Rep. Troy Carter wants federal gov’t to close the HBCU athletics funding gap
2nd October 2023 · 0 Comments
By Piper Hutchinson
Contributing Writer
(lailluminator.com) — U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-Louisiana, has introduced legislation to require the federal Department of Education to provide grants to schools with minimal athletics budgets, a move he believes will create equity between athletics departments at HBCUs and schools with majority white student bodies.
The grants would be available to any school with an endowment lower than $900 million and an athletic department that brings in less than $20 million annually.
“Supporting athletic programs at HBCUs would attract talented student-athletes and sports administrators by offering them the best athletic and academic experiences possible,” Carter said in a press release. “In turn, HBCUs would generate more revenue to provide the support and resources that their students deserve.”
Carter compared the athletics programs at LSU, a primarily white institution, and Southern University, a historically Black university. Both are in Baton Rouge, which is partially in Carter’s district.
LSU’s athletic department has an operating budget of nearly $200 million, enabling it to build state of the art facilities. Southern, which has been historically underfunded by the state, has an $18.5 million athletics budget. Despite this disparity – and the fact LSU is one of the few athletic departments in the nation to turn a profit – LSU has still successfully looked to the state for help paying for its athletic facilities.
“HBCUs cannot compete with these programs given their current budgets,” Carter said. “Talented student athletes often opt for PWIs (predominantly white institutions) when making their college decisions because of the difference in athletic program offerings.”
Southern played LSU in football for the first time last year, despite the campuses being just 15 minutes apart from each other. The Tigers drubbed the Jaguars, 65-17.
While the LSU athletic department is capable of being self-sufficient, more than half of Southern’s sports budget comes from institutional support and student fees.
Carter’s grant program would provide minimum grants of $250,000 that could be used to build, maintain or enhance athletics facilities or to purchase equipment or uniforms.
His bill faces extremely long odds of making it through a divided Congress, but comes at an interesting time in higher education where state and federal leaders, as well as private donors, are trying to right historical wrongs.
Historically Black institutions play an important role in educating Black Americans, offering a community to many, but were created to further a segregated society.
Across the nation, HBCUs have been historically underfunded. While LSU and Southern are both land grant universities, established by states that received federal land to create schools with a focus on teaching agriculture, science, engineering and military science, the state has often failed to meet its federal matching requirements for Southern, leaving the institution to try to do more with less.
In 1972, tensions over that inequity spilled out onto the football field, with student protestors interrupting a Southern game. Protests continued to disrupt university operations in the subsequent days, culminating in the death of two students at the hand of law enforcement officers whose identities were never determined.
In the half a century since the tragedy, Louisiana has made small efforts to try to close the funding gap but has struggled with political and budgetary issues.
Carter’s legislation is cosponsored by Democratic Reps. Alma Adams of North Carolina, James Clyburn of South Carolina, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, Shelia Jackson Lee of Texas, Yvette Clarke of New York, Hank Johnson of Georgia, Terri Sewell of Alabama, Donald Payne of New Jersey, Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, Dwight Evans of Pennsylvania, Donald Davis of North Carolina, Glenn Ivey of Maryland, David Scott of Georgia and Jennifer McClellan of Virginia.
This article originally published in the October 2, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
