Several historically Black colleges and universities in Georgia will receive federal funding thanks to efforts by U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff. 

As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Ossoff (D-Ga.),visited Atlanta’s Spelman College this week to announce funding for information technology investments for HBCUs. Ossoff said Clark Atlanta University will receive $1 million for upgrades to its cybersecurity and STEM programs while Morehouse School of Medicine will get $500,000 for a new academic building.

Morehouse College (Credit: Morehouse College)

“Since I took office, working alongside Sen. Rev. (Raphael) Warnock, we have secured more than $250 million in supplemental investment for Georgia’s HBCUs,” Ossoff said during remarks outside the Albro-Falconer-Manley Science Center at Spelman College, the Patch reported. “I said when I was running for the Senate, that I would put investment in Georgia’s HBCUs at the center of my work, and I’m going to continue to fight every day for Georgia HBCUs.”

Spelman College has reportedly received $2.5 million for upgrades to the university’s digital infrastructure.

“It will allow us to upgrade our wireless network, it will allow us to improve our research capacity, our teaching capacity, our learning capacity, it will allow us to move forward with great speed on our eSpelman learning platform for adult learners, and it will improve our connectivity throughout the (Atlanta University Center) and between the AUC and other research institutions,” Spelman President Mary Schmidt Campbell said.

Spelman College (Photo by Marcus Ingram/Getty Images)

“If we have learned anything from the pandemic, we’ve learned that our technology infrastructure is absolutely essential to the teaching and learning enterprise,” said Schmidt Campbell. “We cannot function as educational institutions without first-rate, state-of-the-art technology.”

Georgia has 10 HBCUs. Several will be upgraded and renovated as part of President Joe Biden’s record $2.7 billion in funding for the schools.

“I’m going to continue to work to secure investments for Georgia’s HBCUs,” Ossoff said. 

During his appearance at Spelman this week, the congressman also mentioned the multiple bomb threats against HBCUs since February.

Nearly two dozen HBCUs were targeted during Black History Month, prompting campus evacuations and several probes by the FBI and ATF. Some campuses, such as Howard University, received several bomb threats.

“In the last several months, I have been in contact with the GBI, with the FBI and DOJ officials, I have been in regular contact with Dr. Campbell, my staff is in regular contact with the leadership at Spelman and other institutions that face these threats, and I will continue to work with you, Dr. Campbell, to ensure that you have all of the support from law enforcement at every level, up to and including the FBI, that you need to continue your work and to keep this institution safe,” Ossoff said, as reported by the Georgia Recorder. 

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