UNCF: $250 million campaign for excellence - United Negro College Fund; includes directory of UNCF colleges

Ebony, June, 1990

UNCF $250 Million Campaign For Excellence

THE numbers tell the story: in just 10 years, almost one quarter of all college-age students in America will be Black or Hispanic. But it is the students themselves, the faces behind the numbers, who tell the reality: every year scores of them attend their high school graduation with the clear knowledge that, for them, a college education isn't impractical--it's impossible. "Last year, almost twice as many Black college students as White ones, in terms of percentages, required financial aid based on need," says Hugh Fordyce, director of research for the United Negro College Fund.

For a handful of America's moneyed, the combination of these two facts has produced a burning, sweeping, imperative goal--educating a generation of Black youths. How? By ensuring the survival and fostering the growth of America's Black colleges--colleges which, though they make up only 3 percent of all U.S. colleges, graduate nearly one third (31 percent) of all Blacks receiving bachelor's degrees.

In the latest and largest such effort, billionaire publishing tycoon Walter Annenberg rocked the education world with his $50 million gift--the largest single donation ever made to Black higher education--to the United Negro College Fund. Annenberg's unprecedented gift launches "Campaign 2000", the UNCF's fourth capital campaign to raise $250 million.

In annoncing his lead gift last March, the 82-year-old former ambassador to Britain did far more than write a multi-million dollar check. Standing on the golf course of his 206-acre estate, 11 miles southeast of Palm Springs, he urged all people of means--not just people of color--to follow suit. Those who do not, he said bluntly, are an embarrassment to society. "It is the obligation, the responsibility of those who have been fortunate in life to support those who are less fortunate," said Annenberg. "And if you don't understand that, you're not very much of a citizen."

Later, in a surprise appearance at a meeting of UNCF presidents and in a telephone interview with EBONY editors, Annenberg said that he hoped his unprecedented contribution would provide a means to develop the wealth of untapped potential of America's Black youths. In the process, he said, Black Americans would uneqeuivocally demonstrate to an often prejudiced society not only their ability but their genius. "There are a lot of ignorant people who have an archaic idea that Blacks lack the capacity to teach and serve," Annenberg said. "I resent that. I want to make it possible for an increasing number of Blacks to show these segments that they can teach and serve."

America's wealthiest Blacks had already demonstrated their fierce commitment to Black colleges. In 1987, noted dentist Artis White gave $1.5 million to his alma mater, Atlanta's Morehouse College. Two years later, talk-show hostess Oprah Winfrey followed suit, giving $1 million to the all-male college. A decade earlier, in 1978, Dr. Hastings K. Banda, president of the African Republic of Malawi, donated $1 million to Ohio's Wilberforce University, and in 1986, Bill and Camille Cosby donated $1.3 million to Fisk.

But it was the Cosby's gift two years prior to the Annenberg donation that set the standard of giving with the largest act of philanthrophy ever directed toward a single Black college. As Spelman, the nation's first college for Black women, inaugurated Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole as its first Black woman president, the Cosbys wrote their own page of history by announcing their $20 million gift to the Atlanta-based college. "When the phone call came," Dr. Cole said, "I had to pick myself up off the floor. In fact, I remember saying, 'Dr. Bill, did you say $2 million?' And he said, 'Girl, can't you hear? I said $20 million!'"

The Cosby gift--still the largest contribution ever made to a single Black college--will build the Camille Oilivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center, which, in addition to doubling the college's classroom space, will house a research center dedicated to Black women.

Though not as well known as the Cosby gift, a decade earlier another of the nation's wealthiest Black men, the late New York publisher and physician Dr. C. B. Powell, set the education world abuzz when he left part of his multimillion-dollar estate to Howard University.

When Dr. Powell's will was read on June 17, 1978, Howard University officials, like Dr. Cole, were stunned to learn that the former Amsterdam News publisher had left the school a trust in excess of $2.3 million. According to some estimates, by the time all the legal threads of Powell's trust were untangled, the doctor's gift to Howard approximated twice the initial figure--almost $6 million.

That same year, Robert Woodruff, former chairman and major stockholder of the Coca-Cola company, donated $12 million to the Atlanta University Center for a library that bears his name.

As important as these million-dollar gifts are in bolstering the goals and programs of the recipient schools, headline-making megabucks alone will not ensure the growth and survival of America's Black colleges. What is most important--crucial, really--to that mission are the moderate and consistent donations of everyday folks.