…leaders at advocacy organizations like the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which represents the nation’s public HBCUs, said changes to the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and Work Study programs raise concerns about the impact on students at those institutions and their ability to graduate.
For the first time, the Pepsi-owned Ruffles brand takes presenting sponsorship of the NBA Celebrity Game on Friday. The game for the first time will feature a branded four-point “Ridge” line incorporated into the second half of the game, with each shot made earning $4,000 for the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
I think that one thing people can do is support HBCUs. The Thurgood Marshall College Fund, United Negro College Fund between the two represent financially 99 percent of black colleges and universities. People can can give and think about supporting these institutions, which I think the film shows very clearly have been instrumental in the making of America.
“By preserving level funding, our HBCU’s have fared much better than other higher education stakeholders and federal agencies, relative to the proposed 10.5% cut to the Department of Education’s overall budget,” said Thurgood Marshall College Fund CEO and President Harry Williams.
In 2015, as told on the Center for Advancing Opportunity website, Johnny C. Taylor Jr., then-president of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, heard libertarian billionaire businessman Charles Koch, in a TV interview, discussing eliminating barriers to opportunity. Taylor reached out to Koch, and the result was a Koch contribution of $25.6 million to the TMCF to establish the Center for Advancing Opportunity.
TMCF appreciates that the House Education and Workforce Committee incorporated provisions into H.R. 4508 (the “PROSPER Act”) which directly benefit TMCF member-schools, but we are equally concerned by language and provisions in the bill which, on its face, appears to hinder the ability of low-income and first generation students – two of the most common demographics among students enrolled at HBCUs today – to access, persist and ultimately complete their course of study at our nation’s HBCUs.