 HBCU Digest Radio welcome back. We are continuing our conversations with distinguished leaders from historically black colleges and universities. And today our distinguished guests as a friend of the show, Dr. David Thomas, the esteemed president of Morehouse College. And I just was joking with the brother that we always meet under conditions like this where Morehouse is getting a big check from somewhere. And today is no different of $40 million from the Quillen Hastings family, the leadership of Netflix in support of student scholarships at Morehouse in addition to Spelman College and the United Negro College Fund. So brother president, again, in honor to be with you, I know it would seem cliche, but it's never cliche to get support for your institution. But what is the feeling today on campus and among the Morehouse community? Well, I can only speak about the Morehouse community because our students were evacuated from the campus in March, and we're not doing summer school online, but from the community. And if you look at everything from our social media to the emails and texts I've gotten, the community is elated. You know, we're feeling great about this. And it's a real affirmation of Morehouse's mission, as well as an affirmation of the fact that we have produced proof of concept, that our record of producing men committed to excellent leadership and service is unassailable and to be rewarded and supported at the level that this gift represents. So this is a really unique time, man. You know, obviously, we can't escape the reality of the world moving on a different access in the weeks and months and years to come post the lynching of George Floyd and that part of that new access, it turns because there seems to be the beginnings of an awakening of how do we as a country, as a world reconcile discrimination and oppression of black people. And so from the corporate perspective, some of that reconciliation is support of black institutions and black causes, Morehouse being among the premier of those. But how do you balance in your mind that Morehouse is a beneficiary of this new access or this new turning of the world, but it comes at a time where George Floyd and Reynard Brooks in Atlanta, these killings, you know, kind of spur this self-examination from some people to say, we wanna do right. Morehouse is a place where we can go to help show that we're doing right. Is there any kind of dissonance there? In spite of the fact that, you know, we wanna be good fundraisers and we wanna be good citizens of the institution. Yeah, it's a great question. And I have no dissonance. What I do have is a discomfort that that's what it takes for people to see the value of institutions like Morehouse and value it in the way that they would value, you know, any other elite undergraduate universe that has produced individuals who've gone on to be leaders in every aspect of professional pursuit from medicine and science to law and politics, which Morehouse has done for 153 years, but we haven't been supported in the way that colleges that we compete head to head with, like Davidson, Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, Wofford have been supported. And, you know, that's the discomfort, right? That I need a civil unrest for that to happen. The great news about this gift is Patty Quillen and Reed Hastings had already given Morehouse seven-figure gifts prior to this ever happening. And their first seven-figure gift was before Robert Smith gave us his gift. So they had already started to recognize the value of this institution given their own commitment to social justice. And, but I think, you know, there are other parts of our, or other institutions and individuals for whom the value of Morehouse College, this moment was a wake-up call to them. I think, right, I think for Patty and Reed, what they wanted to do was to spur those people out there who hadn't recognized the value of institutions like Morehouse and Spellman and other HBCUs under the UNCF umbrella so that they would see us in the same light that they see other institutions that they've supported at the level of eight-figure filling flopping gifts. There seems to be in higher education and you've known this over your career. And in a lot of ways, this is just life, period, where if there's something that seems to be trendy that a lot of people get on board to associate with that trend. And so in light of all that is going on socially and civically, the trend seems to be let's support organizations which can do something to create more opportunities for social justice and equity. That is unique to higher education because at college, like Morehouse or university, anything is not solely focused on social justice. Just like most colleges and universities are not solely focused on STEM. When that was very trendy a few years ago, let's throw money at STEM, science and technology. Are you concerned that because there is a push for social justice and racial equity, that that can, and I know this is going to scholarships and we'll talk about that in a minute, but are you worried about philanthropic support pushing the college in a way that says social justice, social justice, social justice? And we gotta move with that tide where it's also like, don't forget, we also do science, we do education. You know, we do law, there's a lot of stuff we do. So. Right, well at Morehouse, we're not concerned about it because if you know anything about Morehouse, social justice is core to our values. Right. And if you look at what our graduates have done, we've been leaders in every industry on the planet science, technology, math, politics, et cetera, et cetera, you know, social justice is a theme they pursue. So we're not worried about that. What I think I am conscious of is not accepting donations where we're going to be told how to grow about doing that. Right. And the beautiful thing about the gift of the $40 million from Patty Quinlan and Reed Hastings is they just said, we're gonna give you $40 million to support scholarships for students who will leave Morehouse debt free. And they didn't tell us, oh, and they have to be, you know, film majors or film majors or you have to create a new program called, you know, the XYZ social justice program. And I'm very conscious of the fact that I've got to manage attention. Morehouse needs more philanthropic support than it has gotten in the past so that we can compete with those institutions that today have billion dollar endowments and want exactly the same students that we recruit and have more capacity to give them a full ride. And at the same time, we can't change Morehouse so that, you know, we reflect every whim of a donor and lose connection to our primary purpose, our vision about how we produce more and ethical leaders who can go out into every field in the world and provide leadership and service. So I'm also prepared to say no to the $40 million gift that is gonna take Morehouse away from its fundamental mission. Let's talk about the nuts and bolts of the actual gift and so many of the others that you've gotten. You know, you mentioned Robert Smith, Oprah Winfrey and now the, you know, the Quillen Hastings gift. You, those go in support of student scholarships, right? But, and from the outside or to the lay person in higher education, it's like, hey man, Morehouse is doing this thing. They're raising a whole bunch of money but it's just not less, you know, not more than two months ago that you had to make some tough decisions about cost rightsizing. And we've talked about this before but can you explain the delicate balance between, here's a gift that somebody wants to give to support student scholarships and in a large way that supports revenue for the institution. And yet we still have to make tough decisions about our finances and how we do this almost month to month. Can you explain to folks those two worlds and how you bring them closer together for a stronger Morehouse? Yeah. So, you know, we have to think about, you know, the hardest thing about my job is if I just think about Morehouse for the term that I will likely be president. And, you know, presidents are appointed in five year term. So I'm two and a half years into my term. I can make myself look like, you know, an amazing president if I didn't make those tough decisions but I've kind of think about the long term viability of this institution. And things that, you know, happen in an episodic way like a $40 million gift when you're running a $100 million a year operation and that gift says, this is a 10 year gift. Right. Right? This is a 10 year gift. So I won't be president when this gift is finished. And, you know, just so the audience understand, I'm 63 years old. I don't think 10 years from now Morehouse is gonna want, you know, a 74 year old president hobbling around here. You never know, brother. You won't question that. I wouldn't say never. I don't know, you know, but, or let's just say, you know, yeah, let's just say I'm not sure I would want to be because this is a very demanding job. You know, I think I still have a young man's energy but it's becoming more and more clear to me that my body is like everybody else's. You know, it's a prisoner of time. Yeah, yeah. Uh, so if I was gonna just play the short game so that David Thomas, you know, doesn't have any conflicts or you know, complicated press, I could get away with not doing that, but I'm playing the long game. What I want is 153 years from now when people are talking about why Morehouse is so healthy and still doing what it does. And it's relevant to the next century. I want them to look back and say there was a moment in the tenure of David Thomas that we made some tough decisions that ensured that we would be here today. And then the light. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, bro. No, go ahead. I was gonna say, and then the last one, when you think about that, there's also this undercurrent within our sector, right? That has been driven, you know, partly, you know, it's partly your fault, you know, to say it in a funny way. It's your fault, you know, the success that Morehouse has had over recent years has started to spark a conversation that says, is there a wealth distribution gap or philanthropic gap between some of our, you know, private institutions, Morehouse, Spelman, Howard, and what philanthropists see in other HBCUs or what they don't see? I know that that is a totally unfair question to ask you because you gotta take care of Morehouse. But for as much as you can, could you speak to the, you know, the anxiety or the concern that some folks have that would suggest, man, Morehouse gets all the money. And yet a school like Savannah State is struggling. I know it's unfair. But just for the sake of the conversation, what would you say if that was a conversation brought to you? Like, how is it that you do so well when there's clearly some other campuses that could use it as well? Luckily, I'm not on this conversation with the presidents for many of those schools who might challenge, you know, my answer. I think there's a couple of things to it. And here's where, right? We use this, we have this term called HBCUs. And the term is historically black college and universities. The term is so powerful in its meaning that many people don't think about the fact that within that category, there's as much diversity as there is in all of higher education. Some of us are highly selective institutions that compete with, you know, the Ivy League and, you know, the Southern elites in terms of who applies and who admits in our admissions criteria. And others of us, other HBCUs are doing the work of, you know, publicly funded institutions that are, you know, enroll a different kind of student who wouldn't be competitive at those places. And how you make the value proposition so that you garner the funding you need is different across those different institutions. And it will attract different kinds of donors and different kinds of opportunities for funding. So you just take, for example, there's a great opportunity for funding out there right now for colleges that are really focused on preparing people for jobs and skill development. A lot of HBCUs are in that milieu. They wouldn't get rehastings money just like I don't get workforce development money from the state of Georgia, right? So I think that's, you know, if I were speaking to the leaders of those organizations, I think there are a few, you know, there are not a few, but, you know, there are a number of institutions that are competing in the same market as Morehouse where they say, gee, you know, David, why does Morehouse get all the gravy? And I say, okay, that's a good question. But here's 114 or so HBCUs. I don't know that that's the case for all of them. And I think, and this has been the case since I've been here at Morehouse. I've said very explicitly at Morehouse, we have to create a 21st century message about what our value proposition is as a liberal arts college dedicated to being among the best liberal arts colleges in the country. That's what we've been since Du Bois and Booker T Washington had their war over how do we educate black people, right? And Du Bois said, right, and John Hope, our first black president landed on, we're gonna be an elite liberal arts college, right? And that's what we've gone about doing. We've been very, you know, I think successful at least as, you know, measured by what our graduates have gone on to do.