Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, who chaired the committee that produced the report, said many at the university are excited by the proposal to work more with HBCUs. The nation owes the historically Black schools a debt, she said. “Despite their benefits to the country, HBCUs have been underfunded,” Brown-Nagin said in an interview, “and that itself is a reflection of slavery and its legacies.”