奥巴马演讲 Recognizing What Historically Black Colleges
网络热词
Remarks by the President on Signing Executive Order on Historically Black Colleges and Universities East Room 4:54 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Plea have a at. (Applau.) Thank you very much. Well, it is wonderful to be here. And thank you for the outstanding introduction by Mr. Smart. And I was complimenting（恭维） him on his bowtie（蝶形领结） -- (laughter) -- as well as the excellent scholarship that he’s showing. I want to thank all the student leaders from HBCUs and some of the fantastic men and women that I've named to rve on my HBCU advisory 1 board. So thank you, all of you, for what you are contributing to this important cau.
I have a few members of Congress that are in the audience that I want to acknowledge. At least I think they’re here. I haven’t spotted 2 everybody. First of all, one of our outstanding leaders in the Hou of Reprentatives, and the whip in the Hou of Repre
ntatives, James Clyburn -- James Clyburn is right here. (Applau.) One of the deans of the Congress and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, John Conyers is in the hou. (Applau.) A great friend from the great state of Maryland, Elijah Cummings. (Applau.) The chair of the Congressional Black Caucus 3 , Barbara Lee. (Applau.) A champion on behalf of D.C. statehood -- or at least voting rights -- Reprentative Eleanor Holmes Norton. (Applau.) Congressman 4 Bobby Scott from the great state of Virginia. (Applau.) And one of our foremost exports -- experts on foreign policy, Congressman Donald Payne from New Jery 5 . (Applau.)
I also want to acknowledge Dr. Earl Richardson, who is finishing tenure 6 （任期，占有） as President of Morgan State University. Plea, sir. (Applau.) And a great friend, President of Hampton University for more than 30 years, Dr. William Harvey. (Applau.) I promid him I'd come back to Hampton, so I'm going to be speaking at his commencement this year. (Applau.)
平津战役总指挥是谁And then the Trojan Explosion Drum Line from Virginia State University. (Applau.) I'm told this is the first time there’s been a drum line in the White Hou. (Laughter.) This is what I've been told. (Laughter.)
Before the Civil War and the creation of what we now call the Historically Black Colleges and Universities（高等学校） , an education –- much less a higher education -– just wasn’t possible for most African Americans. Where it was happening, reading and writing were often taught in cret. But as the Civil War ended and the 13th and 14th and 15th amendments 7 were signed, a freed people demanded a freed mind. And the war on illiteracy 8 （文盲，无知） and ignorance began.
There were some, like Booker T. Washington, a freed slave who walked 500 miles from the mines of West Virginia to study at Hampton, who argued that the colleges should focus on teaching blacks skilled trades and vocations 9 . There were others, like W.E.B. DuBois, who studied at Fisk and became the first African American to earn a doctorate 1
0 （博士学位） from Harvard, who advocated（提倡，拥护） for education in the arts and the sciences to cultivate（培养，耕作） the leaders and teachers of the next generation.
幸福刚刚好 Today, at America's 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, our young men and women prepare to do both. They're the campus where a people were educated; where a middle class was built; where a dream took hold. They're places where generations of African Americans have gained a n of their heritage, their history, and their place in the American story.
But like all colleges and universities, HBCUs face tough challenges today. Endowments（禀赋，基金） and state budgets are shrinking, too many facilities are deteriorating 11 （退化 ，恶化） , enrollment 13 is falling -– and the cost of education keeps going up. And the schools feel the pain more acutely –- they do more with less, and they enroll 12 higher proportions of low- and middle-income students. And that's why the Recovery
Act that was pasd last year invested in their infrastructure 14 and technology and nearly doubled the Pell Grant award. And that's why the budget I've propod this year increas HBCU funding by nearly $100 million at the Department of Education alone.
But helping 15 HBCUs chart a new path in this new century will require much more on all of our parts. And that's why today I'm signing an executive order strengthening the White Hou Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. (Applau.)
This initiative originated in President Carter’s administration; it expanded under President Reagan; and its been renewed by each President since, to help the schools give their students every chance to live up to their full potential. And I’ve asked Dr. John S. Wilson, a Morehou man, to lead it under my administration, and Dr. Harvey to rve as chairman of its #p#分页标题#e# advisory board（咨询委员会） .
And I want to be clear: Strengthening America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universit
哎呀爱呀ies isn’t a task that falls to the men or to the Department of Education alone –- I expect agencies across the federal government to help support this mission.
We’re not doing this becau the schools -- well, we're not only doing this becau the schools are a gateway 16 to a better future for African Americans; we’re doing it becau their success is vital to a better future for all Americans. We know that Americans with college degrees far out-earn tho without. We know that our business too often can’t find qualified 17 candidates for open positions. We know that other countries are out-educating their kids to out-compete ours. And yet, year after year, a stubborn（顽固的，顽强的） gap persists between how well African Americans are doing compared to their white classmates. Year after year, American students trail their foreign peers in too many areas. And year after year, tho students who do make it to college often find themlves unprepared for its rigors 18 （严格，寒颤） .
That’s why education reform has been a top priority of my administration. We launched a
national competition to improve our schools by investing only in reform that clos the achievement gap, and inspires students to excel in math and science, and turns around failing schools that steal the future from too many young Americans. We’re working with states and governors to develop and implement 19 （实现，执行） standards that better position all our students to graduate high school prepared for college and careers.
粗线 I’ve urged the Senate to pass a bill that will make college more affordable 20 by ending unnecessary taxpayer 21 subsidies 22 that go to financial intermediaries for student loans, revitalize（复活，复兴） our community colleges that rve as career pathways for the children of so many working families, and invest more than $2 billion in Minority Serving Institutions, including HBCUs. All of this will help achieve our goal of ensuring that America once again has the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020 -– and keeping our HBCUs strong is vital to achieving that goal.
Still, there are some who question the continued relevance 23 （中肯，关联） of HBCU
S; who say that they’ve fulfilled their purpo; who say that after all the progress that we’ve made, their reason for being is now somehow obsolete 24 （老式的，废弃的） . But it was becau of the schools that a young prankster（爱开玩笑的人，顽皮的人） discovered the n of purpo that led him ultimately to sit on the Supreme 25 Court. It was becau of the schools that a young broadcaster with a funny name –- Oprah –- (laughter) -- could make that name into an empire. It was becau of HBCUs that a young preacher grew into a king that shared his dream with all of America.
It was becau of the schools that America's middle class was filled with black doctors and educators and judges and lawyers and engineers and entrepreneurs（企业家） . And today, it's becau of the schools that one out of every two wide-eyed freshmen 26 who who arrives on their campus with big backpacks and bigger dreams is the first in his or her family to go to college.
直接控制 And that's why we're here today -– to ensure that the schools remain the beacons 27
（指向标，信号灯） that they've been for more than a century and a half: Crucibles 28 of learning where students discover their full potential and forge（伪造，锻造） the character required to realize it; catalysts 29 of change where young people put their hands on the arc of history and move this nation clor to the ideals of its founding; and the cradles of opportunity where each generation inherits the American Dream -– and keeps it alive for the next.
That's what HBCUs are about, and that's why I'm proud to now sign this executive order. (Applau.)
寻淮洲
(The executive order is signed.)
There we go. (Applau.)
END 5:03 P.M. EST
农学学士
