By the year 2010, according to the National Science Foundation
(NSF), this country will need to produce 11,000 Ph.D.s in engineering
and science annually. Concurrently, the annual Ph.D. shortfall could be
about 9,600 by the year 2000.
This substantial shortfall cannot–and will not–be alleviated by
continued dependence upon the “good ole boy” network of traditional
sources of scientists and engineers. It will be physiologically
impossible for Yale, Harvard, Berkeley, Michigan, MIT, Stanford, and
Johns Hopkins universities–alone–to pick up the slack with regards to
our national needs as far as economic development is concerned.
This means that increasingly, as already signaled by the federal
government, there will be more and more dependence upon the
productivity by historically Black institutions.
Data compiled by the National Research Council show that from 1983
to 1987, HBCUs produced the largest percentage of Black Ph.D.s. And
according to the NSF, in 1988-89, the nation’s five top producers of
Black engineers with baccalaureate degrees were all HBCUs –North
Carolina A&T, Howard, Tuskegee, Prairie View A&M, and Southern.
The sixth was the City College of New York, which has a proportionately
large number of Black students.
The nation’s problems associated with the internationalization of
economic competition cannot be alleviated until it deals with the issue
of the underrepresentation of minorities and females in science and
technology. That means the federal government and the Fortune 500 must
find a way to enhance Black campuses. Any disparity that exists between
Black campuses and majority campuses–as far as facilities, missions,
and programs are concerned–threatens the ability to address those
problems.
On the one hand, Blacks are underrepresented in science and
technology. On the other hand, there is ample evidence to suggest that
HBCUs –which produce the largest number of Black scientists and
engineers–are sitting in a position of disequalization as far as
program mission and facilities equity are concerned.
For example, in 1993-94, according to the NSF’s list of top 100
research-producing universities receiving federal money for science and
engineering research, the institution that garnered the most federal
dollars was Johns Hopkins University, which received $701 million from
ten federal agencies. Number 100 on that list was the University of
Massachusetts-Worchester, which was awarded $36.6 million. There wasn’t
an HBCU on the list.
