A study into land-grant funding withheld from Tennessee State University over decades has revealed that the flagship HBCU requires more than $420 million in deferred maintenance that will need to be addressed within the next decade, including $337 million in projects which are critical enough to demand improvement in the next five years.
Unfortunately, deferred maintenance is something the United States specializes in too much. With climate change becoming a bigger factor, trying to repair past damages is going to be too costly. It is time to think resilience and sustainability. Especially in the Southern region where political powers and old Black guard thinking is going to hurt schools like TSU than help. I wonder why schools like TSU are not tapping funding sources like Opportunity Zones for investing in newer structures. I did a white paper on OZ and HBCUs and found many were within close proximity of these zones to qualify for funding. Regardless, getting money owed from the State is going to be a long haul that time will not allow with climate change hitting the region. TSU will need to think outside of the box to get its campus repairs updated.
Unfortunately, deferred maintenance is something the United States specializes in too much. With climate change becoming a bigger factor, trying to repair past damages is going to be too costly. It is time to think resilience and sustainability. Especially in the Southern region where political powers and old Black guard thinking is going to hurt schools like TSU than help. I wonder why schools like TSU are not tapping funding sources like Opportunity Zones for investing in newer structures. I did a white paper on OZ and HBCUs and found many were within close proximity of these zones to qualify for funding. Regardless, getting money owed from the State is going to be a long haul that time will not allow with climate change hitting the region. TSU will need to think outside of the box to get its campus repairs updated.