As HBCUs have fought towards native, state, and federal governments for assets and funding equal to their PWI counterparts, the angel investor has been an enormous a part of our colleges’ battle to remain alive and thrive.
Well-known, rich and influential folks of be aware have given again to HBCUs for a few years, offering a heaven-sent reprieve from whole despair.
Our establishments now must determine what to do when an angel investor is a real satan within the flesh.
Weeks after Florida A&M’s administration was performed by a hemp farmer, Howard College should do some soul-searching because the information about certainly one of their extra well-known alumni, Sean “Diddy” Combs, turns into darker and extra horrifying with every passing day.
Rolling Stone lately printed an investigative piece that featured six months of interviews with former Combs associates, workers and observers that appear to verify his violent and predatory nature.
Combs made headlines final fall with donations to Howard and Jackson State College. He said at Howard’s annual YardFest, “This donation to Howard is not only a monetary contribution; it’s additionally a reaffirmation of our dedication to a cultural establishment that has touched numerous lives. It’s about making certain that HBCUs proceed to obtain the help they rightfully deserve.”
Combs’ latest troubles mirror these of one other famous benevolent superstar uncovered for prison conduct.
Invoice Cosby donated numerous hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to numerous HBCUs however was convicted of aggravated indecent assault in 2018 (the conviction was overturned in 2021) after years of tales of him drugging and sexually assaulting girls made international headlines.
This isn’t to say all donors to HBCUs, or any college for that matter, have shady pasts. Sadly, nonetheless, HBCUs usually tend to settle for assist irrespective of the place it comes from because of the generations-long negligence of varied branches of presidency.
When allegations towards donors like Combs and Cosby floor, and even when a present is just too good to be true as within the FAMU case, the faculties who profit from the assets are positioned in an unenviable scenario.
After all, the correct factor to do can be to refund the donations. The issue is that this might come at a larger price than the preliminary funding, and never simply monetarily.
Notion is just not at all times actuality, however the courtroom of public opinion holds extra weight than an precise courtroom of regulation. HBCUs will catch extra flak than PWIs as a result of it’s the favored stance to take. After all, that doesn’t make it proper.
HBCUs survived Jim Crow due to group efforts and with an obvious return to that period looming, group will as soon as once more be the way in which.
The phantasm of superstar is useless. Not all folks with infinite quantities of cash are good folks. It’s as much as the alumni and all who love our colleges to save lots of ourselves.
Relying on wealthy people writing a verify after they’ll doubtless want that cash for lawyer charges is simply going to result in extra awkward, conflicting ideas concerning the sort of assist we obtain and the sort of folks we’re receiving it from.
