Nelms Leads On HBCU Issues

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Chancellor Charlie Nelms

The Chancellor at North Carolina Central will play a key role at a White House event next week. Charlie Nelms will lead a town hall at the annual conference of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Nelms has emerged as one of the leading voices on HBCUs since becoming NC Central’s chancellor in 2009. He led a symposium last year that hosted the U-S Secretary of Education. And now, he’s calling for a commitment to schools that have proven they can do more with less.

Nelms says his main message next week will be that HBCUs need help in one area.

Chancellor Charlie Nelms: "Infrastructure. That is the thing that will allow us to attract students and keep them. That’s the thing that will allow us to attract faculty members who want to affiliate with us, not because we’re an HBCU, but because we have top flight laboratories."

Half of all African-American teachers earned their degrees from HBCUs, has did nearly one-third of all Black science and engineering graduates.