Northern New Mexico College could potentially miss out on more than $2 million in federal money, as a result of missing the submission deadline for a grant.
The grant provides funding for recruiting services, financial aid counseling, career workshops and other vital services for students.
According to the application information made available by the United States Department of Education, the Educational Opportunity Centers Program is a five-year grant, for which higher education institutions can apply, and whose main purpose is to provide counseling and information to adults interested in college admissions and financial aid assistance.
The College was awarded an average of $484,249 from the federal program for the past five years of eligibility, since Fiscal Year 2011.
Interim President Domingo Sanchez said as a result of an administrative oversight, the College missed the deadline to apply for the grant by a matter of minutes on April 4, possibly putting the funds in jeopardy.
“We’ve had that grant for a number of years,” he said. “It’s primarily dealing with recruitment. Under that federal program we can go and recruit, but only for college, we can’t specifically recruit for Northern. We are there to help bring people into higher education.”
Services at risk
The services funded by the grant are wide-ranging and can include:
• Academic advice and assistance in course selection
• Assistance in completing college admission and financial aid applications
• Assistance with preparation for college entrance examinations
• Academic advice and assistance in course selection
• Guidance on secondary school reentry to a General Educational Development (GED) program or other alternative education program for high school dropouts
• Tutoring services
• Career workshops and counseling
• Mentoring programs involving elementary or secondary school teachers, faculty members at institutions of higher education, students, or any combination of these persons
• Programs and activities specially designed for students who are limited in English proficiency, students from groups traditionally underrepresented in post-secondary education, students with disabilities, students who are homeless and who are in foster care or are aging out the foster care system, or other disconnected students
Late is late
Barbara Bustos, Educational Opportunities Center director at the College did not return calls regarding the program and the grant, but Sanchez said the grant application had to be submitted by 4:30 p.m. on the day it was due, but the time stamp on the application read 4:32 p.m. instead of 4:30 p.m. leaving a question of whether the Department accepted the College’s submission.
“That’s what happened,” Sanchez said. “It’s in there, we got an acceptance number from the federal system. The issue is the guidelines say it had to be in by 4:30, our time stamp says it was two minutes off, but we’re scratching our heads because we got the confirmation from them, so the window was still open.”
The Department usually closes the federal portal at the stated time and if the application is late, it does not get submitted, Sanchez said.
“There’s the debate, are they going to honor it or not, because we got a confirmation,” he said.
Gaby Watts, director of Trio, Upward Bound and Educational Opportunity Centers at the United States Department of Education, said the annual allocation may differ for every institution awarded the grant. The amount is dependent on allocations the Department receives, but typically, the amount awarded each year remains constant during the five-year period.
Although Sanchez said he was not sure if this type of oversight has happened before at the College, he said it happens all the time throughout the country and a congressional delegation is one of the first places administrators go for assistance. He said Northern has reached out to Congressman Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. for assistance.
Sanchez said College officials have also contacted the Higher Education Department and are still waiting for a response on the status of the application.
The worst-case scenario would be that the institution would lose the grant and funding tied to it, which ends on Sept. 30, at the conclusion of the federal fiscal year.
“If, in fact, that’s the way it came down, we might have to wait to reapply,” Sanchez said. “In that case, we’d probably have to wait until the next (application) cycle. My thought is, we’d probably reapply then. We haven’t given up on it yet. It’s an issue we won’t know about until we hear back from the congressional delegation or the federal government.”
The grant’s documentation in regard to criteria states the secretary of education gives priority to projects that are designed to address the needs of military or veteran-connected students.
The Director of the College’s Veterans Resource Center, Frank Orona, did not return calls regarding how the possible loss of funding would directly impact the veteran’s program and neither did the College’s Financial Aid Director Jacob Pacheco.
The Educational Opportunities Center located is located in Española, but there are satellite offices in Bernalillo, Taos, Santa Fe and Las Vegas.
Luján was not available by press time, to comment on his availability to advise and assist the College.
Jennifer Talhem, a communications director in Udall’s office, said the senator’s staff personally appealed to several officials from the Department of Education by phone and in person in Washington, D.C., and were told that the Department takes these deadlines very seriously and had clearly informed applicants that late submissions would not be accepted.
Talhem said the senator’s staff was told because the application had been submitted late, there was no flexibility and it was not possible to appeal to the Department.
“Sen. Udall stands ready to help Northern New Mexico College find alternative sources of funding,” she said.