The Trump administration is redirecting nearly $500 million in federal funding toward historically Black colleges and universities and tribal colleges (TCCUs), according to The Hill.
Announced on Monday, HBCUs and TCCUs will get a one-time investment of $495 million on top of what is going in the 2025 federal budget, totaling an increase of 48.4 percent for HBCUs and 109.3 percent for TCCUs.
When added to the existing appropriations approved by Congress for HBCUs, the total award now stands at $1.38 billion for fiscal year 2025.
Hampton University President Darrell Williams said in a statement provided to Axios that the university was “deeply grateful” for the funding.
“These investments in Hampton and other historically Black colleges and universities reflect confidence in our proven value to the fabric of higher education institutions and the need to fund our universities at significantly higher levels,” Williams said.
UNCF’s senior vice president for public policy and government affairs, Lodriguez V. Murray, was thankful for the funds but also noted that these Black colleges are still under-resourced.
“When President Trump released his executive order for HBCUs during his first 100 days of this term,” Murray elaborated, “many said that it did not produce funding. That is no longer the case. His order called for strengthening HBCUs by adding fiscal stability. These funds will begin that process. However, no one should be confused: HBCUs are currently and have been underfunded since their inception. While we are grateful for these funds, we are still under-resourced. With the right investment and partners, our past, and present, does not have be our future. We hope the private sector will see this as a prime opportunity to invest in our going enterprise.”
Under the Higher Education Title III funding, HBCUs will benefit from federal funding to serve low-income students.
The types of programs funded under Title III include maintenance and construction projects, the establishment of endowment funds, and the provision of low-cost loans and grant-based awards.
“The department has carefully scrutinized our federal grants, ensuring that taxpayers are not funding racially discriminatory programs but those programs which promote merit and excellence in education,” said Linda McMahon, the U.S. Secretary of Education.