Biden Celebrates Investments in Black Colleges While Promoting Harris

President Biden took the stage at an event for historically Black colleges and universities on Monday to promote a list investments and grants made to many of those schools under his watch, including a new $1.3 billion round of federal investments aimed in part at giving historically Black schools a competitive edge in research.

The president’s appearance at the conference in Philadelphia helped underscore a pledge to support historically Black institutions that he has returned to throughout his term, both in symbolic gestures such as addressing graduates at Howard University and Morehouse College, as well as more concrete measures such as boosting federal investment.

“The promise of America, and I mean this sincerely, is big enough for everyone to succeed,” Mr. Biden said. “And there’s been no more important voice for that truth in the Black community than our H.B.C.U.s.”

Including the new funding announced on Monday, the Biden administration has directed more than $17 billion to historically Black colleges and universities, including $4 billion to help those schools bounce back from the pandemic through the American Rescue Plan and other Covid relief.

The administration has also allocated more than $1 billion to help schools build out their research capacity and facilities, with an eye to helping improve their position in competitions for lucrative federal research grants.

Under Mr. Biden, numerous agencies have also worked to jump-start research and development partnerships, including a $90 million collaboration between the Air Force and eight universities to develop autonomous military technologies, as well as an $11.7 million program through NASA focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

While the extra funding has predominantly been focused on providing student aid and bolstering research capacity, the White House has made other overtures aimed at creating professional pathways for recent graduates, a theme Mr. Biden touched on in Philadelphia on Monday.

Last week, Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, met with leaders from 20 historically Black schools to discuss career pathways for students within the military and intelligence community, announcing the creation of 4,000 paid internships across a number of security agencies.

At the round table, Mr. Sullivan also discussed the “unique security challenges” facing those schools, such as a spate of bomb threats to more than a dozen historically Black schools that forced campus lockdowns earlier in Mr. Biden’s term.

Public commitments of support for Black colleges and universities have been popular campaign fodder for both parties in recent years, and both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump have portrayed themselves as champions of the cause this year.

Ms. Harris, an alumna of Howard University and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, a historically Black sorority, has often spoken about the role Howard and other schools play in building careers for underserved students.

As vice president, Ms. Harris also made a point of touring dozens of campuses, including many historically Black and Hispanic schools, studying issues students said they found important.

“In Vice President Harris, we have an H.B.C.U. graduate, a true champion for our cause, and a fighter for our students,” said Representative Alma Adams, a North Carolina Democrat and the founder of the Congressional Bipartisan H.B.C.U. Caucus. “Her policy work expands the path to the middle class for students of color, and lifts the ceiling for all H.B.C.U. graduates.”

As president, Mr. Trump similarly made a point of advertising his efforts to support historically Black schools.

In 2019, he signed a bill that establishing more than $250 million in annual funding for historically Black schools that was ultimately embraced by many education advocacy groups, though he also drew fire for proposing to selectively slash that funding at other points.

But while Mr. Biden has showered attention on H.B.C.U.s and presided over a relatively bright period for them including an influx of funding from philanthropists, his repeated failure to secure a major overhaul and mass forgiveness of student debt has been a major source of disappointment even for many of the president’s allies.

Among the accomplishments he listed on Monday, Mr. Biden mentioned increases in Pell grants, which help fund education for lower-income students and which Congress expanded by as much as $900 per student annually.

But his most ambitious programs, such as the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, intended to help students graduate without punishing student debt loads, have met fierce resistance by Republican attorneys general and been stalled by legal challenges.

“While the administration has been helpful, H.B.C.U.s have several urgent needs which are on the ballot this year, such as infrastructure needs, the need to support the most financially fragile students by doubling the Pell grant and protecting our campuses,” Lodriguez V. Murray, a senior vice president at the United Negro College Fund, said in a statement. He added that “more funding is required to meet the growing demands of these historic institutions, who consistently punch above their weight.”

Despite representing just 3 percent of all postsecondary institutions, historically Black colleges and universities educate 40 percent of all Black engineers, 50 percent of all Black teachers and 80 percent of all Black judges, according to federal work force data.

“H.B.C.U.s have been prying open freedom’s gates for the past four years,” Mr. Biden said. “Kamala and I, with the help of all you and great leaders out there,” he continued, “are pushing right alongside them.”