobility.

I believe that Fisk is an excellent example of the triumphs and
opportunities that these institutions experience. Further, I believe
that it will become apparent that the challenges that many HBCUs cannot
always be separated from America's higher educational crisis.

I would like to begin by giving a brief historical perspective of the
storied history of Fisk University.

**I. Fisk's Storied History of Academic Excellence**

Founded mere months after the Civil War, Fisk was Nashville's first
university. Fisk was established by John Ogden, Reverend Erastus Milo
Cravath and Reverend Edward P. Smith and named in honor of General
Clinton B. Fisk of the Tennessee Freedmen\'s Bureau. Fisk opened to
classes on January 9, 1866 with the stated mission of providing a
quality liberal arts education without regard to race. In fact, the
children of many of the northern white instructors who came to teach at
Fisk actually studied alongside African American students at a time when
segregation was not just a social rule, but in many circles, a
biblically sanctioned practice.

Many know about the world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers. They started as a
group of students who traveled to earn enough money to provide food and
other critical support for the financially challenged school. The
Singers rasied enough money over the course of six years to build the
first permanent structure in the country built for the education of
newly freed slaves. They succeeded and funded construction of the
renowned Jubilee Hall; the first permanent structure in America built
specifically for educating African Americans.

During their performance for Queen Victoria in 1873, it was she who
remarked that these fine young people surely must have come from a
musical city. Hence, Nashville, Tennessee has prided itself in being
promoted as Music City, U.S.A.

Our 42 acre campus is a National Historic Landmark and is on the
National Registry of Historic Places and has been a living and learning
environment of countless thousands of students, faculty, and
administrators, some of whom are in the U.S. Senate and legislative
bodies throughout the nation today.

\* W.E.B. DuBois, sociologist, scholar, first African-American to earn a
Ph.D. from Harvard; Founder of NAACP

\* Dr. Bradley Sheares -- CEO of Reliant Pharmaceuticals, formerly
president of the U.S. Human Health division of Merck & Co., Inc., where
he had commercial responsibility for the company\'s portfolio of
prescription medicines for the treatment of chronic and acute diseases
in the United States.

\* St. Elmo Brady, first African-American to earn a doctorate in
chemistry.

\* Elmer Imes, 1st African American to receive PhD in physics

\* Joyce Bolden, first African-American woman to serve on the Commission
for Accreditation of the National Association of Schools of Music

\* John Lewis, politician, civil rights activist, former President of
SNCC

\* Percy Lavon Julian, first African-American chemist and second
African-American from any field to become a member of the National
Academy of Sciences.

\* Cora Brown, first African-American woman to be elected to a state
senate

\* Johnnetta Cole, anthropologist, former President of Spelman College
and Bennett College

\* John Hope Franklin, historian, professor, scholar, author of landmark
text, From Slavery to Freedom, graduate of the class of 1935

\* Nikki Giovanni, poet, author, professor, scholar

\* Alcee Hastings, U.S. Congressman and former U.S. district court judge

\* James Weldon Johnson, author, poet and civil rights activist, author
of the \"Negro National Anthem\" \"Lift Ev\'ry Voice and Sing\"

\*Alma Powell, wife of Gen. Colin Powell

\* Kay George Roberts, orchestral conductor

\* Martha Lynn Sherrod, Presiding District Court Judge, first African
American to win an at-large election in North Alabama since
Reconstruction

\* Matthew Knowles, President and CEO of Music World Entertainment and
manager of Beyoncé Knowles, his daughter

It was at Fisk that these, and many others who remain lesser-known
contributors to American life and culture and beneficiaries of the
social mobility earned, and continue to earn, by receiving a Fisk
education.

While Fisk is known for producing some of the most thoughtful and
globally engaged persons in the 19th and 20th Centuries, its 21st
Century legacy has been and will be the matriculation and education of
students who, at least statistically, are not expected to earn a college
degree. The image of Fisk as a bastion of black middle class elitism has
certainly given way to a talented and academically accomplished student
body of which 91% must receive some form of financial aid in order to
afford college.

In 1951, Fisk became the first HBCU to induct members into the
prestigious Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. We continue that legacy each
year by adding to the membership ranks of that very prestigious liberal
arts society.

It was a young civil rights organizer named Diane Nash who on May 10,
1960, having led a group of students from Fisk's campus to the Nashville
mayor's office to confront him about a segregated downtown who employed
the Socratic method learned in her courses at Fisk to get him to admit
that segregation was not only harmful but morally wrong.

It was John Lewis who, while a student at Fisk and American Baptist
College in Nashville, protested the segregated conditions of Nashville.
John participated in the Freedom Rides to desegregate the South, and was
a national leader in the struggle for civil rights. He became nationally
known after his prominent role on the Selma to Montgomery marches, when
police beat the nonviolently marching Lewis mercilessly in public,
leaving wounds that are still visible today.

As well as being the incubator for many world changers with name
recognition, equally important are the many unnamed teachers, business
professionals, lawyers, scientists, and community leaders who claim
proudly their participation in the Fisk experience. Among many other
notable firsts, in 1952 Fisk University was the first historically black
college or university to induct students into a chapter of Phi Beta
Kappa Honor Society.

**II. The Turning Point -- Impact and Opportunity**

In spite of having roots in northern philanthropy, Fisk's fortunes have
paralleled the health of the overall economy as well as the funding
environment experienced by many small liberal arts colleges and
universities.

In addition to those economic variables, the social and demographic
changes of the last half-century have also had an impact on our mission
and have caused some public policy practitioners and potential donors to
question the necessity of the HBCU.

In spite of increased competition from better-capitalized majority
institutions, the fact remains that historically black colleges and
universities account for 3 percent of the numbers of schools in this
country but produce twenty-four percent of the African American college
graduates in the United States.

Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat presents the thesis that an
increasingly developed world with rising standards of living across the
globe means increased competition for limited resources on an
unprecedented scale. It is for that very reason that our schools must
get it right. This country needs all hands on deck if we are to prosper
in the coming decades. The challenges are so great and the need for
ethical leadership so intense that to leave any individual without
opportunity is to threaten the security and progress of us all.

**III. Reinventing a Historical Educational Institution with a Racial
Designation**

The designation of "historically black" frequently prompts some to
question the social necessity of our schools. The key for Fisk's success
is the assembly of two-way partnerships with public and private sector
organizations. Fisk has employed this strategy in educating tomorrow's
scientists.

According to a study conducted by the National Science Foundation, Fisk
University, with a student population of under a thousand, graduates
more African Americans who go on to earn the PhD in the natural sciences
than any school in the nation, in spite of having a student body of
fewer than 1,000 students. Our committed faculty, which includes a
two-time R&D 100 Award winning physicist and winner of the Room
Temperature Semiconductor Award has the flexibility to focus on the
needs of individual students.

An important tool in our excellence in the sciences is the Center of
Excellence in Physics and Chemistry of Materials (CPCoM) supported by
the National Science Foundation and a second center of excellence is
supported by the Department of Defense called the Center for Optical
Logic Devices (COLD). It is through those centers that our masters to
doctorate bridge programs in physics, biology and nursing find support
and have continued and productive connections to graduate programs and
research resources across the nation.

What is critical to our success in this effort are the ongoing
relationships between government agencies and partner universities.
Those relationships provide Fisk with financial and programmatic support
that ensures robust and relevant academic programs in the areas of law,
medicine, and other disciplines. Those universities span the country and
include Howard University, Meharry Medical College, Vanderbilt
University, Case Western Reserve University, Belmont University, and
others.

In December of 2007, Fisk received a challenge grant from the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation that could bring a total of \$7 million to the
University by June 30, 2008. As we continue to raise the funds to meet
that challenge, the University is also involved in what we have termed a
re-alignment. That effort has as its goal the rebalancing of Fisk's core
operations with its resources, in short, to build a Fisk with a smaller
footprint with a taller steeple.

We started a ground-up analysis of all academic and administrative
programs in the late fall. At the end of that process what will result
is a business model that enhances Fisk's strengths, eliminates poorly
performing areas and consolidates increased resources into programs that
are viable but in need of increased investment.

**IV. Financial Challenges**

As I mentioned earlier, 91% of Fisk students receive some sort of
financial aid. With competition from well-funded majority institutions
Fisk has had to work harder to provide institutional scholarships and
aid for top students.

This is where one of the key differences in a school like Fisk and a
majority institution is most visible. We have demonstrated time and
again that if we can admit and support a student in his or her first
year there is a 86% chance that we will retain them for further study
and graduation.

Conversely, many majority institutions, while they have less difficulty
financing minority students, with few exceptions, they consistently have
difficulty in retaining them from their first year to second and an even
more difficulty graduating them.

A key initiative in which Fisk is currently engaged is the development
of an endowed scholarship fund of which the corpus will generate funds
to be used to attract academically talented students to Fisk. This year,
Fisk's entering class had an average GPA of 3.32 and an ACT score of
22.5.

**V. The Pathway Forward:**

As one of the nation's flagship historically black universities Fisk has
tremendous outcomes relative to its resources. The scientific, social,
and cultural impact that a university should have through the creation
of new knowledge is a critical part of what we work hard to improve
every day.

Funds from all sources, especially Title III and IV funds are sometimes
the difference between possibility and impossibility for a number of
Fisk University student oriented initiatives as well as research
projects.

Title IV funds for Pell Grants are critical portions of Fisk's student's
financial aid packages.

The use of Title III to encourage endowment growth is a key strategy to
increase the endowment size and thus self-sufficiency of our schools.

Fisk receives grants from the following agencies:

· HUD provides community-based initiatives on campus.

\* Interior Park Service funds help us to restore our historic
buildings.

\* Justice Department grants to enhance campus security.

\* Department of Energy provides Fisk with research funding for the
development of

radiation detection equipment.

\* National Science Foundation grants supports both undergraduate and
graduate students engaged in material science research

\* Space science related research is supported by NASA, including
collaborations with NASA centers.

\* Department of Defense supporting cutting edge research in optical
sciences in collaboration with Idaho State University.