A new analysis of public land grant universities indicates that 10 states failed to provide more than $56 million in mandated state appropriations to historically Black institutions federally designated as 1890 Land Grant universities from 2010 to 2012.
Released by the Washington-based Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), the policy brief, “Land-Grant But Unequal: State One-to-One Match Funding for 1890 Land-Grant Universities,” details how 10 of 18 1890 institutions in 17 states did not receive more than $56 million due to them in state matching funds. Between 2010 and 2012, the underfunded 1890 HBCUs received nearly $245 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for research and cooperative extension activities yet their respective states matched only $188 million.
In contrast, the analysis by the Washington-based Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) notes that, over the same period, the states either fully matched or exceeded the appropriations funding that went to predominantly White universities, known as 1862 Land Grant universities. Included in the APLU analysis, or policy brief, are policy recommendations aimed at correcting the inequity in funding for the historically Black land grant institutions.
“The reason that we undertook this particular study was the concern from many of the 1890 presidents that they were not getting the one-to-one match” in funds as the 1862 Land Grant universities were getting, said Dr. John M. Lee Jr., the vice president for the APLU Office of Access and Success.
“The APLU has always been concerned about the entire land grant system and believes that it’s stronger when every land grant in a state is fully funded and able to do the extension and the research work necessary for the land grant system,” Lee noted.
“The hope of the recommendations that we made is to really try to get toward a solution where states are able to really deal with this in a more systematic way that ensures the entire land grant system is fully funded,” he added.
