Students at Atlanta’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities have been protesting this week to prompt school officials to improve on-campus housing. With so many millions gifted to HBCUs during the pandemic, students say they shouldn’t be living in sub-standard conditions.
“It is ridiculous that these institutions receive all of these donations from the alumni, all this press, all of this celebrity attention and money,” said Malik Poole, a junior at Morehouse. “Spelman is the number one HBCU in America, yet they don’t feed Spelmanites. They don’t have [air conditioning] in their freshman dorms. They live in broom closets, basically. It’s unacceptable.”
Morehouse and Spelman colleges received $40 million from Netflix and $20 million from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. Bank of America has committed $10 million to Morehouse and Spelman over two years to create a center for Black entrepreneurship. Google gifted $50 million to ten HBCUs, including Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark Atlanta University. Atlanta’s HBCUs also received millions in federal stimulus money. The schools used some of that money to help clear student debt.
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