FR Doc 03-2004
[Federal Register: January 29, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 19)]
[Notices]
[Page 4454-4456]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr29ja03-43]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
[CFDA No. 84.031S]
Office of Postsecondary Education; Developing Hispanic-Serving
Institutions (HSI) Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards
for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003
Purpose of Program: Assists eligible Hispanic-Serving Institutions
(HSIs) of higher education to expand their capacity to serve Hispanic
and low-income students by enabling them to improve their academic
quality, institutional management, and fiscal stability and to increase
their self-sufficiency. Five-year individual development grants and
cooperative arrangement grants will be awarded in FY 2003. Planning
grants will not be awarded in FY 2003. For FY 2003, the competition for
new awards focuses on projects designed to meet the priorities we
describe in the Priorities section of this application notice.
Eligible Applicants: Institutions of higher education (IHEs) that
have been designated as eligible under Part A or B of Title III or
under Title V of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA),
are eligible to apply for individual development grants and cooperative
arrangement grants. In addition, at the time of application, the IHE
must provide assurances if applying for a grant in Title V that it has
an enrollment of undergraduate full-time equivalent (FTE) students that
is at least 25 percent Hispanic students, and that not less than 50
percent of the enrolled Hispanic students are low-income individuals.
Notes: 1. A grantee under the HSI Program, authorized under
Title V of the HEA, may not receive a grant under any Title III,
Part A Program. Further, an HSI Program grantee may not give up that
grant in order to receive a grant under any Title III, Part A
Program. Therefore, a current HSI Program grantee may not apply for
a grant under any Title III, Part A Program in FY 2003.
2. An IHE that does not fall within the limitation described in
Note 1 may apply for a FY 2003 grant under all Title III, Part A
Programs for which it is eligible, as well as under the HSI Program.
An applicant may receive only one grant.
Applications Available: January 29, 2003.
Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: March 3, 2003.
Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: April 30, 2003.
Estimated Available Funds: The Administration has requested $89.1
million for this program for FY 2003. The actual level of funding, if
any, depends on final congressional action. However, we are inviting
applications to allow enough time to complete the grant process if
Congress appropriates funds for this program.
Estimated Range of Awards: $400,000-$600,000.
Estimated Average Size of Awards: Individual Development Grant:
$425,000 per year. Cooperative Arrangement Development Grant: $600,000
per year.
Estimated Number of Awards: Individual Development Awards: 18.
Cooperative Arrangement Development Awards: 6.
Note: The Department is not bound by any estimates in this
notice.
Project Period: Up to 60 months.
Page Limit: We have established mandatory page limits for both the
individual development grant and the cooperative arrangement
development grant applications. You must limit the application to the
equivalent of no more than 100 pages for the individual development
grant and 140 pages for the cooperative arrangement development grant,
using the following standards:
[sbull] A ``page'' is 8.5'' x 11'', on one side only, with 1''
margins top, bottom, and both sides.
[sbull] Double space (no more than three lines per vertical inch)
all text in the application narrative, including titles and headings.
You may single space footnotes, quotations, references, captions,
charts, tables, figures, and graphs.
[sbull] Use a font that is either 12-point or larger or no smaller
than 10 pitch (characters per inch).
The page limit does not apply to the application cover sheet (ED
424), the one-page abstract, the Certification Regarding Collaborative
Arrangement (ED 851S-8), the Hispanic-Serving Institutions Assurance
Form (ED 851S-7), and the Cooperative Arrangement Form (ED 851S-1). The
page limit does, however, apply to all remaining parts of the
application.
We will reject your application if--
[sbull] You apply these standards and exceed the page limit; or
[sbull] You apply other standards and exceed the equivalent of the
page limit.
Applicable Regulations: (a) The Education Department General
Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 81,
82, 85, 86, 97, 98, and 99; and (b) The regulations for this program in
34 CFR part 606.
Applicability of Executive Order 13202: Applicants that apply for
construction funds under these programs must comply with the Executive
Order 13202 signed by President Bush on February 17, 2001 and amended
on April 6, 2001. This Executive order provides that recipients of
Federal construction funds may not ``require or prohibit bidders,
offerors, contractors, or subcontractors to enter into or adhere to
agreements with one or more labor organizations, on the same or other
construction project(s)'' or ``otherwise discriminate against bidders,
offerors, contractors, or subcontractors for becoming or refusing to
become or remain signatories or otherwise adhere to agreements with one
or more labor organizations, on the same or other construction
project(s).'' However, the Executive order does not prohibit
contractors or subcontractors from voluntarily entering into these
agreements.
Projects funded under this program that include construction
activity will be provided a copy of this Executive Order and will be
asked to certify that they will adhere to it.
[[Page 4455]]
Priorities: This competition focuses on projects designed to meet
the priority in section 511(d) of the HEA (29 U.S.C. 1103) (see 34 CFR
75.105(b)(2)(iv)).
The Secretary gives priority to a development grant application
that contains satisfactory evidence that the HSI has entered into, or
will enter into, a collaborative arrangement with at least one local
educational agency or community-based organization to provide that
agency or organization with assistance (from funds other than funds
provided under Title V of the HEA) in reducing dropout rates for
Hispanic students, improving rates of academic achievement for Hispanic
students, and increasing the rates at which Hispanic secondary school
graduates enroll in higher education.
Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(3), we consider only applications that meet
this priority.
This competition also focuses on projects designed to meet the
priority in section 514(b) of the HEA (20 U.S.C. 1103c) (see 34 CFR
75.105(b)(2)(iv)).
The Secretary gives priority to grant applications for cooperative
arrangements that are geographically and economically sound or will
benefit the applicant HSI.
Invitational Priorities: Within the absolute priorities specified
in this competition, we are particularly interested in applications
that meet one or more of the following invitational priorities.
Invitational Priority 1
Cooperative arrangements between two-year and four-year IHEs aiming
to increase transfer and retention of Hispanic students.
Invitational Priority 2
Cooperative arrangements between IHEs that develop and share
technological resources in order to enhance each institution's ability
to serve the needs of low-income communities or minority populations.
Invitational Priority 3
Cooperative arrangements between IHEs, where at least one does not
currently have funding under the HSI Program.
Invitational Priority 4
Cooperative arrangements that involve institutional partners from
more than one university or college system.
Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(1), we do not give an application that meets
one or more of the invitational priorities a competitive or absolute
preference over other applications.
Special Funding Consideration: In tie-breaking situations described
in 34 CFR 606.23, the HSI Program regulations require that we award one
additional point to an application from an IHE that has an endowment
fund for which the 1999-2000 market value per full-time equivalent
(FTE) student was less than the comparable average per FTE student at a
similar type IHE. We also award one additional point to an application
from an IHE that had expenditures for library materials in 1999-2000
per FTE student that were less than the comparable average per FTE
student at a similar type IHE.
For the purpose of these funding considerations, an applicant must
be able to demonstrate that the market value of its endowment fund per
FTE student and library expenditures per FTE student were less than the
average expenditure per FTE student when calculated using the data
submitted by applicants for the year 1999-2000.
If a tie still remains after applying the additional point(s), we
will determine the ranking of applicants based on the lowest combined
library expenditures per FTE student and endowment values per FTE
student.
Application Procedures
Note: Some of the procedures in these instructions for
transmitting applications differ from those in the Education
Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) (34 CFR
75.102). Under the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553) the
Department generally offers interested parties the opportunity to
comment on proposed regulations. However, these amendments make
procedural changes only and do not establish new substantive policy.
Therefore, under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(A), the Secretary has determined
that proposed rulemaking is not required.
Pilot Project for Electronic Submission of Applications
In FY 2003, the U.S. Department of Education is continuing to
expand its pilot project for electronic submission of applications to
include additional formula grant programs and additional discretionary
grant competitions. The HSI Program--84.031S is one of the programs
included in the pilot project. If you are an applicant under the HSI
Program, you may submit your application to us in electronic or paper
format.
The pilot project involves the use of the Electronic Grant
Application System (e-Application) portion of the Grant Administration
and Payment System (GAPS). Users of e-Application will be entering data
on-line while completing their applications. You may not e-mail a soft
copy of a grant application to us. If you participate in this voluntary
pilot project by submitting an application electronically, the data you
enter on-line will be saved into a database. We request your
participation in e-Application. We shall continue to evaluate its
success and solicit suggestions for improvement.
If you participate in e-Application, please note the following:
[sbull] Your participation is strictly voluntary.
[sbull] You will not receive any additional point value because you
submit a grant application in electronic format, nor will we penalize
you if you submit an application in paper format. When you enter the e-
Application system, you will find information about its hours of
operation.
[sbull] You may submit all documents electronically including the
Application for Federal Assistance (ED 424), Budget Information--Non-
Construction Programs (ED 524), and all necessary assurances and
certifications.
[sbull] After you electronically submit your application, you will
receive an automatic acknowledgement, which will include a PR/Award
number (an identifying number unique to your application).
[sbull] Within three working days after submitting your electronic
application, fax a signed copy of the Application for Federal
Assistance (ED 424) to the Application Control Center after following
these steps:
(1) Print ED 424 form from the e-Application system.
(2) The institution's Authorizing Representative must sign this
form.
(3) Place the PR/Award number in the upper right hand corner of the
hard copy signature page of the ED 424.
(4) Fax the signed ED 424 to the Application Control Center at
(202) 260-1349.
[sbull] We may request that you give us original signatures on all
other forms at a later date.
[sbull] Closing Date Extension in Case of System Unavailability: If
you elect to participate in the e-Application pilot for the HSI Program
and you are prevented from submitting your application on the closing
date because the e-Application system is unavailable, we will grant you
an extension of one business day in order to transmit your application
electronically, by mail, or by hand delivery. For us to grant this
extension--
(1) You must be a registered user of e-Application, and have
initiated an e-Application for this competition; and
(2)(a) The e-Application system must be unavailable for 60 minutes
or more between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 3:30
[[Page 4456]]
p.m., Washington, DC time, on the deadline date; or
(b) The e-Application system must be unavailable for any period of
time during the last hour of operation (that is, for any period of time
between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m., Washington, DC time) on the deadline date.
The Department must acknowledge and confirm these periods of
unavailability before granting you an extension. To request this
extension you must contact either (1) the person listed elsewhere in
this notice under For Applications and Further Information Contact or
(2) the e-GRANTS help desk at 1-888-336-8930.
You may access the electronic grant application for the Title V,
HSI Program at: http://e-grants.ed.gov.
We have included additional information about the e-Application
pilot project (see Parity Guidelines between Paper and Electronic
Applications) in the application package.
For Applications and Further Information Contact: Louis Venuto,
U.S. Department of Education, Title V, Developing Hispanic-Serving
Institutions Program, 1990 K Street NW., 6th floor, Washington, DC
20006-8513. Telephone: (202) 502-7763 or via Internet:
title.five@ed.gov.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may
call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339.
Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer
diskette) on request to the program contact person listed under For
Applications and Further Information Contact.
Individuals with disabilities may obtain a copy of the application
package in an alternative format by contacting that person. However,
the Department is not able to reproduce in an alternative format the
standard forms included in the application package.
Electronic Access to This Document
You may view this document, as well as all other Department of
Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe
Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at the following site:
http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister.
To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available
free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the U.S.
Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in
the Washington, DC area at (202) 512-1530.
Note: The official version of a document is the document
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html
.
Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1101-1101d, 1103-1103g.
Dated: Janaury 23, 2003.
Sally L. Stroup,
Assistant Secretary, Office of Postsecondary Education.
[FR Doc. 03-2004 Filed 1-28-03; 8:45 am]
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