U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) today introduced legislation to end a two-year "wait out" period for grant eligibility under Title III of the Higher Education Act that is negatively impacting some of this country's most underfunded institutions of higher education: Tribal Colleges and Universities and Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, including the University of Hawaii.
Title III provides grants to a specific set of colleges and universities that serve disproportionate numbers of minority, low-income, and first generation college students. These institutions have considerable impact on improving the quality and quantity of educational and career opportunities for their students, who face unique socio-economic barriers. Title III was created to help improve and expand the academic capacity of institutions specifically established and committed to serving these students.
In 1998, Part A of Title III, the Strengthening Developing Institutions Program, was amended by the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 to introduce a special program for Tribal Colleges and Universities and for Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions. Many of these institutions apply for Institutional Aid under Title III of the Higher Education Act.
The 1998 law also instituted a change that requires grantees to "wait out" for at least two years at the end of their grant before applying for a new grant. This wait out period was originally created to ensure that Title III funding would reach the maximum number of students and institutions. The provision applied to all Title III grantees with the exception of Historical Black Colleges and Universities, which receive formula funding under the title. Before the higher education bill became law, Hispanic Serving Institutions were transferred to a new title so that the wait out period no longer applied to them. Therefore, under the law, the wait out only affects Sections 316 and 317, which cover Tribal Colleges and Universities and Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions. In Hawaii, this involves the major college campuses and community colleges in the University of Hawaii system.
"Any delay or barrier to continued assistance can prove critical for any college or university serving small, disadvantaged populations," Akaka noted. "Because the applicant pool is already so limited in size, the failure to exempt institutions from the two-year wait out provision will likely result in no institutions being eligible to apply for future funds under this program. Currently, there are six institutions in the states of Washington, Montana, California, North Dakota, and South Dakota that are in the first year of their two-year wait out period."
The Akaka bill would make a technical change exempting Sections 316 and 317 from the two-year wait out requirement. Similar legislation, H.R. 3629, has been introduced in the House of Representatives. Senators Daniel K. Inouye, Frank Murkowski (R-AK), Tim Johnson (D-SD), and Ted Stevens (R-AK) are cosponsors of the legislation, which was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
