This website is designed to provide our university community and other interested persons with information about the progress that we are making through our Title III grant.
The Title III Strengthening Grants Program: HBCU program is funded by the U. S. Department of Education (DOE). The Title III program is only one of many initiatives funded by the DOE as part of a mission to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence for all Americans.
The Title III Strengthening Grants Program began as part of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which sought to provide support to strengthen various aspects of the schools through a formula grant program to accredited, legal authorized HBCUs. The purpose of this program is to provide financial assistance to establish or strengthen the physical plants, financial management, academic resources, and endowments of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Originally known as Higher Education-Institutional Aid, the grant program eventually became widely known as Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities (Title III, Part B), and later recognized by the shorten version, Title III: HBCU program. Alabama A&M University receives over $2.5 million annually to strengthen various academic programs, administrative operations, and student services.
Purpose of Title III
Title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Program, authorizes a program of special assistance to strengthen the quality of developing institutions which have the desire and potential to make a substantial contribution to the higher education resources of the nation, but are struggling for survival and are isolated from the main currents of academic life. Amendments to the Act have altered some elements of the program, but it remains as written—an instrument to provide assistance to institutions demonstrating a constructive effort to strengthen themselves.
Alabama A&M University has two programs funded under Title III Strengthening Grants Program: (1) Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and (2) Historically Black Graduate Institutions (HBGI). Each program has funded project activities designed to help meet various University Strategic Goals.
Program Administration
Program Administration is the executive arm of the University's Title III Strengthening Grants Program. It is administered by a Director, who administers and manages all aspects of both Title III programs. The Director reports directly to the President of the University, thereby ensuring a holistic focus on all nine University Strategic Planning Goals. All Title III funds awarded are used to help accelerate the University's progress toward effectively and efficiently achieving its goals.
Mission of the University
Alabama A&M University reflects the uniqueness of traditional land-grant institutions combining education, research and service in professional, vocational, and liberal arts fields. The University provides baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral level degrees that are compatible with the times to all qualified capable individuals who are interested in further developing their technical, professional, and scholastic skills and competencies. It operates in the three-fold function of teaching, research, extension, and other public services. A center of substance and excellence, Alabama A&M University provides a setting for the emergence of scholars, leaders, thinkers, and other contributors to society. Specifically, the University is committed to (1) excellence in education and a scholarly environment in which inquiring and discriminating minds may be nourished; (2) the education of students for effective participation in local, state, regional, national, and international societies; (3) the search for new knowledge through research and its applications; (4) the provision of a comprehensive outreach program designed to meet the changing needs of the larger community; and (5) programs necessary to adequately address the major needs and problems of capable students who have experienced limited access to education. Alabama A&M University, in cooperation with businesses, industrial and governmental agencies, and other institutions, provides a laboratory where theory is put into practice in a productive environment.
