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# FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Highlights A Record of Championing Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)

# FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Highlights A Record of Championing Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)

September 29, 2023

**Contact:  **press@ed.gov

                                    -        
In his Executive Order reestablishing the White House  Initiative (Initiative) on Historically Black Colleges and Universities  (HBCUs), President Joe Biden charged the Initiative to, “develop new and expand  pre-existing national networks of individuals, organizations, and communities  to share and implement administrative and programmatic best practices related  to advancing educational equity, excellence, and opportunity at  HBCUs.”   

  This week, the Initiative hosted the annual National HBCU Week Conference,  the nation’s premier convening of HBCU leaders. The event provides a unique  occasion for over 2,300 registered representatives from HBCUs, federal  agencies, private-sector companies, philanthropic organizations, and others to  discuss opportunities to advance educational equity, improve instruction,  support degree completion, and deepen federal engagement—all of which  strengthen the role of HBCUs. The achievements of HBCU graduates speak to the  value of these institutions, which foster academic excellence and emphasize  campus cultures grounded in community and inclusion. Despite representing only  3% of colleges and universities, HBCU graduates play an outsized role to  support the economic mobility of African Americans, producing: 
- 40 percent of all Black       engineers   
- 50 percent of all Black       teachers
- 70 percent of all Black       doctors and dentists
- 80 percent of all Black       judges
- The first woman and       Black and South Asian Vice President of the United States  

For more than 180 years, HBCUs have raised the bar for  equity, access, and excellence, creating doors of opportunity for Black  students where none previously existed. The Biden-Harris Administration views  HBCUs as central to our vision of a more inclusive, equitable, and valuable higher  education system. The Biden-Harris Administration has taken historic actions to  support HBCUs, including by:  

**Investing  over $7 billion in HBCUs, which includes:**
- $3.6 billion for HBCUs       through the American Rescue Plan and other COVID relief.    
- $1.6 billion in capital       finance debt relief for 45 public and private HBCUs.  
- $1.7 billion in grant       funding to expand academic capacity and provide support for low-income       students.   

**Supporting  HBCUs, the students they enroll, and a diverse teacher workforce in the 2022  and 2023 spending packages, which include securing:**
- New flexibilities for       minority-serving institutions to use Higher Education Emergency Relief       Fund dollars to invest in renovations, construction, and other       infrastructure needs related to the pandemic;
- A combined $900 increase       to Pell Grants—the largest increase in a decade—bringing the maximum award       to $7,395, which is critical to the approximately 75 percent of HBCU       students who rely on Pell Grants to afford college;
- A new $50 million grant program       focused on supporting research and development infrastructure and capacity       for HBCUs, Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and MSIs;
- A $758 million       investment for HBCU institutional development; and
- First-time grants for       the Augustus Hawkins Centers of Excellence to strengthen and diversify the       teaching profession to help close opportunity gaps, including $1.56       million going to an HBCU.    

**Drawing  attention to funding inequities for 1890 land-grant institutions.**
- U.S. Secretary of       Education Miguel Cardona and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack       sent letters to 16 governors emphasizing the over $12 billion disparity in       funding between land-grant HBCUs and their non-HBCU land-grant peers in       their states that occurred between 1987 and 2020. This disparity has: 
Forced many HBCUs to        operate with inadequate resources and delay investments in campus        infrastructure, student supports, research development, and more;
Resulted in states        failing to live up to their legal obligations to provide equitable        funding to HBCUs, resulting in funding gaps from $172 million to $2.1        billion; and
Reinforced the        importance of equitably funding HBCUs and the talented, diverse students        and communities they serve so they may reach their full potential and        continue driving innovation.

**Supporting  HBCUs facing violence:**
- The U.S. Department of       Education ensured HBCUs affected by more than a dozen bomb threats in 2022       were able to secure over $2.4 million in Project SERV funds— grants to       help schools and colleges recover from a violent or traumatic event. The       Department worked with HBCUs and across the federal government to: 
Direct Project SERV        funds help restore safe learning environments and invest in mental health        for students; and
Develop a compendium of        federal programs to help institutions responding to bomb threats.  

**The  U.S. Department of Education is proud to be a part of a whole-of-government  approach to pioneering brand new programs in support of HBCUs, including:**
- U.S.       Air Force’s  first-ever HBCU-led University       Affiliated Research Center  (UARC), led by Howard University       with 7 other HBCUs and funded at $90 million over five years.  
- Department       of Commerce’s  first-ever Connecting-Minority-Communities program  delivering funding for 43       HBCUs  to purchase broadband internet, equipment, and IT       personnel.   
- Department       of Transportation  announced Prairie View A&M University in Texas as       the  first-ever HBCU to lead a       University Transportation Center . Prairie View A&M, with 11       other HBCUs, were among 34 schools to receive a portion of a $435 million       grant for development of interoperable technology systems.  
- Department       of Energy’s  first-ever Funding for       Accelerated, Inclusive Research (FAIR) Program  providing over       $35 million to build research capacity, infrastructure, and expertise at       institutions historically excluded from federal research and       development.  
- National       Science Foundation’s new efforts to break down barriers in STEM such as:
The 
Growing Research Access for        Nationally Transformative Equity and Diversity (GRANTED) program
 to encourage transformative ideas and scalable models to break down        barriers to federal grants and other resources for emerging research and        minority-serving institutions; and   

- NASA’s  new pioneering efforts to       close opportunity gaps in STEM, including nearly $12 million for eight       HBCUs  to support programs in artificial intelligence and       machine learning and create a more diverse pipeline of talent for       “data-intensive space-based Earth sciences” careers.  
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