Ignite HBCU Excellence Act | Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Inc.

About The IGNITE HBCU Excellence Act

A historic investment in HBCUs to deepen their transformational work

HBCUs have always been agents of equity, access, and excellence in education, especially for students of color. While only representing roughly 3 percent of all four-year colleges and universities, HBCUs produce upwards of 17 percent of all bachelor’s degrees awarded to African Americans.¹ Additionally, HBCUs enroll a disproportionately high percentage of first generation and low-income students – nearly 60 percent – and outperform their peers in supporting and graduating these students.² HBCUs graduate 27 percent of African Americans with bachelor’s degrees in STEM subjects, as well as a significant portion of African Americans with doctorates in science and engineering.³ What’s more, on an annual basis, HBCUs contribute nearly $15 billion to their communities, produce 134,000 jobs, and create $46.8 billion in alumni career earnings that can be directly attributed to their degrees.⁴

The incredible success of HBCUs has been achieved despite over a century of significant underfunding by public and private support. Too often, HBCUs are forced to navigate the effects of that underfunding while also lacking access to alternate sources of capital available to other institutions.⁵

HBCU Infrastructure Face Sheet

House Leads: Reps. Alma S. Adams, Ph.D, French Hill
Senate Leads: Sens. Chris Coons, Tim Scott

Critical Infrastructure and Modernization Needs at HBCUs

A June 2018 Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report⁶ identified “extensive and diverse” capital project needs at HBCUs. The report also noted that “HBCUs continue to face challenges in securing financing to undertake needed capital projects” and that “these colleges may be unable to make the campus improvements necessary to attract and retain students, potentially jeopardizing their long-term sustainability.”

Specifically, the GAO found that:

70 of 79 HBCUs surveyed reported that 46 percent of their building space needed repair or complete replacement.
8 of the 35 public HBCUs surveyed reported that more than 75 percent of their building space needed repair or replacement.
Public and private HBCUs reported average deferred maintenance backlogs of $67 million and $17 million respectively, and 30 HBCUs reported that their deferred maintenance backlog had increased from 2015-2017.
42 surveyed HBCUs reported having buildings designated as historic, making up an average of 11 percent of their building space, and the Department of the
Interior reported in 2018 that HBCUs have historic building rehabilitation needs but lack the resources to address them.

The IGNITE HBCU Excellence Act

The Institutional Grants for New Infrastructure, Technology, and Education for (IGNITE) HBCU Excellence Act recognizes the contributions of these institutions in the most important way possible: by providing HBCUs the support and investment needed to deepen their transformational work.

Specifically, it provides support for HBCUs to:

Encourage additional public and private investments in their institutions;
Renovate, repair, modernize, or construct new campus facilities, including instructional, research, and residential spaces;
Preserve buildings with historic significance;
Ensure the resilience, safety, and sustainability of campus facilities;
Provide access to campus-wide, reliable high-speed broadband to support digital learning and long-term technological capacity;
Improving campus facilities to support community-based partnerships that provide students and community members with academic, health, and social services; and
Procure equipment and technology to facilitate high-quality research and instruction.

¹ U.S. Department of Education. 2016. Fact Sheet: Spurring African-American STEM Degree Completion. https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/fact-sheet-spurring-african-american-stem-degree-completion

² Postsecondary National Policy Institute. 2019. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs): What They Are, Who They Serve, and the Related Federal Grant Program. https://pnpi.org/wp content/uploads/2019/06/PNPI_HistoricallyBlackCollegesAndUniversities.pdf

³ U.S. Department of Education. 2016. Fact Sheet: Spurring African-American STEM Degree Completion. https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/fact-sheet-spurring-african-american-stem-degree-completion

⁴ Humphreys, Jeffrey. 2017. HBCUs Make America Strong: The Positive Economic Impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. UNCF Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute report.

⁵ Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. House of Representatives. 2019. Investing in Economic Mobility: The Important Role of HBCUs, TCUs, and MSIs in Closing Racial and Wealth Gaps in Higher Education. Committee Report. https://edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Ed_and_Labor_HBCU_TCU_and_MSI_Report_FINAL.pdf

⁶ U.S. Government Accountability Office. 2018. Action Needed to Improve Participation in Education’s HBCU Capital Financing Program, GAO-18-455. https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-18-455.pdf

Letter to Democratic Offices

Copy and paste the letter below or download the Word document.

Dear Rep. <<Member Last Name>>,

We write today to request that you cosponsor H.R.3294, the IGNITE HBCU Excellence Act.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have always been agents of equity, access, and excellence in education, especially for students of color. While only representing roughly 3 percent of all four-year colleges and universities, HBCUs produce upwards of 17 percent of all bachelor’s degrees awarded to African Americans. However, the incredible success of these institutions has been achieved in spite of over a century of systemic underfunding at both the state and federal levels. Too often, HBCUs are forced to navigate the effects of chronic underfunding while also lacking the same access to alternate sources of capital available to other institutions. In his American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, President Biden has proposed to invest billions of dollars in HBCUs to make these campuses whole. We strongly agree that this level of investment is needed to rectify historic inequities and ensure that HBCUs can continue their mission to educate first generation, low-income college students.

H.R. 3294 represents a transformational bipartisan proposal to rebuild and revitalize HBCU campus and digital infrastructure. The bill would authorize a novel grant program that allows HBCUs to: renovate, repair, modernize, or construct new campus facilities; leverage private partnerships and federal research funding; preserve buildings with historic significance; procure research equipment; install high-speed broadband; and so much more. We strongly believe that HBCUs are vital to creating the diverse 21st Century workforce that our nation and our industry needs to compete globally. Therefore, we respectfully request that you lend your support to this legislation and work expeditiously for its enactment.

If you have any questions about this legislation or would like to cosponsor the IGNITE HBCU Excellence Act, please contact Gordon Holzberg in Rep. Alma Adams’s office at Gordon.Holzberg@mail.house.gov or Amelia Allert in Rep. French Hill’s office at Amelia.Allert@mail.house.gov.

We appreciate your consideration of our request and your support of HBCUs.

Sincerely,

Letter to Republican Offices

Copy and paste the letter below or download the Word document.

Dear Rep. <<Member Last Name>>,

We write today to request that you cosponsor H.R.3294, the bipartisan IGNITE HBCU Excellence Act.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have always been agents of access and excellence in education, especially for Black students. While only representing roughly 3 percent of all four-year colleges and universities, HBCUs produce upwards of 17 percent of all bachelor’s degrees awarded to African Americans. However, the incredible success of these institutions has been achieved in spite of over a century of systemic underfunding at both the state and federal levels. Too often, HBCUs are forced to navigate the effects of chronic underfunding while also lacking the same access to alternate sources of capital available to other institutions. We believe that new federal investments are needed to ensure that HBCUs can continue their mission, while becoming even more competitive.

H.R. 3294 represents a transformational bipartisan proposal to rebuild and revitalize HBCU campus and digital infrastructure, while encouraging philanthropic and private investments. The bill would authorize a novel grant program that allows HBCUs to: renovate, repair, modernize, or construct new campus facilities; leverage private partnerships and federal research funding; preserve buildings with historic significance; procure research equipment; install high-speed broadband; and so much more. We strongly believe that HBCUs are vital to creating the 21st Century workforce that our nation and our industry needs to compete globally. Therefore, we respectfully request that you lend your support to this legislation and work expeditiously for its enactment.

If you have any questions about this legislation or would like to cosponsor the IGNITE HBCU Excellence Act, please contact Gordon Holzberg in Rep. Alma Adams’s office at Gordon.Holzberg@mail.house.gov or Amelia Allert in Rep. French Hill’s office at Amelia.Allert@mail.house.gov.

We appreciate your consideration of our request and your support of HBCUs.

Sincerely,

Cosponsor the IGNITE HBCU Excellence Act

House Leads: Reps. Alma S. Adams, Ph.D., French Hill

Senate Leads: Senators Chris Coons and Tim Scott

Endorsing Organizations: United Negro College Fund (UNCF), Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO)

Dear Colleague:

Congressional Bipartisan HBCU Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Alma S. Adams, Ph.D. and French Hill invite you to cosponsor the IGNITE HBCU Excellence Act.

HBCUs have always been agents of equity, access, and excellence in education, especially for students of color. However, the incredible success of these institutions has been achieved despite over a century of public and private underfunding. Too often, HBCUs are forced to navigate the effects of that underfunding while also lacking access to alternate sources of capital available to other institutions.

A June 2018 Government Accountability Office (GAO) Reportopens in a new window identified “extensive and diverse” capital project needs at HBCUs. The report also noted that “HBCUs continue to face challenges in securing financing to undertake needed capital projects” and that “these colleges may be unable to make the campus improvements necessary to attract and retain students, potentially jeopardizing their long-term sustainability.”

To address these critical needs, we will be introducing the bipartisan Institutional Grants for New Infrastructure, Technology, and Education for HBCU Excellence Act (IGNITE HBCU Excellence Act). This bill recognizes the contributions of HBCUs in the most important way possible: providing them the support and investment needed to deepen their transformational work.

Specifically, it provides support for HBCUs to:

Utilize public and private investments to renovate, repair, modernize, or construct new campus facilities, including instructional, research, and residential spaces;
Preserve buildings with historic significance;
Ensure the resilience, safety, and sustainability of campus facilities;
Provide access to campus-wide, reliable high-speed broadband to support digital learning and long-term technological capacity;
Improving campus facilities to support community-based partnerships that provide students and community members with academic, health, and social services; and
Procure equipment and technology to facilitate high-quality research and instruction.

To cosponsor the IGNITE HBCU Excellence Act, please complete this form. If you have any questions, please contact Gordon Holzberg (Gordon.Holzberg@mail.house.gov) in Rep. Adams’ office or Amelia Allert (Amelia.Allert@mail.house.gov) in Rep. Hill’s office.

Sincerely,

Alma S. Adams, Ph.D.
Co-Chair, Congressional Bipartisan HBCU Caucus

French Hill
Co-Chair, Congressional Bipartisan HBCU Caucus

Media

Tim Scott (R-SC)
United States Senator

Alma Adams (D-NC)
United States Representative

CBC IGNITE HCBU Bill Presser