Rich Heritage
BOLD FUTURE
Alabama A&M University's
150th Anniversary Campaign
WHERE WE COME FROM IS JUST THE START.
As we celebrate 150 years on The Hill, the momentum is behind us—and the future is even brighter.
This campaign will light the way forward and spark new possibilities that all start with your support.
CAMPUS COMMUNITY
Elevating and energizing a growing, destination campus
SCIENCE EDUCATION
Equipping and preparing the researchers, educators, and professionals of the future with the latest in STEM tools and technologies
SCHOLARSHIPS
Empowering learners and scholars ready to lead and serve on a new scale
We can make it all possible through our 150th anniversary fundraising campaign.
Our goal is to secure $150 million in total investments —including philanthropy—that will change the course of Alabama A&M University's future. And our boldest ambitions can only come to life if our entire family comes together, gives back, and lifts up AAMU like never before.
No matter where you lived, what you studied, or which group became your home away from home, there’s a role for everyone in this campaign—and it will take all of us to make it a success.
This next chapter could be the most significant turning point in Alabama A&M’s history—and it’s ours to write.
Funding Breakdown
"We are still making memories together, even after all these years."
Sandra (Taylor) Brooks '68
Since our founding in 1875 by Dr. William Hooper Councill—a man born into slavery who spread education, practiced law, started a newspaper, and gave his life to growing what was the Huntsville Normal School into a thriving land-grant university—Alabama A&M has been a place where incredible journeys and bold leaders begin.
Our students come from all across the state and well beyond for opportunities they might not find anywhere else. Many are the first in their families to attend college. Most receive financial aid. Some have not had access to a quality college preparatory education. Yet all bring passion, talent, and drive—and on this Hill, they are transformed for life.
From our tightknit campus, where students join a family that supports who they are and brings out their best, AAMU graduates go on to become community leaders and business executives. Skilled engineers and energetic entrepreneurs. Exceptional educators and pathbreaking scientists. Innovators and inspiring success stories. And so much more. Because when you start here, you can go anywhere.
But our story is only beginning.
As we approach AAMU's 150th anniversary, our time has come.
It’s our time to show the world what the Bulldog family is capable of,
coming together to elevate and energize the campus, community, and curriculum that have allowed so many of us to achieve so much—and that can do even more with the kind of resources our students and faculty have always deserved but too long lacked.
It’s our time to step forward and embrace a pivotal role in the future of our city, our state, and our nation—
at a moment when our campus is growing, our enrollment is surging, our research and programs are reaching new heights, and companies and communities across the nation are seeking out the kind of diverse, driven, talented leaders who have always defined AAMU.
It’s our time to re-imagine a rich heritage for a bold future—and establish Alabama A&M as a premier national institution for generations to come.
AN UNPRECEDENTED MOMENT.
AN UNPRECEDENTED OPPORTUNITY.
When the Marching Maroon and White Band kicked off the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in front of a record-breaking television audience, it confirmed what we in the Alabama A&M family already knew: this is a nationally prominent institution on the move and ready to lead.
Year after year, our community, our profile, and our impact grow. Enrollment now surpasses 6,600 and will soon grow to over 7,000, making us the largest of Alabama’s eight four-year HBCUs and the university that graduates the most minority STEM students in the state. 75% of our students receive financial aid and 60% are first-generation, and they come not just from Alabama but from 39 states and 26 countries to seek the opportunities we provide.
Our research and program funding now surpasses $70 million annually, compared with $42 million in 2020, and supports a wide range of important topics—everything from how we prepare educators to teach at the intersection of science, technology, and the liberal arts to the possible uses and biases of artificial intelligence, from the needs of underserved farmers of color in the Deep South to the theoretical results of applied physics research.
And every year, we add new programs and advanced degrees in subjects that build on our deep heritage of liberal arts and STEM education and put our students at the forefront of community needs and global trends, like mechanical and electrical engineering, food science business, and social work.
Never in Alabama A&M’s history have we experienced such rapid and profound growth.
Never have we had such an opportunity to transform.
Campaign Priorities
CAMPUS COMMUNITY
ELEVATING AND ENERGIZING A GROWING, DESTINATION CAMPUS
With this campaign, we will invest in a campus that attracts students, unifies our growing community, and provides all-new opportunities for collaboration and belonging.
NEW STUDENT AMENITIES BUILDING
An anchor project of this campaign and the hub that will define student life on campus for the next generation, our new Student Amenities Building will be Alabama A&M’s first-ever true student union.
Situated across from the Ernest Knight building on Meridian Street, with a prominent marquee announcing AAMU’s presence, the building will bring together East Campus and West Campus, ensuring we preserve AAMU’s intimate family feel even as our community grows.
With core student services such as academic advising, financial aid, and multicultural affairs in the front of the building and social and recreational spaces—including a food court, a game room, and student collaboration and communal areas—in back, the new building will be a bustling center of student life that helps recruit and retain promising young scholars while deepening belonging, collaboration, and community for all.
MERIDIAN STREET BRIDGE
Through this campaign, we will not only rehabilitate, but reimagine the Meridian Street pedestrian bridge linking East Campus to West Campus, creating a beautiful, distinctive walkway that further unifies our growing campus and creates a highly visible point of identity, pride, and belonging.
HILLCREST
Through this campaign, we will completely renovate and reinvigorate Hillcrest, turning this iconic building where AAMU presidents once lived at the pinnacle of The Hill into a one-of-a-kind special events space for our campus community, our alumni community, and beyond.
ATHLETIC COMPLEX
Through this campaign, we will bring our athletic complex into the next generation through a series of thoughtful upgrades and renovations, helping attract and support great student-athletes while strengthening the Bulldog teams that electrify our community.
That includes beautifying our football stadium entryways, enhancing our outdoor sports practice facility, and upgrading our baseball and softball facilities (including adding lights for greater use and night games).
Campaign Priorities
SCIENCE EDUCATION
EQUIPPING AND PREPARING THE RESEARCHERS, EDUCATORS, AND PROFESSIONALS OF THE FUTURE
With this campaign, we will create a state-of-the-art science center that dramatically transforms learning and research—and establishes AAMU at the forefront of science and technology.
NEW SCIENCE CENTER
With more minority STEM graduates than any other university in Alabama, research on the leading edge of agriculture and engineering, and programs and partnerships that prepare exceptional, job-ready professionals who step into meaningful roles at major tech companies on day one of their careers, science is at the heart of Alabama A&M and the center of our impact.
Yet our current science facilities, first built in the 1960s, lag behind modern standards. Our hardworking students and faculty have never received the kind of resources and research support that those at comparable, predominantly white institutions do.
With this campaign, we will create the science center our community needs and deserves today—and begin a new era of innovation and impact at Alabama A&M.
From Huntsville to Zambia, our scientific research already makes a difference across the world and in the learning and lives of the students who participate in every research project. Our new science center will take everything to the next level, anchoring campus at Meridian Street and Chase Road and defining the STEM corridor along Chase Road.
This building will dramatically enhance hands-on learning and research in core fields such as math, physics, and chemistry, as well as future-forward fields such as optics, aerospace engineering, cybersecurity, AI, microelectronics and semiconductor engineering, food and plant science, and data science.
Key features such as clean rooms and technology for design, manufacturing, and rapid prototyping; high-bay areas for drones and robotics; and labs that facilitate collaboration and bring state-of-the-art hardware and software together will elevate our current programs while supporting the introduction of new masters-level and PhD programs.
The building will also revolutionize our research capabilities, pairing the great minds and big ideas already here with the cutting-edge tools the next level requires. In doing so, this facility will bring a new level of dynamism to Alabama A&M, attracting top-notch faculty while transforming the student experience and enhancing job preparation.
Science has long been at the heart of Alabama A&M. And it’s at the heart of our vision for the future.
Campaign Priorities
SCHOLARSHIPS
EMPOWERING LEARNERS AND SCHOLARS READY TO LEAD AND SERVE ON A WHOLE NEW SCALE
With this campaign, we will change lives and support leaders by investing in the Alabama A&M community like never before.
SCHOLARSHIP SUPPORT
Whether it’s a full-ride scholarship or a $1,000 grant to cover an expense that might otherwise force a student to drop out, financial aid is what makes college possible for the majority of our students—what enables generation after generation to start here, stay here, and go on to a life of achievement and success.
As we begin a new era at AAMU, and as we grow our community and our programs, we must expand the opportunity and support we offer talented students.
Through a combination of merit- and need-based financial aid, we can extend the invitation to join this family and change the course of your life, just as thousands upon thousands of Bulldog alumni have already done.
FACULTY SUPPORT
By creating our first-ever endowed professorships through this campaign, we will attract world-renowned scholars in critical fields we want to either strengthen or grow.
In doing so, we will elevate our programs, enhance our research, and attract more top-notch students and professors to a campus that’s newly brimming with leading-edge research and scholarship.
RESEARCH SUPPORT
With greater investment in tools, teams, and support, we can take our growing research portfolio to new heights, empowering faculty and students to explore cutting-edge ideas in climate-smart and precision agriculture, food science, machine learning, education, and more.
PROGRAM SUPPORT
From pre-law to theater arts, curriculum design to financial analysis, every student and every program at AAMU need the resources to thrive.
With your support for programmatic innovation and new classroom tools (such as business software), we can move our existing programs forward and empower our faculty to envision new programs that meet emerging community needs.
WHAT COMES NEXT IS UP TO US.
"My commitment to giving back is fueled out of a pure love for the University, a huge amount of gratitude for how attending A&M helped change my life and the responsibility of helping others achieve greater success.”
Karla Baker '95
Generation after generation, Alabama A&M has illuminated the path to leadership for students full of talent and seeking greater opportunities. Our history lives in each one of us who started on The Hill and continues on with a life of meaning and achievement—with the AAMU family always by our side.
But where we come from is just the start. And as we celebrate 150 years of service, leadership, and impact, we know our story is still being written.
What comes next is up to us.
This is the most significant turning point in A&M’s history.
A chance to re-imagine a rich heritage for a bold future.
A chance to establish A&M as a premier institution and a beacon of possibility for the nation.
And a calling for all of us to embrace service as sovereignty—giving back to the community that has given so much to us and allowed us to give so much to the world.
No matter what you can give or how you choose to contribute, this is your campaign.
Each gift sparks new possibilities—and together, as one proud family, we can light the way for a brilliant new era.
JOIN US.
"I was the first person in my family to go to college and my family was poor... It was like a family on campus and the teachers took a personal interest in me.”
-Ola B. "Bae" (Wesley) Kirksey '50
"I learned that everyone makes mistakes, but if you keep trying, you can succeed. Graduation day was special for me as I was the first one in my family to graduate."
-Bobbie B. (Bennett) Humphrey '68
"When I first walked through the gates in 1949, I knew my life would be changed forever. I had very few options, coming from a family of 13 children and limited resources... Graduation day was a great day, since no one in my community had ever gone to college."
-Dr. John Vickers, Jr. '53
"As a student who attended AAMU on a Basic Economic Opportunity Grant (BEOG), much was given to me—thus, I am required to give back so that others may cross the bridge I have already navigated.”
-Troy Massey '70
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