Today, the United States finds itself in uncharted space within a global marketplace of increasingly interdependent economies and industries. Where we once led the world in commercial and technological innovation, we now find ourselves trailing other countries in the most necessary standard of maintaining competitive value: the education of its residents.
I hope all of us can agree that college completion needs to rise as a top priority in the U.S., which currently ranks 13th worldwide in the percentage of individuals ages 25 and older holding baccalaureate degrees. I applaud President Barack Obama for his leadership in calling for increased educational attainment in order for America to meet the current domestic challenges of economic recovery, national security and environmental sustainability.
Last week, I participated on a panel sponsored by the Southern Education Foundation to discuss the role that Historically Black Colleges and Universities must play in aiding America to achieve parity with the rest of the world in educational attainment.
Morgan State University, where I serve as president, and many other HBCUs, are proud to be among the great academic institutions helping our effort to restore America’s rightful place as a nation of skill and innovation.
During this commencement season, tens of thousands of students proudly walked across the stages of these institutions with joy, pride and tears and received their sheepskins. At Morgan, for example, we graduated more than 1,200 new leaders in engineering, science, mathematics, education, business and public health.
Some arrived on our campus with stellar academic credentials, excited to confirm Morgan as the right choice out of several of the nation’s most elite institutions. But several of them arrived as the first in their families to attend college, focused not on the circumstances and academic challenges from which they emerged, but on their ability to change them for future generations.
As the first in my own family to attend college, and as one who arrived on the campus of Tuskegee University in the late ’70s with some serious financial challenges, and with a few gaps in my own academic preparation, I relate well to the struggles and obstacles many students face to make it through college.
I walk the campus constantly engaging students in dialogue and conversation about what the country requires of them. I marvel at their competitive spirit. They are intent on helping the United States grow and win the future. Several of these students will go on to pursue graduate degrees in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields.
This same story played itself out on all of the HBCU campuses this spring. Our institutions are producing graduates who will be the authors of America’s future innovation. And as these students of color inch closer toward becoming the “emerging majority” in the country, America increasingly will rely on them for the inventions, innovation and excellence needed to compete in an interdependent world.
If America is to reclaim the No. 1 spot in the world again in educational attainment, HBCUs will need to be a leader in this effort.
David Wilson is president of Morgan State University in Baltimore, Md.
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