 HBCU Digest radio welcome back to our presidential series privilege to have conversations with Executives and leaders from our historically black colleges universities today our privilege guests the president of mouths college Dr. George French and also brother Chuck fall she is the executive director of the yard and this is a unique Organization that is working with HBCU's Throughout the country to spur economic development and awareness of black colleges So brothers it is indeed a an honor to have you on today Brother Fosch, I think we will start with you because this is something that Brother French actually brought to the floor at least for me And this is a really unique thing because this we talk often about public and private partnerships But this is one that that really talks about how do we do that in areas that need it the most? Talk about what the yard is and how you guys kind of came together to force this partnership to help develop Fairfielding and HBCU communities around the south Well, thank you first for just allowing me to spend some time with you and let me thank dr. French For not only his leadership locally, but I'm gonna call it globally. I just Learned from him. He will be you know across the water in Africa pretty pretty soon and You know, I think that's a good place to start because a lot of times when we see people we we see them in the context of Which we know them and not Not remember Sometimes how to be reminded about how far reaching the work that we do or not do can can can affect people and I'm just I'm really honored and happy to know this guy Who? Is as much I'm gonna call it a player in Fairfield in Birmingham in Alabama as he is across across the world and I mean that I mean that sincerely because You know learning now is not distanced as it is, you know just really one-on-one Life skills and application and a lot of things that I've learned I learned on this yard at Miles College And I think that's why you know the circle has has come back to Being able to work together as an example for others. So you asked me what the yard is the yard is tech talent and culture and those three words are are are directly tied to innovation Inclusion and infrastructure, which is the platform for the US Conference of Mayors and I have to give a shout out to Mayor Stephen Benjamin of Columbia, South Carolina is also the president of the US Conference of Mayors who when we were working on this platform innovation inclusion and infrastructure Really saw the work and I used our differences as an example of how an HBCU that's really firing on all Cylinders to hit each of these three points and hit them well not just hit them but hit them well and to make a difference and so we used miles as the model for this national initiative and basically what the yard is is Creating pipelines career pipelines For students to be matched up with not just available jobs today, but expected jobs of tomorrow So that's that's number one then that secondly is those students who are graduating Inclusion goes both ways, you know, we always think of it, you know as as being at a company When you know the boardroom does not look like the yard and it's you it right You know Not only are we affecting the boardroom and the workforce But inclusion also means for the HBCU for us to be able to To see the best and brightest minds of the world to come to our campuses To show our students what we don't know because really we don't know what we don't know You know and finally from an infrastructure standpoint, it is absolutely building the very best very best Infrastructure that we can so that you know our housing Looks like the presidential village at a predominantly white university, you know If you come on this campus that you will see it Your friends tell his own story, but you know from the time you drive up you will see a sign that says here We grow again, you know, and then you drive up and then you see a new building Then you see another new building then you see a rehab building or or building that's been enhanced and it's like This is the model. This is the place where we can say to everyone else Here's how you do it Man But that's that's what's so interesting and when you look at some of the I guess the blueprint behind this initiative A lot of it comes from your experience working in Alabama legislature Working with you know the private sectors How are you able to communicate the vision from dr. French which we'll get to in a second and translate that over to Those partners and say here's why it's a fit When there's so many colleges universities in Alabama How do you how do you effectively make the case for a miles or another campus? And I think that's what a lot of presidents and stakeholders and graduates from HBCs want to know like I Love that vision. So how do I make it possible for the folks in my community? But we are empowering campuses and communities one at a time and For all of us we sort of operate in a Bubble because we really want to affect effectuate and impact change where we are But again as in my first statement was not realizing that when we impact locally, we're also impacting globally. So Rather than operating independently Operating collectively And let me give you one example of Let me go back to infrastructure for a second you know Looking at efficiencies on a campus and I probably should give you a Go back my former days. I'm a media guy, but I spent five years as chief of staff For the city of Birmingham to the mayor and was able to really when you talk about public and private partnerships is to see How everybody has their own agenda But once you put people in a room and you start to connect the dots you see that our needs are Pretty much the same right and so efficiencies of scale mean that a dr. French is is looking at a refinancing of Some debt or he's looking at building the building Or looking at efficiencies across infrastructure If we had Companies who were ready and willing to not only look at miles individually, but collectively That means that those efficiencies Would would be able to be cast farther When you're refinancing that that rate can be a little different the closing cost can be a little different That means that the more it goes back to the basic principle of the more you say Who said that dr. Friends the more you say the more you earn is yours to keep I think that was a local guy here Birmingham So, you know when you when you look at how we can operate collectively It gives us so much more strength together than when we are Independent of each other so Real change with infrastructure real change with inclusion and Real change meaningful change with innovation And so that's where those three Words came from tech talent and culture because it they're real in our space And just so everybody listen is clear This is a program that is is work to extend to Benedict College in South Carolina It has roots in New Orleans in Not sure report, but bad rouge at Southern University So this is something that is that is working across the entire HBCU sector or has that the great potential to do so with a lot of corporate partners Working in concert with it, but dr. French You know you you've had this career where you know Fairfield is kind of reimagined as a result of what you've done And are doing with the campus From your perspective as a chief executive officer of an academic enterprise One that has to make money, but but for the the goal of educating people How did how does this work in your in your purview to say? Well, we're doing all these things. We're making a better fairfield a better place to live We're making Alabama a better place to live, but this benefits my students how Exactly listen, um, let me first give a shout out to a HBCU digest I'm telling you HBCU digest is the informer for practitioners within this space and It's invaluable and and we at Miles College and throughout the higher education community really appreciate the impact that you're making and You are informing decisions. So I just really want to to say a word of appreciation to you Brother Jerry, you just exposed everybody that I owe you a steak dinner in an alpha pin, but that's okay I This brother that's sitting with me Chuck Fosh We are we are pleased that that he's working With Miles and and with HBCUs across the nation because we are effectuating what's going on in these various cities We happen to sit within the city of Fairfield We're surrounded by the city of Birmingham as Fairfield is basically a suburb of the city of Fairfield So we are effectuating change within our city even within the Political although Miles is a political we are very active in the political arena and For the first time in history. We have a voting box on the campus of Miles College It's who primarily from when they're within the city of Fairfield to the camp to the beautiful campus of Miles So our residents come to the campus to engage the campus and we engage the city We're very active in Assisting Fairfield in their revitalization. Of course, Miles is the largest employer within the city We pay actually more taxes than anyone with within the city occupational and other So we're we're pleased to support our city. We're also actually the The latest developers within the city having constructed three buildings here on campus Simultaneously and we've expanded Exponentially we've about tripled the size of the land size of the campus during my administration now With the purchase of the north campus and then we purchased several city blocks around the campus So we're we're spurring revitalization and what we're doing now is we're putting together. We're plotting The entire city And what we're looking to do is while we have dilapidated housing Unfortunately throughout the city what we're doing is we're going block by block identifying some of the worst houses On and within those blocks We're facilitating the purchases of those homes and the renovation of those homes And then we are we will turn around and sell those homes to faculty and staff members of myos college So we wind up basically with uh a dispersion of myos college faculty and staff Within the Fairfield community that understand what home ownership is about That understand what it is to really take care of the homes and to make the investments And we will instill in our instilling now Uh a sense of pride as we uh help the city to revitalize our housing stock and to increase our tax base interestingly enough that um While we celebrate the victories of the civil rights struggles There were some consequences that came along with some of our victories that we didn't really anticipate 60s when we said that we wanted fair housing and we wanted to live wherever we wanted to live We didn't anticipate that there would come a time in 2019 that all of our Doctors and lawyers and pastors and teachers are moving out of the community Over the mountain. So we deteriorated tax base and we didn't really anticipate that Hbc's didn't anticipate when we were beating down the doors of the pwis That we would come to a point of losing Many so many disproportionately Our star athletes to where we find ourselves now having to play football games for For cash Teams that we we really by and large find it difficult to compete with So if if it is my fact I was speaking to one of my friends the other day And uh, he asked the question what What could we do to really turn hbc us around? And believe it or not, I told him that if Our athletes returned to hbc us And we were able to get the football contracts at the university of alabama and other schools are And we were able to send those kids to the pros and they gave back We would be able to compete Financially and resource-wise with anyone in the nation But right now we've been struck because we we we really didn't anticipate Those those type of things go so we have to we have to deal the hand with del But hbc us we have a pivotal role in in in trying to Make the playing field more level right now Yeah When you guys think about exactly that opportunity of equity Um, because that's what is at the core, you know the yard initiative That's the at the core of what you just discussed brother french about, you know athletics and its role in development at campus But just to round out from both of you guys I would ask It seems that we're getting to a time where um And I want to make sure I frame this correctly racism still exists, but people are much more open to the idea of Even within that framework, we still got to make money and we still got to be here. That's everybody So within that framework Do you find that it is It is effective to maintain I guess the heritage and the cultural pride Prospect of a miles college or hbcu at large And leverage that for partnerships or do you find that you just have to say hey look We're the biggest employee around here. We pay more taxes than everybody around here So everybody, you know act like we're supposed to be here and this is not something that is is an hbcu conversation But rather a finance And sustainability conversation because I think that our constituents kind of They push it one way, but I think leaders see it another way because they're interacting with all different kinds of people But our constituents want hey, we want we want hbcu all over the place As they should But our leaders know that if I want to make partnerships, maybe that's not so much of the the messaging we need So how do you both of you find? That you you've managed those two audiences for what the community and the camp is ultimately need Well, if I could if I could start uh start there Miles like like you said, we celebrate our history And our relevance in an historical context, but we also emphasize the relevance going forward For example, we're looking to diversify and our our diversifying our revenue streams Uh, that's why we're into cyber security. That's why we're working with homeland security as a leader within this space, uh, the only school in in in the country and the world that has had And hosted the director of the cia the director of the di a and the director of, um, uh National security all on our campus within a six week time frame because of our relationships With those areas we realize that national security is always the order of the day And right now national security more than boots on the ground. It's it's about intelligence It's about the fact that we found ourselves as a nation in the middle of a war Based on bad intel when there were no weapons of mass destruction found in that particular theater So what we need is we need people who look like us as we have different Uh conflicts and different theaters around the world Many of those will be in our africa We need people that look like us to go in and get the intelligence That's that's the bottom line and and we we have to train our students to serve our nation In intelligence by taking arabic and iridu and farsi on our campuses And then once they graduate they're able to go right into the intelligence community and serve our country All wild miles college diversifies our sources of revenue. We can't remain tuition driven forever So right that's that's one of the things that uh that we're doing here at miles I think you just spoke to um the early conversation about locally globally And the fact that that miles is training folks Here on this campus creating An economic pipeline But looking beyond the families of those who are who are benefiting from the Education and benefiting from the job. Yeah, and what what he's saying is That we're asking those very same people that we've educated the very same people that have secure jobs growing families That boy is going to sound cliche. Don't forget where you came from boy right And it's not about the give back when there is and i'm going to use miles as a as an example When m day comes around don't send something To to help with some hot dogs, okay? You know sponsor a student coming to miles and stay with them throughout the entire process of and that's what we were talking about earlier of Not only getting the degree but scaling and re scaling and i'm going to use myself as an example One of my proudest moments was when dr. French called me and said we're going to award you a doctorate And i will forever be grateful Because i i just i feel like had i not had the experience of somebody putting their hands on me After i got a degree Is helping me to understand how to apply that degree And then keeping my my sense and my dollars Where it started from yeah, and so when you talk about an economic pipeline You know it's it's really not just educating these companies and corporations about the value and the talent pool that we've got It is also about uh engaging ourselves To say okay, we want to grow Um, then we can't do the same things we've been doing right and i want to be one if i got 20 seconds i want to speak to the sports part of it Yes, quite often we always focus and and we used to do classics. We were we were part of broadcast for it for um black college uh classics and You did our first we did our first class we did Actually the first the first one that we did on fox sports way back in the day before When it used to be fox sports south and fox sports midwest and east and all up Was miles college. Yeah, it was a labor day classic And what really uh, what was a challenge then as it is a challenge today. It's the same challenge Is our times were late When we were on you know When we were on the air And and then then our our companies and corporations would ask us our partners and sponsors Would ask us to deliver impressions Well, how can you deliver impressions when you're not in a space and time right? Well at that time people were watching right You know It's like asking somebody to stay up till 11 o'clock at night with a game That had already ended three hours earlier Now that is not the case today because we can watch what we want when we watch when we want Where and how and we can do that on demand But the resource pool The disparity gap is still there so you know Again, collectively creating those economic synergies Not just from outside, but from inside as well