Emergency Grants Out to 16 Historically Black Colleges and Universities
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation today announced $1.76 million in emergency grants distributed to 16 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The grants aim to help the institutions stabilize enrollments for the upcoming academic year. For students, the grants address technology needs, financial strain due to tuition or residential bills, supporting essential travel between home and campus, and other necessities.
HBCUs are an integral part of the higher education landscape and enroll nearly 300,000 students across the country, but these institutions face chronic funding challenges. The COVID-19 epidemic has increased these challenges, which are affecting students’ ability to pay tuition, travel to and from school, and access the internet, thereby jeopardizing their continuous enrollment.
“HBCUs play an essential role in shaping the minds and futures of our nation’s talented young people,” said Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander. “As the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affects underresourced institutions and communities of color, the Mellon Foundation is proud to provide focused support for students attending these vital historically black schools.”
Reflecting on the importance and potential impact of this funding Lincoln University President Brenda Allen remarked: “For every $1,000 we can offer a student in grant aid we increase the likelihood that they will graduate by about 20 percent.”
Funding in the form of $110,000 emergency grants will be given to Lincoln and 15 other HBCUs: Claflin University, Clark Atlanta University, Dillard University, Fisk University, Hampton University, Howard University, Johnson C. Smith University, Morehouse College, Morgan State University, North Carolina A&T State University, Prairie View A&M University, Spelman College, Tougaloo College, Winston-Salem State University, and Xavier University of Louisiana.
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About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty and empowerment that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and guided by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.