According to Inside Higher Ed,

President Obama on Friday signed a renewal of the executive order on federal efforts to assist historically black colleges. While the executive order itself follows the form of orders in previous administrations, the head of the Obama administration’s effort for the colleges said that the executive order would set off a change in philosophy on how the government could work with the institutions.

[John Silvanus Wilson Jr., head of the black college office] noted that the order calls for “enduring” efforts, as opposed to simply encouraging various efforts to create small grant programs. And he said that he would be pushing for “data-driven” initiatives in which ideas are tried, evaluated and — if successful — extended.

The idea, he said is to promote “steeples of excellence” in federal interactions with black colleges instead of “periodic episodes of good works.” He also said he expected black colleges to be heavily involved in the Obama administration’s efforts to increase the percentage of Americans who have college degrees. “We want to focus on tCChe relationship of black colleges with the government in a more strategic way,” he said.

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