ATLANTA—
The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) launched its premier UNITE 2025 conference in this week, drawing over 1,300 attendees from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) nationwide for a transformative four-day gathering focused on advancing institutional excellence and student success.
Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis
The conference opened with the signature Institutional Excellence Gala and Commencement Address, where UNCF President and CEO Dr. Michael L. Lomax delivered an inspiring fireside chat outlining his vision for the next chapter of HBCU excellence.
"This convening reaffirms that education is still essential to the progress, not just of African Americans – not just to HBCUs – but actually the progress of the world and our nation," Lomax told the packed banquet hall. "It's an existential moment, and what the future is going to be is what we define it as."
UNITE 2025's comprehensive program is structured around five critical pillars that UNCF has identified as essential to advancing HBCU impact:
Institutional Excellence - Workshops focus on governance, strategic planning, and operational effectiveness to strengthen HBCU foundations for long-term success.
Student Success - Sessions address retention strategies, academic support systems, and innovative approaches to ensuring students graduate prepared for 21st-century careers.
Research and Innovation - Programming highlights opportunities for HBCUs to expand their research portfolios and compete for federal and private research funding.
Economic Mobility - Discussions center on how HBCUs can better serve as engines of economic advancement for their graduates and surrounding communities.
Systems Change - Strategic sessions examine how HBCUs can work collectively to influence policy and create systemic improvements in higher education.
Lomax didn't shy away from addressing the current political environment, adding that HBCUs must navigate the Department of Education under the Trump administration. Rather than taking a defensive posture, he called for proactive engagement.
"The first administration was a very different administration," Lomax noted. "It's more focused, it's more energetic. It is more proactive, less reactive, but so are we."
Lomax said that UNCF has already reached out to the White House and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to present their agenda, which emphasizes democratizing educational opportunities and ensuring America has a workforce prepared for the modern economy.
A central theme of Lomax's remarks was the persistent wealth and resource gaps that HBCUs face. He highlighted the stark disparity between HBCU endowments and those of predominantly white institutions (PWIs), noting that the combined endowments of all HBCUs total approximately $7 billion – compared to Harvard University's single endowment of $60 billion.
To address this challenge, UNCF has launched an ambitious fundraising initiative aimed at raising $5 million for each of its 37 member institutions, totaling $185 million. The organization has already secured $100 million toward this goal and is working with institutions to match each $5 million contribution with additional fundraising.
Lomax highlighted the importance of financial literacy, advocating for better financial counseling to help students avoid over-borrowing on student loans while still accessing the transformative power of higher education.
Looking toward the future, Lomax characterized Artificial Intelligence as "the printing revolution of the 21st century," presenting both unprecedented opportunities and significant challenges for higher education.
"We can learn to embrace it, to manage it, and ensure that it does for humanity what those AI tech people tell us that it can be – a democratizing technology which will help lift us all," he said.
The conference's theme of unity was powerfully reinforced by other prominent speakers, including Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, who is slated to join the faculty at Howard University in a few weeks. Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis, President and CEO of Benedict College in South Carolina, delivered an empowering address calling for unprecedented collaboration among all of the nation's HBCUs.
"We must act like a system, speak like a system, move like a system, and grow like a system, fundraise, innovate, and advocate like a system," Artis declared. "We are not competitors. We are conspirators in the success of Black excellence."
Artis pointed to successful UNCF initiatives like the Career Pathways Initiative, which has modernized curricula across two dozen campuses, and the Green Fund, which has embedded sustainability as a core institutional value, as examples of what coordinated action can achieve.
Lomax concluded his remarks with a charge to attendees, invoking the words of the late Georgia Representative John Lewis. He encouraged conference participants to return to their institutions ready to "get into good trouble" – taking bold actions to advance their missions and serve their students more effectively.
The convening continues this week with additional sessions focused on fundraising strategies, academic innovation, research partnerships, and policy advocacy. The gathering represents a critical moment for HBCU leadership to chart a collective course forward in an era of both unprecedented challenges and remarkable opportunities.
