For decades, federal TRIO programs have been the backbone of support for low-income, first-generation students. Through a suite of programs, high school students can get assistance in understanding their options after high school and get help with applying for admissions and financial aid. They can access college-prep coursework not otherwise available in their high schools and attend transition programs on college campuses to immerse themselves in campus life and college academics before other students arrive.
Once in college, students in TRIO programs can get mentoring, advising, tutoring, help with financial aid. If they chose and qualify, they can get support for preparing for graduate school. Vets and unemployed adults can also find support in transitioning to college.
In essence, TRIO programs provide some low-income/first generation students only part of what parents with degrees provide for their own college-bound children.
Inside Higher Ed reports today that the Department of Education has cancelled 120 TRIO grants that had already been rewarded because of "DEI" references in their grant applications. Some applications merely set a goal of serving equal numbers of men and women in communities in which male enrollment has been lagging. Some programs were merely housed within (now closed) DEI offices.
The article includes heartbreaking examples of specific programs that will now end as their funding is cut and staff are laid off.
Though these cuts are only 3% of all TRIO funding, 43,600 students are suddenly without the support that they were expecting and deeply experienced staff have been sent home.
And, DOE has fired the staff of the office that administered and supported TRIO programs.
For decades, college access and opportunity were understood to be in the national interest. For decades, though the funding was never adequate, thousands of students every year got to college, finished degrees, and sometimes went on to graduate school with the support of TRIO programs.
Until now.
