…plenty to brag about today!
Our brilliant students also need more research opportunities that require some university models to shift from professors teaching their classes and writing more grants. This is easier said than done. As a matter of fact, I’m going to make some folks mad. If you didn’t go to or currently attend an HBCU, please go to the next article because I’m NOT talking to you. Love you though….
Can I keep it real?
The reality is, HBCUs have not changed the narrative from, “We are important because we’ve always been here!” That argument is no longer solvent. Innovation should not be history’s collateral damage. We have the talent but professors don’t have the time and space to be talented because we can’t banish corrupt megalomaniac leaders who work against the very institutions they claim to serve.
I told my mentor if I ever become a president of an HBCU, I’d hand out www.monster.com flyers out to the professors and student service staff that need to go. I’d have a brutally honest convocation that would explain the next three years will be rough. I would fight for preeminent scholars and increase student services through WORKING online platforms. I’d make sure our libraries were stocked with the best archival works and make the library truly state of the art. I’d set an edict to deans and department heads to get grants or find other employment. We would survive on adjunct teaching for a year or two but we would set vision for cross collaborative research. Oh, and if I were a college president, I’d be a heck of a fundraiser. If the Feds cut a dollar, I’d raise four.
Students need to know they matter. At many HBCUs, the teaching is phenomenal but the student services and research agendas are lacking. Our rich history will not provide much advantage into the global market place. From Timbuktu to Harlem, our resilience has never been muted. From slavery to Jim Crow, our oppression never stopped our pressing. In today’s vulnerable times, we need to…