(The Center Square) – With grant deadlines fast approaching at the end of the month, the Trump administration continued its higher education grant cuts in Nevada.
The College of Southern Nevada was one of the more recent recipients of a slew of federal funding rejections. The grant was aimed at first-generation and disabled students and was rejected, as fears of cuts to other programs on the horizon mounts.
Nevada’s largest community college with 30,000 students, CSN is pathway for many young Nevadans into the working world. For some, it represents a family’s first chance at higher education.
CSN’s TRiO program provided grants and additional support services to many such students since the national grant began at the school in 2000. Since then, around 3,000 first generation, low-income and disabled students have attended CSN with TRiO’s help. In recent years, around 200 students were enrolled in the program annually.
The decades-long program sought to help students with “guidance, advocacy and academic support,” advertising services from financial literacy to free basic supplies, such as paper and pencils. They boasted an average 90% academic good standing among enrolled students.
“We know this loss will be felt deeply by the students who relied on TRIO’s holistic, wraparound services,” read a CSN statement. “Approximately 200 students each year benefited from its unique model. It is unfortunate that the federal funding has ended. This moment also calls us to action.”
CSN listed Nevada U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-4th District, as a TRiO graduate from the University of Nevada Reno program. Horsford and his offices declined to comment on the program’s end.
The Trump administration found issue with the TRiO program for what it identified as, “Information indicating that the proposed activities take account of race in ways that conflict with the Department’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education.” That’s according to a July grant denial letter from the U.S. Department of Education to CSN.
The denial added CSN could contact the department to question the decision and point out errors.
CSN said it is appealing the denial, but the current grant cycle ends Sept. 30, as the U.S. Dept. of Education’s fiscal year ends.
Nationwide, the Trump administration has frozen an estimated $660 million in TRiO funds across 2,000 programs, according to the nonprofit Council for Opportunity in Education. Congress approved a total of $1.19 billion for the current fiscal year.
