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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nPRINCESS ANNE, MD <\/strong> – (Dec. 7, 2016) – UMES President Juliette B. Bell testified today before a Congressional committee where she urged it to fund scholarships specifically for minorities who want to pursue careers in agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe agriculture field has evolved greatly,\u201d Bell told the U.S. House of Representatives’ agriculture committee, \u201cand there are many opportunities for our students to explore the use of technology and to learn what modern agriculture is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bell was among three historically black institution presidents who addressed the U.S. House of Representatives’ agriculture committee in support of a proposal calling for Congress to provide $1 million annually to each of the 19 land-grant schools founded to offer blacks agriculture training following the Civil War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe want to be able to increasingly provide that opportunity to more students of African-American descent and help them to be part of the American dream,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., lead sponsor of the funding resolution<\/strong><\/a> , wants the federal aid to be committed for the so-called \u201c1890 institutions\u201d for at least five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis bill will provide the 1890 universities,\u201d Bell said, \u201can opportunity to provide some financial support to those students who are academically well prepared, but not economically prepared to sustain their educational experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n An aide to Scott said the Georgia Congressman wants future generations of farmers to be well-trained without burdensome college loan debt ready – and ready to replace America’s aging population of agri-businessmen and women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe know that the workforce is underrepresented in terms of African-Americans in agriculture,\u201d Bell said. \u201cWe also know that the workforce is graying, especially in agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is important for students know that agriculture is a career they can pursue and that there are jobs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scott told his colleagues the start of the hearing that it was an \u201chistoric moment for African-American colleges\u201d and that his proposal would be a boost to \u201cthe most important industry in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is no greater need in the African-American community \u2026 then education and job training,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bell and her colleagues, Cynthia Jackson-Hammond, president of Central State in Ohio, and Paul Jones, president of Fort Valley State in Georgia, fielded mostly friendly questions from committee members seeking details about how their respective schools’ current resources and challenges they face recruiting, retaining and training students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At least two committee members, however, expressed concern that allocating the scholarship money sought by Scott for historically black institutions meant it would go exclusively to African Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bell explained that UMES is one of the nation’s most diverse historically black universities and that financial aid it doles out goes to the most deserving students, regardless of the race. Her colleagues concurred. The three also agreed that keeping students in school is often complicated by their inability to afford more than a year or two of study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis bill will provide our universities, which are often not able thorough endowments and private funding to be able to provide that level of support \u2026 to these very deserving students – not just to help them get a degree but to address the workforce needs and economic development of our region and our country,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because the 114th<\/sup> Congress is about to disband, pending legislation like Scott’s funding resolution will have to be resubmitted when the next Congress is sworn into office in January. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, committee chairman Michael Conaway, R-Texas, expressed optimism that the college presidents’ testimony would be helpful in guiding the agriculture committee in deciding whether to support Scott’s proposal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The entire 2-hour 28-minute hearing can be viewed on YouTube HERE<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bill Robinson<\/a><\/strong>, director, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-621-2355<\/strong>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wednesday, December 7, 2016 Bell urges Congress to provide 1890 land-grants with scholarship help PRINCESS ANNE, MD – (Dec. 7, 2016) – UMES President Juliette B. Bell testified today before a Congressional committee where she urged it to fund scholarships specifically for minorities who want to pursue careers in agriculture. \u201cThe agriculture field has evolved greatly,\u201d…Read more UMES president testifies on Capitol Hill<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-4243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4243"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=4243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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