Minority-Serving Institutions Join Forces to Seek Change
By Charles Dervarics

In an effort to promote mutual goals, leaders of Black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions and tribal colleges are endorsing an ambitious agenda that includes a doubling of the maximum Pell grant and new incentives to promote student enrollment in math, science, teaching and other high-demand specialties.

With the Higher Education Act (HEA) up for renewal, leaders of the three organizations are finding common ground on issues that affect all minority-serving institutions. The leaders developed the agenda through their work with the Alliance for Equity in Higher Education, created in 1999 to spur coordination among minority-serving colleges and universities.

The doubling of the maximum Pell grant would take place over a six-year period, the group says. Leaders also recommend that Pell become an entitlement. It is "morally and ethically appropriate" to provide guaranteed Pell funding much as the government currently provides tax credits and loan programs, says a paper outlining the agenda.

About half of all students at minority-serving institutions (MSIs) receive Pell grants, compared with 28 percent of all college students. A doubling of funds also could help restore purchasing power lost when the program failed to keep up with double-digit tuition increases. Overall, the organizations say, Pell pays for only 42 percent of the average cost of attendance at a public four-year institution.

Each organization developed its own recommendations for increased funding of Title III and Title V programs dedicated to HBCUs, HSIs and tribal colleges. Yet the three leaders urged Congress to consider new programming as well, such as a program to help newer predominantly Black colleges and colleges that enroll a significant number of Hispanics but as yet do not meet the definition of an HSI.

"All minority-serving institutions represented by the alliance must receive adequate federal funding to meet the needs of diverse minority student populations that also make up the fastest-growing segment of the college-age population in this country," says Dr. Antonio Flores, president and CEO of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.