[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 66 (Thursday, April 28, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H2102-H2104]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE HBCU CAUCUS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Byrne) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. BYRNE. Mr. Speaker, it is my great privilege and honor today to
be a part of a Special Order on the 1-year anniversary of the
bipartisan HBCU Caucus. For those who are listening or who are
watching, let me make sure you understand that HBCU stands for
Historically Black Colleges and Universities. That is what we will be
talking about today.
I am the co-chair of this caucus, along with a Member of this body
who came up with this idea and who has spearheaded this effort from the
very beginning--she is the spirit behind it--Congresswoman Alma Adams
from the great State of North Carolina.
I yield to Congresswoman Adams so that she may speak to this House
and to the Nation about the importance of this topic and about the
importance of HBCUs to the United States of America.
Ms. ADAMS. I thank Congressman Byrne. I appreciate the gentleman's
yielding to me and his work with this caucus.
Mr. Speaker, today marks the first anniversary of the bipartisan
Congressional Historically Black Colleges and Universities Caucus,
known by many as the HBCU Caucus.
As a retired 40-year educator from Bennett College in Greensboro,
North Carolina, I have always believed that every young person who
desires a college education should get that opportunity. Like many of
the young people I taught at Bennett College for those four decades of
my academic career, my story is one of perseverance.
I was a first-generation college student at North Carolina A&T. I
came to school like so many students today--not fully prepared to do
college work. A&T gave me a chance because it believed in opportunity
and the fundamental importance of education that W.E.B. Du Bois spoke
about when he said: ``Of all the civil rights for which the world has
struggled and fought for 5,000 years, the right to learn is undoubtedly
the most fundamental.'' That is why I advocate for HBCUs, for they
advocated for me, and they invested in my success.
There are more than 100 HBCUs in the United States that enroll more
than 300,000 students per year. HBCUs are taking our students in--
students like me and like you--from diverse backgrounds and are giving
them a chance, a chance that other schools might not have given them.
Many HBCU students are often like I was--first generation from low-
income families--so we must ensure that all students, including those
from economically strained backgrounds, have access to a high-quality
education and are equipped with the knowledge and the 21st century
skills that they need to succeed. HBCUs do just that for so many
students. HBCUs represent 3 percent of colleges and universities; yet
we graduate 20 percent of African Americans with undergraduate degrees
and 50 percent of African American educators. Despite these facts,
HBCUs have historically been underfunded.
There are many unique challenges that HBCUs and the students they
serve face. Many students don't have the luxury of being supported
through school. Some have to work their way through, taking breaks
along the way. It is imperative then that we work together to ensure
that these institutions not only have the resources that are necessary
to encourage enrollment and increase the graduation rates among these
students, but also that they are capable of preparing these young
people for the workforce. That is why I launched the first bipartisan
Congressional HBCU Caucus with my Republican co-chair and former
Alabama Community College System Chancellor, Congressman Bradley Byrne
from Alabama.
Representative Byrne, I thank you for being my co-chair. It is a
pleasure to serve our HBCUs alongside of you.
The purpose of the caucus is to create a national dialogue so as to
educate other Members of Congress and their staffs about the issues
that impact HBCUs as well as to address the needs of HBCUs and to
support the students and graduates of these institutions by increasing
access and career opportunities. With the help of Representative Byrne,
we have grown the caucus to 56 members now, from both sides of the
aisle, over the course of this year. I am proud to announce that the
caucus is now bicameral and has the support of my home State Senator,
Richard Burr of North Carolina.
Those of us in Congress have more to learn from our HBCU institutions
and from the students who attend them. That is why, when we first
launched the caucus, our first goal was to listen, and we did just
that--we listened. We have held several staff briefings on various
topics that impact HBCUs. I hosted a roundtable in my district with
presidents and representatives from 10 HBCUs in the 12th District of
North Carolina. I hosted a roundtable in my district, as well, with the
former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as well as with presidents
and representatives from HBCUs in the 12th District to make sure that
their needs were heard. We hosted a diversity in the workforce event
with Fortune 500 companies to discuss the role HBCUs play in graduating
a skilled and diverse workforce while learning more about the programs
that are currently available to improve diversity at these companies.
We surveyed members of the caucus and Members of Congress to find out
what their priorities are for the reauthorization of the Higher
Education Act, and we hosted conference calls with chancellors and
presidents for their input. At the start of this year, we held a caucus
meeting with the new Secretary of Education, Dr. John King, Jr., in
order to share those priorities with him.
Caucus members have been steadfast in crafting legislation to
positively impact our HBCUs, which I am proud to support, from the
America's College Promise Act, which would grant any first-time student
access to community college for free and sets aside special funding for
HBCUs and other institutions that serve many low-income, first-
generation college students, to the HBCU Historic Preservation Program,
which would reauthorize funds for the preservation and restoration of
historic buildings on these campuses.
Recently, I introduced the HBCU Innovation Fund Act, which would
provide $250 million in competitive grants to these schools across the
country in order to develop critical solutions to meet current and
emerging needs, like student retention and improving graduation rates;
but this is just the start, and it is, clearly, not the end of our work
to support HBCUs.
Many of the members of this bipartisan HBCU Caucus have long been
champions for education and for our schools. This bipartisan caucus is
just another step in the right direction as we join forces across the
aisle so that we can truly make a difference and deliver for our HBCUs:
from Assistant Democratic Leader Clyburn, who works to protect
institutions like South Carolina State and who has helped start Centers
of Excellence, which have had a tremendous impact on students in his
State; to my ranking member on Education and the Workforce,
Representative Bobby Scott, who has used his leadership position to be
a national voice for all HBCUs and institutions of higher learning; to
Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, a leader in STEM education and a
steadfast voice for our students--and HBCUs in particular.
To Congressional Black Caucus chair and my colleague from North
Carolina, Representative G.K. Butterfield, I thank him for making HBCUs
a priority for our Congressional Black Caucus and for Congress.
To our Democrat vice chairs--Representative Bennie Thompson and
Representative Terri Sewell--and our Republican vice chairs--
Representatives Bruce Westerman and Randy Forbes--who have all been
fierce advocates for HBCUs in their districts, and to my colleagues--
Representatives Cedric Richmond and Corrine Brown--
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who are co-chairs of the CBC's HBCUs task force, they have all put
HBCUs first and have brought Members and the administration to the
table to highlight the issues of concern.
Thank you to all of these Members for doing this good work and for
bringing their expertise to the HBCU Caucus, because we couldn't do it
without strong leaders in our communities who represent these
institutions.
The Thurgood Marshall College Fund, an organization that supports the
47 publicly supported HBCUs, and the Thurgood Marshall Foundation
played a critical role in the caucus' inception, and their very own
president, Johnny Taylor, was the host for the caucus launch.
Thank you as well to the United Negro College Fund, which works to
support the 37-member private Historically Black Colleges and
Universities. The UNCF has been instrumental in widening the caucus'
reach and has helped provide more than $4.5 billion to help more than
400,000 students get college degrees. So we thank Dr. Lomax and all of
those who work with him.
To the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher
Education, NAFEO, which has also remained a key advocate for our HBCUs
and our students, thank you to that organization and, also, to Lezli
Baskerville.
I also congratulate the 1890 land grant institutions on their 125th
anniversary last year. I was honored to participate in the House
Agriculture Committee's hearing, in July, with the presidents and
leaders of those universities, and I look forward to continuing to work
with these organizations.
We have come a long way this year, but with this crisis still
existing in education and with those facing our HBCUs, we still have a
long road ahead of us; so I look forward to growing this partnership
with Representative Byrne and with more Members from both Chambers and
from both sides of the aisle. We can continue to collectively work
together in a bipartisan fashion to make a difference for our HBCUs and
to protect and advance the students they serve.
{time} 1615
Mr. BYRNE. Mr. Speaker, I can't say enough about the leadership on
this issue that Congresswoman Adams has provided. She just did a
terrific job of explaining to us all not just the progress that we have
made over the last year, but the promise we have in the years to come
to take this area and continue to move forward on it.
What a rich tradition we have in this country with Historically Black
Colleges and Universities. I come from the State of Alabama. We are
justifiably proud of the great institutions in our State. I can only
tell you about a few, but let's start with probably our flagship, which
is Tuskegee University, worldwide famous and well known for so many
different things.
It is not just what its history is, although it is a rich and storied
industry. It is also what it continues to do today and what Tuskegee
will do in the future to enrich the lives of hundreds, yet tens of
thousands, of people who have gone on in their lives and will go on in
their lives to do great things for our State of Alabama and for the
United States of America.
I am blessed in my district to have Bishop State Community College.
Bishop State is one of the public community colleges in the State of
Alabama. It was under my jurisdiction when I was the chancellor of
post-secondary education. It is rich in its own history with an
incredibly important mission in our rapidly growing economy in the
Mobile area of providing the trained workforce for all of the business
and industry that have been coming and is already there in our
district.
So Bishop State stands as a great symbol to me not just of what we
are, but of what we can be as we work with these institutions
throughout my State of Alabama, throughout the South, and throughout
the Nation.
I stand here not as a Black person, not as a Democrat, because this
is not a White or Black issue. This is not a Democratic or a Republican
issue. This is an American issue. This is about providing opportunity
for everyone in America.
So often we talk about opportunity. Here is an example of where we
are doing something about opportunity. We can open all the doors we
want in America, but if the people of America or a small portion of the
people of America can't walk through those doors, then we don't have
real opportunity.
This Congress has few opportunities to really do the things that need
to be done to help people. Here is one. Here is one where we can really
do something that will make a tremendous difference.
Congresswoman Adams really put her finger on it. There are many
people that go to HBCUs who didn't get there with the sort of support
that they needed, who didn't get there with the sort of academic
preparation that they needed.
Now, we can say: Oh, well. That is their problem and they just have
to find some way to deal with it. Or we can understand that that is not
just a problem for them, but that is a problem for all of us.
If we can work with them and help them with those problems through
the programs that we have at these HBCUs, not only have we given that
individual an opportunity to lift themselves up, but as they lift
themselves up, they lift up our communities and they lift up our
Nation.
So I was very honored when Congresswoman Adams came to me to ask me
to participate in this very, very worthy endeavor with her. I know we
have done some great things over the last year, but that is just a
foretaste of what we can do in the years to come with her inspiration
and with her leadership.
We have a number of great members in this caucus. One of our most
steadfast members is one of the great leaders from the State of
Florida, Representative Gwen Graham.
I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Graham) for her to come
forward and present to us her own background and her own feelings about
HBCUs.
Ms. GRAHAM. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Byrne and Congresswoman
Adams for hosting today's Special Order and for all you do to support
our Nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
It was such an honor for me to join this caucus as a founding member
with you a year ago. It is hard to believe it has already been a year.
I am proud of the bipartisan work we have done on behalf of our HBCUs.
There are more than 100 HBCUs in the United States that enroll more
than 300,000 students per year. HBCUs represent 3 percent of colleges
and universities, yet graduate 20 percent of African Americans with
undergraduate degrees and 25 percent of African American degrees in
science, technology, engineering, and math fields.
In my district, I am so proud to represent Florida Agricultural and
Mechanical University, one of our State's most historic and important
universities. Florida A&M--or FAMU, as it is more affectionately known
in north Florida--was founded in 1887 with just 15 students and 2
instructors. Let me just say: Go Rattlers.
Today the university has grown to enroll nearly 10,000 students, and
it was named by the U.S. News & World Report as the top public
Historically Black College and Universities in the entire Nation for
2015.
It is also listed among The Princeton Review's Best in the Southeast
Colleges and is one of the top picks for providing a high-quality
education at an affordable price in Florida, according to The College
Database. And FAMU is the Nation's top producer of African Americans at
the bachelor degree level.
It is such an honor for me to represent FAMU and to join the HBCU
caucus in supporting all of our Nation's Historically Black Colleges
and Universities and the wonderful students who attend them.
Again, I thank Congressman Byrne and Congresswoman Adams for hosting
this Special Order.
Mr. BYRNE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Florida for her
leadership on this issue and so many issues. It is so important that we
have the understanding, each of us, of the institutions in our own
district. She talked about Florida A&M, a great institution of higher
education in her district.
Part of what we hope to do in the caucus is to educate every Member
in
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this body about the institutions in their districts and--perhaps they
don't have any institutions in their district--about institutions
across America that are HBCUs and what they have done for their
communities and what they have done for the United States of America
and continue to do every day.
I am very blessed to have been able to work with a number of HBCUs in
Alabama in my prior positions in the State school board and as a
chancellor of post-secondary education. I must admit I didn't know very
much about them before I was in those positions.
But as I learned about them, as I got to know the administration and
the faculty, but, most importantly, the students at those institutions,
I realized what a rich resource that is for those students and for the
communities that they are founded in.
You look around the country at some of the great graduates of these
institutions and you realize where would we have been without the
HBCUs, particularly during a period of time when African Americans were
denied access to regular institutions of higher education because of
discrimination in American society.
Just because we have made progress in that regard doesn't mean that
we have ended the need for HBCUs. In many ways, the need has never been
greater, because what we need in our society from the people in our
society--in order to perform at the levels that our economy requires,
it requires ever greater levels of education, training, and expertise.
What might have been enough to know 50 years ago, we need to know far
more now and we need to know it at every level of education.
We are here today to talk about colleges and universities. Some of
the great colleges and universities in America have understood the
importance of this and have rallied around our cause. I will never
forget our kickoff day when we had the chancellor of the University of
North Carolina system here, one of the great university statewide
systems that we have in this country, as a recognition of those
universities and the role that HBCUs play along with them in providing
higher education to people throughout the United States of America.
The United Negro College Fund says that a mind is a terrible thing to
waste. A great country cannot waste any mind. We need every mind in
America to get whatever they need to become the person that they want
to become, to realize their dreams, as I said earlier, not only to lift
themselves up, but to lift the rest of us up with them. That is what we
are talking about when we talk about HBCUs.
I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina again for her leadership,
for her inspiration, for her continuing to be somebody out there to
tell us that we need to keep pushing, we need to keep pushing. As long
as she is willing to continue to do that, I am willing to continue to
do that with her.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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