The Obama administration’s proposal to consolidate federal science programs for minority-serving institutions into a single competitive grant program has representatives from Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) crying foul after promises were made to dedicate specific funds to the schools that grant undergraduate degrees to half of the nation’s largest minority group.
At their Capitol Forum meeting last week, the members of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) met with their congressional representatives to lobby vigorously against the proposal as “a matter of equity and fairness.”
“This fell on us like a bucket of cold water,” said Dr. Agnes Mojica, chancellor of the Inter American University of Puerto Rico and a member of HACU’s government relations committee. “If money had been set aside for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), we should have the same opportunity. We are growing institutions, and it doesn’t seem fair to change the rules now.”
The 2007 reauthorization of the National Science Foundation called for the creation of a grant program targeting HSIs under the minority-serving institution specific programs. Individual HSIs have won NSF grants for science, technology, engineering, math research and programs before, but the schools never had their own program.
For more than a decade, NSF has set aside dollars for HBCUs and TCUs for capacity-building and other areas. Since 1998, HACU reported that HBCUs and TCUs have received a total of $214.5 million and $82.5 million, respectively.
This past December, Congress approved a Title V spending bill for FY 2010 and directed the NSF to “report on plans to establish an HSI program in FY 2011, for which a ‘significant funding request’ is expected” within 90 days. Just two months later, President Barack Obama presented his budget with the NSF provision.
“Last year, there was approved legislation to set money apart, and 90 days are gone. Now we get this response? It cancels the will of Congress expressed a year ago,” said Jose Jaime Rivera, chair of the HACU’s government relations committee.
