President Trump Made a Promise to Black Colleges. It Hasn’t Happened.

When presidents and chancellors from historically black colleges and universities came to Washington in February, they had eyes on an ambitious executive order from President Trump that would nearly double the federal support to black colleges. Many of those leaders were disappointed, however, when the directive signed by the president instead included only a small change in the structure of the White House Initiative on HBCUs, a program to “strengthen” the nation’s black colleges.

Executive orders on black colleges have been signed by every president since Jimmy Carter. President Trump’s order moved the initiative out of the Education Department and into the West Wing — a shift that HBCU leaders had asked for and supported. The administration argued that moving the office would give black colleges a “direct line” to the White House and help them avoid the complicated “layers of bureaucracy” that they’ve previously had to go through.

That shift to the White House, however, has not yet happened.

The office is currently without an executive director, and it employs four career staffers who work out of the the Department of Education, according to the initiative’s website. When asked whether there was a timeline for selecting a director, a White House spokesman said there were no announcements at this time. The last four presidential administrations have appointed a director for the office by July of their inaugural year.

HBCU leaders and members of programs overseen by the initiative told The Chronicle that there has been little direct outreach from the White House in the months since the order was signed — and in some cases, the line has gone completely silent.

The administration has made a number of public overtures to historically black colleges aside from the executive order, including having Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, deliver the commencement address at Bethune-Cookman University. But there have also been plenty of flubs, such as when Ms. DeVos referred to black colleges as “real pioneers” on school choice, and when Mr. Trump suggested that a financing program for black colleges could be unconstitutional. Ms. DeVos was also greeted by deafening boos at Bethune-Cookman.

“We just don’t know where it’s going,” said Walter M. Kimbrough, president of Dillard University. “There was a big display of love and support on the front end, and right now it’s sort of like, ‘OK, where are we?’”

Missed Meetings

The HBCU All-Star Students Program announced its first cohort in 2014, and since then more than 70 students have been selected each year. In the program’s initial conception the student “all-stars” were supposed to serve as “ambassadors of the White House Initiative,” providing outreach to their respective campus communities.

But members of the current cohort say that, aside from the career officials working on the initiative, there has been little outreach to the student ambassadors from the administration.

The students had hoped to be included in the February meeting between HBCU leaders, members of Congress, and the administration, but when it became apparent that would not be possible, they sought other methods of communication, said Tiffany Brockington, a student at Howard University and member of the 2016 cohort.

In the days that followed the executive order, Ms. Brockington said, she and two members of her cohort saw Omarosa Manigault, a senior aide to the president (and former contestant on The Apprentice), at a charter day celebration at Howard. Ms. Manigault has spearheaded efforts on black colleges in the administration.

After explaining that they were members of the HBCU all-stars cohort — and what the program was — the students were able to secure contact information for Ms. Manigault and her assistant and the prospect of a meeting, Ms. Brockington said. But after some back and forth, the meeting never materialized.

Ms. Manigault did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Chronicle.

“Being someone who is caught in the middle of it, and is trying to represent students, it’s frustrating,” said Ms. Brockington. “It’s really about meeting with the people who you said you would meet with.”

Several students were, however, able to meet with Ms. DeVos and with Ja’Ron Smith, a White House policy adviser, but those meetings, Ms. Brockington said, were largely meet-and-greet opportunities. Following the April 19 meeting with Ms. DeVos, students said they were assured that their “questions, comments, and concerns” that had been submitted days earlier would be answered in short order.

They have not yet received those answers.

Unfulfilled Promises

For most black-college presidents, direct interaction with the administration is not the only way, or even the primary avenue, that they work to get things done.

“We work directly with our members in Congress, and the UNCF works on our behalf as well,” Mr. Kimbrough said. If the line of communication with the White House is indeed open, he said, it would be a “valuable” avenue, “but right now, we don’t know what’s going on.”

Cheryl L. Smith, UNCF’s senior vice president for public policy and government affairs, said in a statement that the organization continues to talk to the White House as well as members of the Education Department, including Ms. DeVos — whom they have invited to a roundtable in the fall. “We expect that conversations will pick up once the White House appoints an executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs,” she said, “which we hope will happen before the end of September.”

Several HBCU advocates went to Capitol Hill in late April to press their cause during a “Day of Action” where they held several meetings with members of Congress. Rep. Alma S. Adams, Democrat of North Carolina, was one of those lawmakers.

In an interview with The Chronicle on Tuesday, Ms. Adams said that she has been disappointed because the administration has not lived up to its promises. “They claimed that HBCUs would be a priority, but after you look at the budget, that rings pretty hollow,” she said. “The promises are unfulfilled as far as I’m concerned.”

Ms. Adams, who is the co-chair of the bipartisan HBCU caucus, said that she supported the administration’s decision to move the initiative to the White House from the Education Department, in hopes that would help black colleges get the attention that they need. On Wednesday, she will meet with Tim Pataki, a White House legislative aide, to discuss what the next steps are and voice a number of concerns, she said.

“The fact that there is no director in place is a part of a broader issue in terms of staffing, but I do think that we need to move on this,” Ms. Adams added.

“And we need to move quickly.”

Adam Harris is a breaking-news reporter. Follow him on Twitter @AdamHSays or email him at adam.harris@chronicle.com.