A $38 million donation to Xavier University of Louisiana, the largest in the institution’s history, was announced only days ago. The gift came from MacKenzie Scott, the philanthropist who founded Amazon with former husband Jeff Bezos. Within the last couple of weeks, a couple of Atlanta HBCUs — Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University — also got $38 million each.
Earlier this month, Philander Smith University in Arkansas got $19 million from Scott’s foundation, Yield Giving, and Prairie View A&M University in Texas and North Carolina A&T State University each received $63 million. Morgan State University in Baltimore got $63 million last month.
The day the Xavier contribution was announced, campus faculty, staff and students and Xavier alumni went crazy with excitement. Of course, there were plenty of unsolicited social media comments about how the money should be spent. With recent news in October about university layoffs, some thought those decisions might be changed.
I caught Xavier University President Reynold Verret just before he went to bed in Rome after a long day of travel to Italy. He and a delegation of Xavier alumni, friends and supporters were on a pilgrimage in honor of the 25th anniversary of the canonization of St. Katharine Drexel, who founded the university. He told me that the Scott money has been designated for investments so the university can use the yield to support students…