Among the many lies that Donald Trump told on his way to the White House was that he would do many “bigly” things for “the blacks.” And back in February during Black History Month, he made a “yuge” deal of bringing together the heads of more than 70 presidents of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the Oval Office to affirm his support for HBCUs and sign an executive order moving a federal office supporting the institutions from the Department of Education directly into the White House. Amid the pomp and circumstance of the signing he said, “We will make HBCUs a priority in the White House, an absolute priority." And guess what? No surprises here, he lied.
But for leaders and advocates of these institutions, the release of Trump's budget in late May did nothing of the sort. Not only was there no new funding for HBCUs in the budget, Trump called for slashing millions of dollars from federal programs that also support degree programs at the schools. Trump's plan appeared to boost Pell grants by extending their use to year-round—but meanwhile called for taking away $5 billion-plus in reserves from the Pell program and cutting at least $1.5 billion from other federal financial aid programs, including work study. Taken together, these cuts would disproportionately affect low-income students at black colleges, and cost the schools millions in revenue.
The question here really shouldn’t be why Trump isn’t living up to his promise to invest in HBCUs but rather why the leaders of these institutions were inclined to believe this known liar and racist in the first place. After all, absolutely nothing about Trump, from his campaign rhetoric to who he’s appointed to his administration, suggests remote concern for the students at black colleges. Less than one month into his term, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos showed she has no knowledge of history, segregation or racism when she called HBCUs “pioneers of school choice.” And just last month, Trump himself flip-flopped on support for HBCUs when he suggested that federal funding of them may be unconstitutional. Given that, how is it that anyone is seriously surprised at this move?
"The perception that many HBCU presidents were operating under was that the administration was making a commitment to follow up with a substantial investment in the institutions," [Morgan State University president David Wilson said]. "What we see now certainly does not meet my definition of substantial investment."
"The budget doesn't match" earlier messaging from the White House, said Walter Kimbrough, the president of Dillard University. "I'll be interested to see how members of his team will say this undergirds his recent support for HBCUs. At least for Dillard, I can say it's a loss."
Unfortunately, HBCUs are often cash- and resource-strapped institutions. So it’s tempting to follow the money, even though it may mean making a deal with the devil. HBCU leaders and advocacy groups have repeatedly tried to work with the administration to get funding—even going so far as asking that key programs at the Department of Education which support their institutions be funded at the congressional maximum amount of $500 million. Despite all the statistics they have presented: that this would be good for all black Americans given that HBCUs represent a large percentage of the schools that educate low-income black students, first-generation college students as well as black doctors, lawyers, engineers and teachers, the administration remains unconvinced and refuses to increase funding. Hint: It’s because they do not care about black people.
One constituent group, however, that was never convinced to coddle up to the Trump administration have been students at HBCUs. They knew from the beginning that this administration represented a dangerous threat to their education and livelihood. And they’ve not been silent about it.
The day after the Oval Office meeting with HBCU leaders, Howard students awoke to graffiti spray painted on the school's main yard that read "Welcome to the Trump Plantation. Overseer: Wayne A. I. Frederick," referring to the school's president. Graffiti left elsewhere said "Wayne Frederick doesn't care about black people." [...]
Trump "threatens to send the feds into Chicago, and we all know what that means as black people," [Yvonne Hamel, a freshman and member of a student activist group, said]. "He openly speaks about [banning] Muslims. We have a large population of students that come from foreign countries. So we want to make sure that this [Howard] administration is not compromising" the interests of its students in exchange for funding, she said.
So while these administrators continue their futile efforts and try to reason with mad men, HBCU students remain steadfast in their resistance. Last month at Bethune Cookman University in Florida, graduates stood up (literally) to Betsy DeVos as their commencement speaker. And at Texas Southern University, they signed a petition and were able to have Sen. John Cornyn cancelled as their graduation speaker. If only HBCU administrators were able to follow the leadership of their students. After all, the students saw this coming from the beginning.