Van Hollen, Cardin, Mfume Announce $130,000 for Mental Health Resources at Coppin State University Following Recent Bomb Threats

Today, U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin and Congressman Kweisi Mfume (all D-Md.) announced $130,190 in federal funding from the Department of Education’s Project School Emergency Response to Violence (Project SERV) program for Coppin State University. This grant will help Coppin State University, a historically Black university, recover from bomb threats the school received in February 2022. This award is one of a series that will go to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that have experienced similar traumatic events, negatively affecting the mental health of the schools’ students, faculty, and staff.

“There is no place in our communities for violent, racist behavior. These horrible, racially charged bomb threats, which specifically targeted HBCUs near the start of Black History Month, have had lasting emotional and psychological effects on the innocent students, faculty and staff they threatened,” the lawmakers said. “With this federal funding, we are taking an important step forward to help Coppin State shore up their mental health resources for students facing these traumatic events.”

Shortly after these threats occurred, Senators Cardin and Van Hollen wrote to the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), urging them to conduct their investigations of the incidents in a timely, efficient manner. 

Project SERV funds short-term education-related services for local educational agencies (LEAs) and institutions of higher education (IHEs) to help them recover from a violent or traumatic event in which the learning environment has been disrupted. Coppin State University plans to use its Project SERV funds to hire a full-time counseling psychologist, who will provide both individual and group counseling services. The funds will also go toward training for all students, staff, and faculty to simulate response activities, as well as resources to mitigate the stress and the anxiety that such events can trigger.