The Daily Signal - The Path Forward for Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Episode Date: February 3, 2020

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) continue to play a critical role in training and advancing the next generation of leaders. Dr. Wayne Frederick, president of Howard University, joins The Daily Signal Podcast to discuss how HBCUs are advancing higher education. He also shares his personal story of a dual career in medicine and academia. Also on today's show: Kay Coles James, Heritage Foundation President, share her own pro-life story. We read your letters to the editor. To listen to Rachel del Guidice's interview with Jaco Booyens about his work in the fight against human trafficking, click here: His Sister Was Sex-Trafficked for 6 Years. Here’s How He’s Devoted His Life to Fighting It. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, February 3rd. I'm Robert Blewe. And I'm Virginia Allen. During the month of February, we are launching a special series in celebration of Black History Month. Each Monday, we will feature an interview with a Black leader who is helping to shape American culture. Today, we are excited to begin with our colleague Rachel Del Judas's interview with Howard University President, Wayne Frederick. Dr. Frederick was recently at the Heritage Foundation for the first ever, historically black colleges and universities' forum. He talked about his work at Howard and what the White House is doing to support HBCUs.

Plus, we share Heritage Foundation President Kay Coles James's inspiring remarks from the National Pro-Life Summit. And of course, we read your letters to the editor. Before we get to today's show, Rob and I want to tell you about our favorite way to get the news every morning. It's called the morning bell. In each weekday, the Daily Signal delivers the top news and commentary directly to your inbox, and it's free. You'll be able to read about the policy debate. You'll be able to read about the policy debates shaping the agenda, analysis from Heritage Foundation experts, and commentary from leading conservatives. It's easy to sign up.

Just visit DailySignal.com and click on the connect button in the top right corner of the page. We'll start sending you the morning bell tomorrow. Now stay tuned for today's show coming up next. It's because of support from listeners like you that we can continue to produce podcasts like Heritage Explains and SCOTUS 101. And you can help us keep it going. by visiting www.heritage.org slash podcast today to make your tax deductible gift. We're joined today on the Daily Signal podcast by Dr. Wayne Frederick.

He's president of Howard University. Dr. Frederick, thank you so much for being with us today. Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. So can you start off by telling us a little bit about how you ended up serving as president of Howard? So I'm a triple alum and all this is not popular for me to say with my team. I'm a reluctant university president. I became the provost at Howard University in 2012. And about 15 months later, the president announced that he was going to retire,

and I was actually being the interim. And I served his interim during the search process and then became the president. So you are also a distinguished researcher and a surgeon and the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles, different book, chapters, abstracts, and editorials. where did your interest in medicine start? So I actually have sickle cell, and I came to Howard University because of that. Howard had a sickle cell center,

and so I came here partly because of the care that I would get while I was in school and then also an interest in becoming a physician, obviously. And so that interest really just grew as well throughout my childhood because my mother was a nurse as well. So between being hospitalized, seeing her go to work and bringing surgical masks home, I think it probably got into my subconscious. In your role at Howard as president, you're very passionate about inclusivity, workforce development, and diversifying the pipeline.

Can you tell us a little bit about your approach here with these schools? For workforce development in particular, I think our higher ed institutions need to be closer to our industries so that we are meeting their needs in terms of how we prepare our graduates. So we've done a few things on that front in which we have actually sent our students out to receive that didactic. education in those environments. So one example is Howard West, where our students went out and they were co-taught by Google Engineers and Howard faculty. And they were co-taught, you know, very technical classes like algorithms, machine learning, artificial intelligence, et cetera. We think that that's critical. We're doing it now again with Howard Entertainment. We have lots of our alarm who are in the industry. More of them getting on the side of deciding and, you know, what

type of movies and stories should be told. And so we decided that we were going to take a chance there as well. So I currently have students out at Amazon Studios in Hollywood. They're being co-taught again by Amazon Studio executives and industry leaders, as well as our Howard faculty. This program is a little different because whereas with Howard West, we had students primarily from the computer science program, these students are coming from the law school, the business school, school of communications, and fine arts. So the other thing that we're trying to do is to really build more of an interdisciplinary approach to what students need and to the exposure,

so they can really learn what some of the other colleagues are learning currently. So at Howard, you have a tuition rebate program where students who, if they graduate in three years, they can earn some money back. Can you tell us about that program? Sure. So we started a tuition rebate program about five years ago.

And the way it works is that all direct payments that you make in your last semester, we will refund you 50% of those, direct payments if you graduate on time or early. And that is really to bring the issue of making sure the students matriculate on time to decrease their student debt. I think oftentimes we talk about student debt, but we talk about a graduation rate. That's a six-year graduation rate.

We're really trying to get students and their families to think about this differently and to recognize that the more time that they cut off of the education, you're actually cutting off cost. And therefore, you're not going to take out a loan against that cost. And so your student indebtedness could really decrease. And so we have students and families really taking advantage of that. It's not in isolation because we also couple it with other initiatives to encourage students to take at least 15 credits a semester.

And also we allow students to go to summer school and take six credits for free as well, all part of the process to emphasize to them that we want them to get out in three or four years. Howard also offers summer training opportunities. And I know you've mentioned talking about strengthening ROTC on campus. Can you talk about some of those different opportunities for students that Howard tries to give them? Yeah, so we definitely try to expose students to summer internships in a large manner. With ROTC in particular, they have spearheaded a leadership minor on campus, so we're trying to get adopted throughout the entire campus.

And I think especially what ROTC does around leadership, around teaching students about discipline, about preparing cadets for how they can work within teams, I think it's critical for the workforce as well. And I think it has a lot of, it can be applied in a lot of what we do in the other technical disciplines that we teach. So we're really kind of relaunching that leadership minor and having our TCE really take the lead on the actual courses and the didactics involved in that. And we think that that's absolutely critical. So you've been a board member for the board of advisors for the White House's initiative on historically black colleges and universities since May 2016.

what has it been like to be part of the HBCU board and what have you learned about the state of HBCUs in that role? So, you know, in that role, we get a lot of information and data on how my 104 buttonsist institutions are doing in terms of their financial health, in terms of their graduation rates, those types of things. It also exposes us to industry leaders that we can partner with. And I think looking at where that is is important.

And then I think the most important thing is really the state of the students who are coming, there and what they're getting and where we need to add resources and what those opportunities are. There's a lot of opportunities to partner with the government as an example. And so getting to understand who are the agencies that have programs that would like to see more powered participation, I think is critical. And so we are continuing to make sure that that gets advanced. I'm no longer on that board, but I still get to attend the meetings as a university president when the White House initiative puts on their conferences. And I think that those conferences

have been getting better and better in terms of the data and information that we've been getting. Well, you recently spoke here at the Heritage Foundation. You're talking about the White House initiative on HBCUs. And what are some ways that you see HBCUs can be better supported? You know, I think charity begins at home, and we have to really tap into our alum who have done well. Our alum tend to go back into underserved communities and really give a lot of service. And unfortunately, you know, when we talk about alumni giving, we talk about dollars and cents. but the reality is the alarms of HBCUs provide a lot of service to this country,

especially in underserved communities. I think we have to figure out a way to start tying that back to the activity that occurs at our institutions. That's one way. And then the second thing is making sure that we have an appropriate narrative about our institutions. The data is there to show that at least a fifth of all of the African Americans who graduate in this country, graduate from an HBCU with a bachelor's degree. And when you compare that to the number of institutions, in terms of my percentage that we make up,

we only account for 3% of all the higher-ed institutions in this country. So we're punching well above our weight. And I think we have to make sure that we're getting that narrative out there and making everyone realize the importance. Because I think once we display what that importance is, it's a natural next step to think about making the investment. You've also received the National Association of Health Services, Executive Congressional Black Caucus Distinguished Leadership and Healthcare Award,

and a congressional citation for Distinguished Service. Given your experience in the healthcare industry, where do you see room for reform in this industry? You know, right here in the district, you have eight wards. And unfortunately, in ward seven and eight, you can deliver a baby if you're a pregnant woman. And because of where we have our acute care hospitals, you can actually only deliver a baby in three of the eight wards in the city. And that in the nation's capital is an absolute travesty, especially for the woman in ward seven and eight, because from a transportation point of view, they have the longer. distance to travel. You know, some of us may simply think, oh, you can get in an Uber, the convenience of those things. If you're making the minimum wage, you know, spending 30-something, 40-something dollars

to come across the city for prenatal care, even if you take public transportation, which obviously is going to be less expensive, the length of time it takes to do that. If you have other kids, the child care needs that you have to set up or have to take them with you. So it becomes very complicated. And when you look at maternal mortality rates, the district actually, actually is higher than a lot of two-to-word countries. So there's a massive issue with respect to healthcare disparities in general. And what we talk a lot about, the fact that a sixth of our GDP is spent on health care. And I would say that a lot of that is spent in the last couple of years of life,

as opposed to being spent on preventative measures on doing things that would help. You have two major grocery stores in Word 7 and 8 that's over 170,000 citizens. There are some words here. you can't walk a block without running into another major grocery on the other side of town. And again, that means that if you have a food desert, people are not going to have healthy choices, and therefore they're not going to be healthy, and they're going to have worse health care outcomes. So there's several things that we could do, but we must recognize that the social determinants of health are becoming increasingly important in terms of what we do,

and that the least of us really is going to help us understand what the burden of the finances are, in terms of what we spend as a country on health care. And so if we tie those two things, if you want to make an economic argument, I think it's clearly there in front of us and it's one that we should grasp. Going back to education as president of university and given all the experience you've had in higher education,

what are some ways you think our country could do better when it comes to education? Yeah, I think it starts early, obviously, early childhood education. There's data that shows that earlier we expose kids to education, to formal education, the better they are going to perform. And so getting that into all our communities, I think, is critical. I think we have to, when we get to the K-12, we have to look at equity around resources

and make sure that there's appropriate distribution of those resources, especially when it comes to public school teachers. We value them, but we don't pay them the way we value them. And I think we have to look at some type of a federal, movement to look at changing what we pay our teachers. And when it comes to higher ed, I think we have to get out of the business of asking students about their majors. I think we need to be asking students about their mission.

The young people who are coming to our institutions today are not as concerned about the myopic focus of whatever that major is. They have a variety of interest. And I think we have to be more fleetfooted as high-ed institutions in terms of creating that to a student who comes to us, who wants to be a physician, but has an interest in music. we've got to create a program that suits them instead of saying to them, well, you have to do pre-med, and you can't participate in these music things you want to do, and they have to cut that off. And so I think we have to approach that very differently.

Given all of your years in higher education, all the students that you've spoken to, you've mentored, are there any personal stories or memories you can share where you've had a significant impact on a student that you've worked with, or even at your own experience where there have been people in your own life who have mentored you? Is there something that you look back to and say this is, why I do what I do. Yeah, you know, I see myself as a portal, so it's hard for me to talk about impact I've had on someone else, but definitely I've been the beneficiary of mentors. Dr. LaSalle LaFalle was the chairman of surgery at Howard University for some 25 years.

He was born in South grew up in a small town in Quincy, Florida, and attended Florida A&M College at the age of 15. He would graduate at the age of 18, would one be in his transcript, but could only apply to two medical schools in this country. and didn't get into either one. One of them was Howard. His university president would contact Howard's president

and convince him to take him. He would then go on to graduate number one in his class, go on to become the first black president to the American court of surgeons, the first black president to American Cancer Society, and you name it.

I mean, he broke every glass ceiling you could as a surgeon in this country. And I say that because he led by example and he was my mentor until his passing last year and everything he did, He dipped it in excellence. And he had a simple saying that he inherited from Charles Drew,

and that is that excellence of performance will transcend all artificial barriers created by man. And I think to this day, that still holds true, and it's still a guiding light for how I try to conduct myself in my rule as how it's president. Well, Dr. Frederick, thank you so much for being with us today on the Daily Signal podcast. Thank you. Do you own an Amazon Echo? You can now get the Daily Signal podcast every day as part of your daily Alexa Flash. briefing. It's easy to do. Just open your Amazon Alexa app, go to settings, and select Flash

Briefing. From there, you can search for the Daily Signaled podcast and add it to your Flash briefing so you can stay up to date with the top news of the day that the liberal media isn't covering. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature our favorites on this show and in the Morning Bell email newsletter. Virginia, who's up first? In response to Rachel Del Judas's podcast interview with Yaco Boyans, titled His Sister was sex trafficked for six years. Here's how he's devoted his life to fighting it. Gail Smith of Franktown, Colorado, writes, what an emotional interview about the movie eight days. I and probably most of my friends who are Christian can't conceive of what's going on. This is the best article I've read on

sex trafficking. I pray I don't close this and go on about my life without doing more to stop this awful crime. Thank you again for putting this out for us to realize the reality. of what's happening. And in response to that same story, Georgia Fellah writes Dear Daily Signal, I really appreciate the questions posed by Rachel Del Judas and Boyan's insightful comments regarding moral imperatives for a society and for healthy families as the societal foundation. Broaching the subject that our society has largely lost its moral foundation, that morality is no longer a foundational pillar of society is so important.

And Boyans did that spectacularly in this interoperable. I hope his message is very widely heard. His views need to become a national conversation in media circles. Thank you, DailySignal, for your part in spreading this message in the way it should go. We will link to Rachel's interview with Jocko Boyans in today's show notes. Your letter could be featured on next week's show. So be sure to send us an email at letters at dailysignal.com or leave a voicemail message at 202-608-6205. More than 3,000 students from all across America gathered in Washington, D.C. for the National Pro-Life Summit. I have the opportunity to attend and hear many great and inspiring speakers. Heritage Foundation President K. James was among the best of them all, getting two standing ovations.

She spoke to attendees about her own pro-life story and what she has seen after working in the pro-life movement for four decades. Take a listen to her powerful speech. Deplorable. spent most of the morning so far trying to get my emotions under control. When you have been at this for four decades, you cannot imagine the joy of seeing this audience. When I started working with a little organization called Teens for Lowe, life. There were 12 of them. And I walked into the crowded corridors this morning. And I just want to give a great big thank you to Kristen and the work that she has done to produce this. The answer, when she

asked if the Heritage Foundation would be a part of hosting this event. I got into government and public policy because of the life issue. And when I'm 90 years old, that's the issue that's going to get me out of bed in the morning and keep me going. I've been at this and why I feel the way I do this morning. So I walked up to this young lady and said to her, I want you to know that you are one of my heroes. And I admire and respect the work that you are doing. And her name was Lila Rose.

A couple years ago, and Lila looked at me and said, Kay Coles James. Oh, my gosh, my mom used to tell me about you when I was a little girl. It tells you how long I've been at this and how I am so encouraged by your presence this morning. So there's a lot that we do at the Heritage Foundation and a lot of policy issues that matter. But I'm here to tell you that while we fight for access to health care and to make sure we get it exactly right, that's important. But what difference does it make if we have not yet confirmed the right for you to be here and live and walk and love among us? for a strong national defense, but defend what?

We need to defend the right of every American citizen to be born and live and walk and love among us. Constantly for free trade and free markets and a civil society, but all of those things are only important if you have the right. right to live and walk and love among us. So you can count on the Heritage Foundation, and you can count on me to stand with you constantly and forever on the pro-life platform. So this all gets started almost four decades ago. It's fascinating.

my husband and I believed that it wasn't just enough to secure the legal right to life, but we must be engaged and involved with those women who choose life. And so we helped to found one of those pregnancy help centers. Who are involved in those ministries, please know that for those of us who are on the front line, fighting in the legislatures and in Congress, you give us credibility because you are the heart of the pro-life movement. So thank you for the incredible work that you do. You make us credible. That worked. I had been asked to do a debate. I mean, I know some of you may find this amusing, but there was a time in this country when we actually debated the abortion

issue. I mean, we don't even do that anymore. They take it as a foregone conclusion. I used to debate the abortion issue on college campuses all over this country and indeed around the world. So, if you ever want to know, how would you answer this, the hard questions, the ones they think we don't know the answers to, I got some good answers for you. But I was standing a on a debate stage and my opponent looked at me and said, how dare you? How dare you dictate to poor women what to do with their bodies? You with your clearly middle class values. I wonder how she knows wasn't my bank account.

How does she know my values? and all the pieces came together for me in that moment. And I was able to step back and say to her, so you work for Planned Parenthood and you counsel women. Yes, and we are delighted to do that, and we stand with women and the choices that they make. So tell me how you would counsel a woman that comes into you and says through her tears,

I already have five children, and I can't keep food on the table, heat in the house, or clothes on their backs. And my husband, my husband, he's an alcoholic, and sometimes he gets violent, and I even have to throw my body between him and the children. How would you counsel that woman? And in the debate, she said, you know, I would counsel that woman. You have to say this dripping and oozing with fake compassion. I would tell that woman that one of the best choices she could make for the children that she already has and indeed for the one that she carries would be to choose abortion. because what loving mother would bring another child into those circumstances?

And I had the privilege of saying to her that night and then many times since, I have a vested interest in how you would counsel that woman. Because that woman was my mother and that child she carried was me. Purposes that God had for my life. She had no idea that I would have the opportunity to dine with kings and princes and serve presidents and be the president of the Heritage Foundation. I speak for those children. We, you and I, have engaged in what I believe to be the most important civil rights battle ever. Children whose rights are being taken away because,

because they're really, really small, really young and live inside their moms. What better civil rights cause than fighting for young people who are discriminated against because of size, age, and place of residence? I told you at the beginning I've been at this for 40 years or more. I'm here this morning for a couple of things, but I believe the most important thing is to say thank you and to recognize and to be energized by you and to recognize that the labors that we've been at for so many years is bearing fruit. But I need you to do a few things for me. I need you to be absolutely fearless as you stand for life.

I need you to take advantage of all of what you will be resists. receiving while here and after here, know that the Heritage Foundation is always there for you. Go to the website, get educated, get armed so that you can take on the battle and the education. I need you to not just come to the Mountain Top experience and be here at the march and get excited. I need you to stay engaged every single day. And here's what I need you to do. I need you to be givers to pro-life causes. And we need to train our young people that philanthropy is important.

Find a pro-life group. I'm not here to tell you which one, but they need your financial support. Support them. In my church, that's where they say, she had left preaching and gone to meddling. I need you to show up next year with five more friends at the march. I need you to educate yourselves so that we can win by winning the debates and the arguments. We've got to grow our movement.

I need you to go out in winsome and loving ways. convince your friends that loving life and protecting human life is one of the most important things they can do. I need you. The last two things I need you to do, I believe, are the most important. All of this activity needs to be translated into action. There is a responsibility that we all have. President of the United States can never make America great again until we secure the right to life of every pre-born child. So therefore, you to identify pro-life candidates not just the national, because we need Congress and we need state legislatures. one of the most pro-life things you can do is vote. And I'm not afraid of the last one.

And I do believe that it is the most important pro-life thing we can do. And I encourage you to join me in this. I am one of those people who absolutely believes, I have the audacity to believe in the power of prayer. prayer. If we commit to pray, we can see this thing turned around. Oh, see, I got me a helper back there. Absolutely. Amen. I am counting on you to do all of the above. But if you do nothing else for this issue, I need you to vote and I need you to pray. Thank you and have a great And we are going to leave it there for today.

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