Neera Tanden Remarks at Annual National HBCU Week Conference

As Prepared for Delivery:

Thank you so much, Jessi [Mitchell]. Hello, everyone! Happy HBCU Week. It is such an honor to be here today with the presidents of our Nation’s 101 Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

I also want to thank Dr. Dietra Trent, executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs, and Drs. Tony Allen and Glenda Glover, for chairing the President’s Board of Advisors on HBCUs.

We are so proud to have so many HBCU graduates in the Administration. That includes, of course, Howard University grad, and our country’s Vice President, Kamala Harris.

The Biden-Harris Administration is so proud to support HBCUs. Your collective efforts to foster academic excellence have consistently created pathways of opportunity for so many Black students throughout our nation’s history. To shape the leaders of our democracy.

You know, there’s a lot of talk about the American Dream. 

And what is at the heart of that promise?

That success is not just for the privileged, but that anyone that is provided with equal opportunity can reach to where their talents take them.

Today, so many colleges have become institutions of privilege. Places where the average family income for incoming freshmen is hundreds of thousands of dollars.

HBCUs remain the true engines of economic mobility and innovation in America. HBCUs have created the Black middle class in America.

They enroll more than twice as many Pell Grant-eligible students as other colleges. Oftentimes, HBCU students are the first in their family to attend college.

And, compared to the Ivy League, HBCUs help more than five times as many students move out of the bottom 40 percent of household incomes.

HBCUs propel graduates into the leaders of tomorrow: public servants, scientists, artists, lawyers, engineers, inventors, educators, and business owners.

Four out of five Black federal judges graduated from an HBCU.

Three-quarters of the Black military officers, PhDs, and doctors graduated from an HBCU.

So did half of Black teachers, engineers, and lawyers.

The list goes on.

And, when HBCUs succeed, America succeeds.

We become more competitive. We become more innovative. We create a stronger, more resilient economy.

And that is why we are so proud of the major investments we’ve made in this Administration.

Overall, our Administration has invested more in HBCUs than any other administration in history.

We’re expanding Federal grants. Creating more contracting opportunities with Federal agencies. Growing financial aid. And investing in STEM research and programs at HBCUs.

These investments allow HBCUs to build their own incredible research capacity. And our Administration is directly investing in research at HBCUs more broadly.

We’ve taken historic actions to invest in the R&D capacity of HBCUs. And we continue to work to close systemic gaps, so that HBCUs can fairly compete for research investments.

These initiatives are helping us innovate for the future in critical areas.

For example, the Department of Defense provided $90 to establish the first HBCU-led University Affiliated Research Center.

This center, led by Howard University in collaboration with seven other HBCUs, is leading the way in deploying autonomous technologies for Air Force missions.

As another example: President Biden also signed the CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen America’s semiconductor manufacturing capacity and industry.

CHIPS requires federal research agencies to fund capacity-building activities at HBCUs, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Minority Serving Institutions.

As a result, our investments are generating additional investments from the private sector.

For instance, Micron and Global Foundries, two leading semiconductor companies, announced their MSI Semiconductor Network. They’re providing over $10 million to 15 schools, including HBCUs.

There’s a lot to celebrate—and we couldn’t do it without your help.

Of course, our work isn’t finished.  

We’re continuing to work with agencies to meet their CHIPS and Science Act obligations to support under-resourced research institutions.

We’re leveraging opportunities to partner with the private sector.

And we’re committed to ramping up our efforts to ensure that HBCUs across the country are receiving the resources they need.

We can’t do this without you. So, thank you for everything you do to prepare the leaders of tomorrow.

We look forward to continued collaboration and partnership with you all. Thank you.