HBCU Presidents Video: Will Trump Show #HBCUS the Money? #Burkefile:

Will Trump show Historically Black Colleges and Universities the money? The answer will soon be known after the President’s budget is released. 

On February 27, 2017, more than 60 presidents of Historically Black Colleges and Universities filed into the Oval Office for a photo op with President Donald Trump. The session was organized by Omarosa Manigault Newman, then serving as director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison. The pitch from Trump’s team was that the new administration would finally deliver a long-promised increase in federal funding for HBCUs.

What the presidents got instead was a picture with a thumbs-up. The photograph, taken in the Oval Office with Trump seated behind the Resolute Desk surrounded by Black college leaders, ricocheted across Twitter within minutes. Dillard University President Walter Kimbrough wrote a blog post within 48 hours calling the visit “awkward” and describing it as a “glorified photo op.”

The next day, Trump signed Executive Order 13779, moving the White House Initiative on HBCUs from the Department of Education into the Executive Office of the President. No new money was attached. Johnny C. Taylor Jr., then president of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, called the order a “first step” and asked for patience. Harry L. Williams, who took over the Thurgood Marshall College Fund in January 2018, has continued to press the point: a symbolic executive order is not a budget line.

The real question is what Trump’s FY2018 budget proposal will look like when it is released in mid-March. Under President Barack Obama, HBCUs received about $4 billion over eight years through Title III Part B and related programs. Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC), the founder of the bipartisan HBCU Caucus, told Crew of 42 that she expects “significant cuts” to Pell Grants and year-round Pell eligibility, both of which disproportionately affect HBCU students. Over 70 percent of students at HBCUs receive Pell Grants.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond (D-LA) was blunt in a statement issued the week of the Oval Office meeting. “A photo op is not a budget,” Richmond said. “If this administration is serious about HBCUs, it will put real dollars behind Title III and will protect Pell. Otherwise, this is just theater.”

The Burkefile video above was recorded in the days after the White House meeting, with several HBCU presidents speaking on the record about their skepticism. The clip is a reminder that the real test for the Trump administration on HBCUs will not be measured in handshakes or executive orders. It will be measured in appropriations.