College students and leaders from South Carolina’s historically Black colleges and universities packed the State House on Tuesday for HBCU Day, using the annual event to press lawmakers for more state investment in their campuses.
All eight of South Carolina’s HBCUs joined the state’s first Legislative Black Caucus to call attention to what they described as a long-standing funding gap. During a Tuesday afternoon news conference, caucus Chairwoman Rep. Annie McDaniel said the group is pushing to “narrow the gap” in resources.
“The South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus effectively sets the table for all who are now ready to narrow the gap and find our HBCUs as they deserve to be funded,” McDaniel said.
Caucus leaders said they have submitted a request for additional funding through the state budget process. Co-Chairman Rep. Hamilton Grant said the caucus and HBCU presidents recently submitted “a historic ask” of “thirty million additional dollars in HEAP funding.”
“I’m happy to announce that a couple weeks ago the HBCU caucus along with the HBCU presidents, we got together based off a meeting that we had last year and we submitted a historic ask from the legislation which was thirty million additional dollars in HEAP funding,” Grant said.
Caucus members said they are working with the House Ways and Means Committee to secure the funding.
House Speaker Murrell Smith addressed the concerns Tuesday, saying the committee is aware of the need and that lawmakers will have to focus more on higher education funding tied to workforce needs.
“We are going to have to start working with higher education and funding, portions of higher education that’s going to help us with our work force needs,” Smith said. “Things that we have not been investing in lately in South Carolina, I think you’ll start seeing us doing that and HBCUs are critical importance of it.”
The caucus said South Carolina’s HBCUs have been underfunded by more than $420 million over the last 40 years.
HBCU leaders said additional money is needed to improve campus infrastructure and strengthen academic and career-path programs they say have been neglected.
Morris College President Said Sewell said the day’s message must translate into action and resources, including HEAP funding that can help students afford tuition.
“It’s great to have the day but the day without the work is useless,” Sewell said. “We want to make sure we have the resources like funding strongly HEAP funds so that lottery money could be used to support our students. So that our students can come back and say you know what we don’t have to struggle to try to figure out to pay tuition. Those dollars from heap go to that area.”
South Carolina State University President Alexander Conyers said that while SC State is publicly funded, the broader funding challenges facing HBCUs extend across both public and private institutions.
“SC State University, we do have an advantage of being a public funded university however, the same issues that exist at the private institution we must look at those as well,” Conyers said. “It’s equally important across the board that our HBCUs are provided the necessary funding so that our students on those campuses are provided the same opportunities.”
The caucus’ request for additional funds still must be approved by the House Ways and Means Committee before it is sent to the Senate.
