HBCUs to get restoration funding

Historically Black Colleges and Universities will now be able to compete for funding to restore and preserve their campus thanks to the passage of a $26.3 billion Interior Appropriations bill passed by the U.S. Senate.
This bill will reinstate cuts made in President Bush’s initial budget geared towards preserving and restoring HBCUs.
“This funding is critical to the preservation of our Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” said U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La), in a press release.
“HBCUs play an important role in Louisiana and the entire country, and we must do everything we can to protect their eroding infrastructure.”
Landrieu led the efforts that resulted in the passage of the amendment, which appropriates $2 million for preservation at HBCUs.
A 1998 General Accounting Office study projected that $755 million would be needed to restore 712 historic structures on HBCU campuses in need of repair.
Sixteen of those structures were located in Louisiana, with repair costs tallying an estimated $19.578 million.
“Such influential individuals as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Booker T. Washington, Toni Morrison, Thurgood Marshall and many more were all graduates of HBCUs,” Landrieu said in the press release. “The crumbling down of their colleges, classrooms, and really, their histories, is unimaginable.”
The way the institutions will be able to receive the funding will be through competitive national grant programs. Louisiana’s six HBCUs include Dillard University, Grambling State University, Southern University A&M College, Southern University at New Orleans, Southern University at Shreveport and Xavier University of Louisiana.
“We have already submitted a proposal under that program and we are probably one of the earliest HBCUs to do so,” said Southern University System Interim President, Edward Jackson. “We only have a limited number of buildings that actually qualify though. It is not a lot of money, but we are definitely appreciative of what we can get.”
Jackson alluded to Riverside Hall as the target for renovation on the SUBR campus.
“We want to restore it (Riverside Hall) and make it functional space that can be used for fine arts purposes,” Jackson said.
Landrieu said in the press release that while the monies granted by the legislation provide only a portion of what the schools actually need, it at least does not allow for removal of all federal funding HBCUs have.
“This funding is just a fraction of what these schools really need, but I could not allow the President to completely take away all of the federal support they have,” she said. “This is only the beginning and I will continue to work to provide the funding needed to preserve the HBCU heritage and history that has so enriched our nation.”