HBCU Students Want Biden To Be Held Accountable to His Billion Dollar Promise

During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden committed to prioritizing funding for HBCUs, and now a year into his term, students are coming to collect. This past week, NBC News reporter Isa Gutiérrez reached out to students at various HBCU campuses to get their take on the unfulfilled promise.

In a 2020 tweet read ‘round the web, then presidential hopeful Joe Biden wrote:

“…We should forgive a minimum of $10,000/person of federal student loans, as proposed by Senator Warren and colleagues. Young people and other student debt holders bore the brunt of the last crisis. It shouldn’t happen again.”

While the administration has extended the pause on loan repayment twice since the onset of the pandemic, there have been no further announcements made in regards to their complete eradication.

Additionally, Biden and VP Kamala Harris proposed that if voted into office, the administration would dedicate $45 to $60 billion dollars to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. But from the looks of things, in the words of Teairra Mari, he ain’t got it, and students are beginning to express concern.

When asked by Gutiérrez if they feel that funding is an issue at their schools, Howard University student and campus organizer Aniyah Vines responded by saying, “Absolutely. I feel like HBCU students are just not prioritized…I’m tired of being put on the backburner.”

In the fall of 2021, you may recall that Howard University students organized campus-wide sit-ins in protest of their living conditions. For a month, students slept in tents and on air mattresses outside of campus buildings which were reportedly mold, roach, and mice infested. In November, students and activists were able to reach an agreement with university officials.

For Austin Smith, a senior at Alabama A&M University, not being able to secure proper funding places a great hindrance on his educational pursuits. His concern is for his institution to be able to provide a quality learning experience by hiring knowledgeable professors, and for those professors to be able to offer a wide range of higher level classes.

Gutiérrez later asked the small group whether or not they initially thought that the promise would be kept by the Biden administration. While Vines was skeptical “from the jump”, Smith says that he was more optimistic and perhaps a bit naive. “I thought the promise would be kept”, he responded.

University of the District of Columbia USGA President, Skye Webster was also asked to comment on what her expectations were at this point.

“I just want them to do what they said they would do,” she said to Gutiérrez. “I don’t want an installment payment. I want it all up front.”