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The UNCF has just received a landmark $70 million gift from philanthropist McKenzie Scott

in what amounts to one of her largest gifts ever.

The money will be used to bolster the endowments of historically black colleges and universities,

helping to close longstanding gaps in resources and financial stability. It's part of a billion-dollar

capital campaign that UNCF is leading to ensure that HBCUs can thrive well into the future.

For more on what this gift means and the broader outlook for HBCUs, we're joined now by

Dr. Michael Lomax, UNCF president and CEO. It's always great to see you, sir. So let's start with

the basics. This is a $70 million gift, a historic gift. How will the money be used? And what

immediate impact will students at HBCUs see? Yeah, it is a $70 million gift and it follows on a $10 million gift which McKenzie Scott made

to UNCF five years ago during the early days of the pandemic.

It's an opportunity for us to try to close the endowment gap between HBCUs and their non-HBCU peers.

Right now, HBCUs, if you put all 100 and one of them together, their total endowments would

probably be in the $6 billion range.

And that's to serve 250,000 students. And there are

PWIs in this country, non-HBCUs, which have $6 billion of their own in their endowment. So we're way

behind on the wealth gap if you're gauging wealth by what the size of your endowment is.

PWA's meaning predominantly white institutions. Beyond the dollars themselves, how do you plan

...