This post is co-authored with Nelson Bowman III, the Executive Director of Development at Prairie View A&M University and co-author (with Marybeth Gasman) of A Guide to Fundraising at Historically Black Colleges and Universities: An All Campus Approach.
In honor of the New Year, we thought we generated this list of the top 10 HBCU successes of the past year. There have been many successes, but these stand out in terms of innovation, boldness, and impact.
1.Morehouse College created an LGBT course. According to Morehouse's newspaper, the Maroon Tiger, the course is "an interdisciplinary survey of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) culture and politics."
2.Bowie State University became the first HBCU to open an LGBT Resource Center.
3.Claflin University received a $1 million gift for their music department. The gift will endow scholarships for students pursuing music as a major.
4.Alcorn State University received a national diversity and inclusion award from Insight into Diversity. They are the first HBCU to receive this award.
5.Morgan State University hosted a White House African American Policy Forum, featuring White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett.
6.Alcorn State and Morgan State Universities became the first HBCUs to join the growing group of institutions offering MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). They are offering free, online courses to people across the world and exposing these students to their professors and curricular offerings.
7.Delaware State University received a $10 million from the National Institutes of Health to establish a neuroscience research center on its campus.
8.Southern University graduated 18 year-old Polite Stewart in physics. He enrolled at the institution at 14 and has already held research assistantships at North Carolina State University and Texas Christian University.
9.Hampton University created an academic concentration in nanoscience. The institution received $2.9 million from the National Science Foundation to launch the nanoscience concentration.
10.Virginia State University received $1.4 million from the National Science Foundation to develop more math teachers.
If you have additional successes to report, please do so in the comment sections. Thanks and Happy New Year!