Dr. Michael Sorrell, the president of Paul Quinn College, an HBCU in Texas
“I wish we would see investment from a broader lens and understand what could be done if the same people didn’t give the same money to the same institution,” said Dr. Michael J. Sorrell, the president of Paul Quinn College, one of the nation's historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). About 80% of Paul Quinn students are Pell Grant recipients.
Sorrell was one of the speakers on a panel co-hosted by Rutgers University’s Center for Minority Serving Institutions (CMSI) and the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity, and Justice. The other panelists included two researchers of philanthropy in higher education as well as Dr. Rowena Tomaneng, president of San Jose City College (SJCC), another MSI.
“I have several thousand students from the poorest neighborhoods in San Jose, so the work we do is really about lifting students out of generational poverty,” said Tomaneng.
About 40% of SJCC students are Latinx and 30% identify as Asian American.
“With the pandemic, I have witnessed many students and their families losing employment, facing food insecurity and other affordability issues,” said Tomaneng. “So, philanthropy has been at the center of the work I’ve been doing this past year.”
Yet Tomaneng said that as a community college in Silicon Valley, SJCC often battles against stigmas that can be attached to the institution and its students. She has been trying to change the narrative on the potential of her students and the value of their degree. Still, fundraising can be an uphill climb for many MSIs like SJCC.
