The Department of Education has laid off more than 1300 employees in an attempt to get rid of the Department. The Department of Education sent out letters to institutions informing them of the cuts. Federal officials claim schools should not see interruptions in service. The interim President at Clinton College – which is a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) – is on standby and coming up with a plan.
“We are not quite sure of what the impact will be,” Clinton College Interim President Archinya Ingram said. “But we are certain there will be some level of impact. If nothing else for the timing of processing financial aid and these students receiving the funds to pay for college…We are a tuition-driven institution. If we don’t receive those funds – that impacts our operation from the beginning of the fiscal year.”
Ingram has been working with her administrators to make sure Clinton College doesn’t skip a beat when it comes to the changes happening at the Department of Education. The Interim President says the HBCU is good shape with its finances and will step in and help students if financial aid paperwork is held up. The leader is putting her students on assignment.
“We are encouraging all of our students to complete their FAFSA early,” she said. “So that we can start the process and get ahead of the load of processing. And so we are working now – my goal is to have 100% of the students returning in the Fall to complete their FAFSA before they leave in April.”
Clinton College is not the only HBCU dealing with potential change and cuts. Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) is also preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.
“We are always concerned about the sustainability and longevity of HBCUs,” JCSU Provost Patrick Martin said. “And so, this could deal significant – I’d like to say probably interim blow.”
Martin says JCSU gets about $10 million from the federal government. The University is now on a fundraising mission to decrease its dependency.
“We began this back in September – October,” Martin said. “Dollars we would go after. Other federal dollars we could supplement – philanthropic dollars, private dollars, that we can begin to try to move some of these funds away from the federal government and also how can we operationalize some of these funds and put them in the University operational budget.”
The JCSU Provost is optimistic HBCUs will survive these uncertain times. He says history is on HBCUs side when it comes to pushing through.
“I can probably guess in years 1 through 50,” Martin said. “It wasn’t a lot of support to keep us open and to keep us going…as a majority – we are going to figure this thing out and move forward.”
We checked with other schools to get their reaction to change at the Department of Education. Here’s what they told us.
“Along with all other colleges and universities, we are assessing what these changes may mean for our campus. It would be premature to comment further at this time.”
Christy Jackson
UNC Charlotte Deputy Chief Communications Officer
“We don’t have any info to share at this time.”
Queens University
We are still waiting to hear back from Livingstone College and Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) says it had grants totaling about $9 million pulled because it was related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.