{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://adams.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/higher-education-notebook-adams-calls-postponement-hbcu-conference-virginia", "Higher Education Notebook: Adams calls for postponement of HBCU conference in Virginia", "2017-09-28", "2017", "2017-09", "Democrat", "House", "NC", "Alma Adams", "A000370", "adams.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "U.S. Rep. Alma Adams has urged President Donald Trump and U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to postpone the 2017 National HBCU Week Conference in September because, she said, Trump hasn\u2019t fulfilled the promises he made when he signed an executive order in February.\nUnder the order, the federal government would provide greater investments and additional resources to the country\u2019s historically black universities and colleges.\nThe conference is scheduled for Sept. 17-19 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va. The White House Initiative on HBCUs organizes and conducts the annual conference.\n\u201cIt has become painstakingly clear that these promises are not being kept,\u201d said Adams, a Democrat who represents North Carolina\u2019s 12th Congressional District. \u201cIn this current environment, and with zero progress made on any of their priorities, it would be highly unproductive to ask HBCU presidents to come back to Washington.\u201d\nA large group of HBCU presidents and chancellors visited the White House in February when Trump signed the executive order.\nWake Forest University\u2019s new engineering program to start soon\nLike any aspiring engineer, Meredith Vaughn, a first-year student at Wake Forest University, gets excited about building something from the ground up, so WFU\u2019s new undergraduate engineering program appealed to her.\nIn high school, Vaughn focused on vocal performance at Weaver Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts, an arts-based magnet school in Greensboro, WFU said in a statement. But she chose to attend Wake Forest because it will allow her to pursue her passions across the liberal arts \u2014 from STEM to singing.\nVaughn is one of about 50 students in Wake Forest\u2019s first cohort of undergraduate engineering students who will begin taking classes at Wake Downtown later this month in downtown Winston-Salem.\n\u201cI want to study engineering, and I also want to be in an a cappella group,\u201d Vaughn said.\n\u201cWhen I found out that Wake was starting these new programs in engineering and biomedical sciences, I thought, \u2018This is perfect,\u2019\u201d she said.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://adams.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/higher-education-notebook-adams-calls-postponement-hbcu-conference-virginia"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2422120198607445, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}