RISE Center webinar series: Racism, Not Race: An evolutionary biologist's answers to Frequently Asked Questions

In 1862, American higher education received a major boost by the passage of the Morrill Land Grant Act. This established 57 universities in 37 states. However, after the Civil War ended, land grant institutions in the former Confederate states refused entry to persons of African descent. Very few African Americans were admitted to higher education in the former union states as well. For this reason, congress authorized a second Morrill Land Grant Act of 1890. In comparison, the 1890 act, only established 19 universities in 18 states. Today funding for education at all levels differs dramatically by socially defined race. State appropriations to HWIs are disproportionately larger than HBCUs. This historic underfunding of HBCUs relative to the needs of their students results in an environment in which their faculty must teach disproportionately higher class loads, advise larger numbers of students, and teach and conduct research in facilities that are ill-suited for 21st-century STEM instruction and research. Black land-grant universities operate on shoestring budgets, with fewer resources for research, technology, academic instruction, student support, and community programs. This lecture discussed the consequences of this inequity and the path forward.

In partnership with the School of Life Sciences (SOLS).