Amid protests against data center development across the country, one historically Black university has made it key to its plan for financial viability.As part of a $900 million master plan, entitled “Quantum Leap,” Fisk University has proposed building a 100,000 square feet “Innovation &Technology Center” on previously undeveloped campus land — 30,000 square feet of which would be used for academic space, and 70,000 of which would house a data center. However, the Nashville, Tennessee, liberal arts college has not been immune to the growing criticism of data centers sweeping the country. In press conferences, a public town hall and a 17,000-signature petition, community members and students have pushed back against the plan.In her first network interview addressing the recent backlash, Fisk University president Dr. Agenia Walker Clark defended the university’s plan in an ABC News Live Prime interview on Monday.”Higher ed is in a different place right now, and the challenges that we’re up against are some we’ve never experienced before,” Clark told anchor Linsey Davis. “We’ve got to be innovative, visionary and figure out what it looks like to go forward.”Referencing how the plan would make various campus renovations and new opportunities possible, Clark said it’s a means for Fisk to achieve its mission as an institution of higher learning.”This is part of a vision, along with updates to the resident halls, along with addition of other new buildings, that are much needed on the campus,” she said. “It will allow us to really strengthen the curriculum.”
