UMES celebrates 130th anniversary of historically Black land-grant universities

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. – Monday afternoon, historically Black colleges across the United States, including the University of Maryland Eastern Shore celebrated the 130th anniversary of a grant that helped them to become the schools they are today. Known as land grant institutions, these universities were given money from the government back in the 1890s to create school systems for African Americans. President of UMES Dr. Heidi Anderson says since then, the university has created a number of programs to give back to the community. Those include initiatives like their food and nutrition program where they help families in need of food, and environmental programs that help to protect our health here on the shore as well.

“We actually have a center here that is called the Chesapeake Water Quality Center at UMES and we’ve been a strong partner with the local community looking at how do you get nitrogen and phosphorus from entering the Chesapeake Bay and the other tributaries,” said Dr. Anderson.

Dr. Anderson adds that UMES also has programs that teach students and the community about drug abuse to help mitigate opioid overdoses. They’ve also created their first-ever physician assistant program for students that they started this year.