Southern University's Baton Rouge campus is the flagship of the only historically Black university system in the nation. Southern University has been, like many other postsecondary institutions across the United States, facing ongoing problems of declining enrollment and retention. Reeling from a decade of recession and deep budget cuts starting in 2008, the pandemic only exacerbated the disadvantages faced at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Southern University had previously endured its share of loss of programs, faculty, and students. Marybeth Gasman, renowned scholar of minority-serving institutions, has long documented "the history of underfunding and discrimination that disadvantages HBCUs" and the measures taken by leaders who resist challenges that threaten the stability of these institutions (26). Such resiliency is examined in Collie Fulford's "Subverting Austerity, Advancing Writing at a Historically Black University". She asserts, "because HBCU faculty are no strangers to scarcity, they can sometimes piece together curricular projects under inauspicious conditions" (230). Despite the "austere conditions" brought on by the recession, Fulford discusses how she and her colleagues developed an advanced writing program at a southern HBCU in much the same way that the authors spearheaded the inauguration of writing centers at their institution. These centers, the Writing Den and the University Writing and Communication Center, emerged at a time when the campus community was changing as a result of COVID-19. The authors discuss them side by side as the separate experiences they were, while addressing the shared struggles in utilizing resources, facilitating for staffing, and organizing outreach in the midst of the pandemic. Despite the challenges, the authors succeeded in developing two programs that serve the students.