Cisco VP Saidah Grayson Dill  Source: Cisco

Amidst escalating cyber threats, many organizations are looking to simultaneously address cybersecurity’s running diversity deficiencies to meet workforce demands. Cisco has staked one of its approaches by supporting historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Partnering with the Student Freedom Initiative (SFI) and Computex Technology Solutions, Cisco pledged $150 million across five years beginning in 2021 with $50 million endowed to SFI and $100 million directly to HBCUs for tech upgrades.

The White House Commission Panel on HBCUs convened last week for the National HBCU Week Conference, including an extensive agenda focused on advancing educational equity and economic opportunity through HBCUs. This follows the HBCU Partners Act passed in December 2020 requiring “certain agencies to submit annual plans for strengthening the capacity of HBCUs to participate in federal programs.”

The historical power of HBCUs are a key investment area for expanding the diversity in the tech workforce, Cisco VP Saidah Grayson Dill told SDxCentral, who is one of the panelists.

“We want to inspire other companies to partner with organizations like SFI to provide not only funding for their endowment, but thinking about how those companies are uniquely situated to provide sustainable, scalable assistance to HBCUs,” Dill explained.

The approach is already seeing traction, typified by IBM’s partnership with 20 HBCUs to help them establish Cybersecurity Leadership Centers announced at the conference last week.

“HBCUs were born out of a history of exclusion," Dill stated.

"Shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation, you see a proliferation of HBCUs because a lot of Black people were excluded from a lot of schools and universities. And as we know, access to education is typically how a lot of families get their foothold in terms of creating wealth, creating stability, creating jobs for families."

According to a UNCF report, HBCUs generate $14.8 billion in economic impact annually — equivalent to a ranking in top 200 ranking the Fortune 500 list of U.S.’ largest corporations, and 134,090 jobs on their local and regional economies. And, HBCU graduates in 2014 can expect 56% more in total life-time earnings than without those credentials.

“As we thought about how to radically think differently about supporting the Black communities, HBCUs [were] a perfect entry into doing that,” Dill noted.

Dill knows the cybersecurity issues pervading within the industry are no secret, and an impactful approach to solutions will be an infrastructural one.

"So when we think about HBCUs, and we think about aging infrastructure, and we think about the need to be cybersecurity-compliant in our Cisco systems, we have the services we have the products that can assist HBCUs with that,” she explained.

The $100 million dedicated directly to HBCUs focuses on software and services to modernize IT environments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) cybersecurity compliance standards. Additionally, Cisco trains African American Cisco Partner Community (AACPC) partners on how to conduct these assessments at HBCUs.

Dill claims part of Cisco’s “secret sauce” is their networking academies which offer IT training for free. “We provide instructors; we provide curriculum and equipment. And out of that, students get access to scholarships, apprenticeships, and most importantly, access to jobs once they complete the program.”

The $50 million endowment to SFI was part of Cisco's approach to aiding HBCU students in financial need to complete their degree, according to Dill. In addition to mentoring and paid internships, SFI offers funding alternatives for eligible juniors and seniors in STEM trying to finish their degrees. The endowment looks to aid SFI’s holistic goal of $450 million to support 4,500 students in perpetuity.

“The work in this space is something we can't go at alone,” she said. “And I think most importantly, SFI and Cisco believe in touching all of HBCUs right? Not just a few, but all of HBCUs because they all deserve access to jobs out there. Students deserve access to jobs, deserve access to financial products to build up their infrastructure."

"That $150 [million] commitment that we've made over five years... it's unstoppable. And it's having an impact already," she added.

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