HBCU Budget Cuts Are Not Theoretical, But Real

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

The current administration’s funding cuts are launching harsh realities at some HBCUs.

The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation have canceled more than $140 million in grants at HBCUs since March, according to a recent Chronicle of Higher Education analysis of two databases tracking grant cancellations.

NSF, NIH, and the Department of Energy have cancelled funding for scholarships and research and training grants at HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions. These funds date back to 1980 when Jimmy Carter signed the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities through an executive order that encouraged federal agencies to invest in HBCUs.

According to news reports, a $2.7 billion shortfall in the Pell Grant program could also surface later this year. The proposal is advancing through the House’s version of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” which includes tighter eligibility rules that alarmed educators. The changes, according to the Congressional Budget Office, could kick nearly 10 percent of Pell recipients off the award and shrink the amount of money most participants receive. The bill also includes language that would bar students enrolled less than half-time from the grant.

Mark Brown, a former Trump Education Department official who is now president of Alabama’s Tuskegee University, told senators last month that Pell reductions proposed by the House would push students to take out more loans.

The list of HBCUs that are feeling the impact include Hampton University ($1.2 million in cancelled NIH funds), Tennessee State University ($34.5 million), North Carolina A&T ($24 million), Howard ($11 million), Morehouse ($2.9 million in cancelled NIH funds), Florida A&M University’s pharmacy school ($16 million). The cuts also include at least 490 grants totaling more than $300 million for research on health disparities, scholarships, and research centers.

Several Black college administrators are appealing grant pauses.

Hampton University President Darrell K. Williams is quoted in The Chronicle in a recent interview.