Boeing, Lockheed Martin among top supporters of HBCU engineering schools - noteworthy news - historically black colleges and universities are supported by several companies which are listed

Black Issues in Higher Education, May 22, 2003

BALTIMORE

A recent survey conducted by Career Communications Group Inc. (CCG) has found that 42 companies and government agencies are considered most supportive of historically Black engineering schools.

CCG asked the deans of the 10 ABET-accredited HBCU programs to list five corporate or government sponsors they feel contribute most to their institutional mission. Some deans listed more than five, and there were many duplications. But, in all, 42 separate organizations were named.

"This ranking reflects the perception the deans have of the total level of support they receive," says Tyrone D. Taborn, CCG's founder and chief executive officer. "The organizations they named have moved beyond their traditional comfort level by supporting HBCUs. They see these schools as more than a place to recruit employees. These 42 companies and agencies are doing things above and beyond their traditional business-university relationship."

Six of 10 HBCU deans ranked The Boeing Company as a top supporter. Lockheed Martin Corp., was named by five deans. General Motors Corp. and Raytheon Co. were listed by four deans. Two companies were mentioned by three deans: Ford Motor Co. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Eight organizations received two listings: Corning Inc., ExxonMobil Corp., General Electric Co., IBM Corp., NASA, Northrop Grumman Corp., Procter & Gamble, Sprint and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The following organizations each received one mention: 3M, AT&T, BASF, Bechtel/Department of Energy, Black & Decker Corp., BP Amoco, Caterpillar Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Conoco Phillips, Delon Hampton Associates, Dominion Resources Inc., Dow Chemical Co., DuPont, EDS, Harris Corp. Holcim (US) Inc., Intel Corp., Merck & Co., Microsoft Corp., Motorola Inc., the Office of Naval Research, Pratt & Whitney, Progress Energy, Shell, Southern Co. and Xerox Corp.

"This list is important because for many years, the relationship between HBCUs and non-HBCUs has not been equitable," Taborn says. "Corporate and government execs naturally tend to support the college they came from. If you don't have HBCU graduates in your executive ranks, you don't think about HBCUs."