Minority-Serving Institutions

of Higher Education

Developing

Partnerships

To Revitalize

Communities

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSIN

G

AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Minority-Serving

Institutions

of Higher Education

Developing Partnerships

To Revitalize Communities

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Office of Policy Development and Research

Office of University Partnerships

January 2003
FOREWORD

In the early 1980s, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development began to focus attention on the

important but sometimes overlooked local accomplishments of colleges and universities that primarily serve minority students. Not only were these institutions of higher education committed to helping African-American, Hispanic,

and Native American students reach their full potential, many of them also were involved in stabilizing and improving nearby neighborhoods.

Over the past two decades HUD has focused more attention and directed more assistance to Historically Black

Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions,Tribal Colleges, and Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian

Institutions.We have encouraged these respected schools of higher education to work as partners with their

neighboring communities and empowered them with Federal funds and programs that could attract additional

resources.The result has been a significant increase in neighborhoods that have gone from distressed to desirable

and a marked increase in the number of minority students who choose careers in urban affairs.

Today, HUD’s Office of University Partnerships (OUP) works with scores of schools and hundreds of their initiatives throughout the Nation.With four separate grant programs, OUP gives minority-serving institutions the financial tools and technical assistance they need to help people and places. Our new report on HUD’s grant programs

for minority-serving institutions is filled with examples of the creativity and zeal these grantees display.

Across the country, these schools of higher education are working with community partners to improve neighborhood infrastructure, assist and encourage new businesses, provide job training for the unemployed and underemployed, offer important social and supportive services, guide young people toward brighter futures, and introduce

communities to the new technologies that will help them compete in today’s fast-moving economy.

They also give these communities new hope—not only by helping to solve local housing and development problems but by helping to preserve the cultural heritage that keeps minority communities vibrant, strong, and resilient.

They are valued educational partners with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.We are

proud to assist them in all of their endeavors, from community empowerment to educating a new generation of

Americans to be the best and the brightest in our Nation’s history.

Mel Martinez

Secretary

U.S. Department of Housing 

and Urban Development

Foreword
Contents CONTENTS

Chapter 1: About This Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Challenged Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Unique and Powerful University Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Enlightened Self-Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

HUD’s Role as Facilitator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Chapter 2: Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Historically Black Colleges and Universities Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Hispanic-Serving Institutions Assisting Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Programs Serving Native Americans, Alaskans, and Hawaiians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Program Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Chapter 3: Action Plans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Neighborhood Revitalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Business Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Job Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Social and Supportive Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Youth Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Technology Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Map: Office of University Partnerships Grantees, 1994–2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

OUP List of Grantees, 1994–2002. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Report CHAPTER 1: 

ABOUT THIS REPORT

I

n summer 2000, the Office of University Partnerships (OUP) at the 

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released

Colleges and Communities: Gateway to the American Dream. The report

presented an overview of the Community Outreach Partnership Centers

(COPC) program, which was established in 1994 to help institutions of

higher education (IHEs) work together with community partners to revitalize distressed communities. More than 140 colleges and universities have

participated in the program thus far, establishing long-term partnerships that

are improving the quality of life in urban neighborhoods throughout the

country.With their significant physical, economic, political, technical, and intellectual assets, universities and colleges clearly are well suited to this work.

Now, in 2002, this new OUP report brings attention to other campuscommunity partnerships established by HUD.These partnerships between

minority-serving institutions and their communities typically take place in

small cities such as Modesto, California, and in rural areas such as Lawton,

Oklahoma. In recent years, these areas have become home to large minority

populations.The partnerships are spearheaded by smaller schools, many of

them community and technical colleges. Despite their small size and limited

budgets, these colleges and universities wield considerable power in their

communities.That power is rooted in the institutions’ long history of involvement in local neighborhoods, where they have been working for decades to

solve chronic problems and to preserve the cultures that typically bind ethnic groups together and give them their strength.

In this report, HUD celebrates the accomplishments of the minorityserving institutions that participate in four HUD grant programs:

■ The Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) program.

■ The Hispanic-Serving Institutions Assisting Communities (HSIAC) 

program.

■ The Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP).

■ The Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian Institutions Assisting Communities

(AN/NHIAC) program.
Challenged Communities 

Minority-serving institutions can be found in both rural and urban communities, many of which are struggling to adapt to a changing world. Both

types of communities have been affected to varying degrees by shifts in

demographic trends, economic structures, land-use patterns, social forces,

government policies, and funding patterns. In many cases these shifts—

especially the continuing suburbanization of both business and agricultural

centers—have helped concentrate and isolate poverty-stricken populations

in communities characterized by physical, social, and economic losses.These

communities face numerous and complex issues, including how to:

■ Provide adequate education for their children.

■ Offer adequate and affordable healthcare to young and old alike.

■ Prepare residents for better-paying jobs.

■ Build affordable housing.

■ Reduce crime and other social dysfunction.

■ Enhance residents’ cultural life.

These challenges can be daunting, but distressed communities are confronting them head-on by forming strong coalitions that include community

leaders, politicians, nonprofit organizations, private corporations, foundations,

and IHEs. Minority-serving colleges and universities play a unique and vital

role in these coalitions.

Unique and Powerful University Resources 

Minority-serving colleges and universities can provide significant, and

often untapped, resources that hold enormous value for communities.

Education is their most obvious resource. As multidisciplinary educational

institutions, minority-serving institutions serve as repositories of knowledge

and centers of research, original thinking, and innovative ideas. Faculty members and students can offer their neighbors talent, expertise, and problemsolving skills that are relevant to many facets of community life. Schools also

can bring knowledge of various disciplines, including healthcare, education,

economics, sociology, environmental management, business, information

technology, architecture, urban design, administration of justice, and urban

planning, to bear on local issues. Specifically, minority-serving institutions can

help local communities:

Minority-serving

institutions can be

found in both rural

and urban communities, many of

which are struggling to adapt to a

changing world.

Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

2
■ Shape their physical character. For example, architecture and planning

programs work with local community development corporations and

community-based organizations to revitalize distressed neighborhoods.

Business schools lend their expertise to neighborhood entrepreneurs,

helping them breathe new life into abandoned commercial and retail

districts.

■ Shore up their economies. Colleges and universities typically are the

largest employers in their communities.They also regularly purchase

large amounts of goods and services from local businesses. Faculty, staff,

and students generate demand for housing near the university and

spend money in local retail establishments. In addition, minority-serving

institutions lend credibility and visibility to local projects and help communities leverage additional resources to fund community efforts.

■ Celebrate local culture. Minority-serving institutions help communities plan

cultural events and celebrations, give area residents an opportunity to

participate in fine and performing arts classes and performances, and

help to preserve the best in local culture, history, and traditions.

Enlightened Self-Interest 

By helping communities address critical needs, minority-serving institutions are also furthering their own missions. Educators and students who

work on community projects learn valuable lessons from the practical application of ideas and, more important, from residents who have an intimate

understanding of neighborhood challenges.These community-based experiences offer faculty and students insights into the nature of urban problems

and public policies.This work also leads some students to make a long-term

commitment to community work.

On a more pragmatic level, neighborhood revitalization often means the

institution’s revitalization. Minority-serving institutions are learning that they

and their neighbors have common interests and concerns best addressed

when a good working relationship exists between them. Concerns that affect

both campus and community, such as crime and safety, are better addressed

cooperatively.Working together creates a common bond as well as a 

common front.

HUD’s Role as Facilitator 

HUD created OUP in 1994 because it recognized that local problems are

best solved at the local level through partnerships that engage all stakeholders.

About This Report

3
During the past 8 years, HUD’s support has helped OUP grantees and their

partners leverage millions of non-Federal dollars, create innovative models

for community revitalization, and institutionalize campus-community relationships that will continue to develop and mature. OUP grant programs provide a support system and a framework that motivates minority-serving

institutions and their communities to solve problems in their own ways. As 

a result, OUP grantees are adapting their missions, curriculum, and faculty

rewards to reflect the maturing partnerships and community activities that

they are nurturing.

The following chapters illustrate how community partnerships have

become a way of life at minority-serving colleges and universities nationwide. Chapter 2 describes in more detail how the grant programs for

minority-serving institutions are organized and whom they serve. Chapter 

3 offers a glimpse of the kind of work that 26 grantees and their community

partners are carrying out to revitalize their neighborhoods, assist businesses,

bridge the digital divide, and provide social and supportive services and 

programs that help residents create a healthier present and ensure a

brighter future.

Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

4
Programs CHAPTER 2:

PROGRAMS

I

nstitutions of higher education (IHEs) that serve minority populations

are unique both in their missions and in their day-to-day operations.

Some of these colleges and universities are located in remote regions of

the country, whereas others serve congested urban neighborhoods.Their

constituents range from Native Americans, the country’s oldest residents, to

Hispanic Americans, who count themselves among its most recent arrivals.

Some minority-serving institutions are only a few decades old, whereas others, particularly the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs),

have been striving for more than a century to give their constituents the

social and educational skills needed to overcome racial discrimination and

limited economic opportunities.

Through executive orders and special legislation enacted over the past

20 years, the Federal Government has helped focus national attention on

the challenges facing minority-serving institutions.These special initiatives

have let minority-serving institutions access Federal funds and leverage other

resources on behalf of their students and communities.The OUP grant programs are a direct result of this national attention.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Program

The first of what were to become the HBCUs was established in

Pennsylvania in 1837 to provide education for freed slaves who had made

their way north. Like many of the other early schools that became HBCUs,

the Institute for Colored Youth at Cheyney University in Philadelphia 

offered only elementary and high school instruction, because most African

Americans of the day were not ready for college-level courses.

Over the past 165 years, these schools became reliable sources of quality higher education for both black and white Americans.They also became

strong partners in their communities.Today, approximately 106 HBCUs are

located in 20 States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S.Virgin Islands.

These institutions include accredited 2- and 4-year colleges and universities

as well as graduate and professional schools.
Committed to helping African Americans gain equal educational opportunity, the HBCUs have longstanding historical ties to their communities.

In addition to offering a host of degree and nondegree programs that help

their students improve themselves, HBCUs also have taken aggressive steps

to improve their neighborhoods and help local residents improve their lives.

Typically, the communities that HBCUs call home served as centers for

African-American business and culture for many decades until commercial

declines brought with them urban blight, increased crime, and drug-related

problems.

HBCU efforts to revitalize these neighborhoods often have included the

establishment of community development corporations that have taken on

the responsibility of building decent and affordable housing, improving neighborhood aesthetics, and attracting commercial enterprises to previously

underserved communities. HBCUs are also actively involved in job training

and educational programs that provide both children and adults with a good

foundation on which to build future opportunities.

Many HBCU-initiated community development activities are carried out

with Federal funds.These funds became available in 1980, when President

Jimmy Carter signed Executive Order 12232 establishing a Federal program 

“to overcome the effects of discriminatory treatment and to strengthen and

expand the capacity of historically black colleges and universities to provide

quality education.” Similar executive orders were later issued by President

Ronald Reagan (Executive Order 12320), President George H. Bush (Executive

Order 12677), and President Bill Clinton (Executive Order 12876).Thirty

Federal agencies, including HUD, participate in the most recent Executive 

order, under which HUD’s HBCU program was established.

Hispanic-Serving Institutions Assisting

Communities

Like HBCUs, Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) play a critical role in

educating members of ethnic communities throughout the United States.

The White House includes 203 IHEs on its list of HSIs.

The U.S. Congress formally recognized campuses with high Hispanic

enrollment in 1992.This legislation made HSIs eligible to receive targeted

Federal appropriations, including OUP funds.To qualify for these appropriations, HSIs must be accredited and degree-granting public or private nonprofit institutions with at least 25 percent or more full-time undergraduate

Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

6

Through executive

orders and special

legislation enacted

over the past 20

years, the Federal

Government has

helped focus

national attention

on the challenges

facing minorityserving institutions.
Hispanic students. In addition, at least one-half of a college or university’s

Hispanic population must be considered to be low-income.

As might be expected, poverty is a major issue faced by HUD grantees

as they work with their partners to improve local Hispanic communities.

In the urban areas of the northeast and west, poverty often results from a

severe lack of employment opportunities, especially in highly industrial areas

where Hispanic immigrants once flocked for good jobs. For example, in cities

such as Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, declining

industrial economies have resulted in fewer jobs that pay well for Hispanic

individuals who have low educational levels. In contrast, throughout California

and other agricultural areas, a dependence on seasonal agriculture work

forces many Hispanic laborers to spend a portion of each year unemployed.

Hispanic-Serving Institutions Assisting Communities (HSIAC) grantees

have been working aggressively with their local partners to offer new economic opportunities to their Hispanic constituents. Many grantees help local

residents establish businesses that capitalize on professional occupations they

pursued before coming to the United States. Others try to give Hispanic

Americans the skills they need to move beyond low-level, service-sector jobs.

No matter what their particular focus, all grantees begin their efforts with

education, teaching their constituents business, job-training, and language skills

so they can participate fully in the mainstream American economy.

Programs Serving Native Americans, Alaskans, 

and Hawaiians

Serving America’s native populations—whether they live in the West,

Alaska, or Hawaii—is the priority of two OUP programs.

As its name implies, the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program

(TCUP) assists IHEs located in some of the most remote regions of the

continental United States. Although the Native Americans served by these

IHEs come from tribes that existed before the United States did, most tribal

colleges are fairly new.The majority were established in the past 25 years by

tribal leaders troubled about what they perceived as a lack of educational

opportunities for their young members.

The first tribal colleges were established in the late 1970s in a remote

reservation community of the Navajo nation. More than two decades later, a

1996 Executive order ensured that all tribal colleges would have full access

Programs

7
to the Federal programs that benefit other IHEs.Thirty Federal departments

and agencies, including HUD, participate in this Executive order.

Active engagement in community life has always come naturally to tribal

colleges, because their constituents depend heavily on college-sponsored

programs that include basic education, counseling services, and economic

development initiatives. High unemployment, poverty, and low educational

attainment characterize the residents of the reservations that most of the

31 tribal colleges serve.

The Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian Institutions Assisting Communities

(AN/NHIAC) program assists colleges and universities that serve the native

populations in the Nation’s 49th and 50th States. At least 20 percent of the

undergraduates at an Alaskan college or university must be natives for the

school to qualify for this program. Native Hawaiians must make up at least

10 percent of the enrollment of the Hawaiian colleges and universities participating in this grant program.

The “neighborhoods” served by Alaska Native and Native Hawaiianserving institutions are very different from the multiblock areas that innercity IHEs call home. In Alaska, a college’s target area may be measured in

thousands of square miles, whereas in Hawaii, a college’s neighbors may live

on another island accessible only by ferry or airplane.This geographic isolation often contributes to the issues of unemployment, low educational

advancement, and economic development that AN/NHIAC grantees face.

Isolation also makes solving these problems more challenging.

Using their unique understanding of native cultures, AN/NHIAC grantees

have been able to find creative ways to revitalize their target areas. By carefully blending modern communication and educational methods with a

respect for native languages and traditions, these grantees help their constituents move forward while ensuring that they do not forget the valued

places from which they have come.

Program Structure 

The OUP grant programs featured in this report expand the effectiveness of minority-serving institutions by addressing community development

needs such as neighborhood revitalization, housing, and economic development. Activities must meet both a Community Development Block Grant

(CDBG) program national objective and CDBG eligibility requirements.

Programs must benefit low- or moderate-income individuals, aid in the

The OUP grant 

programs featured

in this report 

expand the 

effectiveness of

minority-serving

institutions by

addressing community development

needs such as

neighborhood revitalization, housing,

and economic

development.

Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

8
prevention of slums or blight, or meet other community development

needs.These needs also must have a particular urgency either because they

pose a threat to the health and welfare of the community or because other

financial resources are not available to address them.

Examples of activities that minority-serving institutions can carry out

with HBCU, HSIAC,TCUP, or AN/NHIAC funds include:

■ Acquiring property.

■ Clearing lots and demolishing rundown buildings.

■ Rehabilitating residential structures.

■ Acquiring, constructing, rehabilitating, or installing public facilities and

improvements such as streets and water and sewer lines.

■ Assisting with the temporary relocation of individuals, families,

businesses, nonprofit organizations, and farm operations.

■ Providing direct homeownership assistance.

■ Providing technical or financial assistance to establish, stabilize, or expand

microenterprises, including minority enterprises.

■ Helping community development organizations carry out neighborhood

revitalization.

■ Providing public service activities, including those concerned with

employment, crime prevention, childcare, healthcare, drug abuse,

education, fair housing counseling, energy conservation, homebuyer

downpayment assistance, and recreational needs.

■ Offering fair housing services designed to further the fair housing 

objectives of the Fair Housing Act.

Programs

9
Action

CHAPTER 3: 

ACTION PLANS

Campus-community partnership activities vary widely, but they are

always part of larger, more comprehensive, and sustained community revitalization efforts. Project designs are often customized to

address a neighborhood’s unique assets and challenges and are carried out

in collaboration with community stakeholders who work together to assess

and prioritize local problems, work toward solutions, and take full advantage

of local opportunities.

This chapter takes a closer look at the specific activities that 26 OUP

grantees are carrying out in their neighborhoods.These activities fall into six

major categories:

■ Neighborhood revitalization.

■ Business assistance.

■ Job training.

■ Social and supportive services.

■ Youth programs.

■ Technology initiatives.

Neighborhood Revitalization 

Minority-serving institutions often do not have to look far to determine

the most obvious needs in their communities. A drive down a neighborhood’s main street often tells a powerful story of decline, seen through 

dilapidated homes, vacant lots, and rundown or boarded-up commercial

establishments. Often behind the physical deterioration lurk sad stories of

unemployment and lost opportunity. Sometimes the decline is so complete

that it is hard to know where to begin the revitalization process.

Fortunately, many HUD grantees do know where to begin.These

grantees have been active members of their communities for decades.They

remember the thriving communities that their neighborhoods once were.

They know the community well enough to understand that behind the 

outward deterioration remain valuable assets such as vibrant faith-based

communities, hard-working neighborhood organizations, and important government allies.These are assets that can help turn communities around as
minority-serving institutions exert the leadership necessary to bring together

community partners and make change happen.

Commercial development. Minority-serving institutions take varied

approaches to neighborhood revitalization, which are often customized to

their particular communities. For example, LeMoyne-Owen College (page

16) in Memphis,Tennessee, and the University of Arkansas–Pine Bluff

(page 24), both Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) grantees,

began their neighborhood revitalization campaigns by attracting commercial

enterprises to their target areas. Oklahoma’s Langston University is 

using its HBCU funds to build the first part of a planned 45,000-squarefoot commercial/retail/civic plaza. Project partners, which include the U.S.

Department of Agriculture and Southwestern Bell Corporation, hope the

plaza will help revitalize the city of Langston’s economy and provide new jobs

for unemployed and underemployed residents.The plaza’s first phase, a

10,000-square-foot retail space, should be completed by December 2002.

Housing. Johnson C. Smith University (page 22) in Charlotte, North

Carolina, has focused its neighborhood revitalization efforts on creating a mix

of commercial and housing developments that it hopes will breathe new life

into the 12 city neighborhoods in which it works.This strategy has succeeded

in changing the face of Charlotte’s Lincoln Heights neighborhood, where the

university’s Community Development Corporation (CDC) has demolished

dilapidated housing, built market-rate townhouses, and developed a large

retail complex.The overall goal of the project has been to increase homeownership in the neighborhood and, in the process, increase the area’s 

financial status.

That same goal has driven neighborhood revitalization efforts at Norfolk

State University (page 18) in Virginia, which began by building affordable

housing.The university’s CDC sought homeowners to bring new stability to

the neighborhood and create an atmosphere conducive to commercial and

industrial development. After working with community partners to build 78

new homes, the university is planning to develop a multimillion-dollar research

and technology development park that will house a business incubator, a

research center, a workforce development program, and the area’s only

broadband Internet server.

Not all neighborhoods require large-scale housing construction nor can

all minority-serving institutions afford to take on such projects. Many other

colleges and universities are doing their part, on a smaller scale, to improve

their local neighborhoods. For example, Benedict College in Columbia,

Minority-serving

institutions take

varied approaches

to neighborhood

revitalization,

which are often

customized to 

their particular

communities. 

Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

12
South Carolina, has been using an HBCU grant to provide safe and affordable

housing to its African-American neighbors.The project is being carried out 

in partnership with the city of Columbia CDC, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae,

and the South Carolina State Housing Authority, among others.The college

already has renovated one home and built a new one; both have been purchased by first-time homebuyers from the surrounding community. Benedict

now is overseeing the construction of four new affordable housing units in

an area dominated by rental housing.The college is supplementing its construction efforts with fair housing and homebuying workshops to educate

residents about the intricacies of purchasing a home.

Oakwood College (page 20) in Huntsville, Alabama, and Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute (ATVI) (page 14) in New

Mexico also have taken a seemingly small-scale approach to revitalization

by making minor repairs to older homes in their communities. Both schools

have found that these small programs are among their most successful.

Oakwood College has used private contractors to repair 19 homes in its

target area and plans to add 20 homes to the program in the next 2 years.

ATVI’s home repair program takes advantage of labor donated by students

enrolled in the institute’s Trades and Service Occupations and Technologies

Department. In addition to offering valuable experience to trades students,

the program will ensure the repair of 20 homes by December 2002.

Solving environmental problems. Some neighborhoods face challenges

that cannot be solved by developing housing or enticing commercial ventures

to set up shop in a neighborhood. For example, when Xavier University

of Louisiana (XULA) looked into revitalizing Gert Town, Louisiana, it knew

it would not get far without addressing the neighborhood’s environmental

blight, created when the Thompson-Hayward Chemical plant closed and left

behind herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides. Although the plant closed 20

years ago, the building remains standing and residents continue to fear a toxic

presence.To help Gert Town residents reclaim their environment, the university is working with the Xavier Triangle Neighborhood Development Center

(XTNDC) and several environmental and construction companies to teach

residents how to perform environmental cleanup. XULA and its partners

have already trained 13 residents in general construction, hazardous material

containment, and lead and asbestos abatement.These residents now are

qualified to obtain jobs with companies, including XTNDC, which will be

carrying out environmental work in the area.

Read the following accounts to learn more about how HUD grantees

are revitalizing their neighborhoods.

Action Plans

13
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

14

ALBUQUERQUE TECHNICAL

VOCATIONAL INSTITUTE

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Simple Home Repairs Have Big Impact on Campus-Community Relations 

An elderly homeowner living in the Barelas neighborhood is enjoying a new

heating system thanks to plumbing students at Albuquerque Technical Vocational

Institute (ATVI). The students recently installed the system free of charge after

finding out that the woman had been heating the rear portion of her home with

kitchen stove burners. 

“It was an incredible fire danger,” says John Walstrum, director of instruction.

“The woman didn’t have the money to make the repair and probably didn’t

even realize just how serious the problem was.”

Students in ATVI’s Trades and Service Occupations and Technologies Department

have been making friends in Barelas since late 2001, when they began visiting

local homes to install sewer lines, renovate nonworking bathrooms, and repair

screen doors. They are participating in a minor home repair program that ATVI 

inaugurated to “do some good things” in 

the community and, at the same time, provide students with practical work experience

in the plumbing, electrical, and heating

trades. Using $25,000 in Hispanic-Serving

Institutions Assisting Communities (HSIAC)

funds, students will complete 25 home

repair projects by the end of 2002. After

that, Walstrum hopes to garner support from

several national hardware chains to help

continue the program.

The ATVI program only takes on home repair projects that cost between $500

and $1,000. This budget restriction limits the students to simple repairs, in an

effort to help as many local residents as possible with available funds. The

kind of repairs that ATVI students carry out are still beyond the means of most

Barelas homeowners. 
Part of Albuquerque’s historic district, Barelas was settled in the late 17th

century as a stop along El Camino Real, the “royal road” that connected New

Mexico and Mexico City. The neighborhood served as a railroad hub during

the first half of the 20th century, but the advent of the interstate road system

in the 1950s caused the railroad industry, and the relative prosperity of Barelas,

to decline. In 1990 46 percent of the predominantly Hispanic population lived

in poverty, and more than one-half (68 percent) of the neighborhood’s housing

units were at least 50 years old. 

The home repair program operates from the offices of the Barelas CDC, a

major program partner. Low-income residents interested in having repair work

done come to the CDC to request assistance, after which an estimator makes 

a site visit to determine whether the project falls within the program’s budget

limitations and whether ATVI students have the expertise needed to complete

the job. If the project qualifies, students complete the work under the guidance

of an ATVI instructor. Between 60 and 80 students are expected to work in the

program before it ends in December 2002. 

Although individual repair projects tend to be fairly simple, Walstrum has high

hopes for the program’s effect on the Barelas community. Primarily, he hopes

that homeowners who are pleased with their repairs will participate in other

HSIAC activities carried out by the college. These activities include a small

business assistance program, a computer center, and general education courses.

“Hopefully, as a result of this project, people in the Barelas community will

begin to see this college as a place that has served them well and can continue

to do so,” says Walstrum. “That’s our simple goal.”

For more information, contact John Walstrum at (505) 224–4427.

Action Plans

15
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

16

LEMOYNE-OWEN COLLEGE

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis CDC Goes the Extra Mile To Ensure Success of 

City’s Revitalization 

When Jeffrey T. Higgs launches a community development project in the

neighborhood surrounding LeMoyne-Owen College, he does not just cross 

his fingers and hope for the best. Higgs and his staff at the LeMoyne-Owen

College Community Development Corporation (LOCCDC) are used to going

the extra mile to ensure success.

In 1999, for example, LOCCDC used $270,000 in HBCU funds to establish a

revolving loan fund to support area small businesses in the LeMoyne-Owen

neighborhood. Today, the fund enjoys a 97-percent repayment rate, owing

largely to the CDC’s active involvement with the 18 businesses who each borrowed up to $15,000. To ensure the

businesses’ success, the CDC asked the college’s School of

Business to offer technical assistance to borrowers and has

even helped some clients obtain contracts with the college.

Taking a similarly active approach, the CDC convinced the

National Bank of Commerce to establish the neighborhood’s first full-service bank branch, then committed itself

to helping the bank secure the $3.5 million in deposits it

needed to remain open. CDC staff succeeded in convincing

the college, several local churches, and a local museum to

deposit at least some of their money in the branch. It even

transports local senior citizens to the bank each month in a

28-passenger, HBCU-financed bus.

“We knew if we could convince a bank to come into the

neighborhood it would really send a sign to people that the

neighborhood was on its way back,” says Higgs. “They 

(the bank) made a commitment to us, and we decided to

help them.”

The LeMoyne-Owen community, a neighborhood of

15,000 residents, was once revered as the birthplace of
Action Plans

some of Memphis’ most prominent African-American citizens. Despite its

illustrious past, the neighborhood has deteriorated in recent years as large

numbers of residents moved to the suburbs, leaving behind what quickly

became a poverty-stricken, crime-ridden, and drug-invested community. The

neighborhood’s average annual income is $7,000, and, until recently, it had

the highest crime rate in the city. 

Now poised to share in a revitalization that has transformed downtown

Memphis, the LeMoyne-Owen community is beginning to change. A $50 

million HOPE VI project has already transformed one end of the neighborhood, and a new $30 million project to turn the once-famous Stax Recording

Studio into a museum promises to bring tourists to the other end. 

To capitalize on the new development, LOCCDC used HBCU funds to help

establish four neighborhood associations and two merchant associations

through which residents could gain a voice in local decisionmaking. The 

corporation received a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice 

to combat local violence, then persuaded the city of Memphis to establish two

police substations in the neighborhood. The CDC is using $300,000 in State

and Federal funding to launch a Build-A-Block Initiative that will upgrade the

community’s housing one block at a time. 

The first phase of the housing project, which is financed by HBCU funds, the

Tennessee Housing Development Agency, the city of Memphis, Fannie Mae,

and the Memphis Community Development Partnership, involves a makeover

of College Street, a major neighborhood thoroughfare. In addition to the installation of new lighting and new sidewalks, the project includes building new

homes or rehabilitating existing ones on 12 lots. 

“The key to our success has been getting the community on board,” says Higgs.

“Not everyone always agrees, but at the end of the day everybody wants a good

neighborhood that is safe and clean and has decent housing in it.”

For more information, contact Jeffrey Higgs at (901) 942–7310 or e-mail him at

jeffrey_higgs@nile.lemoyne-owen.edu.

17
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

18

NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY

Norfolk, Virginia

Housing Campaign Changes Neighborhood’s Character 

A 9-year campaign to build new housing in the Brambleton neighborhood has

succeeded in revitalizing both the area’s infrastructure and its economy. The

campaign, a partnership between the Norfolk State University (NSU) Urban

Revitalization CDC and a local faith-based organization called Plumbline

Ministries, has brought 78 new homes, $8 million in infrastructure improvements, and a new economic climate to a neighborhood that was blighted and

deteriorating. The CDC constructed 18 of those homes, while Plumbline

Ministries built 60 additional houses with financial and technical assistance

from NSU.

“When I arrived here in 1993, Brambleton was like most urban neighborhoods,” says CDC Executive Director Thomas Dawes. “Suburban flight had

taken place and most of the professionals had left the city. Many of the homes

were either boarded up or vacant.”

Brambleton had already been targeted for revitalization, says Dawes, “but we

realized that it was going to take some partnerships to bring about the type of

momentum needed to change the face of

the community.”

Those partnerships got their start in 1993

when Norfolk State received its first

$500,000 HBCU grant. Over the next 2

years, the university spent $200,000 to

renovate eight single-family homes in the

community with help from unemployed

and underemployed residents who were

trained through the university’s Department of Construction and Technology. 

Buoyed by the success of its rehabilitation

project, the CDC then teamed up with

Plumbline Ministries to build 60 new
Action Plans

19 homes throughout the community during the next 7 years. Plumbline uses its

building expertise to manage the actual construction of homes, and the CDC

provides financial and technical assistance. The university has

used about $1 million in HBCU funds to acquire building lots

and to subsidize the purchase price of new homes so they remain

affordable.

Other partners in the revitalization project include the Norfolk

Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which has donated land,

and the city of Norfolk, which has spent more than $8 million

bringing Brambleton’s infrastructure up to date so that it can support the new housing. Infrastructure improvements completed to

date include water and sewer upgrades, roadwork, demolition of

property, acquisition of land, and the construction of a 2-block 

retention pond in a floodprone area.

The two-story, 2,400-square-foot homes sell for between $95,000 and $125,000,

but many buyers have received HBCU-funded subsidies of $25,000 toward

their home purchases. As a result, the new homeowners pay between $520

and $600 per month in mortgage payments, an amount comparable to what

they paid as renters, says Dawes. 

Since the revitalization began, Dawes says the whole physical and economic

character of Brambleton has changed.

“We are finding that our first-time homeowners are looking for upper mobility

in terms of employment,” he says. “Their view has changed and their vision

has changed from when they were renters. Now we have more households

with one or two individuals working and it is creating a new economy for a

community that had been depressed.”

For more information, contact Thomas Dawes at (757) 823–2372.
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

20

OAKWOOD COLLEGE

Huntsville, Alabama

Oakwood College Finds Niche Repairing Its Neighbors’ Homes 

As soon as Oakwood College established the Terry Heights CDC in the late

1990s, it decided to use HBCU funds to purchase, rehabilitate, and resell dilapidated homes in the city’s Terry Heights/Hillandale neighborhood. The CDC

completed the work within 2 years, sold two of the homes through a lease-topurchase arrangement, and converted a third into a community center that still

serves the neighborhood. Project Director Marcia Adams Burnette says that the

CDC then began looking for an even more practical way to improve the lives

of neighborhood residents.

“We didn’t realize, at first, all that was involved in purchasing and renovating

old, abandoned houses and reselling them,” says Burnette. “You might pay

$15,000 to $20,000 for a piece of property and then put $40,000 to $50,000

into the house just to get it saleable. Then you must make sure that the house

is not priced out of the range of residents who need affordable housing.”

When Oakwood received a second HBCU

grant in 2000, the CDC decided to look for

new ways to stretch program dollars and, 

at the same time, serve more residents.

Oakwood decided to focus its activities on

carrying out repairs to owner-occupied

homes that had been cited for code violations by the city of Huntsville. During the

next 2 years, the CDC spent $180,000 to

rehabilitate 19 homes in the neighborhood.

Local response to the program has been so

positive that the corporation plans to rehabilitate an additional 20 homes in the next 

2 years. 

“This was a good choice for us,” says Burnette. “We have found that when you

renovate owner-occupied homes, you touch more people, and they see very

quickly the benefits of what you are trying to do.”
Action Plans

21

On average, each home in the rehabilitation program receives between $6,000

and $8,000 in renovations aimed at eliminating major safety hazards.

“We went into houses and found out that residents had been living without

plumbing for 2 years,” says Burnette. “We saw situations where water pipes

and electrical wires are all mixed up, making the house a fire trap. We saw rotting floors and foundations that were sinking into the ground. Many of the

homeowners are senior citizens, a substantial number have disabilities, and

they just can’t afford to have their homes repaired.”

Rundown homes and blighted neighborhoods have been

a problem in Terry Heights/Hillandale for many years.

Almost one-quarter (22 percent) of the city’s 655 homes

have been assessed by the city of Huntsville as needing

minor to major repairs, and more than one-half (334)

have been issued citations by Huntsville’s code enforcement staff. Huntsville’s Community Development

Department is working with the Terry Heights CDC to

identify the neighborhood homes most in need of help.

The CDC oversees and pays the contractors who carry

out repairs. 

Because contractors have guaranteed their work for a full

year, Burnette says she is often the person homeowners

call when they need a followup repair visit. 

“I find it very satisfying when I can help a resident who

calls me and says ‘I’ve got a little problem, can you send

someone over?’” says Burnette. “You might say that

answering requests like this is not what we are all about. But, to tell you the

truth, we have come to understand that, in fact, that’s really what we’re all

about.” 

For more information, contact Marcia Adams Burnette at (256) 726–7139.
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

22

JOHNSON C. SMITH UNIVERSITY

Charlotte, North Carolina

CDC Stabilizes Charlotte Neighborhood by Creating Land Use and

Economic Mix 

The Northwest Corridor CDC is changing the face of the Lincoln Heights

neighborhood by replacing a rundown supermarket and dilapidated neighborhood housing units with a mixture of new stores, rental housing for lowincome elderly residents, and market-rate townhouses. The CDC, established

in 1991 by Johnson C. Smith University, has used HBCU funds to carry out

revitalization activities in 12 city neighborhoods during the past 10 years.

Home to 2,000 residents, Lincoln Heights is considered a threatened neighborhood because of its poverty level and aging infrastructure. On average, local

residents earn only $16,000 a year, compared with other Charlotte residents

who have a median income of $64,000. Primarily, the Northwest Corridor

CDC has focused its attention on helping Lincoln Heights increase the number

of owner-occupied housing units within its borders. (Sixty percent of the

neighborhood’s housing consists of rental units.)

“In certain communities like Lincoln Heights,

a high percentage of rental housing typically

goes hand in hand with a lower level of

income and other negative elements,” says

CDC Executive Director Steven Washington.

“When you have dilapidated housing, you

also have a higher propensity for crime and

drug activity.”

The first component of the Lincoln Heights

revitalization actually took place in an adjacent neighborhood. In 1995 the CDC joined forces with private investors and

the NationsBank CDC to develop the University Village Shopping Center in

the University Park neighborhood. The 55,000-square-foot center replaced a

dilapidated food store. The site now houses a 25,000-square-foot Food Lion

supermarket, a Revco pharmacy, a Subway sandwich shop, and a U.S. Post

Office branch. 
Action Plans

In addition to providing badly needed retail space, the shopping center is help- 23

ing the CDC attract both investors and residents to Lincoln

Heights. For example, residents of the CDC’s new 60-unit

elderly housing project, called LaSalle at Lincoln Heights, are

pleased with the convenience of having a shopping center

just 2 blocks away. Washington hopes that the shopping

center also will help attract higher income buyers to the

CDC’s two new townhouse developments, set to open next

year. Vantage Point, a 26-unit development located next

door to the LaSalle, will feature three-bedroom homes that

will sell for $95,000 after homeowners receive a $15,000

subsidy. Phoenix Rising, located across the street, will

include 25 smaller three-bedroom units that will sell for

$85,000 after buyers receive a $10,000 subsidy. 

About 40 dilapidated housing units have been purchased

and demolished using bank financing and private investments to make way for

the apartment building and townhouses. The new construction was financed

with a mix of private investment, tax credits (for the elderly housing project),

city loans, and bank financing. The city of Charlotte and the North Carolina

Housing Finance Agency are providing the homeowner subsidies.

Although the new housing projects promise to change the entire look of Lincoln

Heights, Washington hopes they also will increase the neighborhood’s homeownership rate and infuse new prosperity into its economy. 

“If you are going to revitalize a neighborhood, you can’t just build $50,000

homes,” says Washington. “If you do, then all you’re ever going to have is

$50,000 homes. In order for this community to grow and to be able to attract

retailers and home development, you need to attract folks who have a higher

income and can afford more house. If a neighborhood is going to be sustained

over time you want to create a balance, and that is what we are trying to do.”

For more information, contact Steven Washington at (704) 378–1269.
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

24

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS–

PINE BLUFF

Pine Bluff, Arkansas

University Pursues Commercial Revitalization To Spur Neighborhood

Prosperity

The name “University Park” has a prosperous ring. Yet this neighborhood near

the University of Arkansas–Pine Bluff lacks basic commercial amenities and

features only one national retailer. However, major commercial developers are

now showing interest in University Park, spurred by the university’s neighborhood revitalization project.

As part of these revitalization efforts, the University of Arkansas–Pine Bluff 

is seeking to attract new anchor businesses and microenterprises to a 17,000-

square-foot complex of soon-to-be-renovated underutilized buildings in

University Park. The university is acting as developer and manager of this 

new commercial complex. 

“By attracting new businesses and nurturing entrepreneurs, this project is empowering the university to start

taking a more active role in recruiting and retaining

businesses in our neighborhood,” explains Henry Golatt,

the university’s project developer. For instance, one

large private developer that would not even look at the

neighborhood before is now talking about making a

large future investment.

The strong commitments made by the university’s partners also suggest the scope of the project’s potential success. Simmons First National Bank, in consultation with

the university, has established a $1 million loan fund for

minority businesses throughout the city, with at least

$100,000 set aside for microloans to help firms in the

University Park complex. The city and county are spending $2.5 million to

improve the community’s infrastructure, and the State office of the U.S. Small
Action Plans

25

Business Administration will make grants to tenants in the complex. The university used $250,000 in HBCU funds to purchase and renovate the building,

scheduled for completion in 2003.

Along with these private and public partners, the revitalization effort is being

helped by several community-based organizations. These include the Family

Community Development Corporation, the local Weed and Seed Community

funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, and the city’s Boys and Girls Clubs.

These organizations will all provide outreach and links to supportive services

for would-be entrepreneurs.

Golatt estimates that the project will attract three main anchor tenants and five

microenterprises. Main anchor tenants may include a grocery store, the campus

credit union, and another large retail establishment. The local community

needs such retail improvement; University Park, which has a population that is

about 99-percent African American, has a median income that is about one-half

that of the rest of the city and an unemployment rate that recently averaged 14

percent.

The microenterprise component of the project will benefit local youth attending the university. These students will take courses to prepare them to manage

stores in the new complex or to start their own microbusinesses. The courses

will feature a nationally disseminated curriculum for fast-track entrepreneur

training.

Back in 1997 the university and the neighborhood developed a master plan and

found that the area desperately needed more commercial development. The

university began to build the coalition now working to develop the project parcel. Because the university will be the landlord of the finished complex, it will

price the rental space attractively and provide the impetus for further new

developments.

For more information, contact Henry Golatt at (870) 575–8030.
Business Assistance

In just a few words, Suzanna Fuentes-Ferreiro at San Diego State

University (SDSU) sums up the quandary that many minority-serving 

institutions face when trying to help unemployed residents find jobs.

“In our community we have a high unemployment rate,” explains

Fuentes-Ferreiro, who coordinates SDSU activities under a HSIAC grant.

“But we have trouble training residents for employment, because there are

no jobs out there.”

Faced with the challenge of helping communities cope with both high

unemployment and a lack of major employers, a significant number of

minority-assisting institutions focus their attention on giving local residents

the skills they need to establish their own small businesses.These businesses

offer tremendous potential not only to improve the commercial vitality of

local communities but also to provide jobs to the people who live there.

Challenges and opportunities. Many HUD grantees have designed their

business assistance programs to meet very specific community needs.The

business assistance program at the University of Puerto Rico’s new

Information and Community Service Center, for example, will target its services to local business owners affected by construction of a new mass transit

rail station in Rio Piedras. Although the station eventually will improve business prospects in the neighborhood, the 4-year construction project is

presently wreaking havoc on businesses struggling to survive amid torn-up

streets and drastically reduced foot traffic.The university’s School of Business

will help local entrepreneurs weather the construction storm and position

themselves to take advantage of new opportunities that will be available

once the station is complete.The Community Service Center, financed 

with HSIAC funds and a $250,000 appropriation from the Puerto Rico

Legislature, also will house an Electronic Information Center operated by

the university’s School of Information Sciences and Technology and a

Community Development Outreach Program established by the School 

of Architecture.

Helping small business owners meet challenges and capitalize on opportunities usually involves educating entrepreneurs about business principles

and practices and providing them with startup financing. In Hispanic communities, most business assistance programs also include a language component. For example, a business class at San Diego State University’s

Imperial Valley Campus in Calexico, California (page 37), teaches

Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

26
Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs to brainstorm in English about their own

business plans.Taking a slightly different approach, the Community Institute

of Business Education at Northern Essex Community College (page

35) in Massachusetts teaches its classes in Spanish so that monolingual

speakers receive a good grounding in business principles.The program also

offers a separate class that teaches entrepreneurs English.

Rural projects. Minority-serving institutions carry out a substantial amount

of their work in rural communities and small towns, where the challenges of

establishing a small business can be different from those faced by inner-city

entrepreneurs. A remote location is one of the major challenges facing

Ilisagvick College (page 31) in Barrow, Alaska.The college trains and supports entrepreneurs by broadcasting a radio program that provides business

training to a geographic target area as large as Minnesota.

Thousands of miles away, Maui Community College (page 33) is

using the Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian Institutions Assisting Communities

(AN/NHIAC) funds to help native Hawaiians on the island of Molokai

reclaim their agricultural heritage in the wake of a collapsing pineapple

industry.The college, which received grant funds at the end of 2001, plans 

to work with two local organizations to teach native Hawaiians how to

establish small agribusinesses.

The University of New Mexico (page 41) in Albuquerque also is

working with local farmers who have seen their profits decline in recent

years due to pressure from developers to convert agricultural land into

other uses.The university and its partners are using HSIAC funds to establish a business incubator and commercial kitchen that will teach farmers

how to boost their profits by processing agricultural products like tomatoes

or peppers into such marketable goods as salsa and spices.

Facilitating partnerships. In addition to supporting local entrepreneurs,

business assistance programs also have created strong partnerships between

minority-serving institutions and community stakeholders. For example, an

HBCU-funded “Students in Free Enterprise” project at Bethune-Cookman

College (page 29) has resulted in the establishment of more than 100 successful microenterprises in Daytona Beach, Florida. Project organizers tie the

program’s success to a partnership between the college and the city’s

Enterprise Zone.

Across the country, a collaboration between Santa Ana College

(page 39) and several community-based partners is helping ensure the

Action Plans

27
success and long-term viability of a Microenterprise Center for Child Care

Providers in Santa Ana, California.The center provides child development

and business training to unemployed or underemployed women who want

to establish home-based childcare businesses. Program partners, who provide ongoing support to entrepreneurs once they launch their businesses,

already have secured funding to continue their roles even after HSIAC funds

are spent.

Read the following accounts to learn more about how HUD grantees

are assisting businesses.

Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

28
Action Plans

BETHUNE-COOKMAN COLLEGE

29

Daytona Beach, Florida

Student Teachers at Florida College Train and Mentor Entrepreneurs 

Many people dream of starting their own businesses, but 100 individuals in

Daytona Beach are succeeding in living that dream through a “Students in 

Free Enterprise” project established with HBCU funds by Bethune-Cookman

College. The college is located in Daytona Beach’s Enterprise Zone.

“It is beautiful to see people realize their

dreams,” says Project Director William Ziegler,

who heads the college’s International Business Department. “This project helps people

live their dreams by using the ATM model—

awareness, time, and mentoring—to give

prospective entrepreneurs the understanding

they need to succeed.” 

Students in Free Enterprise originated after students enrolled in Ziegler’s marketing courses

began doing research on local needs in the neighborhoods surrounding

Bethune-Cookman. The students learned that low-income African-American

residents could benefit from business training. Today, trained student teachers

help present this training to adults and also serve as mentors to budding entrepreneurs. These interns have taught courses on business methods and ethics to

more than 500 young people and, in the past 2 years, have helped local entrepreneurs develop 36 Internet Web sites. 

Overall, Students in Free Enterprise has enjoyed unusually positive results. The

success rate for new businesses established under its guidance is 21 percent,

compared with the average success rate for new businesses of less than 5 percent. A total of 386 adults have participated in entrepreneurship training and

more than 100 entrepreneurs have established successful microenterprises. 

Community partnerships have been important to the success of project activities, which have been centered in the EZ’s three business incubators—one

devoted to service businesses, one for retail and manufacturing firms, and a virtual incubator for home-based businesses. Project partners include the city of
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

30 Daytona Beach and Volusia County, which

have contributed a combined $5,000 in supplies and support; the Mid-Florida Housing

Partnership and Central Florida Community

Development Corporation, which house the

incubators and host the training sessions; and

Covington and Associates, a private firm that

assists home businesses. The Enterprise

Zone’s West Side Development Corporation

has provided the project with strategic support. Bethune-Cookman College has contributed $40,000 for intern stipends and another $32,000 worth of in-kind

resources for courses. 

Although the college’s HBCU grant ended in early 2002, Students in Free

Enterprise continues. The college and city have already committed themselves

to continue operating the incubators and offering internships so students can

serve as mentors for entrepreneurs. 

For more information, contact William Ziegler at (386) 481–2810.
Action Plans

ILISAGVIK COLLEGE

31

Barrow, Alaska

Ilisagvik College Takes to the Airwaves To Train Alaskan Entrepreneurs 

Imagine the challenge of serving the educational needs of a target population

that includes 4,500 individuals living in 8 villages spread out over an 89,000-

square-mile area. Add in that your college is the only institution of higher education located above the Arctic Circle, where roads are few and far between,

winter wind chills drop to –80oF, and the sun does not rise from mid-November

to January or set from May to mid-August. 

Ilisagvik College, a private institution located in

Barrow, Alaska, at the northernmost tip of North

America, faces these challenges every day. College

officials know that traditional methods of community outreach do not work in such a harsh environment. So when Dr. Stan Scott launched an AN/

NHIAC-funded initiative to conduct business and

entrepreneurship training in the North Slope

Borough, he looked for a reliable and inexpensive

way to reach his target area. He chose radio. 

Each Monday morning at 10 a.m., Scott takes to the airwaves on Barrow’s

KBRW, an Alaska Public Radio affiliate that reaches all the villages in the North

Slope Borough. The radio show—called the Ilisagvik Business Circle—brings

local business, college, and government leaders into the station’s Barrow studio

to discuss business-related issues, offer training on such topics as business 

plan development, and promote ways in which the college can help residents

become entrepreneurs. Recent guests have included Alaska Lieutenant

Governor Fran Ulmer, U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, and College President Dr.

Edna MacLean. Scott estimates that approximately 1,000 residents listen to 

the show each week. 

Because the North Slope Borough government employs about 80 percent of the

people who work in the college’s target area, the training-by-radio initiative

also has focused on helping listeners gain skills that would allow them to fill

entry-level management positions. Residents need these skills to qualify for
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

32 jobs with the borough; with the Arctic Slope

Regional Commission, a corporation owned

primarily by Inupiat Eskimos; and for the privatesector jobs that would be created if the borough

decided to privatize some of its services. (Privatization may become necessary

as the borough attempts to deal with sharply declining tax revenues from the

oil industry.) Anticipating these declines, the borough has already announced a

$30 million cut in its budget over the next 5 years. 

Although the Ilisagvik Business Circle has been successful, it has not eliminated the need for face-to-face business training. In 2002 the college used grant

funds to fly 27 borough residents to Barrow for a grant-writing workshop. Last

year it responded to an emergency request for training after the manager of

one village suddenly retired. The college flew two trainers to the village to

recruit and train the manager’s replacement and support staff. By the end of

the week, says Scott, “the local government was up and running again.”

Being a good partner to borough villages and, at the same time, offering residents an opportunity to better themselves is what the AN/NHIAC grant is all

about, says Scott.

“We’re trying to give residents an opportunity for self-sufficiency that is not

tied to the oil and gas industries or to the borough government,” he says.

“We believe programs like this help our residents take one step in the direction

of personal success.”

For more information, e-mail Donald C. Hoke at donald.hoke@ilisagvik.cc. 
Action Plans

MAUI COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Hoolehua, Hawaii

College Farm Helps Native Hawaiians Reclaim Their Agricultural Heritage 

Thousands of acres of prime farmland once covered by pineapple fields now lie

fallow near Hoolehua, a daily reminder that pineapple is no longer king on the

island of Molokai. After years of economic dependence on two now-closed

pineapple plantations that once employed 60 percent of the island’s residents,

Molokai now is trying to recover its agricultural heritage and, at the same time,

ease its 15-percent unemployment rate. Maui Community College’s Agricultural

and Vocational Center, known simply as “The Farm,” is doing what it can to

help.

The Farm will use an AN/NHIAC grant it received

in 2001 to upgrade its facilities so that it can better serve local residents who want to resume

farming land that has been in their families since

the 1920s. That is when the U.S. Congress passed

the Hawaiian Homelands Act, which allows

Native Hawaiians to lease up to 40 acres of agricultural land for $1 a year. The renewable leases

last 99 years and can be passed on to heirs who

also qualify as Native Hawaiians. 

During pineapple’s heyday, 75 percent of

Molokai’s homesteaders chose not to farm their lands, instead signing planting

agreements with the pineapple companies and taking paying jobs on the plantations. With most of the world’s pineapples now raised in Africa and the

Philippines, there is increased interest in helping these homesteaders, many

of whom are now unemployed or underemployed, reclaim their traditional

livelihoods. 

The Farm plans to construct a 6,400-square-foot building where it will offer

classes in such areas as farming techniques, equipment maintenance, business

planning, marketing, taxes, and human resources. Homesteaders receiving

Federal support through the State’s Natural Resource Conservation Service

have already started attending classes taught by Farm Manager James Boswell.

33
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

34 Six of these farmers recently formed a co-op through which they will supply

food to a local restaurant. In addition, The Farm will offer classes and technical support to seven homesteader families who will be establishing small

agribusinesses through an Ag Cohort Project run by the University of Hawaii

Cooperative Extension Program with funds from the U.S. Departments of

Labor and Agriculture.

“At least three members of each family must commit to the program,” Boswell

says about the Ag Cohort Project. “That would probably be the husband, wife,

and one child. We will work them through the process of getting an agribusiness started. They’ll have access to small areas of The Farm if they want to do

the growing here until they iron out the bugs. We will provide all the technical

assistance they need, and they’ll be able to use our new building to access

information on the Web.” 

Boswell, who himself lives on Hawaiian Homelands, is pleased to help fellow

homesteaders and also to see more students attending his classes.

“With all the statewide budget cutbacks we’ve had in the past few years, my

program had been almost abandoned,” he says. “So these funds are bringing

life back to The Farm.”

For more information, contact James Boswell at (808) 567–6577 or e-mail him

at boswellj@hawaii.edu.
Action Plans

NORTHERN ESSEX

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Lawrence, Massachusetts

Institute Helps Dominican Immigrants Turn New Ideas Into 

Successful Businesses

The ability to operate a successful small business is fast becoming an economic

necessity for the Hispanic residents who make up 70 percent of Lawrence’s

population. Most of these residents are immigrants from the Dominican

Republic who first settled in New York and then

moved north seeking better economic opportunities. However, declines in Lawrence’s manufacturing economy over the past 20 years have made it

increasingly difficult for new immigrants to land

jobs that pay well. As an alternative, many seek

self-employment.

“Dominicans are entrepreneurial by nature,” says

Mayte Rivera, director of the Community Institute

of Business Education (CIBE), which teaches

Lawrence’s Hispanic entrepreneurs basic information about business startup 

and business management topics. “This makes our job as trainers much easier

because our clients have the energy to try new ideas and to implement those

new ideas in their businesses.”

More than 350 Hispanic business owners have come to CIBE during the last 

2 years to attend classes on a variety of business-related topics. The institute 

is funded by a HSIAC grant awarded to Northern Essex Community College.

“Most of our clients have great business potential but often lack a formal business plan,” says Rivera. “They appreciate this opportunity to learn new business techniques and practical accounting tips. Ultimately, it makes a big

difference in their businesses.”

CIBE staff members assess the skill level of each potential entrepreneur who

arrives at the institute, then guide that individual into appropriate classes.

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Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

36 Clients have a variety of courses from

which to choose, including those that

explore the basics of accounting, Microsoft

Office software, marketing strategies, preventure planning, business planning, legal

issues, and ESL. In addition to providing

these educational opportunities, the institute

also focuses on making sure its clients are equipped to take advantage of both

local and statewide business opportunities. For this reason, CIBE staff members

encourage entrepreneurs to become bilingual and to seek certification from the

State Office of Minority and Women Business Assistance (SOMWBA). Each

year, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts targets $240 million of its spending

to SOMWBA-certified minority- and women-owned businesses. 

CIBE has had its share of success stories. For example, four clients have already

received SOMWBA certification. A restaurant owner bought a commercial

building in town after accessing financing from one of the institute’s banking

partners; another student who works as a newspaper carrier is preparing to

launch a part-time computer repair business. However, Rivera is quick to point

out that many institute success stories began with a basic understanding of

good business practices, including the need to develop a sound business plan,

build solid financial projections, and tap into additional markets. 

“Our goal is to help business owners develop confidence in what they are

doing,” says Rivera. “We try to empower our clients so they feel that the possibility for success is unlimited. Actually, we want each business owner to

believe that his or her business has the potential to become a Fortune 500

company.”

For more information, contact Mayte Rivera at (978) 738–7632.
Action Plans

SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY

IMPERIAL VALLEY CAMPUS

Calexico, California

Hispanic Entrepreneurs Learn English While Visualizing Business Plans 

Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs in Calexico are simultaneously learning both

language and business skills through a HSIAC-sponsored Business Enhancement

Language course at San Diego State University’s (SDSU’s) Imperial Valley

Campus. Language teachers spend a substantial portion of the 20-week language course introducing students to basic business concepts and terminology.

They also encourage students to practice their English by talking with classmates about the businesses they would like to establish. 

“Our students are encouraged to visualize their

businesses in English,” says Program Coordinator

Suzanna Fuentes-Ferreiro. “They learn English by

brainstorming about how they will start their

catering business or their beauty salon. The class

has been very successful because students feel

from the beginning that it is relevant to their

needs.”

In addition to teaching simple business concepts,

the language classes also focus on building students’ confidence and helping

them feel that they are part of the Calexico community, say Fuentes-Ferreiro.

This is accomplished, in part, by occasionally inviting community leaders to

conduct class sessions. These guest speakers share information about city services, offer an insider’s view of their particular professions, and make an effort

to get to know class participants. Recent visitors have included Calexico’s

mayor, members of the City Council, and representatives of the Calexico Police

Department, Community Action Council, Recreation Department, Chamber of

Commerce, and Private Industry Council.

“Each visitor gives our participants a real sense of empowerment,” says

Fuentes-Ferreiro. “At the end of the program, students feel that they now

know many prominent community leaders. That, plus the English language

instruction, gives them a new confidence that you can recognize immediately.”

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Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

38 The English classes are only one part of a multifaceted Calexico Empowerment

Program (CEP) that SDSU launched 2 years ago. Once entrepreneurs graduate

from the language classes, they move on to a 10-week business training program through which they receive more intensive training in small business

development. A partnership between CEP and the university’s Small Business

Development Center, the program provides instruction on such topics as developing a business plan, performing basic business math, networking, negotiating, and marketing. Program graduates have access to ongoing support from

CEP staff, and to a computer and fax machine in the CEP offices. Since spring

2001, 63 individuals have graduated from the program.

Calexico is located in Imperial County along the United States border with

Mexico, approximately 120 miles east of San Diego. The city of 27,000 residents has a per capita income of $8,606 and an unemployment rate of 30 percent. It is ranked among the poorest and most rural areas in the country. 

It was Calexico’s high unemployment rate combined with the special skills of

CEP’s target population that led program organizers to focus their efforts on

small business development rather than on training residents for jobs that do

not exist, says Fuentes-Ferreiro.

“Many of our community members have moved here from Mexico, and they

already have a skill or a profession,” she says. “They know how to do something and to do it well. So we decided that the best approach would be to

teach them how to start businesses that could take advantage of their special

talents.”

For more information, contact Suzanna Fuentes-Ferreiro at (760) 768–5594.
Action Plans

SANTA ANA COLLEGE

Santa Ana, California

California Microenterprise Center Fills Critical Need 

for Childcare 

Sixty-four new childcare providers are now taking care of more

than 250 children in the city of Santa Ana, California, thanks to

a HSIAC-funded Microenterprise Center for Child Care Providers

established in 1999 by Santa Ana College (SAC). The new businesses provide a steady income to previously unemployed and

underemployed women, many of whom do not speak English.

At the same time, they are filling a critical need for childcare

slots in the Santa Ana community. 

Since the microenterprise center was first established, 178 women have graduated from its 12-week monolingual training program, which is aimed at helping

Spanish-speaking women establish home-based childcare businesses. Training

sessions take place in a warehouse-sized building that SAC leases from the city

of Santa Ana. The facility, renovated with HSIAC funds, features traditional

classrooms as well as a unique mock apartment, complete with living room,

dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and patio, where students can put the skills

they are learning into practice. 

Program participants receive 6 weeks of child development training, 4 weeks

of business training, and 2 weeks of first aid and CPR training. SAC donates

instructors’ time to provide child development and business training. First-aid

training is provided by Latino Health Access, a community-based program

partner.

Although a childcare provider can legally operate a home-based business in

California without a license, the Microenterprise Center encourages all of its

active business owners to become licensed. Forty-two of the Center’s 64 graduates have already achieved this goal, and SAC is offering technical assistance

and financial support to help increase that number. 

For example, two community-based social service providers, Delhi Community

and the Foundation for Social Resources, help program graduates negotiate the

39
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

40 sometimes arduous licensing process. In

addition, graduates who have received or 

are seeking their licenses can borrow up to $5,000 from a $150,000 revolving

loan fund established with HSIAC funds. Nineteen graduates have already borrowed a total of $65,000 from the fund to purchase daycare equipment and

upgrade their homes to meet licensing requirements. 

Program Director Lilia Tanakeyowma is pleased with the number of program

graduates who have established childcare businesses, but she is also interested

in finding out why some graduates have not done so. A recent survey conducted by the center suggests that a lack of adequate housing in Santa Ana may be

the biggest obstacle that graduates face. Many simply do not live in homes that

can support home-based businesses, she says.

Nonetheless, Tanakeyowma has reason to believe that SAC’s training program

has sparked an interest in child development that could lead graduates into

new careers outside their homes. Twenty graduates have already enrolled in a

course called Child Growth and Development that SAC’s Human Development

Department is offering in a bilingual format for the first time in 2002. Students

who go on to complete the college’s entire 13-unit Human Development

Certificate Program will be qualified to become preschool teachers. Those who

complete a portion of the courses can be certified to work in childcare centers. 

“Some of the women have told us, with tears in their eyes, that they are 

better parents because of our training, and they want to learn more,” says

Tanakeyowma. “These new bilingual courses have given them new options.

This is really an unexpected outcome of our program, but it is just a delight.”

For more information, contact Lilia Tanakeyowma at (714) 564–6971.
Action Plans

UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Incubator’s Value-Added Products Make Farming 

More Profitable

Whether they are turning tomatoes into salsa or providing

fresh foods for local catering businesses, farmers in the South

Valley area will be moving into local markets when the South

Valley Economic Development Center opens in fall 2002. 

The center, established by the Rio Grande Community

Development Corporation (RGCDC) and the University of

New Mexico (UNM), will serve the self-employment needs 

of local residents and provide a commercial kitchen for valueadded processing of agricultural goods.

RGCDC, established in 1986, already has received more than

$1 million in grant funds from the U.S. Department of Health

and Human Services, the city of Albuquerque, and the New

Mexico State Legislature to establish the incubator. The

Resource Center for Raza Planning in UNM’s School of Architecture and

Planning has used HSIAC funds to assist in fundraising and to conduct feasibility and marketing analyses for the incubator. It also is conducting community

research that will help the CDC develop appropriate incubator programs.

The South Valley is an unincorporated, low-population-density area adjacent to

and south of Albuquerque in Bernalillo County. Approximately one-fifth of valley residents live at or below the poverty level. The community’s distress is

due in part to the steady decline of agriculture, which has been a vital component of the area’s economic and cultural landscape for more than 1,000 years.

Pressure from developers to convert agricultural lands into commercial, industrial, and residential uses has made it increasingly difficult for local farmers 

to survive. 

“This community has a long, long history around agriculture, and although the

agriculture industry has declined, there is still very much a strong support for

agricultural activity,” says Teresa Cordova, professor in UNM’s School of

Architecture and Planning. “One of the ways to make farming more economically viable is to help promote the value-added process of turning agricultural

41
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

42 products into another product. We want

to help small farmers sustain themselves

and to spur people who have agricultural

land to start producing something on that

land.”

In addition to promoting agriculture, the

incubator will attempt to support small

business development in the South Valley

through technical assistance, counseling services, emergency loan funds, and

access to office supplies, fax machines, and conference rooms, says Cordova.

The incubator itself will go a long way toward relieving the area’s shortage 

of retail space, which has been a major impediment to small business 

development. 

Approximately 12 UNM graduate students are preparing to conduct their second door-to-door survey in the South Valley this summer. The first survey

gauged community support for the incubator and identified the types of businesses local residents wanted to see located there. The second survey will

attempt to identify prospective entrepreneurs and consumers who will use

incubator services.

“Basically, we are asking people what they do well and how these talents can

be turned into self-employment opportunities,” says Cordova. “There is a lot of

retail service in the South Valley, but many retail needs are not being met. For

example, there are not very many barber shops here. So we will be trying to

find people with the skills to meet the retail needs that we have identified. 

If we can do this, the incubator will be much better able to serve the South

Valley.”

For more information, contact Teresa Cordova at (505) 277–8526.
Job Training 

Minority-serving institutions often start their revitalization efforts by

improving a community’s infrastructure or bolstering its commercial sector.

The value of these infrastructure improvements cannot be overstated.

However, to enjoy long-term success, community revitalization initiatives

must also reach beyond infrastructure improvements to touch the personal

lives of individual residents.

Minority-serving institutions have learned from experience that true

transformation comes only if all neighborhood residents can increase their

own capacity to earn a decent wage, learn to manage their money well,

strengthen their families, and safeguard their health.Through various activities, including job training, youth programs, and social and supportive services, colleges and universities are transforming communities by transforming

individuals.

Capitalizing on local strengths. Job-training programs that empower

local residents to become self-sufficient are a high priority for minorityserving institutions. Many of these initiatives are geared toward helping hardto-employ individuals obtain stable jobs that pay well. A significant number

are being established with an eye toward providing strong local industries

with a qualified workforce.

In Modesto, California, for example, a HSIAC-funded job-training program established by Modesto Junior College (page 47) is taking advantage of the Central Valley’s stable construction industry to give residents

marketable skills that will keep them employed throughout the year. Many

program participants previously were seasonal agriculture workers who

spent winters unemployed. Presently, about 42 of the 70 program graduates

have found construction-related jobs or gone back to school to learn

advanced construction skills.

A thriving local technology industry impacts the job-training curriculum

offered by the University of Hawaii-Leeward Community College

(UH-LCC) on the island of Oahu.With the arrival of the Second City

Complex, which houses numerous telecommunications businesses, Oahu is

a growing technology hotbed.To meet the new demand for trained hightechnology workers, UH-LCC has started renovating a local shop that will

serve as a community and technical training center.The center will feature

computers, high-speed Internet capabilities, and television production and

editing equipment. In a related activity, UH-LCC students will team with

Action Plans

43
Waianae High School to mentor and tutor students who are part of the

high school’s telecommunications program.

Overcoming local challenges. Many HUD-supported job-training programs help local residents recover from declines in industries that once provided their livelihood. For example, a failing fishery in Alaska’s Bristol Bay

region moved the University of Alaska-Fairbanks to develop a jobtraining project for local residents, many of whom are Native Alaskans.

Although the fishery provides 16 percent of the world’s salmon, the winter

unemployment rate in Bristol Bay now exceeds 55 percent, partly because

fewer salmon return to the fishery each year. Participants in the AN/NHIACfunded job-training program will learn housing construction and computer

repair skills that will enable them to obtain more stable jobs locally. Because

the region is so large and has no roads, trainees will be flown to the university for class meetings and will use a satellite Internet system to complete

their coursework.The university’s partners—the local housing authority,

Alaska Works, and tribal governments—will help with outreach, job placement, and supportive services.

Although Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama (page 49), is not

preparing local residents for jobs in a particular industry, local employers play

a critical role in the success of the school’s HBCU-supported Community

Connections program.The program, which provides basic and advanced

computer training, job-readiness, and GED classes to local unemployed residents, is supported by Hunt Oil, Michelin, and Mercedes-Benz. So far, almost

250 hard-to-employ people have obtained jobs through the program.

Meeting special needs. Because local residents often come to job-training

programs with special needs, several minority-serving institutions provide additional services to help ensure trainees’ success. For example, because Hispanic

residents of New York City’s Washington Heights-Inwood neighborhood speak

little or no English, Bronx Community College (page 45) offers ESL classes in addition to traditional job-training sessions. Across the country, housing 

is often a problem for many participants in an office skills training program

sponsored with HBCU funds by Texas Southern University (page 51).

To keep the trainees focused on gaining marketable computer and office skills,

Texas Southern built a four-bedroom house in Houston’s Third Ward for

female trainees. More than 200 individuals have gained permanent employment through the office skills training program since 1998.

Read the following accounts to learn more about how HUD grantees

are helping local residents find good jobs.

Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

44

Many HUDsupported jobtraining programs

help local residents

recover from

declines in industries that once 

provided their

livelihood.
Action Plans

BRONX COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Bronx, New York

Outreach Program Builds Bridges to New York’s Dominican Community 

Dominican-American residents of New York City’s Washington HeightsInwood neighborhood have received assistance in breaking the cycle of joblessness from a strong relationship they have with Bronx Community College

(BCC) and its community partners. 

That relationship began in 1999 when BCC established the cooperative linkage

outreach program to help local residents cope with an economic crisis brought

on by high unemployment and limited access to jobs. Nearly three out of four

residents of the largely Hispanic Washington Heights-Inwood neighborhood

speak little or no English and their unemployment rate is more than double the

rate in the rest of New York City. 

The BCC program seeks to meet the need,

expressed by local residents, for a variety of

courses that can help them break this cycle of

joblessness. So far, the program has enabled

close to 300 residents to study English, basic

skills, building trades, computer skills, and life

skills. Residents have also taken literacy courses

given by local public libraries and benefited

from supportive services such as childcare. 

The cooperative linkage outreach program gives BCC an ongoing presence that

it sought in Washington Heights-Inwood, which is within walking distance of

the college’s Bronx campus. The program has also allowed BCC to establish

strong partnerships with two organizations that play a critical role in the program. Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation (NMIC), a community

housing development organization, houses the outreach program and coordinates some of its offerings. Union Communal, a coalition of community-based

organizations, has been instrumental in identifying local needs for specific

courses.

45
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

46 “I had known the leadership of NMIC for a number of years,” explains Dr.

Michael Seliger, the program’s director. “We had explored different ways to

connect their vital community-based efforts with those of the college, and 

with our HSIAC grant, we’ve been able to do this.” 

The college and NMIC worked together to retrofit NMIC space to house the

program. The space—networked classrooms that form an electronic bridge to

the college’s information systems—enables the college to provide residents

with everything from self-paced remedial activities to college-level courses.

NMIC also coordinates the training in the building trades offered through the

program. In addition, this close intertwining of the college and NMIC has led

to two-way referrals. 

Although BCC’s HSIAC grant ended in June 2002, the program’s success

already has led to the creation of an offshoot program called the Professional

Caregivers Institute. The institute, funded with a separate HSIAC $400,000

grant, will prepare participants to gain entry-level health-related positions as

home health aides and direct care workers. The program will help local residents meet certification and licensing requirements for those health-related

care occupations open to people with limited English skills. Its long-term goal

is to allow participants to move on from those entry-level positions to pursue

careers in healthcare.

For more information, contact Carin Savage at (718) 289–5184.
Action Plans

MODESTO JUNIOR COLLEGE

Modesto, California

Total Immersion Transforms Trainees Into Construction Professionals 

Participants in the highly disciplined construction training program at Modesto

Junior College (MJC) are being transformed into motivated professionals ready

to excel in the building trades. The college uses the HSIAC-funded program 

to empower residents of Hispanic neighborhoods in Modesto, located in

California’s naturally beautiful but economically troubled Central Valley.

Because Modesto has a seasonal, agriculturebased economy, the area’s unemployment rate

routinely fluctuates from a low of 5 to 8 percent in the summer to a high of 11 percent in

the winter. This high unemployment leads to

high poverty rates. About 55 percent of all

Stanislaus County households (70 percent of

Hispanic households) earn below 80 percent

of the area median income. 

The college’s training program prepares local

residents to find jobs in the more stable, better-paying construction sector,

helping them escape unemployment and poverty. “We take individuals with

very limited experience and prepare them for professions in construction by

targeting three basic areas,” explains Project Director Pedro Mendez. “The first

is understanding the culture and performance as a worker in the trade, the second is gaining employability knowledge and applied skills, and the third is

establishing habits and attitude.” 

Trainees study such subjects as carpentry, construction, and employability

skills. Punctuality and other good habits are emphasized. For example, if

trainees do not show up on time for each day’s early morning class, they must

go home. Program participants also gain hands-on construction experience by

working in laboratory settings and community home projects identified by

project partners. One such renovation project will enable an elderly Modesto

resident to own her own home. 

47
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

48 About 70 students have completed the construction training program, and the

program now has more applicants than it can accommodate. Mendez reports

that MJC has been able to place 60 percent of program graduates in schools 

or jobs.

The training program is a cooperative venture of a workforce development collaborative formed by local advocates in the Hispanic community and the city

of Modesto. The collaborative also includes two nonprofit project partners, the

American G.I. Forum and the Central Valley Opportunity Center, which provide educational resources. The city and the local community services agency

also make in-kind contributions worth about $310,000, paying overhead costs

and covering the salaries of project instructors and coordinators.

To supplement the training aspects of the program, the college and the collaborative also provide various services to ensure that participants are prepared to

make sound life decisions and to succeed both in the training and their construction careers. These services include life-skills training in money management, parenting, and jobseeking, and assistance with childcare, transportation,

and immigration counseling. 

The construction training program is MJC’s first attempt to reach out to the

larger community. Because it has been so successful, the college has committed

to continuing the program and is beginning to see its potential as a place

where nonprofit organizations can work together to empower local residents.

For more information, contact Pedro Mendez at (209) 575–6355.
Action Plans

STILLMAN COLLEGE

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Community Connections Program Gives Residents Edge in Job Market 

A once-jobless young woman who lived in public housing is now pursuing a

career at the local newspaper, where she was recently named Employee of the

Month. She is just one of many disadvantaged residents of the Westside neighborhood who have moved from welfare to good jobs and hopeful futures with

help from Stillman College’s Community Connections program. 

“Through Community Connections, we can

see people being empowered by the learning

process to live better in a competitive world,”

explains Eddie B. Thomas, the college’s associate vice president for community outreach

programs. “In the centers, students start out

learning at the level at which they can achieve,

and they move from there to job readiness.” 

To enable adult students to learn at their own

pace near their homes, the HBCU-funded

Community Connections program offers a variety of courses at learning centers and family resource centers in six public housing neighborhoods. It also

offers courses at a center on the college’s campus. More than 1,000 local 

residents have completed Community Connections courses, and more than

240 hard-to-employ people have obtained jobs after graduation. Courses

include basic and advanced computer training, job-readiness and jobplacement referrals, tutoring, adult learning and GED classes, and special 

subjects that encourage family stability. The centers also offer youth 

leadership and reading enrichment programs.

Community Connections is attracting strong support from the Tuscaloosa 

business community. Several large firms with local plants, including Hunt Oil,

Michelin, and Mercedes, have become program partners. Michelin regularly

uses the program’s learning centers for training and contributes $10,000 each

time. Mercedes has contributed $300,000 for scholarships. The program also

has strong public supporters, including the Tuscaloosa Housing Authority,

49
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

50 which provided the empty public housing units where Stillman has established

the program’s learning centers.

Other key local partners make in-kind contributions to support the program’s

courses and services. They include the Maude L. Whatley Health Clinic, the

city and county public schools, State employment services, Tuscaloosa County

Family Court, Indian Rivers Mental Health Center, Greene County Housing

Authority, Community Service Programs of West Alabama, and city and 

county governments. 

Before creating the Community Connections program, Stillman College and its

partners studied demographic data and found glaring discrepancies between

Westside and the rest of Tuscaloosa. They conceived Community Connections

to change this situation. The program now gives hope to residents whose

unemployment rate averages about four times that of the rest of the region.

For more information, contact Eddie B. Thomas at (205) 366–8848.
Action Plans

TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY

Houston, Texas

Houston Job-Training Center Provides Temporary

Housing for Homeless Clients 

In 1993, when the Economic Development Center

(EDC) at Texas Southern University (TSU) began

using HBCU funds to offer skills training to unemployed men and women, staff learned quickly that

many of their clients faced one important obstacle 

as they prepared themselves to seek permanent

employment: about 40 percent of the individuals

who registered for the center’s GED and computer

training classes were homeless.

“We had no problem enrolling students, but we 

had problems keeping them in the class,” says EDC

Executive Director Ella Nunn. “They couldn’t concentrate on coming to class when they didn’t know

where they are going to live. Many of them were

staying with friends or relatives, but most had only

a few months before they had to get their own places.”

Unwilling to lose students, Nunn used $208,000 in HBCU funds to provide

temporary housing to homeless men and women who were enrolled in one of

two EDC training programs. In 1996 homeless men who were enrolled in a

building and construction skills program through the university’s School of

Technology were moved into a nine-unit apartment building they had helped

rehabilitate through internships with the Southeast Keller Corporation, a local

nonprofit group. In 1997 homeless women enrolled in the computer and office

skills training program were moved into a four-bedroom home that the center

built in Houston’s Third Ward. 

“We took care of their housing needs so they wouldn’t have to worry about

that,” says Nunn. “We just wanted them to concentrate on getting themselves

ready to meet the challenges out there.”

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Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

52 Homeless women still use that house while they attend EDC classes, held each

year from September to February. Eventually, says Nunn, EDC will deed the

house to the Martin Luther King Community Center, which manages other

housing for the homeless in the Third Ward.

When women arrive at EDC’s skills-training sessions each fall, their abilities

are assessed to determine the educational and employment skills they need 

to succeed in the job market. Since 1998 EDC has worked with Houston

Community College to offer GED classes to 451 students. Using a new technology center managed by the TSU School of Business, EDC has provided 

421 students with computer and office training, which typically involves 

250 hours in the classroom. About 208 graduates of the office skills training

program have gained permanent employment.

After completing their office skills training, students have the option to stay on

at EDC to participate in an “earn while you learn” work experience that takes

place in the Business Automation Skilled Service Center that EDC established

with HBCU funds. The full-service center offers copying, binding, fax, and

computer services to the university community. It is managed by a graduate of

EDC’s office skills training program, who plans to go into the computer field

after she earns her bachelor’s degree from TSU next year. About 60 students

have worked in the automation center since 1998.

For more information, contact Ella Nunn at (713) 313–7785.
Social and Supportive Services

Minority-serving institutions are carrying out a variety of activities that

give local residents a chance to live better lives.These activities include information and referral services that link residents with existing community

agencies, educational programs that provide information about proper nutrition and native cultures, healthcare services for those who have no insurance or access to a physician, and childcare programs that allow parents to

earn a living outside the home.

Public housing. Seeking to serve the most vulnerable of a community’s

residents, many minority-serving institutions have established programs 

that are geared to, and often located in, public housing communities. For

example, Gadsden State Community College (page 55) operates

Neighborhood Networks Community Development Centers in five subsidized housing facilities in Gadsden, Alabama. Staff at all of the HBCUsupported centers work together once each year to sponsor an annual

health fair where residents can obtain free eye examinations, preventive

screenings, and health-related information.The centers also offer various

continuing education opportunities for adults and children.

After it completes HBCU-funded renovations at the Glenarden Apartments in Glenarden, Maryland, Bowie State University (BSU) plans to

establish a health center there. BSU will staff the health center with faculty

and students from its nursing department as well as professional nurses

from the local Baden Health Center. Currently, BSU is meeting with residents and managers at the apartment complex to determine the kind of

medical care residents need most. Once the center is ready for operation,

staff will be available once a week to provide a full range of health services.

Cultural connections. To be successful, health education programs that

are sponsored by minority-serving institutions must respect the culture of

their constituents.That is the approach being taken by Turtle Mountain

Community College (page 57) in North Dakota.The college is using a

Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) grant to help members of

the Ojibwa Indian tribe find cures for chronic illnesses, including diabetes,

that have become a serious problem in recent years.The Anishinaubag

Wellness Center will use gardening, education, and Ojibwa traditions to help

residents of the Turtle Mountain Reservation recapture their ancestors’

healthier lifestyle.

Action Plans

53
Families also will be able to receive culturally tailored training on health

and nutrition from a new Childcare Development and Family Support

Training Center that will be established by Southwestern Indian

Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque, New Mexico.The center 

will provide childcare services to Native Americans who would like to

attend SIPI. Using funds from the TCUP program, the U.S. Department of

Education, the American Indian College Fund, the New Mexico State

Legislature, and other community partners, SIPI hopes to complete construction on the center in spring 2003.

Read the following accounts to learn more about how HUD grantees

are providing social and supportive services to local communities.

Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

54
Action Plans

GADSDEN STATE

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Gadsden, Alabama

Community Centers Empower Residents Through Fairs, Classes, 

and Radio Spots

On Martin Luther King Day in 2002, more than 500 people in Gadsden celebrated at a community fair by getting free eye exams and preventive screenings

and learning how to live more healthy lifestyles. This annual health fair is just

one way the West Gadsden community

is being empowered by five Neighborhood Networks Community Development Centers established with HBCU

funds by Gadsden State Community

College.

The college and its community partners

established the centers at five public

housing facilities throughout the community after finding that the citizens of

predominantly African-American West

Gadsden did not know about available

educational and social services. Along with the health fair and other health

services, the centers offer continuing education opportunities for adults that

range from homebuyer workshops to flower arranging (a course popular with

senior citizens). The centers also provide afterschool tutoring for youth. So far,

more than 150 adults and youth have participated in various programs.

“Our centers make these continuing education courses available to residents

and others in the community so that all can be empowered,” explains Sharon

McGruder, who coordinates the college’s HBCU grant activities. “Residents and

others in the surrounding community stop in to sign up for continuing education, and more and more service-learning students from the college are volunteering to help with the tutoring.”

The community development centers are able to offer courses and other 

services to 4,400 low-income people in West Gadsden thanks to HBCU grants

55
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

56 received in 1998 and 2000. The grants have

enabled the college to set up the centers in

public housing apartments that have been

retrofitted and rewired so that they can serve

as computer labs as well as classrooms.

Along with the grants, the program has been helped by strong partners in 

the larger community. The city’s public housing authority, one main partner,

helped identify the need for the program and provided the space for the centers through an in-kind contribution worth about $6,000 a year. Another partner, AmSouth Bank, sends bankers and other specialists to teach homebuyer

workshops and has contributed $1,000 to help train program staff. Quality 

of Life Health Services, Riverview Regional Medical Center, and Gadsden

Regional Medical Center provide a range of health services. The local branch

of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference provided a youth breakfast 

at the health fair, and local churches post flyers and announce upcoming

events. The college also has contributed about $14,000 in matching funds

toward program salaries. 

With the community’s growing support, McGruder is confident that the centers will continue to find support and provide services after the current HBCU

grant ends. For instance, the centers originally had to pay a local radio station

for spot ads. The station now calls the center to request guests who can appear

on its talk shows.

For more information, contact

Sharon McGruder at 

(256) 547–7125.
Action Plans

TURTLE MOUNTAIN

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Turtle Mountain Reservation, North Dakota

Tribal Wellness Center Will Help Ojibwa People 

Reclaim Their Heritage 

You probably would not expect to find wetlands in North

Dakota, renowned for its endless prairies. However, the

State’s Turtle Mountain region contains wooded wetlands

where glaciers left a land rich with animals, wild fruit, and

the herbs the Plains Ojibwa people once used as medicines.

Now the Ojibwa people are reclaiming this heritage by

developing a wellness center on this land. 

The Anishinaubag Wellness Center (Anishinaubag is the

Ojibwas’ name for themselves) is being developed by Turtle

Mountain Community College on the Turtle Mountain

Reservation as a place for teaching and learning about

healthful living, proper food and nutrition habits, caring for the environment,

and the Ojibwa culture. 

“The whole idea of the center is to enable the Ojibwa people to return to their

original healthy way of life,” explains Lyle Poitra, one of the center’s developers. 

Primarily, the center will seek to help people who live on the reservation find

cures for chronic illnesses such as diabetes. Today, about 15 percent of reservation residents have been diagnosed with adult-onset diabetes. However, 50

years ago, before outside financial assistance brought unhealthy eating habits

to the reservation, diabetes was almost unknown among Native Americans,

particularly Turtle Mountain residents. Families planted large gardens, fished,

and hunted. An overweight person was uncommon. Through its holistic

approach to gardening, education, and Ojibwa traditions, the center will help

people return to their ancestors’ healthier habits.

The center is being built on a 100-acre property that was a church campground. The property’s attractive wooded surroundings blend with its log

buildings and pleasant waterfront. The college is developing gardens and

greenhouses where native plants and herbs will be cultivated, attention will be

57
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

58 focused on restoring the wholeness of tribal individuals and families, and traditional ceremonies and

powwows will be hosted.

Although its programs will be available to all 16,000

residents of the Turtle Mountain Reservation, the

center will make a special effort to serve young people. With the exception of schools, few places on

the reservation are set aside for young people, even

though individuals who are 24 years old or younger

make up 54 percent of the local population. The

center will help solve this problem by offering a range of engaging youth activities in partnership with local agencies. As part of its outreach, the center will

also serve tribal members who live in surrounding communities through

telecommunications technologies and traditional media. 

The center is forming partnerships with the Indian Health Service, which has 

a hospital nearby. Another partner, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is 

helping with outreach activities. The center also will make referrals to the

Chippewa Tribe’s Workforce Development Center, tribal courts, and local

social service and health agencies. In addition to TCUP funds, the college is

using contributions from its land grant department to develop the center.

For more information, contact Lyle Poitra at (701) 477–7832.
Youth Programs 

Parents everywhere worry about keeping their children safe while they

are young and ensuring their success when they reach adulthood.That is

why programs for young people are considered so important to family stability. As the experience of minority-serving institutions has shown, these

programs often involve neighborhood residents of all ages and eventually

have a profound effect on the entire community.

Community involvement. The entire South Tucson community has rallied

around an outdoor learning center for young people that is being established by Pima County Community College (page 63) and its partners.The college has been working with staff and students at Ochoa

Elementary School in South Tucson to develop the center, which offers

experimental courses for at-risk students. In an unexpected development,

the outdoor area has become a communitywide project that has helped

local residents do something positive for a neighborhood seriously affected

by gang-related violence.

Also tied closely to its community, a new youth center and computer

lab at the University of Hawaii–Kauai Community College

(UH–KCC) will expand an existing tutoring and mentoring program currently operated by local residents.The residents now serve 15 academically

at-risk young people, but the new AN/NHIAC-supported center will be able

to accommodate twice as many students. It will also give tutors/mentors

and students access to a computer lab and a high-speed Internet connection. Project partners include local residents, the U.S. Department of

Education, the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, several departments

at UH–KCC, and other community organizations.

Young people are not the only ones to benefit from youth programs

established by minority-serving institutions. For example, local residents soon

will be coming to the UH–KCC youth center for diabetes and blood pressure monitoring offered onsite by the college’s nursing students. Adults 

are also being served through a Family Math and Literacy Project that

California State University–Northridge (page 61) has helped to

establish for young people in Sylmar, California.Through this program, local

parents teach academic subjects to other parents so that those parents in

turn can tutor their children. As a result, both parents and children are

increasing their educational capacity. Approximately 200 families have

enrolled in the HSIAC-funded program.

Action Plans

59
Career-related experience. College students often join local residents in

running OUP-funded youth programs. In the process, many of them gain

valuable experience that should help them succeed in future educationrelated endeavors. For example, undergraduates at New Mexico State

University (NMSU) in Las Cruces will be heavily involved in a Community

Cocina program taking place at the local Court Youth Center, which is being

renovated with HSIAC funds.The center will feature an up-to-date onsite

cooking facility where NMSU students and local restaurateurs can offer

culinary arts classes and guidance to at-risk high school students. By providing these students with practical skills, NMSU hopes to begin turning around

Las Cruces’ high poverty and unemployment rates. High school students will

also work with NMSU students and the restaurateurs to make meals for a

local homeless shelter and to prepare formal dinner events for organizations

such as the United Way.

Thirteen Barry University undergraduates are providing academic

tutoring and mentoring services to local elementary, middle, and high school

students in Miami Beach, Florida.The afterschool services are currently taking place in leased space while the university finalizes its plans to build a

community youth center with HSIAC funds.The university also sponsors a

Career Mentoring Day during which participants in the afterschool program

tour the university, attend presentations about Barry’s academic offerings,

and have lunch with faculty and student mentors.

Read the following accounts to learn more about how HUD grantees

are working with local residents to provide programs for youth.

Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

60
Action Plans

CALIFORNIA STATE

UNIVERSITY–NORTHRIDGE

Sylmar, California

Parents Pursue Family Learning Through Innovative Workshops 

Schoolchildren from struggling immigrant families find that learning the basics

of reading, writing, and arithmetic can seem like a huge challenge, if not a boring one. However, in Sylmar, youngsters and their parents are learning the

“three Rs” together in lively workshops and are finding the experience enjoyable and exciting.

The Hubbard and Dyer neighborhoods of

Sylmar—located in an “invisible” urban corner of the suburban San Fernando Valley—

are largely Hispanic communities where

most of the residents live below the poverty

level. To help improve the community’s

educational levels, local public schools and

California State University–Northridge

(CSUN) developed the Family Math and

Literacy Project, which organizes local parents to teach other parents such academic

subjects as reading, writing, and mathematics. In turn, the newly educated 

parents then tutor their children and other families in a widening circle of

excitement about learning. 

“To see a whole family concentrating together on solving a math puzzle or

reading a book in a project workshop is exciting and very different from bored

or rowdy kids sitting at desks,” says Warren Furumoto, the project’s director.

“Everyone is engaged and sometimes the kids even get the answer first—quite

a shock for some parents, especially fathers.” 

Workshops are held in modular classrooms, known as neighborhood centers,

that were purchased and equipped by CSUN with about $320,000 in HSIAC

funds. The grant also covers about $12,000 a year in stipends offered to parents who are starting out as project participants. To support the neighborhood

centers, the Los Angeles Unified School District, a key project partner, donates

61
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

62 about $6,000 a year in supplies and provides program participants with access to

the parents’ resource centers housed in

every Los Angeles elementary school.

Another partner, the Northeast Valley

Urban Village Initiative, is made up of

local parents who teach other parents.

Finally, the university donates approximately $6,000 a year in supplies.

Since it began, the Family Math and

Literacy Project has enrolled about 200

families. In addition to increasing the educational capacity of both parents and their

children, the project has also empowered

parents, several of whom have collaborated on writing and illustrating an autobiographical book. The book, which features essays on parents’ experiences as

immigrants from Mexico and Central America, has been photocopied for use in

project workshops and will be the subject of a literacy conference that parents

are planning.

Project organizers view the literacy conference as a sign that parents are

strongly committed to the Family Math and Literacy Project and to teaching

one another. Another sign is that many parents no longer accept the stipends

originally used to encourage them to participate in the project. Instead, says

Furumoto, parents want to contribute their time and join in the excitement 

of learning.

For more information, contact Warren Furumoto at (818) 677–5207.
Action Plans

PIMA COUNTY

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

South Tucson, Arizona

Community Transforms Schoolyard Into Center of Learning and Hope 

In the midst of a community plagued by poverty and violence, Pima County

Community College (PCCC) has helped students at Ochoa Elementary School

in South Tucson transform a schoolyard into a beautiful outdoor learning and

recreational center. The center’s lush vegetation gives students and neighbors

a pleasant change from the dramatic but dusty Southwestern landscape.

However, even more than enhancing scenery, the center empowers the community to look beyond its troubles and grow toward a more hopeful tomorrow.

“The most remarkable thing is that the community has come

together after tragedies that spurred the idea for the garden,”

notes Stan Steinman, the college’s director of marketing and

advertising. The tragedies he refers to were the killings of

several schoolchildren in random gang-related violence in the

poor, mostly Hispanic community around the school. Young

people and school staff, devastated but determined, decided

to develop the outdoor learning center to do something good

in the aftermath of these events. Inspired by the center, the

surrounding community is creating mosaics and undertaking

other improvement projects in cooperation with the city and

county. For example, the county is building a computer lab to

help people from the community pursue their GEDs.

The HSIAC-funded learning center is one way the college is working in partnership with the city of South Tucson to revitalize the community. Though its

vibrant Southwestern landscape charms the casual observer, the city of Pima is

struggling to overcome serious social and economic ills. Jobs that pay well are

hard to find, says Steinman; although the unemployment rate is low, underemployment is common. More than 17 percent of residents live below the poverty level in a city that had a 57-percent high school dropout rate in 1995.

Despite such gloomy numbers, the learning center offers a new way forward,

symbolized by its spacious ramada—an open outdoor room—designed and

63
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

64 built in traditional Native American style. This ramada is the center of outdoor

teaching, which focuses on experimental courses for at-risk students. A community garden, another feature of the center, enables residents and students to

grow vegetables and enjoy hands-on school-community teamwork. 

To supplement PCCC’s HSIAC grant, key institutional partners have provided

in-kind support and additional funding. The Tucson Unified School District has

given $49,000 toward teacher salaries, engineering facilities, ground support,

and materials. The famed Canyon Ranch resort, which adopted the school

after the tragedies as part of the Faces of Change program, has given $48,000

in volunteer support, materials, and design and construction services. The

county government has contributed $250,000 by improving the lighting and

the streets around the school and learning center. Finally, the college itself has

given $10,000 worth of support for a fine arts curriculum and related projects. 

For more information, contact Stan Steinman at (520) 206–4657.
Technology Initiatives 

At one time, computers and the Internet were luxuries not everyone

could afford or understand.Today, technology is fast becoming an essential

tool for people of all ages and economic backgrounds. A number of minorityserving institutions are focusing their OUP grant activities on providing local

residents with computer skills and Internet access so they can participate

fully in America’s economic, political, and social life.

Technology-related programs can be tailored easily to the grantee’s

budget and capacity. Some programs are making incredible strides toward

meeting neighborhood needs with just 15 to 17 computer stations, while

others serve hundreds of clients and have a full complement of sophisticated equipment.Whatever their scope, the HUD-supported technology programs all meet their students where they are and take them to places of

which they have never dreamed.

Small centers. Although the college sponsors only a small computer center, North Carolina A&T State University (page 69) in Greensboro,

North Carolina, is making a big difference in the lives of local residents.

North Carolina A&T has used HBCU funds to establish a 17-workstation

laboratory in a Greensboro Baptist church. Each week, the lab serves about

150 individuals who arrive to take classes or to use computers for a variety

of purposes, including online job searches.

Unlimited capacity. Just like the seemingly never-ending series of links that

surfers can follow on the Internet, attempts by minority-serving institutions

to share technology with their constituents sometimes lead program coordinators down unexpected paths. For example, a technology center being

developed by Passaic County Community College (PCCC) in

Paterson, New Jersey (page 71), succeeded in expanding beyond its original

mission long before the actual center even opened its doors.While PCCC

waited for its technology center to be completed, the college established

five satellite computer centers in libraries, schools, and youth centers

throughout Paterson.

Action Plans

65
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

66

Although most technology centers strive to prepare residents to compete in the digital economy, a technology center sponsored by Midland

College (page 67) and its partners has launched an entire city into the

technology age.The Advanced Technology Center in Midland,Texas, which

houses 500 computers, numerous classrooms, and a 100-seat multimedia

lecture hall, is credited with helping Midland lure the Cingular Wireless company to the town.The company, which now employs 900 Midland residents,

uses the center to train its employees.

Read the following accounts to learn more about how HUD grantees

are working to bridge the digital divide.
Action Plans

MIDLAND COLLEGE

Midland, Texas

Technology Center Helps Clinch Economic Development Deal

The citizens of Midland held their breath in spring 2001 when the Cingular

Wireless company began searching for a city in which to house one of its

regional call centers. Midland did not have the kind of economic development

incentive fund that other Southwestern cities could use to attract big companies. What it did have, however, was a state-of-the-art Advanced Technology

Center (ATC) where Cingular could train its employees.

ATC, the result of a partnership among

Midland College, the Midland Chamber

of Commerce, and the Midland Independent School District, helped this

West Texas city of 70,000 residents

clinch the deal. Cingular moved to

Midland in June 2001 with plans to

employ 900 local residents by June 2002. 

Located in an 85,000-square-foot facility

that once housed a Sears, ATC’s main

mission is to train local residents—48

percent of whom are Hispanic—for jobs

that require technology-related skills. Plans for the center began in 1999 as project partners were looking for a way to help West Texas diversify its economic

base after years of dependence on the oil industry. 

Opened in three phases between August 2000 and December 2001, the center

has three major divisions that teach computer-related skills, train students in

welding and automotive technology, and introduce high school students to

health-related occupations. Each division has classroom and laboratory space

where students can gain real work experience. Among them, the divisions

make use of 500 computers; a 40-station computer lab is open to the general

public from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

67
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

68 Midland College used its HSIAC grant to equip ATC’s 100-seat lecture hall,

which has the capacity for teleconferencing and multimedia projection. 

In addition to HSIAC funds, the $9.5 million center was financed with a 

$3 million grant from the local Abell-Hanger Foundation and $1 million in

Community Development Block Grant funds obtained by the city. Midland

College and the Midland Independent School District each contributed $1 million to the project, and the Federal Economic Development Administration

provided a grant of $900,000. Remaining funds came from individual donors. 

All ATC partners make daily use of the center, which has relieved the area’s

four high schools and Midland College from the financial burden of purchasing

and upgrading computers and technology-related equipment. On any given

day, 700 high school students take classes at ATC, and approximately 200

undergraduate and continuing education students take credit and noncredit

technology courses in the evening. About 50 local businesses have used the

center’s customized training services since they became available in September

2000. ATC staff members often conduct these training sessions; or, like

Cingular, companies simply use ATC facilities and provide their own trainers.

“We basically gave Cingular office space here as well as nine classrooms to

train their employees,” says Rebecca Bell, ATC director. “The fact that the ATC

was available had a big impact on their moving to Midland. While it normally

takes them 2 days to move into a building and get ready to train employees, it

took them about 2 hours here because we have such a sophisticated computer

network infrastructure.” 

For more information, contact Rebecca Bell at (915) 697–5863, ext. 3601, or 

e-mail her at rbell@midland.edu.
Action Plans

NORTH CAROLINA A&T 

STATE UNIVERSITY

Greensboro, North Carolina

Students of All Ages Use Computers To Cross the Digital Divide 

A computer lab located in a Greensboro Baptist church is enabling a diverse

group of students to overcome their lack of computer knowledge and join the

information age. The Community Empowerment Laboratory, a program developed by North Carolina A&T State University with HBCU funds, reaches out

to people of all ages who want to use computers. Senior citizens, some of

whom have computers but are afraid to touch them, are among the program’s

most enthusiastic participants.

“Before I started working at the university, back

in the mid-1990s, I saw the opportunities of digital technology but also the huge gap between

that opportunity and the women on welfare I

was working to help,” explains Linda Tillman,

who coordinates lab operations.

Tillman says that while working on another

HUD project, she became intrigued with the

potential that faith-based organizations have 

to help people overcome the digital divide. She approached Greensboro’s New

Light Baptist Church, which already was involved in reaching out to high-risk

youth. Today, the church is one of the Community Empowerment Laboratory’s

most important partners, offering its strong experience with, and commitment

to, serving the community as well as space for the lab’s 17 computer workstations. The lab offers specialized courses in various aspects of computers and

provides students with an opportunity to pursue their own projects during

open hours. Those projects often include looking for jobs online.

Users of all ages benefit from lab services. For example, one former student, 

a high school dropout who had completed a GED program, worked as the 

lab’s manager until she recently accepted a better paying position at a local 

private college.

69
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

70 Along with New Light Church, the other main program partner is Dudley High School, which cooperates closely in presenting pre-SAT and computer

competency courses to center students. Local agencies also are supportive. The Greensboro Police Department provides volunteers, and the city of Greensboro and the Greensboro Housing Authority help

with outreach and link participants to supportive services as necessary. Staff

members from the university provide technical support. 

The Community Empowerment Laboratory serves about 150 people a week.

Altogether, it has helped more than 5,000 people become more comfortable

with computers. 

For more information, contact Linda Tillman at (336) 334–7890.
Action Plans

PASSAIC COUNTY

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Paterson, New Jersey

Under-Construction Technology Center Is Already Changing City’s 

Digital Culture

A 15,000-square-foot building that once housed an automotive repair shop in

Paterson’s Enterprise Zone has become the focal point of a citywide movement

to help residents understand technology and use it to improve the quality of

their lives. Ironically, the city-owned building that started this movement 2

years ago stands empty today, but that fact has not slowed the project’s

momentum.

By summer 2003 the building will house the Community

Technology Center (CTC), a HSIAC-funded resource

facility that Passaic County Community College

(PCCC) plans to equip with a computer center, a television production studio, and classrooms. While waiting

for the building to be renovated and outfitted, PCCC

has been busy changing Paterson’s culture. 

Already the college has succeeded in establishing

small technology centers in a public school, a Boys

and Girls Club, and the city’s main library and two of

its branches. None of the libraries had ever housed a

computer before. AmeriCorps volunteers now work

as computer mentors to help local residents make

meaningful use of the new facilities. CTC Director

Gaby Rinkerman has trained community group leaders so they can teach technology skills to their constituents, who include children attending afterschool

programs, adults enrolled in job-training courses, and immigrants learning to

speak English. Soon, 30 public school teachers and nonprofit trainers will be

learning ways to integrate technology into their classrooms during a 20-hour,

PCCC-sponsored training program.

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Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

72 “We have tried to bring to city residents an awareness that there is a telecommunications infrastructure out there that plays a critical role in their daily lives,

just like water and electricity do,” says Thomas Lancaster, PCCC’s director of

school and government relations. “Ultimately, we want to help the city’s workforce compete in a culture that has a computer in every aspect of it. We’d like

to help Paterson turn toward the future. We saw the technology wave passing

us by.”

Although Paterson has an illustrious past—the steam engine and the submarine

were developed in its factories—the need to create a brighter future is clear. Hit

hard by the decline of American manufacturing, the city has no large, stable

employers, and most residents, 90 percent of whom are minorities and immigrants, either work outside the city or in low-paying service-sector jobs. The

unemployment rate is 15 percent. 

Eager to see this figure change, city, State, and Federal agencies have strongly 

supported CTC and its programs, says Todd Sorber, PCCC’s director of institutional advancement. A $400,000 HSIAC grant has helped the college attract more

than $1 million in funds from such supporters as the New Jersey Commission on

Higher Education, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of

Commerce Economic Development Administration, the city of Paterson, Public

Service Electric and Gas, and the Corporation for National Service. Additional

partners include Verizon and the Paterson public schools. Congressman Bill

Pascrell and PCCC President Steven M. Rose also have been staunch advocates

of the CTC project. 

The wealth of programming that PCCC and its partners have initiated over the

past 2 years causes Rinkerman to joke that she is director of a “virtual” technology center. But, in spite of the humor, Rinkerman suggests that the programs have helped to build citywide anticipation for CTC’s opening next year. 

“In most projects, you go out, get resources, put a building in place, and then

hope people will come to it,” says Rinkerman. “We’ve done things a little differently. As a result, we think the demand for CTC programs will be tremendous right at the outset.”

For more information, contact Todd Sorber at (973) 684–5656.
Appendix

73

OUP Grantees 1994–2002

AN/NHIAC

CDWSP

COPC

COPC New Directions

HBCU (Includes 1991–1993)

HSIACTCUP

Office of University Partnerships Grantees, 1994–2002
Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

74

OUP Grantees 1994–2002

AN/NHIAC

CDWSP

COPC

COPC New Directions

HBCU (Includes 1991–1993)

HSIACTCUP

Office of University Partnerships Grantees 1994–2002 (continued)
List

LIST OF GRANTEES,

1994–2002*

* Includes HUD HBCU grants awarded between 1991 and 1993.

Alabama

Alabama A&M University

Alabama State University

Auburn University

Bishop State Community College

C.A. Fredd Technical College

Gadsden State Community College

J.F. Drake State Technology College

Lawson State Community College

Miles College

Oakwood College

Stillman College

Talladega College

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Alaska

Ilisagvik College

University of Alaska, Anchorage

University of Alaska, Fairbanks–

Bristol Bay Campus

University of Alaska, Fairbanks–

Chukchi Campus

University of Alaska, Fairbanks–

Interior Aleutians Campus

Arizona

Arizona State University

Arizona Western College

Cochise College

Northern Arizona University

Phoenix College

Pima County Community College

University of Arizona

Arkansas

Arkansas Baptist College

Arkansas State University

Philander Smith College

Shorter College

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

California

California Polytechnic State University

California State University–Dominguez Hills

California State University–Hayward

California State University–Northridge

California State University–Pomona

Claremont Graduate University

Gavilan College

Los Angeles Mission College

Los Angeles Trade Technical College

Los Angeles Valley College

Merced College

Modesto Junior College

Occidental College

San Bernardino Community College

San Diego Community College District
San Diego State University–

Imperial Valley Campus

San Francisco State University

San Jose State University

Santa Ana College

Southwestern College

University of California–Berkeley

University of California–Irvine

University of California–Los Angeles

University of California–San Diego

University of the Pacific

University of San Diego

West Hills Community College

West Kern Community College District/

Taft College

Yosemite Community College District

Colorado

Adams State College

Colorado State University

University of Colorado, Denver

University of Denver–Colorado Seminary

University of Southern Colorado

Connecticut

Central Connecticut State University

Housatonic Community College

Trinity College

Yale University

Delaware

Delaware State University

University of Delaware

District of Columbia

Georgetown University

Howard University

Metropolitan Washington Council of

Governments

University of the District of Columbia

Florida

Barry University

Bethune-Cookman College

Edward Waters College

Florida A&M University

Florida Atlantic University

Florida International University

Florida State University

Miami-Dade Community College/

InterAmerican Campus

University of Florida

University of Miami

University of South Florida

University of West Florida

Georgia

Albany State University

Clark Atlanta University

Fort Valley State University

Georgia Institute of Technology

Georgia Southern University

Georgia State University

Interdenominational Theological Center

Mercer University

Morehouse College

Morris Brown College

Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

76
Savannah State University

Spelman College

State University of West Georgia

Hawaii

Kauai Community College

Leeward Community College

Maui Community College

University of Hawaii–West Oahu

University of Hawaii at Manoa

Winward Community College

Illinois

DePaul University

Illinois Institute of Technology

Loyola University–Chicago

Northern Illinois University

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

University of Chicago

University of Illinois at Chicago

University of Illinois at Springfield

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Indiana

Ball State University

Butler University

Indiana University

Indiana University–Northwest

Indiana University/Purdue University Indiana

Valparaiso University

Iowa

Iowa State University

University of Northern Iowa

Kansas

Donnelly College

Kansas State University

University of Kansas

Kentucky

Eastern Kentucky University

Kentucky State University

Morehead State University

University of Kentucky

University of Louisville

Louisiana

Dillard University

Grambling State University

Louisiana State University and A&M College

Southern University

Southern University and A&M College 

Southern University at New Orleans

Southern University at Shreveport

Xavier University of Louisiana

Maine

University of Southern Maine

Maryland

Bowie State University

Coppin State College

Frostburg State University

Morgan State University

University of Maryland, Baltimore

Massachusetts

Fitchburg State College

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Merrimack College

List of Grantees

77
Northeastern University

Northern Essex Community College

Springfield College

University of Massachusetts–Boston

University of Massachusetts–Lowell

Michigan

Calvin College

Eastern Michigan University

Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College

Michigan State University

University of Michigan

University of Michigan–Dearborn

University of Michigan–Flint

Wayne State University

Western Michigan University

Minnesota

Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College

Macalester College

Metropolitan State University

Minnesota State University

University of Minnesota

Mississippi

Alcorn State University

Coahoma Community College

Hinds Community College

Jackson State University

Mississippi Valley State University

Rust College

Tougaloo College

Missouri

Harris-Stowe State College

University of Missouri–Kansas City

University of Missouri–St. Louis

Montana

Ft. Belknap College

Ft. Peck Community College

Little Big Horn College

Stone Child College

Nebraska

Little Priest Tribal College

University of Nebraska–Lincoln

University of Nebraska–Omaha

New Hampshire

University of Southern New Hampshire–

Manchester

New Jersey

Hudson County Community College

Kean University

Montclair State University

New Jersey City University

Passaic County Community College

Rowan University

Rutgers University

New Mexico

Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute

Dona Ana Branch Community College

Institute of American Indian Arts

New Mexico State University

Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

78
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

University of New Mexico

Western New Mexico University

New York

Barnard College

Boricua College

Bronx Community College

Brooklyn College

Buffalo State College

City College of New York

Columbia University

Cornell University

Hunter College

Lehman College

Medgar Evers College, CUNY

New School for Social Research

Pratt Institute

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

State University of New York at Binghamton

State University of New York at Buffalo

State University of New York at Cortland

North Carolina 

Barber-Scotia College

Bennett College

Duke University

East Carolina University

Elizabeth City State University

Fayetteville State University

Johnson C. Smith University

North Carolina A&T State University

North Carolina Central University

Shaw University

St. Augustine’s College

Triangle J Council of Governments

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Winston-Salem State University

North Dakota

Cankdeska Cikana Community College

Turtle Mountain Community College

Ohio

Case Western Reserve University

Central State University

Cleveland State University

Ohio State University

University of Cincinnati

University of Toledo

Wright State University

Youngstown State University

Oklahoma

Langston University

Tulsa Community College

Oregon

Portland State University

University of Oregon

Pennsylvania

Carnegie Mellon University

Duquesne University

Lincoln University

Robert Morris University

List of Grantees

79
Temple University

University of Pennsylvania

University of Pittsburgh

Puerto Rico

Universidad del Este

Universidad del Turabo

University of Puerto Rico–Rio Piedras

Campus

Rhode Island

University of Rhode Island

South Carolina 

Allen University

Benedict College

Claflin University

Clemson University

South Carolina State University

Voorhees College

South Dakota 

Oglala Lakota College

Si Tanka College

Sisseton Wahpeton Community College

Tennessee

East Tennessee State University

Fisk University

LeMoyne-Owen College

Meharry Medical College

Tennessee State University

University of Memphis

University of Tennessee–Chattanooga

University of Tennessee–Knoxville

Vanderbilt University

Texas

Alamo Area Council of Governments

Del Mar College

El Paso Community College

Houston Community College

Huston-Tillotson College

Jarvis Christian College

Midland College

North Central Texas Council of Governments

Palo Alto College

Paul Quinn College

San Jacinto College North

Southwest Texas Junior College

St. Philip’s College

Texas A&M International University

Texas A&M University

Texas College

Texas Southern University

Texas Tech University

University of North Texas

University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Brownsville

University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas 

Southmost College

University of Texas at El Paso

University of Texas at San Antonio

University of Texas Health Science Center 

at San Antonio

University of Texas–Pan American

University of the Incarnate Word

Wiley College

Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

80
Vermont

University of Vermont

Virgin Islands

University of the Virgin Islands

Virginia

George Mason University

Hampton University

Lynchburg College

Norfolk State University

St. Paul’s College

Tidewater Community College

Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State 

University

Virginia Union University

Washington

Columbia Basin College

Eastern Washington University

Seattle Central Community College

Spokane Falls Community College

University of Washington

Yakima Valley Community College

West Virginia

Bluefield State College

Marshall University

West Virginia State College

West Virginia University

Wisconsin

College of Menominee Nation

Medical College of Wisconsin

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

University of Wisconsin–Parkside

List of Grantees

81
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