Motivating area leadership and mobilizing broad-based support were the beginning of the turning tide for UDC. In addition to voices that had been stating the case for the school, others come to bear.
"We believe UDC should continue to be a four-year university and that the faculty should have more say in its future," Dr. George E. Holmes chair of coalition committee organized to support UDC and head of Howard's American Association of University Professors said to Black Issues earlier this year. The coalition garnered support from the area's academic community, as well as local and congressional political figures.
Although a number of leaders had already been involved in efforts to support UDC, the collective actions placed pressure on the Clinton Administration, the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate Appropriations committee, and the Control Board to restore financial support to UDC.
"Much of what is happening started with the federal government," Anderson explained. "But city official and people who UDC can identify with have come out and responded.
"The decision-makers have come out and issued their financial support. Remember that even when we had to make the $16 million cut, we raised over $29 million in grants from the public and private sector," she continued. "Those are sources that never stopped believing in UDC."
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