ready and i want to start saving now whether you use a 529 plan to do that or some other method that setting dollars aside to make sure that opportunity is available to her i think it's a wonderful thing to do. i know that there are many young people who are sometimes rambunctious and that's often a sign of intellectual curiosity. i would just say continue to encourage her to explore her intellectual interests to create those opportunities to expand her horizons and absolutely save those dollars so when she is ready you will be ready to support her matriculation perhaps a spelman. we would love to see that happen but an institution. i think there is nothing better than a family can do than to prepare early for that college education. we know it makes a difference to the long-term success of a young person to have access to higher

education. >> host: ronde is in woodbridge virginia. good morning rhonda. you are on with dr. tatum. >> caller: good morning dr. tatum. i am calling because my daughter insisted that i come home early so i can see dr. tatum on c-span. she has applied to spelman. her name is daniel lyall and she's so excited about the possibility of being excited -- accepted at spelman. she is predominately gone to a white school but she has her heart set on coming to spelman. her godmother lives in atlanta and every day she's on twitter after school and if she could have taken off a school to be here to watch her program she would. i'm just going to find out what is the possibility of her being accepted at spelman? thank you. >> guest: certainly you are making a great case for her. i want to congratulate you for

her advocacy and i can't comment on her application. i haven't seen it and i can't comment on the air about it but certainly i want to thank you for your encouragement of her and we'll keep our fingers crossed for daniel. >> host: what advice would you give to students who maybe are looking to apply next year or years beyond to be able to get into spelman? >> guest: i would just say take the most challenging curriculum he can in high school. if students have access to ap courses to take those courses. we know that not every high school is created equally so soever school doesn't have the same offerings from city to city, community to community that wherever you are in school we want you to demonstrate that you are committed to your own intellectual growth and you have worked hard to do as well as possible in the context in which you are living. we also very much encourage students to demonstrate their

leadership capacity, to volunteer and be involved in their community. community service as a core value at spelman. we expect our current students to participate in the local community and students have already had this experience as look favorably on that as well. we are looking for women who know that they want to make a difference in the world and have already started to do that is high school students. >> host: let's go to dawn who was waiting in valeo california. you are on with dr. tatum. >> caller: good morning mrs. tatum. first of all i would like to know about your curriculum at your school. are you allowed to teach black history before slavery and the black jewish of america and the hispanic and native americans go right along with us. we are the jewish of america and scattered all over the earth so i'm wondering are you teaching

our so called black people because we are israelites the judy-ites we are black but the rest are puerto rican, spanish and native american dissent. do you teach this curriculum in your school? >> host: dr. dr. tatum any thoughts? >> guest: let me begin by saying we are private institutions so of course our curriculum is determined not by the state but by her own faculty faculty. i'm pleased to say that we have a first-year seminar that every student takes known as africans in the diaspora in the world which does take eight -- of african descent and helps students understand it was history before slavery in the world of the african continent and the places across the world

that our are populations have been distributed so that if -- information as part of every student's experience and many students say the course we call atw for short is one of the most transformative experiences they have at spelman because it introduces them to information they have not been exposed to previously and that's one of the benefits of a college experience to broaden your horizons and understandings of yourself in the world around you. >> host: the house is about to come and that we will see if we can get and juanita waiting in washington d.c.. can you make it quick? >> guest: ican. thank you for your efforts and work in our community. thank you so much. >> guest: thank you for your kind remarks. >> host: dr. tatum late appreciate your time on c-span bus as we continue our washington journal tour of

hbcus. >> guest: thank you for having me and we are delighted to be a part of your series of thank you so much. >> host: joining us live aboard the sea spun us is the president of florida a&m elmira mangum thank you very much for being here. let's begin first with the agricultural and mechanical part of florida a&m. what does that the sending? what do you focus on? >> guest: well the agricultural part of our florida a&m university deals with florida a&m as in 1890 school. it's a land grant institution and we provide agricultural education across the state of florida. the mechanical has to do with engineering and technology and

education across the technological fields. >> host: what is it that you focus on there at florida a&m and what sort of degrees are we talking about? what is the focus? >> guest: florida a&m provides a great liberal arts and scientific education. we focus on agriculture. we include science and we have pharmacy nursing all the majors across science technology engineering and math as well as the arts and sciences. we have a great liberal arts education available here. as well we are a doctoral research university. >> host: how is it that you attract students to this university for the specific focus and what type of student? >> guest: we are tried -- we attract all types of students. we provide opportunities for the underserved. we provide african-american students predominantly with an

opportunity to obtain an education both male and female as well as server 11% of other students that come from all races and ethnicities as well as nationalities. what we do to attract them as we provide quality education programs across a number of disciplines over 100 majors and ph.d. programs as well as professional programs. florida a&m university is the number one. historically black college in the united states. we are the number one producer of african-american pharmacists in the country and we have a number of programs including law and business where we provide opportunities for students to learn in a smaller environment than some of the university environments for now. >> host: elmira mangum is the present of florida a&m university taking your questions and comments this morning. this is how we will divide the lines as part of our tour of historically black colleges and

universities in this country that if you attended one of them please dial (202)748-8000 and all others you can call in at (202)748-8001. you can join the conversation on twitter at c-span wj or send us an e-mail at c-span.org. presidents of the let's talk more about the science and math part of this. what is the role of stem education at florida a&m? >> guest: the role of stem education we offer them our mental science courses and a doctorate in nursing. it's to prepare our students for the global society. the world at large is looking for more scientists and more engineers and people to solve -- solve problems. the majors that we have and the educational offerings and science prepare our students to be global citizens and solve problems that are globally

related especially our sustainable institute that i started when i arrived at florida a&m cuts across all disciplines and is designed to provide integration and merge the fields we have so that we can create solutions and prepare critical thinkers to create innovations to solve world problems. science has always been a part of where we create knowledge and expand ourselves as a society and that is what we are doing at florida a&m. we have merged their science with their social sciences and our arts and humanities to create solutions that affect people and the lives of people understanding there is a need to integrate the technology with the preferences and behaviors of people. >> host: what kind of majors are you talking about that you think texas a&m thinks helps solve these global challenges? >> guest: well we have majors

and biotechnology and biochemistry and physics and computer information and science. we have our pharmacy programs that are designed to provide deliberate mechanisms for drugs to our patients and nursing. we use technologies to deliver on different treatments to patients as well and we find solutions and our agricultural community agricultural engineering to provide ways for us to understand how our food supply growth under stressful conditions and especially as relates to the changing climate that we have understanding that food safety is part of what we are teaching our students and being able to understand that industry and to prepare students for jobs to address the needs of society. so it's more of a global interdisciplinary approach to education we provide for students. >> host: does florida a&m get research money from the state

and federal governments to pursue this stem education? >> guest: we certainly do. we get in excess of $55 million a year for research at the institution. we get resources from the national science foundation from nih and in fact we have over 29 patents now from research that has been funded by various federal agencies. we are involved with the cdc investigating ways to prevent diabetes in the early stages. we are working with national organizations, department of energy and creating solutions and working on solutions for the ieds, the weapons of distraction that our soldiers face in war. we are heading up an effort in fact that is being funded for 13 and hbcus and are the lead

organization in developing that research and working on solutions to problems of that nature. >> host: . >> host: what you think sets you apart when you are asking the federal government to consider florida a&m? what sets you apart from other universities that are also vying for this grand plan? >> guest: i think what sets us apart as we offer an educational opportunity to students that are underserved and the fact that we have invested in their education education, provides an opportunity for them to become more socially mobile and it's a great leveling factor, education is so we take the students that many other institutions have selectively based upon admission criteria not admitted and we have trained them and prepare them for service to this country and providing them an opportunity to compete for the same research resources and dollars and have the same

experiences as a great way for our country to diminish the inequality i believe that exists in our educational system today. >> host: let's get to calls. our first for president elmira mangum from florida agriculture and mechanical college is ray. >> caller: dr. mangum how are you doing? i have a question, what plans do have on expanding the university as far as the landscape, as far as recruitment and as far as getting involved with the local alumni association to make those plans for the landscape and a building to be built? we have students now in stem programs and the cambridge programs and their recruitment staff is -- going to have more broad students to choose from so with the talent of her students

increasing how do you plan to reach out to local alumni associations and expand and build for our universities and once again may i add florida a&m is the number one hbcu in united states of america. it produced the number one student in america so thank you very much for the opportunity. >> host: before you go it sounds like you attended. >> caller: i'm a proud alumni of florida a&m class of 2008. after graduation i ran for mayor of cocoa and got the dash because of my education. >> host: what is your major? >> political -- what are you doing today? >> caller: i am currently doing some things with books and all that stuff but i'm looking

forward to my upcoming election for 2016 for mayor of cocoa so get ready. we have plans for students of brevard county all classics yes, i love to talk with graduates. our presence on social media has increased. i have a twitter account, and i try and engage our students. more importantly, i tried to -- and what -- i try to -- and what we are doing, we are inviting members of the community and across the industry to our campus to talk with them about majors. we are going into communities. we go into the high schools. we go and we talk to them about majoring in science technology engineering and math and also expose them to the opportunities available here at florida a&m university. we invite students to workshops,

the programs in the summer to expose them to higher education. and also, our various alumni associations -- our alumni across the state of florida and across the country and all regions are recruiting students to florida a&m university every day. they recruited by sharing their stories about their education and their experiences. our alumni are recruiting students every day and they recruit by sharing their stories about their education and their experiences just as you have at florida a&m university in many of them are attracted to us because of the environment. because we are aimed at helping them reach their full potential i would like to call as dream makers. we are trying to steer her students into the highest forms of higher education to the research level and the ph.d. level also connecting them with internships and jobs to help

them pursue and choose a major and a career path that will satisfy them for years to come. we are adjusted and lifelong learning learning and wearing justin and satisfying their every need there are educational programs and exposure to different industries and professionals. >> host: as part of the c-span's tour of historically black colleges and universities today we are at florida a&m university talking to their president dr. elmira mangum and carly you are next in portland ohio. >> caller: good morning. two quick questions, graduates we would recognize the names of and what about programs and the performing arts particularly jazz studies? >> guest: did you ask for names of graduates that we are proud of? yes, that first comes to mind a very important person that

graduated from florida a&m university one of our heavy supporters who is important to us and we have bernard kinsey and the arts on the west coast. we have john thompson chairman of the microsoft corporation. we have and the arts areas rose. there are many names i could call off. famu is everywhere. we have majors everywhere. we have people in congress. our congresswoman, women from florida karen brown frederica wilson. we have a lot of people all over the state in the country. >> host: and by the way according to your web site 127 million endowments as of june 2014. microsoft shares you mention john thompson donated 5,050,000,000 in grants and research funding. derek you are next in per -- frost through florida. >> caller: good morning

dr. mangum. i want to congratulate you on your victory with a state legislator and standing your ground when there were some serious conversations about -- and i would like for you to speak about what you made you stick your heels on the ground early on in the institution. what experiences do you have in the realm of higher education have prepared you for that? >> guest: well my goal when i arrived was to make sure that we provide every opportunity for students to be successful in the global and international economy and engineering is something that the united states is projected to have a shortage of in the years to come. so in my first 48 hours when the proposal to separate the schools of engineering came i knew immediately that was something that would disadvantage the opportunities available to her students.

so people say it's digging my heels in the ground and standing my ground but the goal was to stand for the students of florida a&m and for the opportunities for the students we serve to make sure that we have the programs that they need and we are able to prepare them going forward. so engaging with the members of the state legislature and florida state university was an important part of us moving forward, being collaborative and working in cooperation because there is room enough for all of us to educate our students in engineering and any other area and fact. there is no lack of opportunity and there is no lack of need to meet the educational needs of her students and i think we can work together to make sure we achieve those goals. >> host: president mangum the caller asked by your educational background and what about your background made despite important to you and we want to note for viewers to have a bashur's degree in geography and

education from north carolina and a doctor of philosophy in educational leadership and policy from the university at buffalo. go ahead. >> caller: . >> guest: well those are the degrees of course but my passion is one of service and also my belief that education is a writer not a a privilege. so through my work with the education that i obtained in my experiences in working with major institutions of higher education i understand the importance of exposure and the importance of educational opportunities. so working in planning and budget which is where i have been in higher education whether it be a cornell university which is where i immediately came to florida a&m from the university of north carolina at chapel hill working in the academic budgeting and planning as well as the university of buffalo the university of wisconsin all of my efforts across higher education for the last 30 years or so have been in educational

opportunities making sure their resources and tools that are needed for students to remain grow are available to all students and their florida a&m university that was my passion when i arrived to make sure we continue to provide those opportunities. i saw engineering as is one of those areas that was critical and it remains critical to our advancement as an institution of higher education. >> host: president's mangum thomas is next in cincinnati ohio. >> caller: yes let me start by saying that -- racism is one of the worst things in this country but i'm struggling with the fact in the 21st century still seems to be acceptable to have black colleges. to me it seems to be a case of reverse education. i grew up in the 60s where white schools were busing children and in order to desegregate schools and i don't understand why there seems to be

acceptable today and i don't understand it. >> host: dr. mangum will have her jump in. >> guest: you said historically black colleges. when the historically black colleges across the country reformed there were no other places for african-americans to study and if you look at the statistics today you will see many of the historically black colleges and universities, in fact all of them are integrated institutions just like you look across all of our predominantly white institutions. they are integrated button on our predominantly -- r. perdomo a white institutions remain perdomo a wide and our historically black institutions many remain predominately african-american. racism is a problem in america but educational opportunity should not be shut down on the

basis that an institution served primarily minority students african-american or other students. we are in the business of educating all students and our doors are open just as all doors are open. we understand selectivity creates disparity in terms of image of students from all races. that does not mean we should not continue to provide educational opportunities for all of her students. >> host: what educational he attracts white students and hispanic students to your university specific to your university? >> guest: the students that are attracted that are attractive florida a&m university are attractive because we offer an affordable and accessible education for the quality of the education we provide is comparable to any other institution. the matter of preference with regard to where you like to study and getting to know the faculty. many students choose an institution with -- but at

smaller universities like florida a&m with 10,000 plus students were smaller institutions with three, four and 5000 students, students choose to learn and go to schools in places where they feel comfortable and where they can realize their dreams. we are all supportive of freedom of choice. >> host: in silver spring sea went to an hbcu. where did you go? >> caller: hi i went to hampton university of very proud hamiltonian. first of all i wanted to congratulate dr. mangum on her employment as president at florida a&m university. my wife went to cornell. thank you for the work you did there. my question is in regards to the state state university and their proposed shutdown. i was wondering what your thoughts were about that and what your thoughts were around

how that might affect the university and hbcus in general. i'll take my response off-line. thank you. >> guest: thank you for asking that question because i think it is an unfortunate state of affairs when a state organization, state agency a state-supported institution does not have adequate resources to continue to provide or deliver on its mission for a variety of reasons for which i'm not aware of all of them but i do believe as long as the state of south carolina's sovereign that it has an obligation to support these institutions and provide the education to the students that they decided to admit and committed to when they were admitted to that institution. i do believe south carolina state should continue to provide the education and deliver on the promise the state of south carolina made to the students when they open their doors and admit them to the institution.

>> host: shrewsbury massachusetts, sean on our line for all others. aborning to you. >> caller: good morning though myra. i have conflicting feelings as to what you do. i think by associating with a group that calls itself historically black colleges and universities i feel as though you are perpetuating a racial difference. i don't believe in black history. i believe in american history and the history of other countries and cultures. i really don't appreciate what you do and have a nice day. >> guest: thank you. >> host: do you care to respond further president's mangum? >> guest: is understood -- it's important to understand what history is. just because we don't like it doesn't mean we get to erase it as a historically black college and university. we need to make ourselves historically black. it was a decision that was made

and it's a history and part of our history. >> host: we will move on to dylan and sturgis south dakota. hi dylan. >> caller: hi. yes, ladies i appreciate the president there at the college for everything she has done in her life. i'm a disabled veteran of vietnam and when i was back in vietnam we were all together black brothers in brown brothers brothers, we made it through it together. i don't know why society can't be that way. i see our black president and i don't even want to go there. i just don't agree with a black college a white college, this kind of college and i think we ought to be like the president said there and i was wondering what kind of opportunities you have for disabled veterans at your college? >> host: okay, dylan. >> guest: thank you for asking

that question and making those comments. florida a&m university has programs for veterans and we are establishing a veterans affairs office on campus for programs to invite veterans to our campus. this past fall we became the first purple heart university in the state of florida and we also became the first purple heart to historically black college in the state of florida were in the country. our purpose in their programs for veterans evolve around making the same opportunities available to them as we do to all of our students but also provide additional support services to help them transition into college and also into the workplace. part of an initiative that we have under development now deals with farming and establishing small farms in the area in florida that we are working with the veterans organizations to

help some veterans start small farms. we are veteran friendly campus and we have rotc and in fact we have produced more officers other than the military academies than any other institution in this country. with regard to questions with regard to raise and historically black institutions, institutions are open to all students and we have a variety of students from a of different backgrounds including several countries internationally as well. florida a&m is a very welcoming environment and i would encourage you to send people to investigators and look on our web site and see what we are doing. we are a diverse campus. >> host: and c-span bus has been on a tour of historically black colleges and universities starting at the beginning of this month and we will continue this week visiting historically black colleges and universities. today the campus of the florida

a&m university talking to us president dr. elmira mangum. we have about 10 minutes left. president mangum i want to ask you about a visitor you'll have to your school today. transportation secretary anthony fox will be there. why? >> guest: beauty is on a tour of the state and having town hall meetings and engaging students across the state of florida. here at florida a&m we have our sustainability efforts and we are looking to the department of transportation to work with them them. we have fellowships that come from the department to work on roads and also bridges and work with transportation solutions. in fact they fund some of our faculty to develop solutions to transportation problems across the spectrum so we are excited the secretary has decided to visit us and engage our students in his tour across the state of

florida. >> host: we have five minutes left or so with this conversation so we will have to call in. the phone lines are open. we have divided the lines this way. if you've attended a historically black college or university call 202748000 others (202)748-8801. we will go to annie in louisville kentucky. where did you go to school? >> caller: i went to moorestown college in georgia. i wanted to just say how valuable my education was and i view it in the same sense as someone who has graduated from harvard. the quality of education i got i received there gave me opportunities i wouldn't have had anywhere else. actually getting a college education was an opportunity i could not have gotten at harvard or any of the other schools at that time.

the theme is a haven for all hungry souls. i had one and i'm so grateful that there is an hbcu still in existence and i have the opportunity to attend. >> guest: thank you. >> host: kalpen you are next. go ahead president, go ahead. >> guest: i was just going to say that is the story of so many of our graduates because we have provided opportunities where there may not have been opportunities in other areas to better students explore and learn so we are thankful her students remember that we were there for them and as we continue to provide opportunities ns come from all told comes under $40,000. we provide opportunities for students from low wealth communities as well as in communities where they do not have the opportunity to pay for education to have it affordable and successful.

host: how do you get the low-wealth student into your university? what do you offer them specifically? how does it work? how do you get the well loved student -- low wealth student in tears edition edition? how does a were? >> guest: by keeping tuition low and providing support services to them when they come we provide opportunities for tutoring and remediation if necessary and support services to ensure their success throughout their attendance at our university. we also provide grants and scholarships for high-performing students and as recently as this past fall for students that choose to come that did not quite have a merit based scholarships that are on financial aid to take out loans what we are doing now is trying to work with them if they

graduate in four years and have loans what we are doing is providing a strong award to students so we are encouraging them to take on higher education as a goal and when they complete we will leave them with an award to give some money in their pocket to transition from school to work and also help them pay down the slums that they receive. >> host: how much money? >> guest: will this past fall at graduation we distributed over nearly $250,000 in awards to students that graduate within four years. >> host: kalpen is next in jacksonville florida. calvin did you go to florida and it? cocco and most certainly did. i graduated in 1992. i am quite and i'm glad you segued into the issue. dr. king and the solo rights movement talked about poverty and it benefited me as well.

famu was great and they welcomed me with open arms. they are very inclusive and we talk about historically black colleges we are speaking of the history and the foundation and you can learn from those types of settings. i do want to ask our president what are you doing to still continue to add when you bring in other nationalities and races and ended such a blessing to speak with you mrs. president andy do a great job. >> host: kalpen before you go can i ask you why did you decide to go to florida a&m? well-wisher major? >> caller: my major was in the communications area. my biggest reason was actually my pastor was part of the church

of god in christ which is historically african-american. samuel offered so many opportunities and the tuition was a bit part of it. i was able to get scholarships and it did help with my education. i got a quality education even with the funding that famu helps with and through the circles of all they did. they reached out and they were hands-on and it made a huge difference that they really cared about you getting education. >> host: all right, dr. mangum? >> guest: thank you so much for sharing that. also what we are doing now is we are developing living learning communities. we are providing opportunities for students to have lectures in the dormitories having an environment where students are able to cohabitate in specific

areas and they can learn and study together in various groups. we are giving expanding opportunities to study abroad. we are taking our students to various countries to brazil where i'm working with an alliance to get the afro-brazilians to florida in the united states to study in brazil and other countries across the globe. i have a passport -- before they leave to engage in an international opportunity to study abroad in one of the ways we want to do that as we have found sponsors to provide them with passports to make sure if the opportunity comments to study abroad that they will have that opportunity and we are expanding our international outreach. we are also expanding our reach into communities across the state and across the country to make sure students of all races and all abilities have the

opportunity to get an affordable quality education here in florida. >> host: dr. elmira mangum president of florida's agricultural and mechanical university we want to thank you your team and everybody at the university for allowing c-span to talk to you today and for you to talk to our viewers. appreciate it. >> guest: thank you for the opportunity. have a great day.

>> the white house this week hosted a summit on combating

violent extremism. homeland security secretary jeh johnson spoke at the event yesterday. funding for his department asked -- expires at the end of month and he called on congress to fully fund the department of homeland security. [applause] >> thank you ran. good morning everybody. as i look around the room at so many familiar faces from places as varied as boston, minneapolis, l.a. i think about the weather in each of those three places and realize it's all a matter of perspective. here in washington to some of you it's freezing cold, two others of you it's a warm respite from where you come from. welcome everybody. this is a terrific opportunity to get together on a timely and important issue.

there are many distinguished people in the room that i see here including several members of the united states senate as well as the mayor of paris who is here as well as state local and federal officials from around the country including our three pilot cities boston minneapolis and l.a.. this is an important topic at an important time. if i have said many times we have evolved to a new phase in the global terrorist threat and therefore must evolve to a new phase in our counterterrorism efforts. 13 and a half years ago when we were attacked in this country on 9/11, we were attacked by four al qaeda which send operatives into our country through relatively straightforward

command-and-control command and control structure. now 13 and a half years later the global terrorist threat is more decentralized more diffuse and frankly more complex area there are more al qaeda affiliates and their groups that core al qaeda has denounced. isil is prominent on the world stage these days. we see very effective and slick use of the internet by terrorist organizations very effective slick use of social media when you compare where we are today with just a few years ago and the way in which bin laden used to communicate through grainy films taken on the foot of the mountain side of a long monotone and comparing that with some of the products we see today. in just a very short period of time we have come a long way