Raleigh, Feb 28, 2017 – Dr. Tashni-Ann Dubroy of Shaw University, one of the nation’s youngest college presidents, was recently part of an important summit organized by Senator Tim Scott, the first African-American senator from South Carolina, and Representative Mark Walker, a North Carolina Republican.

Dr. Dubroy was among the 85 presidents and chancellors of HBCUs from across the country who participated in the initiative held at the Library of Congress between HBCU leaders and members of Congress. The meeting focused on a prospective executive order renewing support for Black colleges forthcoming from the desk of President Donald Trump.

Dr. Dubroy led the effort to petition lawmakers to expand support for summer Pell Grants, whose recipients attend HBCUs in large numbers.

“At my institution, 79 percent of students rely on Pell Grants as part of their financial aid package,” said Dr. Dubroy. “We are slightly higher than the 70 percent of all HBCU students who receive Pell Grants – and nearly double the 39 percent of students, on average, who receive Pell Grants at other colleges and universities.”

“Pell Grants are particularly essential for HBCU students, whose student loan debt is twice that of other students even though HBCUs are very affordable institutions,” she notes. “One of the top priorities for HBCUs is the restoration of summer Pell Grants that were taken away in 2011 by Congress in a budget-cutting move. The renewal of these grants would mean that approximately one million low-income students could receive additional financial assistance averaging $1,650 for summer study on top of a maximum Pell Grant of $5,935 for the 2017 school year.”

With so much tumultuous change under consideration by the current administration, many HBCU’s have been afraid that the needs of their institutions might get lost among other pressing concerns confronting the Executive Office. HBCU’s have traditionally struggled to gain government funding, but it’s said that President Trump will sign the executive order this week.

Dr. Dubroy has led the drive to restore summer Pell Grants this year and has requested that Congress make the maximum Pell Grant a priority. “If we can accomplish this, our students will be able go to school year-round,” she says, “and finish college faster than six years with less loan debt.”

Appointed as Shaw University’s 17th president in June 2015, Dr. Dubroy is the second youngest president in the institution’s 151-year history. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in chemistry from Shaw and went on to earn her Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry from North Carolina State University in 2007 and an MBA in marketing from Rutgers University in 2010.

Under her energetic leadership, Shaw has closed a $4 million budget gap and increased overall student enrollment by 15% and freshman enrollment by 70% following six years of an average annual decline of 9% in enrollment.

Her vision for the future of her institution? “I want the university to be a major national and global name, to have the prestige of an Ivy League school. It’s my dream that when students come to Shaw University, they will earn a degree that is branded so well that they will be employable no matter where they go in the world.”