Morehouse Launches $500 Million Capital Campaign

In honor of the 155th anniversary of the founding of Morehouse College, President David Thomas, Ph.D. announced the school will launch a $500 million capital campaign.

While the “Making Men of Consequence” campaign is the largest in Morehouse history, the college has raised $200 million.

The goals of the campaign are: Supporting Rising Men of Morehouse, Fostering Inquiry with Distinction, Building the Campus of the Future and Creating Centers of Excellence.

During the press conference Morehouse hosted on February 17, President Thomas shared his own story of being accepted to Morehouse College ,but ultimately having to choose another school because he didn’t have the money to attend Morehouse.

In addition to the capital campaign, Thomas announced Morehouse will aim to grow their endowment from $220 million to $1.5 billion by the end of the decade. This will allow the school to admit students on a completely need blind basis.

The capital campaign will also allow Morehouse to undertake a five-year faculty transformation. In order to create ‘men of consequence’ the school will dedicate $100 million to ‘recruit and retain exceptional faculty.’

According to Thomas, in the next five years 30 percent of Morehouse faculty will reach retirement age.

“These talented scholars must be replaced by the next generation of academic leaders, who are committed to Morehouse values and culture,” Thomas said.

Each of these components, Morehouse says, will allow them to fulfill their promise to make men of consequence that will go on to become leaders in their chosen fields.

“To create the world that we aspire to, the world needs Morehouse,” said Thomas.

To illustrate this point, freshman Aniaba N’Guessan spoke about his aspirations to become a Morehouse man and how meaningful Morehouse has been in his journey.

Born and raised in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, N’Guessan said he is blessed to attend Morehouse.

“My high school was called the African Leadership Academy and now I have come to the African-American leadership academy,” said N’Guessan.

With this new capital campaign President Thomas said they aim to guarantee that for any man admitted, financial affordability will never be the reason why he chooses not to come to Morehouse.

Junior Robert Malcolm told the Atlanta Voice he is proud that Morehouse is making this a priority.

“I know a lot of brothers who need more scholarship money, not only tuition but also for room and board,” Malcolm said.

In addition to ensuring Morehouse’s affordability for all students, the capital campaign will also fund infrastructure projects that will go towards maintaining and modernizing the campus. Updating the school’s facilities and incorporating new technology, Thomas said, will allow Morehouse to prepare its students to address the inequities created by institutional racism.

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