position to be our astronauts, scientists, and engineers and to come forward with the inventions that are necessary to keep America strong and competitive.


USBE: Based on your experiences at Morgan and other major universities across the country, what is the state of STEM advancement with respect to higher education overall and, more specifi cally, with respect to HBCUs in 2016? Dr. Wilson: My career has spanned


some of the top institutions in the country. I have a pretty good sense of what is taking place on those campuses and what is taking place here at Morgan. I have to say that I have seen more talent in the African-American students in the seven years that I’ve been at Morgan than I have seen across those 25 years that I’ve spent someplace else. The students who come here are supported by a faculty that truly believes in them.


I heard a former HBCU president


say it best: When places like Morgan State and other HBCUs accept students in STEM fi elds, we accept that they are good. We assume that they can be successful. Our role is to support that. Our role is to make sure that light bulb is continually shining bright. On some of the other campuses, the opposite could be true. If students who are people of color show up as STEM majors, the perception, intended or not, might be that they are NOT up to snuff —and they have to prove that they are. Consequently, those students can start out with a level of doubt. Once they run up against their fi rst hurdle, they switch majors to something else because that doubt has been confi rmed, and their brilliance is not being affi rmed. At Morgan, if they run up against an obstacle, professors immediately jump in, provide them the support and nurturing that they need, and convince them that they can get over this bump and over that hurdle.


What I’m seeing now in terms of the


state of STEM across higher education is that too many Black students are stumbling in these fi elds at institutions that have not perfected a culture of support. As a result, unfortunately, these


www.blackengineer.com


At Morgan, we are now building expertise around security and the Internet of Things. This is a growing fi eld. According to a recent report, in fi ve years, every person in the United States will have 1,000 sensors connected to them through their cell phones. They will be able to do almost everything with their cell phones. If you multiply that times the seven billion people in the world, you’re talking about seven trillion sensors. — Dr. David Wilson


President of Morgan State University


students turn their backs on the fi elds. What we have to do at HBCUs is to say to some of those institutions, “We really have perfected a culture in terms of how you can take students in STEM fi elds and imbue them with the preparation that they need to do so, in a way that will enable them to not just get their baccalaureate degrees but to go on and compete at the very highest levels in master’s programs and Ph.D. programs in some of the more elite institutions in the country.” That’s what I’m hearing the traditionally white institutions right now are struggling to incorporate on their campuses—a culture that is similar to the culture that exists on HBCU campuses. They could learn a great deal about the cultures that we have established on these campuses over decades that churn out some of the top scientists, engineers, and innovators in this country—and must continue to do so if we are going to make an appreciable dent in producing graduates who are Black in STEM fi elds going forward.


USBE: That sounds like something that is inherent at HBCUs but would almost seem impossible at other universities. Is there a way for other universities to do that, or is that something that is intrinsically part


of the experience with HBCU STEM programs? Dr. Wilson: Think it takes a long period of time to bend the cultural arc. What I’ve learned as a result of my tenure here at Morgan is that it really starts with leadership. It starts with deans of these schools that actually believe in the work that they’re doing, that believe they can take students where they are and turn them into world-class scientists, mathematicians, computer scientists, and engineers. Then that leadership has to go out and recruit a faculty that is very well-educated, very well-equipped in understanding the nexus between the practical side of the science and engineering industry and the academic side. They have to really get the mission of the institution, and they have to have that mission in their guts. They have to feel that, and they have to get a lot of enjoyment in working with students in this space. Over a period of time, that’s how the culture on the campuses is directed.


When you look at places like Morgan,


North Carolina A&T, Tuskegee, and Howard, those institutions are leading the nation in the production of Black engineers, mathematicians, and computer scientists. It is because that leadership [at those institutions] has been in place, and


SPRING 2016 I USBE&IT 11


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