HACU Member Advisory—October 11, 2004

HACU wins change in Title V 50-percent requirement

as part of final vote by Congress on Defense bill

HACU has won passage of an amendment to provide urgently needed relief to Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) regarding the burdensome 50-percent low-income assurance eligibility requirement for Title V grants. The House voted late last week, and the Senate voted late Sunday, to approve a House-Senate Conference Committee Report that includes the Title V amendment attached to the final version of the FY 2004 Defense Reauthorization Act. The legislation now only awaits President Bush’s signature. Please forward this notice to appropriate staff and Title V grant officers. This new amendment will impact the FY 2005 Title V grant cycle.

The amendment will modify the 50-percent low-income assurance requirement as it pertains to the definition of HSIs. The new language is an effort to reduce one barrier for HSIs to compete for Title V grants within the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to the new amendment, the 50-percent provision required HSIs to collect information that was not readily available and potentially costly to collect.

In essence, the amendment will allow colleges and universities to meet the 50-percent provision by statistical extrapolation from existing U.S. Census Bureau data or other appropriate federal or state sources.

This amendment is a direct response to letters dispatched to HSIs from the U.S. Department of Education in April demanding detailed verification of the 50-percent requirement – even though this request had not previously been made of HSIs in past Title V grant cycles, and even though specific requirements for meeting 50-percent provisions never have been promulgated.

HACU continues to advocate for the complete elimination of the 50-percent low-income assurance requirement as burdensome, unnecessary and against the intent of Title V. HACU also is advocating for the elimination of the two-year wait-out now required of HSIs between applications for five-year Title V grants. HACU worked to have several bills introduced in the 108^th Congress to eliminate these two requirements, and will continue its work when the 109^th Congress convenes in January.

Please note that the new amendment will be the topic of several workshops at HACU’s 18^th Annual Conference October 16-19 at the InterContinental Miami Hotel in downtown Miami. Onsite registration is available for the annual conference. Visit www.hacu.net for more information

HACU will continue to provide updates on this and other legislation of importance to the Hispanic higher education community via HACU Member Advisories and www.hacu.net.

HACU Member Advisories are a service of the

Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities