Obama's HBCU budget carries great possibilities for FAMU

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama formally announced his plan for a new multi-million dollar spending package for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). If approved by Congress, the money could help ease some financial pain at FAMU and boost the university’s construction goals.

“Like all colleges and universities, HBCUs face tough challenges today,” Obama said. “Endowments and state budgets are shrinking. Too many facilities are deteriorating. Enrollment is falling. And the cost of education is going up. These schools feel the pain more acutely. They do more with less and they enroll higher proportions of low and middle income students.

The president’s plans for increasing HBCU funding include the follow items:

-$98 million in new money for HBCUs at the U.S. Department of Education. Most of the new baseline funding will go to Title III programs which operate under the Higher Education Act of 1965, Part B. Title III is the largest source of federal support specifically designated for HBCUs.

The appropriations bump includes a five percent or $13 million increase for the Strengthening HBCUs program. FAMU currently uses this funding source to help pay for important programs such as the Undergraduate Experience, which provides student advising to support an increase in retention and graduation rates. These dollars are also being used to purchase new book volumes for FAMU's libraries, develop new distance learning courses, and hire tutors.

-$85 million in mandatory funding for HBCUs in the pending Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. This money will replace the HBCU grants that were part of the past College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA). They were designed to help HBCUs with their “academic resources, management capabilities, and physical plants.” In 2008, FAMU netted the largest HBCU CCRAA grant: $2,002,165. FAMU is using the money to upgrade Enterprise Resource Technology, library multimedia, and instructional technology.

-$64.5 million for the Strengthening Historically Black Graduate Institution program, a $3.1 million or five percent increase. FAMU has used these dollars to buy new physics laboratory equipment, conduct bar examination preparation seminars for law students, and provide graduate teaching assistantships across the university.

-$20.5 million for the HBCU Capital Financing program, to provide HBCUs with access to financing for the repair, renovation, and construction or acquisition of educational facilities, instructional equipment, research instrumentation, and physical infrastructure. This funding will support $279 million in new loans in 2011, more than $100 million more than in 2010.

While FAMU does not have an active loan with this program, it could apply and receive one to help finance the demolition and rebuilding of Polkinghorne Village. The project carries an estimated price tag of $63 million and would add 800 beds to campus.

Florida Memorial, Bethune-Cookman, and South Carolina State are all examples of schools that haved used HBCU Capital Financing Program loans to finance brand new housing complexes.

-$103 million for a comprehensive science and technology workforce program at the National Science Foundation designed to engage undergraduates at Historically Black, Tribal, and Hispanic-serving colleges and universities by realigning and building on existing programs. The president’s budget request would increase funding for these activities by over 14 percent.

This money could assist programs such as FAMU’s Undergraduate Research Center for Cutting Edge Technology at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.

-An increase in the Pell Grant maximum award to $5,710 in 2011 – an increase of $160 over the 2010 level – and a provision to increase that rate faster than inflation in future years. In 2011, students attending HBCUs will receive about $900 million in Pell Grants, an increase of nearly $400 million since the Administration took office.

During the 2007-2008 school year, 5,431 FAMU students received a total of $17,241,180 in Pell Grants.