Title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Program, authorizes a program of special assistance to strengthen the quality of developing institutions which have the desire and potential to make a substantial contribution to the higher education resources of the nation but are struggling for survival and are isolated from the main currents of academic life.
Amendments to the Act have altered some elements of the program, but it remains as written – an instrument to provide assistance to institutions demonstrating a constructive effort to strengthen themselves.
Johnson C. Smith University has two grants funded under Title III: (1) Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), and (2) Title III Part F Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education (FUTURE) Act award programs. Each program has funded project activities designed to help meet various University strategic goals. and Title III Comprehensive Development Plan.
The U. S. Department of Education implements annual performance measures that require the Title III office to monitor its activities in four focus areas during the five-year funding cycle:
1. Fiscal Stability: Establish development office, train development staff, strengthen alumni relations, establish donor database, build capacity to attract external support, build and manage endowment, increase tuition dollars from enrollment, increase research dollars.
2. Institutional Management: Create and maintain management information systems(s), develop, integrate and update data base(s), staff and train an institutional research office, train and develop staff (other than teaching faculty), Library facilities (construction, renovation), improved institutional management (faculty and staff personnel management, community affairs, outreach office, recruiting), construction and renovation (classrooms, teaching labs), infrastructure for the internet.
3. Student Services and Outcomes: Student services: Counseling (peer, career, personal), tutoring and mentoring (peer, staff, faculty), student facilities (general use computer labs, study centers, tutoring centers), create and support learning communities, improve student services (i.e., financial aid distribution process, registration), improve library services (extended hours, tutoring). Student outcomes: Graduation rate, retention, persistence (i.e., Fall to Fall, basic skills to for-credit courses), increased academic achievement, happy leavers, increased number of students entering higher degree programs.
4. Academic Quality: Train and develop faculty, develop curriculum, improve development or basic skills courses, develop academic program(s), retain and recruit faculty, increase diversity of faculty, improve average education level of faculty, change the ratio of adjunct to full time professors, change the ratio of non-academic staff to academic staff, change the ration of the number of students to faculty, improve class size, acquire specialized accreditation, acquire teaching or research laboratory equipment (institutional or joint shared use), acquire library materials (institutional or joint shared use).
