Every President since Jimmy Carter has pledged to help HBCUs. Of course Donald Trump, if you call him a president, would not understand the significance of this or the significance of our beloved institutions as a whole.

About every year, presidents and leaders of Historically Black Colleges and Universities gather in Washington, D.C. for a meeting with Congress and the White House with the purpose of lobbying. However, this year, there was no President Trump to greet them which only adds fuel to the fire of dissatisfaction and frustration with the Trump administration and their approach to HBCUs. 

According to NPR, much of that frustration is due to what HBCUs consider little or no support from the administration, and what they call a lack of understanding of the financial straits some schools are facing.

Only 29 of the 107 HBCUs showed up to the meeting. 

In addition to frustration with the administration, this low number comes from Trump's approach to the significance of HBCUs as well as his approach to the safety of black people as a whole. He gave a lackluster response to the violence in Charlottesville, Va. He also questioned the constitutionality of federal funding that HBCUs receive for construction projects.

"It benefits schools on the basis of race," the president said back in May. To which, the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Cedric Richmond, a Democrat from Louisana, called that statement, "stunningly careless and divisive."

Grambling State University president, Rick Gallot, chose to sit this meeting out. 

"HBCUs relationship with Congress is more important. They pass the budget," says Gallot. "The administration apparently doesn't understand how urgent the funding problem is."

HBCUs are severely underfunded. When legislatures make cuts, HBCUs are hit the hardest. Despite low funding, according to the United Negro College Fund, HBCUs enroll about 300,000 students nationwide as well as graduate 20 percent of all African-Americans who attend college. They produce 70 percent of all black doctors and dentists, and 50 percent of black engineers and public school teachers.

So why isn't the administration taking the concerns of black colleges more seriously? If there is any hope of repairing the relationship of HBCUs with the administration of the 45, there is lots of work to do, and Trump could start by actually coming to the meeting.