Connected: How Virtual Experiences Are Redefining Margins by Expanding Opportunities for Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

According to the American Council on Education, HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) are historically underfunded, and often have lower alumni contributions and endowments when compared to predominantly White institutions. [1] This disparity of funding directly and indirectly impacts institutional budgets for academic units, resulting inmany departments of art and design receiving little yearly support for visiting artists, designers, gallery programming, operational supplies, and facility maintenance. In this paper, I consider how art and design students from Tennessee State University-an HBCU in Nashville, TN, USA-benefit from utilizing virtual platforms as a means to facilitate new knowledge and expand their network. This is examined through four cases. The first examines the use of Zoom as a learning tool, where artists and designers share time and connect with students. The second explores virtual reality as digital placemaking. The third case examines how Zoom was used in an industry-to-student exchange as students participated in a global brand scoping project. The fourth case explores how Zoom was used as amplification, allowing student voices to be shared during a national design conference. The essential question that guides this inquiry is "how has virtual programming opened the door for equitable learning?".