Problem Statement

The one-hundred-and-one Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the United States share one critical problem: these institutions are rooted in communities with urgent social and economic challenges. While the communities are diverse and rich in various ways, challenges of low educational attainment, high rates of unemployment and underemployment, poor physical health, and high rates of criminal records are consistent across the landscape. Additionally, many of the communities are significantly characterized as poor and working-class people of color who have been systemically marginalized in our society, without the benefit of our best educational, legal, medical, or economic resources. HBCUs are among the most durable and dedicated institutions in those communities, and our success is inexorably tied to the strength and progress of the community. The mission statements at each HBCU reflect that interdependence with the surrounding community and the commitment to its progress and development. HBCUs offer programs and social services in partnership with community stakeholders that have had meaningful positive impacts on critical social challenges, yet those urgent problems persist. Further, the more our institutions engage with the social challenges that impede progress in the community, the more we recognize that our solutions could have much greater impact if they were adapted to the digital age and scaled across the HBCU network. A new technology forward-approach, one that leverages the very best of each institution, would enable HBCUs to more effectively help solve critical problems in HBCU communities.