What a $50 Million Donation Did for One H.B.C.U.
The New York Times
At Prairie View A&M, one of the historically Black colleges and universities where MacKenzie Scott donated millions, the mood is cautious optimism.
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas — In-person learning resumed at Prairie View A&M University at the end of August, and the campus was soon buzzing with familiar sounds and sights: freshmen laughing in the dining hall, students walking across the sprawling yard in between classes.
There were also inescapable nods to our current era, like signs on light posts with different reminders, including “Today’s Task: Wear Your Mask.”
If colleges have been among the most disrupted institutions during the pandemic, they have also been centers of hope and resilience. At Prairie View, a historically Black university, some of that optimism has been magnified by a $50 million donation from MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Jeff Bezos, who has quietly given billions of dollars to underfunded organizations since 2020.
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