LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — There is progress in the effort to fund historically Black colleges and universities in our state.
For Arkansas Representative French Hill, the state's HBCUs play an important role and he is hoping to continue to help level the playing field.
As apart of Hill's HBCU summit, he and four HBCU leaders in Arkansas met to discuss how the state can continue to add help.
Rep. Hill said the institutions are oftentimes under-resourced and for students like Daren Butler, seeing funding progress at the capitol is welcomed.
"Seeing the different representatives we have from industry to academia come together is a good sign that people are taking this issue seriously," Butler said.
The HBCU summit initiative dates back to 2019, when Hill met with higher education leaders to discuss how more money can be given to these institutions to help students.
"Today, our follow-up was on philanthropy, how do we get more private donors to come to campus to benefit both the campus and the students," Hill said.
Earlier this year, he and other legislators created the "Ignite Act".
It is aimed at remodeling buildings on HBCU campuses and even improving labs for STEM students.
Hill believes that effort will be lucrative for the state.
"We have four schools here in central Arkansas that contribute to our jobs here and our economic development and I want to see that on a national basis," Hill said.
It is something the president of Philander Smith College, Roderick Smothers, believes will have a positive impact on the school.
Their enrollment is up from last year, but not close to their pre-pandemic numbers.
His hope is that programs like "Ignite Act" will attract more people to HBCUs.
"We are finding that many people who are not black or African American are finding that historically black colleges and universities are also opportunities for them," Smothers said.