Kyle Nolan, president of the Undergraduate Student Government Association at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), loves his school, likes interacting with his classmates and instructors, and enjoys the vibe of the nation’s capital.
However, there is one problem Nolan wishes he didn’t have to deal with. Like many UDC students, he sometimes has had problems finding affordable housing because the university doesn’t have a dormitory for undergraduate students.
“I came all the way from Jamaica to come to school here,” Nolan, 22, said. “Housing is expensive here in D.C. I hope that the university is working on seeing that student housing concerns are being met.”
Nolan, a junior computer sciences major, served as one of the speakers at a program on the campus on Nov. 15, when the university’s president, Dr. Maurice D. Edington, unveiled the institution’s new five-year strategic plan: “Delivering on the Promise.” In front of a large crowd of about students, faculty, staff, alumni, allies and dignitiaries, including District Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Council member Matt Frumin (D-Ward 3), Edington shared his vision for the future of the only public university in the nation’s capital.
A historically Black land grant institution founded in 1851, UDC is the oldest HBCU in the city, offering workforce and certificate programs as well as degrees from the associate to doctoral level.
UDC encompasses: a community college; the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Agriculture, Urban Sustainability & Environmental Sciences; Schools in Engineering and Applied Sciences and Business and Public Administration; and the David A. Clarke School of Law. The university operates a flagship campus in the Van Ness neighborhood in Northwest, with several branch campuses across the District including the Congress Heights campus in Ward 8 in Southeast. The university also recently cut the ribbon for the Firebird Research Farm in Beltsville, Maryland.
Details on ‘Delivering the Promise‘
The goals of “Delivering the Promise” are to solidify and celebrate the university’s identity, for all members of the university community to have a meaningful experience while at the institution, and to develop partnerships as a key element to academic success.
“A plan is no good if it is not executed,” said Edington. “We have to get it into the classrooms as a living, breathing document.”
The objectives of the plan include: striving to be a world-class flagship university, a national model for urban student success; serving as a workforce and economic mobility engine for the District; being a research and innovation hub addressing the needs of the city; and uniting all stakeholders in support of a vision of “ONE UDC”, according to university documents.
In her remarks, Bowser said she supports the university and “wants more students at UDC [and] graduating from UDC,” as well as “more donations to UDC.”
“D.C. employers should not have to look any further than UDC for their next employee,” the mayor said.
The Fireside Chat
During a 30-minute “Fireside Chat” with D.C. Department of Recreation and Parks Director Thennie Freeman, a UDC alum, Edington outlined priorities in the strategic plan, including Nolan’s concerns about student housing.
“Student housing is one of our top two priorities,” Edington said. “We have $1 million allocated for a student housing feasibility study. We want to have student housing on the campus.”
Edington said the university was serious about its role in providing training for the city’s workforce.
“We are strategizing and analyzing workforce development,” he said. “The local workforce needs a space in order to get the skills to compete.”
Edington said he wants UDC to be known as a place that one can attend and “get a high demand, high-paying job” when they graduate.
In addition, the Congress Heights campus offers courses in workforce development and lifelong learning and is the only presence of the university east of the Anacostia River. Edington said the Ward 8 campus is an important part of UDC.
“It is part of the outreach to the whole community,” he said. “It is a hub for Ward 8. We would like to see more people from Ward 8 study at UDC. As a matter of fact, UDC should have a presence in every ward.”
When asked how he wants the university to look in five years, Edington was clear about his goals.
“I want to have over 6,000 students enrolled, three times more fundraising, 50% more research dollars and to be perceived as the best-in-class HBCU public university,” he said.
