Sweeping federal funding cuts to college readiness programs have affected colleges in West Virginia this year.
The Upward Bound program at West Virginia University and the McNair Program at Concord University, both of which were designed to serve first-generation and low income students, were cut.
The programs were part of TRIO, a federal funding program meant to fund programs at high schools and on college campuses to support accessibility to higher education and prepare students for the workforce. Marshall is currently home to five TRIO-funded programs.
All five of Marshall’s programs received continued funding, but they are still at risk of having their funding removed at any moment, according to Eugene Lacy, the Marshall Upward Bound Director.
“It’s concerning all across the country,” Lacy said. “All these programs – about 3000 in total – we’re scared that all of our funding could be pulled away at any second. You’ve probably heard that they’ve deemed us as a relic of the past, and they think that individuals don’t need help anymore.”
Marshall Upward Bound is a program meant to help students succeed after graduating high school. It includes college readiness, career readiness, study skills, test-taking skills, life skills, financial aid workshops and more.
The program also includes a variety of classes and an immersion program where students temporarily live on campus to prepare them for living on a college campus.
Lacy said he knows there is still a need for the program, despite the efforts of some in the government to completely cut their funding.
“We have students that are sleeping on family members’ couches. I have one that was sleeping on the ex-girlfriend of her dad’s couch for a whole year going to high school. The parents were in recovery centers,” Lacy said. “I’ve personally witnessed one of my students arguing with their parents in an alley about money. The parent was trying to get money from her child for drugs. These are the situations we’re in; they’re trying to cut a program even though we know there’s such a need out there.”
Despite the fact the program has received funding for the current fiscal year, Lacy said the funding could still be cut at any time.
“Everybody’s pretty confident that we’re going to stick around, but now with this administration, and there’s other forces behind it, like the Heritage Foundation, their goals have been to get rid of programs like us forever,” Lacy said. “It doesn’t make sense to try to get rid of a program that’s actually trying to solve society’s problems.”
Lacy said the program has never been in more danger than it is in right now.
“It’s literally the most at-risk time ever in our history, by far,” Lacy said. “Right now, since the government shut down, it gives the president more power to contract the budget. Some people think that literally any day we could be cut.”
Despite the uncertainty, Lacy said he has to remain optimistic because the mission of his program relies on optimism and hope.
“I’m optimistic. You can’t be in this field without being optimistic, because that’s what we do: We try to inspire people. We’re rolling while we can,” Lacy said. “I told somebody the other day because they thought I lost my job, ‘No, we’re still here, and I’ll keep helping people until I can’t help anymore.’”
Lacy said TRIO programs have bipartisan support in Congress and Congresswoman Carol Miller and Senator Shelley Moore Capito both support continuing to fund TRIO programs, but there are others in government who seek to eliminate the programs.
“People try to make it a partisan issue. They think TRIO is a liberal or Democrat program. TRIO has bipartisan support in Congress. That is a fact,” Lacy said. “The only difference that’s happening right now is that the top of government, people behind the scenes, want to get rid of these social programs because they want to move the money somewhere else.”
Zachary Jenkins, the director of Marshall’s Heart of Appalachia Talent Search program, said he knows the programs help people because he was a member of his program at one point.
“I was a former student in the HATS program, so I am a first generation low-income student,” Jenkins said. “I was in the HATS program at Marshall, and then I was in Bonnie Bailey’s Student Support Services program, and it helped me a lot.”
Jenkins’ program focuses on rigorous coursework, ensuring high school graduation and college enrollment and attainment. He said they meet all of the benchmarks for their objectives.
Despite having their funding confirmed in mid-September, Jenkins said his office is still at risk. He said the McNair Program at Concord and the WVU Upward Bound program should not have had their funding cut during their funding cycle, leading to uncertainty about whether or not his program will still receive funding.
“They were on their five-year cycle, so they should not have had funding cut, but they received a reduction in funding to zero during their five-year cycle. We really truthfully don’t know what the administration will do,” Jenkins said. “Their stance is to cut the TRIO programs, but we don’t know how that will end.”
Jenkins said the uncertainty regarding the future of his program makes it difficult to plan ahead for the program and its mission.
“It is very scary for our program. We’ve been a program at Marshall for over 20 years, and it’s not only scary as the director, but I have to oversee our staff and all that entails plus recruitment of our students and services,” Jenkins said. “It’s hard to plan activities. It’s a scary time to be in to try to look forward and plan ahead.”
Jenkins said he knows the benefits of the program as a graduate of it. He said he is afraid students who need access to additional resources through TRIO programs would face difficulty if their programs were cut.
“I worry about those students that would kind of fall through the cracks without our support. It’s not that they couldn’t be successful, they just need access, support and guidance,” Jenkins said. “Our job is to work with those students to make sure they don’t fall through the cracks.”
Ashton Pack can be contacted at [email protected].
