Although some people view land-grant institutions as higher education’s misunderstood underdogs for their roots in an 1890 congressional bill that made college accessible for Black students and agriculture pivotal to the schools’ mission, today’s “1890 land-grant universities are in a prime position to assist with President Obama’s charge to increase graduation rates and boost American higher education,” says Dr. JoAnn Haysbert, president of Langston University, an 1890 school in Langston, Okla.

Haysbert says too often the 1890s get overlooked for what they can offer to higher education beyond the study of agriculture and the environment. “We are that plus more,” adds Haysbert who touts the percentage of Langston’s science graduates who pursue advanced degrees and enter medical school. “About 80 percent in chemistry and about 66 percent in biology,” she says.  

These are accomplishments not usually associated with “our land grants,” adds Haysbert, who is also the chairman-elect of the APLU’s Council of 1890 Universities.

STEM Projects

The APLU’s new college access initiatives are also in step with the Obama administration’s efforts to revive a lagging science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, workforce. Two of APLU’s new programs will be aimed at both faculty and students in STEM. With funding from the National Science Foundation, the association will launch the Science-Mathematics Teacher Imperative this year to increase the quality, quantity and diversity of science and mathematics teachers in K-12.

“Of the 3.5 million teachers in the U.S., only 5 percent are African-American females and only 1.8 percent are African-American males,” Esters points out.

The association’s Minority Male STEM Initiative, launched last year, is being led by a national team of researchers and experts in areas including student counseling and evaluation surveying and reporting on policies, practices and programs that support the recruitment, retention, graduation and transition to careers in STEM fields. The team has the task of coming up with a plan to help fulfill the initiative’s mission of increasing the number of minority male college graduates in STEM disciplines. The group will issue its findings in December.