When former Dillard University President Michael Lomax took the helm of the United Negro College Fund five years ago, the economy was strong and the outlook high for most historically Black colleges and universities.
Today, half way into his 10-year work agreement with the nation’s major fundraising machine for private HBCUs, Lomax is wrestling with the worst fundraising economy in his lifetime and his 39-member colleges are feeling the pain too. Sources of income from all directions continue to fall.
“It’s a tough economy out there,” Lomax says.
Despite the bleak economy, Lomax has high expectations in the leadership of President Barack Obama, hoping the nation’s new leader can help turn the economy around and make HBCUs one of his vehicles for achieving his goals of a more well-educated society in the next decade.
“We believe this administration will be a very strong supporter of minority-serving institutions, especially HBCUs,” says Lomax, who says he has been in regular consultation with the White House and Department of Education as the new government maps its education agenda.
Lomax’s assessments were offered in a wide-ranging interview, during which he talked frankly about the weak economy’s impact on the organization and its member schools, his hopes for renewed interest in HBCUs at the national level, the expansion of “capacity-building” programs to strengthen member schools and the ongoing restlessness within the organization about its control over national fundraising.
On the fundraising front, Lomax says it was the generosity of a single anonymous donor late this winter that helped the UNCF avoid a significant drop in revenue for member schools this year.
