Dissatisfaction Voiced At HBCU Meeting
Tension mounts over how to expand federal funding for
Black colleges and the role of the White House Initiative.
By David Pluviose

WASHINGTON

The National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week Conference last month concluded with a contentious meeting between the President’s Board of Advisors on HBCUs and Charles M. Greene, the newly installed executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs. Friction between Greene and the board was apparent at the outset of the meeting, as Greene in particular expressed frustration about the cloudy role of the initiative.

A presidential executive order mandates that federal agencies establish an annual plan to help HBCUs improve their respective capacities and compete more effectively for grants, contracts and cooperative agreements. But the process and frequency of the required reports by the agencies has become a point of contention between Greene and the board. Recently, the board discussed issuing recommendations to President Bush and U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, requesting more data from federal agencies regarding their work with HBCUs. During the meeting, Greene took issue with the recommendations, saying Bush and Spellings didn’t need to be involved because any necessary changes could be handled by staff.

“In all due respect, I don’t think I know — and I don’t think the board knows — what it is that we fully need,” he said. “When I came into this position, it was not a clear roadmap as to how we should have been operating and how we should operate in the future. That’s what concerns me. It also concerns me that [the board’s directive] is a little bit of micromanagement.”

Dr. Louis Sullivan, chairman of the board, responded by reminding Greene that he “works for the board, not the other way around. If indeed you have another interpretation, then I think we have a problem.”