We’ve watched Donald Trump spend the last week having a meltdown on Twitter about Omarosa Manigualt Newman spilling the tea about her experience as an employee in the Trump administration. In all the drama, it’s easy to forget that she had an actual job (at least in theory) in which she was, among other things, supposed to be the liaison between the White House and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
Though the administration staged a lovely photo-op with black college leaders and penned an executive order about them at the beginning of last year, nothing actually happened. HBCUs have never had any real engagement with the Trump White House and have had little contact since Omarosa was fired in December. Of course, in her book, Omarosa is saying that the administration completely mucked up establishing possible relationships with HCBUs. She cites Betsy DeVos—whom you may remember was vigorously and appropriately booed by the students at Bethune-Cookman University during last year’s graduation ceremony—as the main culprit. In her book, Omarosa claims that not only did DeVos think Bethune-Cookman students weren’t smart enough to understand her education agenda (hence the booing), but that she also was to blame for the confusion around last year’s White House conference for HBCUs.
So now that Omarosa is no longer employed by the White House and is determined to set fire to everything and everyone in her path (and sell tons of books while she’s at it), what happens to HBCUs under the Trump administration? Well, according to black college presidents, they aren’t worried about it. The Atlantic reports that while hanging out in the White House was a nice opportunity, they’ve always been more concerned with a good relationship with Congress than with a good relationship with Trump and company. Why? Because a good relationship with Congress can often be financially beneficial for their institutions.
In the February budget deal, lawmakers authorized the Education Department to forgive $330 million of debt related to rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina that was incurred by four black colleges in Louisiana and Mississippi. The administration forgave that debt in March.
Another reason that it’s politically savvy for HBCU leaders to concentrate their focus on Congress is their students. While HBCU leaders have shown a willingness to work with the Trump administration, students at those institutions have had very negative reactions to it. For example, last year students at Howard protested their school president hosting Betsy DeVos on campus, saying that interacting with administration officials “diminishes the values of the university while bringing no real value to Howard students.” They are absolutely right. Trump’s team has proven again and again that they don’t care about black students at HBCUs (or any students, for that matter), and those students refuse to become pawns in an administration that isn’t working for, or on behalf of them.
Leaders from HBCUs remain active in working with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, and not just for financial gain. Last week, Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC), who leads the Congressional Bipartisan HBCU Caucus, hosted the Inaugural Diversity in Tech Summit—a convening of over 150 leaders from government, tech, and HBCUs. Part of their agenda was to discuss potential partnerships with HBCUs and how to strengthen hiring diversity within tech companies. To this end, black colleges will likely continue to concentrate their focus on Congress.
Omarosa surely didn’t do anything to help HBCUs during her time in the White House. But her absence probably won’t make a difference. This administration doesn’t care about education that isn’t for-profit and certainly doesn’t care about education for marginalized students, so that there won’t be any advocacy or movement on their behalf. But don’t worry. The next time Trump needs to show the world that he doesn’t hate “the blacks,” rest assured he’ll bring a bunch of HBCU leaders into the Oval Office for another meaningless photo opportunity.