WASHINGTON — United Negro College Fund, the nation’s largest and most effective minority education organization, applauds the significant increase in federal support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) contained in the Fiscal Year 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act. The omnibus spending bill provides a $22 million increase for the Title III Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities program administered by the U.S. Department of Education, providing the largest funding boost for the program in six years. As a result, total program funding will increase to $387 million in Fiscal Year 2016.

“An important strategy in closing the college attainment gap between minority and low-income students and their more advantaged peers is to strengthen the capacity of HBCUs, which are a ‘best buy’ in American higher education. This much needed federal investment in HBCUs recognizes that these institutions are an important part of our national commitment to ensure that every student has a shot at earning a college degree,” United Negro College Fund President and CEO Dr. Michael L. Lomax said in a news release. 

UNCF led the work of a coalition of HBCUs, other minority-serving institutions and community colleges, which urged Congressional leaders to invest in “the colleges and universities graduating disproportionate percentages of the growing populations of the nation.” A recent Gallup-Purdue poll noted that Black graduates of HBCUs are significantly more likely to feel supported while in college and thrive in the workplace after graduation than black graduates from other institutions.

The Title III HBCU program helps 37 UNCF-member institutions and other HBCUs to expand high-quality academic programs, invest in state-of-the-art technology, provide student supports, build endowments, and enhance fiscal and administrative operations.