» RELATED: Central State president to step down after 8 years in university’s top job
Before the 2014 Farm Bill, Central State was not fully recognized as an 1890 land grant institution by the federal government, Turner has said. The 2019 Farm Bill made Central State eligible for as much federal funding as other colleges with the designation.
Turner called the announcement a “huge win” for Central State.
“Since being federally recognized as an 1890 Land Grant Institution, Central State was unfairly being left out of certain funding opportunities because of how it was designated…The money included in this grant will be used to continue the vital research already being conducted at the university, and I am incredibly proud of the work and research being done here,” Turner said in a prepared statement.
Federal funding has historically been doled out to CSU “arbitrarily” and the 2019 Farm Bill will take a “look at how the funding is allocated across all 1890s,” university president Cynthia Jackson-Hammond has said.
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U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue visited Central State last year. Perdue threw his full support behind the amendment that would now allows CSU to compete for more federal funding, Turner has said.
The funding is a win for Central State, which just emerged from state fiscal watch in 2017.
With the farm bill funding secured, Turner said he is now working on ways to strengthen partnerships between the Department of Defense and historically black colleges and universities.
Turner co-sponsored an amendment to this year’s House version of the National Defense Authorization Act that urges the creation of a “National Security Commission on Defense Research Conducted by HBCUs and Minority Institutions.”
If established, the commission will address inequality in defense funding to find ways to build defense research capacity at HBCUs and other minority organizations, according to Turner’s office.
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