Sep. 13—The federal Department of Education is terminating about $350 million in funding for Title III grant programs aimed at serving minority university students, affecting millions in funding for the University of Alaska.
The UA system receives several Title III grants at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Alaska Southeast, according to UA Director of Public Affairs Jonathon Taylor. The University of Alaska Anchorage does not have any Title III grants, Taylor said.
UAF Interim Chancellor Mike Sfraga wrote in an email to faculty and staff Thursday that federal officials will allow the affected programs about a year to close out. The termination will affect student support services and degree programs, Sfraga said.
“The loss of this grant funding will have a substantial and negative impact on a large number of Alaskans, including our Alaska Native students,” wrote Sfraga.
Most Title III grants at UAF are within the College of Indigenous Studies and the Community and Technical College, Sfraga said. Nearly 1,500 Indigenous students attend UAF annually, constituting about 20% of the student body. Preliminary estimates put the total amount of Title III terminated funds for UAF at $2.9 million.
A grant program at UAS’s Sitka campus called Project SUPPORT also was terminated, but was already scheduled to shut down at the end of this month, according to Taylor. A separate Certified Health and Maritime Programs grant for Southeast Alaska, or CHAMPS, is likely safe, Taylor said. CHAMPS provides expanded access to technical training on maritime and health science careers, including for certified nurse aides.
A Sept. 10 statement from the federal Department of Education said that nationally, $132 million in mandatory funds will still be disbursed. This includes the grant supporting CHAMPS at UAS Ketchikan.
The Education Department’s move comes after the U.S. solicitor general issued a July determination that said grants for Hispanic-Serving Institutions “violate the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.” The Education Department said in its statement that the funding will “be reprogrammed into programs that do not include discriminatory racial and ethnic quotas and that advance Administration priorities.”
“The Department will no longer award Minority-Serving Institution grants that discriminate by restricting eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas,” U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in the statement. “The Department looks forward to working with Congress to reenvision these programs to support institutions that serve underprepared or under-resourced students without relying on race quotas and will continue fighting to ensure that students are judged as individuals, not prejudged by their membership of a racial group.”
The University of Alaska Board of Regents discussed previously canceled and frozen federal funding during their meeting last week. Prior to the Title III termination, about 95% of the university’s research portfolio remained intact, according to documents presented to regents during the meeting. Of the university’s nearly $1 billion multi-year portfolio of federal grants, $45 million had been frozen and $6.6 million canceled as of last week. With the Title III termination, the total terminated grant funding is now closer to about $9.5 million.
University of Alaska President Pat Pitney in a statement Friday said university officials are still determining what impact the changes will have on services for Alaska Native students.
“A significant part of UA’s identity is our commitment to Alaska Native culture, language, art, heritage, business, and tribal management and governance; that remains unchanged,” wrote Pitney. “We proudly embrace our global leadership in Alaska Native and Indigenous studies, and will continue to sustain a welcoming environment where all — including our Alaska Native and Indigenous students — can thrive and succeed.”
According to a Board of Regents document addressing financial impacts prepared for the meeting, the last federal decision to cancel grant funding had been in June.
“We are likely to see more of these types of terminations as the Trump Administration implements the One Big Beautiful Bill,” the document said. “That being said, we do not believe that the UA system has significant exposure to the rescissions included in the bill.”
The document said another nearly $12 million in grant funding — including $7.5 million for a critical minerals project — was delayed.
“In our assessment, there is a high likelihood that UA will not receive any of the currently delayed grant awards,” university officials said in the document.
In response to changing federal policy earlier this year, UA regents voted to remove diversity, equity, inclusion and affirmative action language from titles, its materials and websites and to review its programs, hoping that they would be spared from future cuts. The regents also introduced changes to the university’s antidiscrimination policy that remove affirmative action language last week, KTOO reported. That language will be voted on when they meet next in November.