WASHINGTON - Increased funding for U.S. Education Department grant programs would help disabled and low-income students, as well as those in minority groups, attend college, a University of Arkansas official told a congressional committee Tuesday.
The school’s vice chancellor for diversity and community, Charles Robinson, urged committee members to increase funding for eight programs, known collectively as TRiO, that aim to help these students prepare for and complete college. Robinson spoke before the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Services.
Originally created as three programs in 1965 to help find students who might otherwise not make it through college, TRiO has grown to eight programs that focus on specific types of students, such as veterans, and students who excel in certain topics, such as math.
The federal government issues grants to colleges and universities, as well as private and community organizations, to run the programs, which can begin as early as middle school. Grants are next awarded this fall.
In fiscal 2013, Congress allocated $785.7 million for TRiO programs across the country, according to a UA news release. That paid for 2,791 projects, serving 758,974 participants.
Robinson, who is also a history professor, said he wants Congress to know how important the programs are. Supporters are asking for a $52 million funding increase in federal fiscal 2015.
“I think they are critical,” Robinson said. “Many people in the state don’t realize the large number of students who are first generation, low income that attend the University of Arkansas.”
He said 45 percent of the members of UA’s freshman class were either the first in their families to attend college or came from low-income families. The Education Department defines low income as those making 150 percent of the federal poverty level, or $35,775 for a family of four.
“Most people don’t think of that for the University of Arkansas because we’re the flagship. It’s important that we do a better job supporting these students and helping them to not only to get into the university, but to retain [them] once they are there,” Robinson said.
UA participates in four of the eight TRiO programs. Talent Search and Upward Bound aim to prepare high school students for college. Veterans Upward Bound offers similar services for veterans. Student Support Services helps students once they are in college through tutoring and assistance with study skills, note-taking, course selection, financial aid and graduate school preparation.
Robinson said many low-income, first-generation students who enroll at UA need help.
“They often arrive with less academic preparation and lower admission scores, require greater remediation, and have lower persistence and completion rates,” Robinson said. “As a result of the intensive and intrusive counseling services provided by the Student Support Services program, hundreds of low-income, first-generation students at the University of Arkansas are outperforming everyone on campus every year.”
Robinson told committee members that 95.7 percent of students in the Student Support Services program either continued to the next academic year or graduated.
Robinson spoke for about five minutes and was not asked questions by committee members.
U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., is vice chairman of the subcommittee.
“The TRiO program is a valuable resource for our first-generation college students, especially in a state like Arkansas, which has one of the lowest percentages of adults with bachelor’s degrees in the country,” Womack said after the meeting.
Hundreds of people, including 14 from Arkansas, descended on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to talk with their congressmen about funding the programs.
The Arkansans met with each member of the state delegation, said Arkansas Association of Student Assistance Programs President Deltha Shell.
Shell said the students represented each of the eight assistance programs and came from all over the state. She said grants have been awarded for 75 projects at various Arkansas colleges and universities.
In fiscal 2013, 5,263 Arkansas college students received Student Support Services at one of the 27 universities or colleges that offered them, she said.
Miguel Lopez, 22, who is earning a degree at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in international and Middle Eastern studies, was one of the people who lobbied Tuesday on Capitol Hill. A graduate of Sylvan Hills High School in Sherwood, he is a McNair scholar, another TRiO program that helps first-generation students pay for college and prepare for graduate school.
Lopez said he was working two jobs and attending school when he learned about the program. Because of the stipend, he said he could focus on schoolwork and is applying for graduate schools including Harvard, Princeton and Georgetown. Lopez wants to be a U.S. ambassador in the Middle East.
“It has literally changed my life,” he said.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/26/2014