RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Some North Carolinians aren’t familiar with our state’s Historically Minority-Serving Institutions (HMSIs) – but HMSIs are taking on growing importance in efforts to build an educated workforce in the state.

UNC-TV will take a look at the educational opportunities and partnerships North Carolina’s six public HMSIs provide at 8 p.m. tonight with Focus on the Future: Innovations at NC’s Historically Minority-Serving Institutions on UNC-TV PBS & More.

Created as a UNC Board of Governors subcommittee, the term HMSI includes the UNC System’s five historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs): Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina Central University, and Winston-Salem State University; as well as the state’s only designated historically American Indian university – the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

The UNC System’s strategic plan sets goals for enrolling more low-income, rural and other underrepresented students.¹ And in the show’s panel discussion, Interim UNC System President Bill Roper underscores the role HMSIs will play in that effort.

“We’ve never been more certain about the important role that the HMSIs play in North Carolina within the UNC System,” Roper says.

Winston-Salem State University Chancellor Elwood L. Robinson emphasizes the institutions’ academic quality.

“These are academic centers of excellence. When a student comes, they are getting the best possible education anywhere they can get in the world,” Robinson says.²

The discussion includes:

• William L. Roper, MD, MPH, interim president, UNC System;
• Harry Smith Jr., former chair, UNC Board of Governors;
• Darrell Allison, member and HMSI Committee chair, UNC Board of Governors;
• Karrie G. Dixon, EdD, chancellor, Elizabeth City State;
• Peggy Valentine, EdD, interim chancellor, Fayetteville State;
• Harold L. Martin Sr., PhD, chancellor, N.C. A&T; 
• Johnson O. Akinleye, PhD , chancellor, N.C. Central;
• Robin Gary Cummings, MD, chancellor, UNC Pembroke; and
• Elwood L. Robinson, PhD, chancellor, Winston-Salem State.

Martin – chancellor of the nation’s largest Historically Black College or University (HBCU) – points to HMSIs’ growing importance in supplying a trained workforce, as well as their historical role of uplifting low-income communities.

Akinleye describes NCCU’s involvement in research, with two centers dedicated to the biotechnology industry. “We are conducting cutting-edge research,” he says.

Dixon says that while Elizabeth City State is the state’s smallest HMSI, it is “mighty.” She discusses the importance of ECSU’s partnerships with community colleges to create a seamless pipeline to degrees in aviation science.

And in remarks recorded after the production, Robinson says that when they take a good look at HMSIs, “People begin to see that they’re not different from any other great institution in America.”

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¹ https://www.northcarolina.edu/sites/default/files/unc_strategic_plan.pdf, p. 9.
²https://www.unctv.org/watch/unctv-originals/focus-on/.