February is Black History month, the perfect time for politicians to pander to African-Americans so they can say that they listened to the interests and issues of the “urban” community. It never ceases to fail. It’s almost like the officials in Washington feel as if Black People are only an important priority in February. No other point in the year! Donald Trump decided that he was going to both pander to HBCU’s this month and do something that he believes will one-up former President Barack Obama. He decided to do that by doing exactly what many accused Obama of doing in his 8 years in office, making empty promises. Only this time, the promises are empty and come with a photo opp.

News about Donald Trump possible signing an executive order came earlier this month. Information surfaced that Trump would be meeting with HBCU presidents later on in this month about issues affecting these institutions. The Executive Order, reportedly being drafted by Howard University alumnae Omarosa, was said to include provisions that would help HBCU’s by increasing federal funds. That, in fact, didn’t happen. The order was signed earlier this afternoon, where the highlight of the order was to “make HBCU’s a priority of the White House”. Sound rather reminiscent to his campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” doesn’t it?

With the new executive order the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, started by former President Jimmy Carter, would now be housed under the White House instead of the Department of Education. According to the administration, this move is said to have been implemented to “encourage strategic partnerships with other agencies and outside groups by giving it greater visibility.” According to a report published on The Washington Post The United Negro College Fund wanted Trump to move the Initiative to the White House and be led by a person “who reports to a senior adviser to the president.” Doing this would theoretically mean that HBCU concerns would be heard directly by the White House. Key word: theoretically.

There has been no mention of money allocation or increases in funding. Flying the HBCU presidents out to the White House was just a photo opportunity. The Presidents even found themselves tricked into meeting with Trump. According to Dillard University President Walter M. Kimbrough on his recent Medium post about the meeting, they were told one thing and another completely separate thing happened.

“We learned this weekend that there would be closing remarks by Vice President Pence, but the goal was for officials from a number of Federal agencies (about 5 were there including OMB) and Secretary DeVos to hear about HBCUs. That all blew up when the decision was made to take the presidents to the Oval Office to see the President. I’m still processing that entire experience. But needless to say that threw the day off and there was very little listening to HBCU presidents today- we were only given about 2 minutes each, and that was cut to one minute, so only about 7 of maybe 15 or so speakers were given an opportunity today.”

We have no choice but to see where this executive order goes. As an HBCU student, I’m definitely keeping my eyes open to what the coming months hold. HBCU’s have been underfunded and pushed under the bus for too long and something has to change. But, under Trump, will this change come with a catch?