A technology issue at Northern New Mexico College may have cost one of its partners an opportunity to obtain a grant that would have provided educational assistance to students in the Valley.
Employees from the Center for the Education and Study of Diverse Populations thought they submitted a Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs grant with the Department of Education in early July. However, a few days afterward, Northern’s Vice President of Institutional Advancement Ricky Serna, informed them the Education Department received the application after the deadline and the grant would not be considered for funding.
Serna is in charge of the department that submits grants for the college and Northern’s partners.
When interviewed for the story, Serna declined comment.
“It didn’t get submitted in time, but that was a combination of us submitting it on the last day and using the wrong computer,” Center Senior Associate Marcia Brenden said. “We submitted it. It was the firewall Northern had. There are only certain computers that we can submit the application through.”
Center Associate Ron Martinez said it was a hectic day. Brenden was offsite and Northern’s Director of Institutional Advisement Janelle Garcia was in the same room working on the application with him.
Martinez said throughout the day, all three individuals gathered documents, uploaded them to the computer and got additional information to complete the application. The cut-off time was fast approaching as they went through the application and finally submitted it just before the deadline passed.
“What was unknown to us, including Dr. Garcia, was that particular computer we were using has a firewall,” Martinez said. “It (application) was going through their (Northern’s) filter, basically their firewall didn’t process it within the time we thought it was doing it. We thought it was doing it simultaneously and it wasn’t. It was just doing it and uploading it, going through its filtering process. And it didn’t filter it and send it off until a couple of hours after the deadline. We got our work done but it was just caught up in this filter.”
Martinez later learned of the situation during a meeting with employees from Northern’s grants office.
“I had a meeting with both Janelle Garcia and Ricky Serna and we sat there and they said, ‘Guess what? Our proposal didn’t get through, we recognize it was our (Northern’s) fault, it was an internal thing.’ They started investigating why and how come it hadn’t gone through,” Martinez said. “My understanding is that it was a technology glitch that didn’t allow our proposal to go through.”
There were two grants submitted by the college that day. Martinez said the other grant, one that was specific to the college, was submitted successfully.
“They were submitting one at the same time,” Brenden said. “Northern was submitting a big federal grant of theirs in the same hours, within the hour. They were both due that day by 4:30 p.m., Washington time.”
However, the college’s grant application did not have a firewall issue, it was also submitted just before the deadline and was received by the government.
The Center’s grant was matching, which means the federal government would have matched, dollar-for-dollar, the money the Center and others would have provided.
Martinez estimated the Education Department would have contributed approximately $600,000 per year to the project. The project was for seven years, so the Department’s total contribution would have been $4.2 million over the life of the project.
The grant focused on providing resources for students on their path to college and their parents, particularly for students interested in science and engineering disciplines.
“The grant would have gone toward professional development for teachers, after-school tutoring for students, some summer programs and some summer camps,” Brenden said. “It would have provided college field trips and for parent engagement. It would have also complimented some of the programs we are already doing.”
Part of the grant would have taught parents financial management skills so they can plan for college expenses.
“One of things we do is have financial literacy for parents so parents can understand how to start saving for college and it doesn’t happen at the 11th or 12th grade,” Martinez said. “It happens early on so they can start saving and we demystify those processes for parents and for families so that students have a better support system internally and for the community.”
Brenden also said there are workshops for financial aid. The Center provides information regarding federal financial aid and assists them with the application.
Brenden wanted to point out she did not feel it was intentional, and even if the grant had been accepted, there is no guarantee the Center would have been awarded the grant.
The Center is not giving up.
“We are looking for other funding sources to make up for the grant,” Brenden said.