Dr. Michael Lomax:
Well, the hardest thing about being a college president is that you have to spend a whole lot of time doing what I do, going out and raising money.
And at the same time, they have got to ensure that they’re doing what their primary purpose is, and that is to provide a competitive education for young people, and to do it in a supportive and embracing environment.
We saw recently in the issues around — since October 7 that this isn’t just something that affects Black students. It really affects a lot of other students, Jewish students, on predominantly white campuses, a sense that their — these institutions are not really there for them, that they’re there on sufferance, as opposed to on merit.
And I think there’s a real challenge for a lot of American higher education, that they have become so exclusive that the people that they’re there to serve don’t feel a sense of connection. So what we know about HBCUs is that they do create warm, supportive, nurturing environments.
And those first-generation Black students whose families don’t have a lot of tradition of sending people to college and they’re not viewed as outsiders, they’re viewed as the reason for the institution. Given that, there’s a real challenge for us to raise more dollars to support more students.
And that’s why endowments are so important. Now, I would just say something about this. We have a $1 billion capital campaign under way.
