Obama Aims to Improve Historically Black Colleges

President Obama has recently begun efforts to revitalize a long dormant advisory board originally intended to aid the president in making historically black colleges more competitive in the modern day. The president has decided to appoint 11 qualified individuals to this board who will be directly responsible for reporting to the president on the progress of the colleges included in the initiative.

While this advisory board may not be new, the recent appointments made by the president are strong efforts to revitalize the board and renew efforts toward it’s goal. The board was originally created in 1981 but has been largely dormant in recent years.

The White House added that these efforts are part of a larger initiative aimed at strengthening black colleges and universities.   The larger initiative includes more money in college grants in the form of a $160 increase to the Pell Grant.

The board is comprised of representatives of select doctrines including education, business and private foundations and is designed to assess the varying facets of the 105 colleges and universities in the United States that qualify as historically black. These schools serve approximately 300,000 undergraduate students.

To help bolster this advisory board and renew it’s mission, President Obama has appointed University of Wisconsin Colleges and Extensions Chancellor David Wilson. Wilson will be representing Morgan State University on the committee not UW Colleges and Extensions. “I am honored the president of the United States looked in my direction,” Wilson said.

Thus far the Obama administration has been highly active in the promotion and strengthening of historically black colleges and universities and the White House announced in a Feb. 26th press release that this new initiative will be housed in the Department of Education.

Students interested in an online degree program may find that this new initiative may enable these colleges to expand their online offerings.  They may also greatly benefit from the rise in grants for online college tuition costs.