(Photo Credit: Associated Press)

(This is an excerpt from an Op-Ed published by HBCU Digest and penned by A. Zachary Faison, Jr., Chief of Staff & Interim Vice President for University Advancement at Mississippi Valley State University.)

I must say from the outset that I maintain a profound and genuine respect for the visionary leadership of Dr. Walter Kimbrough, president of Dillard University, as one of the nation’s leading and preeminent voices in the persistent plight of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Indeed, as a younger member of the “hip-hop generation” who also heeded the call to serve the HBCU community as an executive administrator, I was actually in part personally inspired by Dr. Kimbrough’s leadership having known him personally as a student during my matriculation as an undergraduate at Albany State University where he served as a vice president a decade ago.

However, after reading Dr. Kimbrough’s May 22, 2013 Los Angeles Times article titled, “Why USC and not a black college, Dr. Dre?” concerning his angst and disappointment regarding hip-hop super producer Dr. Dre’s recent $35 million dollar gift to the University of Southern California, I pensively ruminated whether Dr. Kimbrough or other HBCU leaders were sincerely ready to hear and fully appreciate the rather inconvenient truth that belies the unfortunate answer to his retort with respect to HBCUs often not being the beneficiaries of multi-million dollar gifts.

Unfortunately, as a higher education advancement/development professional and state legislative liaison/lobbyist for a state sponsored HBCU, it sadly is of little surprise nor is it much of a perplexing reality that these kinds of gifts and investments continuously escape the needful grips of a great majority of our institutions. To put it bluntly, and at the risk of taking too much of a literary liberty with a sacred Biblical principle, “Dr. Kimbrough, HBCUs cannot reap where HBCUs have not sown.”

Read the remainder of the great article here: “When It Comes to HBCU Philanthropy We Cannot Reap Where We Have Not Sown”.

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Related Articles

• HBCU President Asks Dr. Dre, Why Not Us? (npr.org)
• Dillard President Asks Dr. Dre Why He Gave $35 Million to USC and Not a Black College (allhiphop.com)
• USC Doesn’t Need Dr. Dre’s $70 Million. An HBCU Does (theroot.com)
• Dr. Dre Pledges To Give USC $35 Million And He Should Have Given It To An HBCU! (obnoxioustv.wordpress.com)
• Dictating Dr. Dre (makiahisms.com)
• When it comes to Dr. Dre and Kevin Durant Stay Out of Their Pockets (ashy2classy.net)