President Biden taps Delaware State University's president to be his lead advisor on Historically Black Colleges and Universities issues nationwide.
Tony Allen became DSU’s president in January of 2020, and guided the university through a major expansion and the coronavirus pandemic.
Allen will now chair the president’s board of advisors on HBCUs, part of an initiative created in 1980 to help HBCUs expand their offerings.
His role as chair includes overseeing further HCBU funding from the federal government, on top of the $4 billion the Biden administration has already committed.
Allen was also tapped by Biden earlier this year to lead his inagural committee.
Allen plans to support Biden’s effort to further invest in HBCUs and help them modernize to meet a changing job landscape.
Under Allen, Delaware State recently became the first HBCU to acquire another school, Wesley College, this year.
Allen also touts the success of public-private partnerships, such as the donation of a downtown Wilmington building by Capital One, saying those partnerships are helpful in the absence of state and federal funding.
Roman Battaglia is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.
