Up next in 10
Jackson State University Pres. Thomas Hudson On The Importance of HBCU's & $5Million Fedex Donation
Feb 9, 2022
Kicking off Black History Month, the President of Jackson State University, Thomas Hudson sits down with Sway and Heather B to talk about the importance of HBCU's in part 1 of this interview.
Subscribe Here! http://bit.ly/SubscribeSU
Watch the Best of Sway In The Morning! http://bit.ly/BestOfSITM
Check out More From Sway’s Universe
http://swaysuniverse.com
http://twitter.com/swaysuniverse
http://instagram.com/swaysuniverse
http://facebook.com/swaysuniverse
#BlackHistoryMonth #JacksonState #HBCU #PresidentThomasHudson #SwaysUniverse #SwayInTheMorning #SiriusXM #Shade45
About SWAY’s UNIVERSE
Exclusive interviews from Sway Calloway and the Sway In The Morning/ SwaysUniverse.com team with some of today's biggest celebrities, like Kevin Hart, Kanye West, Eminem, Usher, Jessica Alba, Steve Aoki, Torey Lanez, Julia Stiles and so much more.
Jackson State University Pres. Thomas Hudson On The Importance of HBCU's & $5Million Fedex Donation
https://youtu.be/Lr8LQx-mCAE
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
ma'am listen man we celebrate black
0:01
history every single day we got a
0:03
special guest i i feel important right
0:06
now hb you know it's you know we sat
0:08
down with a few special people in our
0:10
careers but this is really special to me
0:12
um my family comes from a history of
0:15
attending hbcus
0:17
my grandmother she went to southern
0:20
my cousin nia she went to grambling my
0:23
cousin shamont
0:24
he went to morris brown and my great
0:27
great grandfather went to school in
0:29
tuskegee so i got this whole history of
0:33
folks that went to hbcus
0:35
unfortunately i i went to hip-hop
0:37
university and that's how i ended up
0:39
here you went to hip-hop university too
0:44
uh if we've been seeing a lot of
0:45
attention rightfully so um being
0:49
given to hbcus even here at siriusxm we
0:52
got a hbcu channel that's dedicated to
0:55
hbcus channel 142 if you ever want to
0:59
check out what we're doing with channel
1:00
142 that's purely dedicated to hbcus and
1:05
kelly jackson kelly kincade our
1:07
supervisor and producer boy if there's
1:10
anybody that ever waves a flag for
1:12
jackson state university they don't wave
1:14
it quite like she does i mean you cannot
1:17
mention any of the marching band in the
1:19
sonic boom of the south otherwise you're
1:20
going to get into an incredible debate
1:22
when coach prime decided to go over
1:24
there who's also a citizen to sway in
1:26
the morning i think she might have sent
1:28
them some champagne and said you made
1:30
the right choice i mean so many
1:32
different people are now looking at
1:34
jackson state university rightfully so
1:36
even travis hunter the number one high
1:38
school recruit chose to attend jackson
1:40
state university and what a lift
1:43
that was put in the spotlight on hbcus
1:46
and today
1:47
today i've been saying it all day man we
1:49
got the president of jackson state
1:52
university the one and only thomas hutt
1:55
hold up doctor
1:57
thomas hudson is with us today man hey
2:02
my brother how you feeling how you feel
2:04
this morning i'm feeling great and uh
2:06
look thanks for that introduction i hope
2:08
my mom was listening that was awesome
2:10
thank you so much
2:11
absolutely uh well you know i'm happy to
2:14
have you on and kelly was telling me
2:16
about the student ambassador program
2:18
that uh fedex is partnering with uh
2:20
jackson state university now i wanted
2:22
our citizens because we got a lot of you
2:24
know college age people that tune into
2:26
our show and then we got a lot of
2:28
parents who kids are trying to choose
2:30
where to where to go to school and we
2:32
always push hbcus for a number of
2:35
reasons but can you break down this
2:37
student ambassador program that you guys
2:39
are involved with
2:40
absolutely and uh look i appreciate the
2:42
opportunity uh to come on this show and
2:44
i appreciate you using your platform uh
2:46
in such a positive way to highlight
2:48
hbcus and in this case jackson state in
2:50
particular but uh you know the student
2:52
ambassador program is part of our
2:54
partnership with fedex and it's really
2:56
part of fedex's overall commitment to
2:58
hbcus they have a partnership with about
3:00
hhtcus
3:02
they chose two students from each hbcu
3:05
to be a part of a student ambassador
3:07
program uh provides them entree really
3:09
into the corporate world you know just
3:11
this week uh one of the representatives
3:14
one of our ambassadors was able to
3:15
accompany myself along with the other
3:17
presidents to the new york stock
3:19
exchange to participate in the bill
3:20
ringing you know how cool is that for a
3:22
student a business major to literally go
3:25
on to the new york stock exchange go on
3:27
to trading for uh you know and really
3:30
participate in that type of event
3:33
interact with corporate vps you know
3:36
corporate titans ride the fedex
3:38
corporate jet to new york that was just
3:40
a wonderful experience and it's really
3:42
indicative of fedex commitment to hbcus
3:45
and certainly their partnership with
3:46
jackson state in particular and really
3:48
that increased engagement you're seeing
3:51
with hbcus and kind of to go to your
3:53
point where you're talking about how do
3:55
you encourage and how do you make the
3:56
sale to the parents right how do you
3:58
convince parents and one of the reasons
4:00
i'm happy that i'm in this market today
4:03
is because when you talk about
4:04
affordability and access they have the
4:07
ability to access a high quality
4:09
education at a price that doesn't leave
4:12
you drowning in debt and offers you the
4:14
same type of corporate partnerships
4:16
those corporate engagements those things
4:18
that will really help take you to your
4:20
next level the internships job placement
4:23
opportunities and you can do that right
4:25
at an hbcu in a place that's built for
4:28
you and your culture and that nurturing
4:30
environment so you know it just captures
4:32
really why you should choose jsu uh of
4:35
course i'm always going to ride for jsu
4:37
first i'm like kelly in that respect but
4:39
really why you should really look at
4:40
hbcus and the value and the importance
4:43
of hbcus
4:44
dr thomas hudson it says well done man i
4:46
know uh fedex uh
4:48
they they're
4:50
they're actually pledging 5 million in
4:51
donations right they're going to put at
4:53
least 5 million behind this program
4:55
how what can five million dollars is i
4:58
mean it's
4:59
it's a big number but then again it's
5:01
not what can you do with five million
5:03
tell folks why it's beneficial well it's
5:05
beneficial because it allows you to
5:07
increase your capacity so if you're
5:09
talking about programming for your
5:11
students you know a lot of times we talk
5:13
about internships but internships have a
5:15
cost to them and not all of them are
5:17
paid so how can we help our students
5:20
access these opportunities that would
5:22
otherwise be locked out to them but most
5:24
universities don't have funding to help
5:27
students facilitate internships these
5:29
dollars help us do that
5:31
also these dollars help us increase
5:33
scholarships you know gap funding we
5:35
know about your top students who have
5:37
full rides and those things are great
5:39
but what about that student that 500 is
5:41
the difference between them completing
5:43
their studies or them having to go home
5:45
and set out a semester we know that when
5:47
it comes to retention students typically
5:49
leave school for two reasons one campus
5:52
life but mainly is because of dollars
5:55
it's rarely because of our students
5:57
can't keep up academically it's almost
5:59
never that reason it's usually because
6:01
of financial reasons and sometimes where
6:03
you will be shocked at how little it
6:05
would take to help our students stay in
6:07
school so applying this money for what
6:08
we call a gap funding we have a gap
6:10
scholarship fund and what it does is
6:13
help us meet your need and then you look
6:15
at areas like faculty development you
6:17
know we talk about our students in that
6:18
wonderful product but who's teaching
6:20
them and how do we continue to promote
6:22
develop and bring on the excellent
6:24
faculty that'll help teach those
6:25
students and help produce even more of
6:28
what these corporations are looking for
6:30
uh one of the things i always ask when i
6:31
meet with any corporate entity how can
6:34
we help you reach your programmatic
6:35
goals you know what jsu's goals are but
6:37
what are some of your programmatic goals
6:39
what are you looking for engineers you
6:41
looking for more business management
6:42
majors how can we help you meet your
6:44
programmatic goals and how can we
6:46
partner in aligning that effort
6:48
man we got the president of jackson
6:50
state university here heather come on dr
6:52
thomas hudson and and and people listen
6:54
i'm open up these phone lines 888 7 4 2
6:57
3 3 4 5 like you know a lot of folks you
7:00
know with hbc's hbcu stand for you know
7:04
and so it's great that we have somebody
7:06
here to break this down uh and have it
7:08
why did you which college did you choose
7:12
okay i chose the jesuit institution and
7:16
no disrespect to the hbcus but um i
7:19
wanted to stay very close to new york
7:21
city i wanted to be an entertainment
7:23
industry so it was career based in that
7:26
sense i wanted to be someplace where i
7:27
could really easily get back and forth
7:29
to new york city because i was chasing
7:31
music and hip-hop uh so much but dr
7:33
hudson thank you so much for joining us
7:35
today and the timing couldn't be more
7:37
perfect with everything for me uh swain
7:39
and i i think a lot of us are from the
7:41
generation of you know get your
7:43
education don't worry about sports don't
7:45
worry about anything else that's the one
7:47
thing they can never take away from you
7:49
but obviously sports has become such a
7:52
big thing in the timing now or sway
7:54
mentioned coach prime
7:56
who's a
7:58
and all the attention he has brought to
7:59
jackson state in particular being there
8:01
on those sidelines and i would say
8:03
mentoring those young men as well and
8:06
not just being a football coach but
8:08
being that big brother that father
8:10
figure to a degree so when you fast
8:12
forward now with some of them possibly
8:14
having goals um to the nfl for the nfl
8:17
and coach prime coming from the end all
8:19
the things that's coming out now with
8:20
the nfl and the hiring tactics and
8:23
everything has some of that been part of
8:24
you guys conversation yet is is that
8:27
kind of like something y'all been
8:29
talking about with the news that just
8:30
broke recently with brian flores
8:33
well you know what that's always uh it's
8:35
always in the backdrop of what's going
8:37
on you know in terms of you know our
8:39
positioning the hbcus positioning in the
8:42
world of sports and of college athletics
8:44
for far too long
8:46
when we look uh you have talented
8:48
student athletes you know
8:50
states for hall of famers more than any
8:52
other institution in the state of
8:53
mississippi it's really more than a lot
8:55
of pwis right and so you know when you
8:58
look at how long hbcs have been
9:00
overlooked and then you look at what
9:02
coach prime brings to the table shining
9:04
a spotlight on the talent that was
9:06
already there first and foremost and
9:08
then bringing on more talent increasing
9:11
the profile of jackson state and that's
9:13
leading over as you can see into other
9:14
hbcus
9:16
it's really having a positive impact uh
9:18
on college football in general it's
9:21
richard and that's one thing we have to
9:22
make sure you know diversity being
9:24
america's super power
9:26
college football is richer hbcus are a
9:30
main part of the conversation when we're
9:32
ignored you're missing so much in terms
9:34
of the culture uh the pageantry the on
9:37
game experience you're missing so much
9:39
of that when you don't make hbcu as a
9:41
part of the conversation so what coach
9:42
prime is doing is really reintroducing
9:45
hbcus to the part of the mainstream
9:47
conversation so when you turn on sports
9:49
illustrated i mean uh espn go on sports
9:52
illustrated you're seeing us and you're
9:54
seeing us
9:55
not as a science show not in the
9:57
background but you're seeing us first
9:58
and foremost opening up the door for
10:00
those student athletes in particular and
10:02
also at other hbcus
10:05
i want to ask you because you mentioned
10:06
the pwi's and you graduated your
10:09
undergrad you went to uh the university
10:11
of mississippi
10:12
no no actually uh jackson state uh yeah
10:14
oh you went to jackson state get it
10:16
right yes sir
10:21
no look
10:22
you gotta you gotta departure i did get
10:24
my law degree from uh the university of
10:26
mississippi school of law uh okay one
10:29
wonderful play out doc don't play me
10:37
[Music]
10:38
you know look i believe blue and white
10:40
uh jsu greg grew up around the school uh
10:43
jhu has been a part of my entire life so
10:45
yes very very proud of my jsu roots okay
10:48
so can you talk about the differences
10:50
between hbcu and the pwi that you you
10:53
from your own personal experiences
10:56
well you know and let me cast this by
10:58
saying obviously all schools are
10:59
different every okay every experience is
11:02
going to be different so i don't pretend
11:03
to know what's best for each and every
11:05
individual i will say that hbcus were
11:08
created for us they were created as a
11:10
safe haven for african americans to get
11:12
educated now obviously our doors are
11:14
open to all you know one of the things
11:16
one of the things i'm doing here is
11:18
after i leave this i'm going to
11:20
connecticut to a community college to do
11:22
an mou signing to help that pipeline of
11:25
students access that affordable great
11:27
jsu education that i was talking about
11:29
earlier but really hbcus were created
11:32
for us the culture
11:33
um the nurturing the environment it was
11:36
created with
11:38
african-americans us in mind and
11:41
really those of a lower economic
11:43
demographic in mind you don't
11:45
necessarily see that at most of your
11:46
pwis okay not to say dogs aren't great
11:49
schools to attend not to say that they
11:51
don't do things and try to intentionally
11:54
uh bring others into the fold but it's a
11:56
lot different when it was created with
11:58
you in mind the culture is you not for
12:01
you but it is you and you really feel
12:04
that and also that sense of leadership
12:06
and that sense of confidence there's a
12:07
sense of confidence that you gain
12:10
unknowingly even when you see us in
12:12
leadership when you look at the
12:13
president it's an african-american male
12:16
that has a very similar background to
12:18
you
12:18
when you look at your professors your
12:20
professors if you're what is chemistry
12:22
biology whether it's english uh public
12:25
health business these are people who
12:27
have succeeded in the field who look
12:29
like you and are showing you real life
12:31
day-to-day examples of what you can
12:33
become and when we bring our alumni back
12:35
and you see our successful alumni 50 000
12:38
strong doing all these great things
12:40
these are people that look just like you
12:43
have similar backgrounds as you you
12:45
can't put a price on that and that is
12:47
something that you really only get to
12:49
experience at an hbcu so again i always
12:52
uh tell everybody you know you go to the
12:54
college that's best for you you
12:55
certainly go for the situation that
12:57
works for you everyone's experience is
13:00
going to be different but when you talk
13:01
about hbcus you just cannot ignore those
13:03
factors i just
13:04
named dr thomas hudson we got the
13:07
president here with us hb when you talk
13:09
about the successes of the prominent
13:12
alumni can you drop some names is that
13:14
possible
13:16
hey look i can i can drop a few names
13:18
you know we're here in new york so i
13:20
have to mention our music mogul cortez
13:22
bryant uh who's doing great things and
13:24
actually teaches uh actually teachers of
13:26
course you know man is drake lil wayne
13:28
and that's the teachers of course at
13:29
jackson state university very well
13:31
attended does well i have to talk about
13:34
my mentor uh dr rob page former
13:36
secretary of education
13:38
uh you know jsu graduate as well i have
13:40
to talk about our alumni president dr
13:42
alexia norwood a prominent doctor henry
13:46
ford hospital in detroit michigan and
13:48
again just so so many others i could go
13:50
down a list but we have a rich rich
13:52
history of jsu alumni uh 50 000 strong
13:55
you know it's interesting i had dinner
13:57
last night uh with kelly and some of our
13:59
other alumni here and you know all new
14:02
york residents who are jsu alums here
14:06
doing great things in all types of
14:08
industry really achieving their dreams
14:10
these are names that you may not know
14:12
but they've all been able to take who
14:15
they were and become who they were meant
14:16
to be from and with their jsu education
14:19
so again i i would love to run down the
14:21
whole list but i think that will take
14:22
the entire show so oh wow that's the
14:25
stunt right there dr thomas hudson
14:28
uh
14:29
let's we got a lot of people on the
14:30
phone lines i want to talk to them i
14:32
also want to talk about curriculum uh at
14:35
you know jackson state university i know
14:37
a lot of new programs are created
14:39
because of economics and social and
14:41
sometimes demographic trends so are
14:44
there any new degree programs that you
14:46
guys are currently offering
14:48
well we have you know we offer a
14:49
comprehensive curriculum uh spread about
14:51
five colleges you know engineering uh
14:55
technology of course uh liberal arts
14:57
education public health business uh we
15:00
are looking at rolling out a couple of
15:01
new programs actually supply chain
15:03
management is a program we're looking to
15:04
roll out uh this coming fall fall 2022
15:08
and really looking to meet the needs you
15:10
know when you look at where jackson
15:11
mississippi in particular is situated uh
15:14
kind of at that intersection of the
15:15
south 25 i-20 i-55 and for those who are
15:18
familiar with the southeast you know the
15:20
importance of those two interstates in
15:22
jackson state six at that intersection
15:24
so certainly we can become a leader in
15:27
terms of equity and supply chain
15:29
management same thing with construction
15:31
you know we have a lot of there's a
15:33
building bloom going on in the united
15:35
states with infrastructure a lot of
15:37
different things happening what is our
15:39
place in that what is the place of the
15:41
african-american businessman in the area
15:43
of construction and how can jackson
15:45
state help meet that need by offering
15:47
the programs and offering the curriculum
15:49
that allows students to access uh those
15:51
types of fields those lucrative fields
15:54
and become those entrepreneurs and
15:55
become some of those names that you can
15:57
be mentioned uh at later times so again
15:59
we're doing a lot of different things
16:01
public health you know we were heavy uh
16:03
in our covert response you know had uh
16:05
partnerships with the cdc in terms of
16:08
really um bringing out and helping to
16:10
still miss that misinformation that you
16:12
were seeing at the very early stages of
16:14
kobe jackson state was at the forefront
16:17
of just putting that aside and really
16:19
helping our community get access to the
16:22
right information and make the type of
16:24
choices that the type of healthy choices
16:26
that help us survive uh this pandemic so
16:29
you'll see more and more of that you
16:30
know we're always evolving as it relates
16:32
to our curriculum as it relates to our
16:34
program of study uh building a solid
16:36
foundation that's been laid for 144
16:39
years but also meeting the needs of
16:40
today
16:42
dr hudson i wanted to ask just in your
16:44
opinion how long does it take for a
16:47
freshman student um to adjust like say a
16:50
kid like myself when i was coming out of
16:52
high school
16:53
a black female i heard these hbcus i
16:55
would see howard and all the different
16:57
bands and stuff like but i was i would
16:59
always think like i'm from the new york
17:02
new jersey area i don't want to go to
17:04
mississippi i don't want to go to like
17:06
this is culture shock for me and i'm
17:08
black like how long does it take for a
17:11
kid to adjust because people have these
17:14
ideas of what the south may be like or
17:16
what this may be like uh do a lot of
17:17
kids return because they just can't deal
17:20
with it um because if i was in the car
17:21
listening right now i would say i want
17:23
to go there you know but it could be
17:26
difficult to make that that jump from
17:28
from new york to mississippi
17:31
yeah look sometimes it can be difficult
17:33
to make the jump from jackson to jackson
17:35
uh when it comes to
17:36
uh being you know being from college
17:38
when you're going from high school to
17:39
college but your point that's right on
17:42
point uh and it was part of you know we
17:43
had an interesting conversation last
17:45
night about that like the culture shot
17:47
of course of coming from uh new york to
17:49
mississippi one of the things to help is
17:52
that when you get there uh you will
17:54
likely very likely find someone who is
17:57
from your area and has similar you know
18:00
a similar background you know there is
18:02
no specific mode you will find all types
18:05
from all types of backgrounds all types
18:07
of regions so coming from new york there
18:09
are other new yorkers at jackson state
18:11
university and one of the reasons we're
18:13
doing the mou signing and we're really
18:15
trying to increase our recruiting
18:16
footprint is because we don't want just
18:19
one you know i don't want just one
18:20
header coming from uh new york from
18:23
brooklyn we want several of you to come
18:25
you know we want to be able to offer
18:27
that great education to a number of new
18:29
yorkers to a number of californians
18:30
wherever we may be so what you'll find
18:32
first and foremost is that you're not
18:34
alone okay and second college i can't
18:37
think of a better place to make those
18:39
lifelong friends and lifelong
18:40
connections than college you would be
18:42
surprised at how many people you will
18:44
meet during orientation for the first
18:46
time and those are really your partners
18:48
your buddies that'll carry you through
18:50
and help you carry help carry i'm sorry
18:51
through the next four years uh so again
18:54
you know i understand that concern you
18:55
know everyone gets homesick uh everyone
18:58
has to experience some level of culture
19:00
shock even if it's just being being away
19:02
from home for the first time wherever
19:04
you're from dealing with different
19:05
studies and things like that but if you
19:08
stick it out you know get through those
19:09
first couple of weeks make your friends
19:11
you'll find that you'll have a
19:12
successful transition in a college life
19:29
you
#Arts & Entertainment