Alabama A&M President Andrew Hugine recently wrapped up his first year at the helm, receiving positive evaluations from constituent groups that included trustees, students, faculty and staff and alumni. Hugine spoke with Diverse about his first-year experience as president and the future of the university.
Q: What changes did you make in your first year?
A: A restructuring of university and academic affairs areas has been proposed and accepted by the board. The process will combine schools and create colleges. This effort aims to make more efficient and effective use of our resources.
Q: What are the challenges facing AAMU, specifically, and HBCUs, in general?
A: Alabama A&M University and its sister HBCUs are facing numerous challenges. Foremost is the constant demand for more fiscal resources during a point in history when the nation is confronted with far-reaching economic challenges. In the case of public Black universities, in particular, it is usually fair to assert that many have rarely received equitable funding from their respective states. Inadequate resources at the very inception of these institutions mean even graver challenges in tough economic times. The same imperatives for quality education persist … the same demands for superior faculty, buildings and equipment. But, faced with hard times, the long-put-off problems, like deferred maintenance and salary benchmarks, for instance, become more forbidding. Overall, the biggest challenge has always been that of constantly inspiring phenomenal runners (i.e., students, faculty and staff) to continue in the race of higher education despite a series of obstacles and setbacks not of their own making.
Q: Of those changes, which ones are the most pressing?
A: The fiscal challenges, I believe, are the most pervasive. They not only impact our institutions’ abilities to hold their own competitively speaking, but they often threaten to eat away any claim toward stabilization in academics and day-to-day operations.
