In a sweeping transfer that might redefine larger training for underrepresented communities, six outstanding Traditionally Black Faculties and Universities (HBCUs) have joined forces to launch the primary fully on-line, degree-granting consortium tailor-made to the HBCU expertise, dubbed eHBCU.
The initiative extends the cultural legacy, educational rigor, and community-centered values of HBCUs into the digital realm. Backed by philanthropic heavyweights together with Blue Meridian Companions and the Thurgood Marshall School Fund. This digital campus is designed to serve college students globally. Breaking geographic and financial boundaries that always restrict entry to conventional HBCU campuses.
Importantly, all degree-granting applications supplied via eHBCU are offered by totally accredited Traditionally Black Faculties and Universities. Every establishment meets rigorous educational and institutional requirements. Guaranteeing that college students obtain a acknowledged and revered training throughout all eligible applications. This assurance preserves the integrity and repute that HBCUs have constructed over generations, now delivered on a world digital platform.
“That is greater than on-line studying,” mentioned Terry Jeffries, Government Director of eHBCU. “It’s a motion to broaden the attain of what HBCUs have all the time represented—educational excellence, cultural delight, and upward mobility.”
A Consortium Rooted in Legacy
The consortium contains six founding establishments:
Delaware State College
Alabama State College
Southern College and A&M School
Southern College at New Orleans
Southern College at Shreveport
Pensole Lewis School of Enterprise & Design
Collectively, these establishments characterize a cross-section of the HBCU panorama. From complete analysis universities to a specialised design faculty, every brings distinct strengths to the digital platform.
The Imaginative and prescient Behind eHBCU
Dr. Tony Allen, President of Delaware State College and Chair of the eHBCU Advisory Board, emphasised that the digital transformation isn’t simply reactive—it’s proactive.
“We’re guaranteeing that the HBCU expertise, its mentorship, neighborhood, and cultural significance, stays intact even when delivered on-line,” Allen mentioned. “It is a long-term funding in entry and fairness.”
Allen, a former speechwriter for then-Senator Joe Biden and present Chair of the President’s Board of Advisors on HBCUs, has steered Delaware State right into a nationwide mannequin for institutional innovation. His management underscores the seriousness of the consortium’s ambitions.
Management with Confirmed Monitor Information
eHBCU’s management roster reads like a who’s who of achieved educators and trailblazers in Black larger training:
Dr. D’Wayne Edwards, President of Pensole Lewis School, revitalized the nation’s solely design-focused HBCU and has been lauded by Quick Firm as one of the vital revolutionary educators on this planet.
Dr. Quinton T. Ross, Jr., President of Alabama State College, brings legislative and administrative expertise, having served as each a state senator and Ok–12 administrator.
John Ok. Pierre, Chancellor of Southern College and A&M School, is a authorized scholar and civil rights advocate who beforehand led Southern College Regulation Middle to nationwide prominence.
Dr. James H. Ammons, Jr., Chancellor of Southern College at New Orleans, is a veteran of HBCU management with prior presidencies at Florida A&M College and North Carolina Central College.
Dr. Aubra J. Gantt, Chancellor of Southern College at Shreveport, made historical past as the primary lady to guide SUSLA and is a champion for neighborhood faculty college students and digital studying innovation.
Levels That Match Workforce Demand
Upon launch, eHBCU will supply entry to 33 on-line diploma and certification applications spanning high-demand fields similar to:
Laptop Science and IT
Healthcare
Accounting
Enterprise Administration
Skilled Improvement
In line with Jeffries, the curriculum was designed in direct response to labor market developments and workforce gaps. Offering college students not simply with training however with tangible profession pathways.
Addressing the Entry Hole
Information continues to point out that Black college students are underrepresented in lots of high-growth sectors. eHBCU goals to bridge that hole by providing versatile studying codecs whereas preserving the mentorship and neighborhood that always defines the HBCU expertise.
“This platform is constructed not only for comfort, however for belonging,” mentioned Jeffries. “We perceive that Black college students are in search of areas the place they’ll thrive academically and culturally, and eHBCU delivers that.”
A Philanthropic Spine
The backing of organizations like Blue Meridian Companions—a philanthropic funding group targeted on scaling options to social issues—and the Thurgood Marshall School Fund provides each monetary muscle and nationwide credibility to the trouble.
These partnerships are important as eHBCU seeks to scale past its preliminary on-line diploma choices, with ambitions to incorporate extra HBCUs and a broader vary of applications sooner or later.
A Digital Future Constructed on Custom
Whereas the transfer to digital training shouldn’t be distinctive in larger ed. The eHBCU consortium distinguishes itself by centering Black cultural id throughout the on-line studying expertise.
“It’s a Twenty first-century mannequin constructed on a Nineteenth-century custom,” mentioned Dr. Ross of Alabama State. “HBCUs have all the time been engines of alternative. Now, we’re making that chance borderless.”
What’s Subsequent?
Enrollment is now open for applications via the eHBCU platform, with pupil help companies starting from educational advising to profession teaching—all supplied nearly. The founding establishments anticipate to serve hundreds of scholars globally throughout the first yr.
For extra data on on-line diploma applications and admissions, potential college students can go to ehbcu.edu.
