NWACC has hope of Upward Bound aid

A Northwest Arkansas Community College administrator said the school is excited about a U.S. Department of Education decision to reconsider grant applications for a program helping low-income students prepare for college.

A national advocacy group and some lawmakers in affected states had previously complained about applications rejected for technical reasons.

At the Bentonville school, Marcus Williams, the college’s director of grants, said earlier this month letters of support from high school administrators pushed the college’s funding request beyond a 65-page limit, leading to the rejection of an application seeking a $1.3 million grant over five years to continue its Upward Bound program.

“We have not received notification from the Department of Education that NWACC is one of the 77 colleges that will be eligible to resubmit an Upward Bound application, but [we’re] excited about the possibility,” Marcus Williamson, grants administrator for the college, said in an email.

The school’s Upward Bound program, one of several in the state, has 60 high school students who on Saturdays receive academic preparation and financial aid counseling, Williams has said.

On Wednesday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced that applications would be read and scored even if they “were deemed ineligible under technical formatting rules issued by the previous Administration,” a department statement said.

The Associated Press reported DeVos was asked about the rejected applications during testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee discussing the department’s budget.

DeVos said the applications may now be reconsidered because Congress included an additional $50 million for a spending bill keeping the federal government operating through September, The Associated Press reported.

In Arkansas, 20 Upward Bound programs enrolled 1,479 students in fiscal 2016, according to the Arkansas Association of Student Assistance Programs. That number does not include students in specialized Upward Bound programs focused on math and science or helping veterans.

The Council for Opportunity in Education, a nonprofit advocacy group, earlier this year compiled a national list of self-reported rejected applicants that included Northwest Arkansas Community College and Philander Smith College in Little Rock.

Sericia Cole, Philander Smith’s acting vice president for institutional advancement and external relations, said the school submitted its application to continue an Upward Bound program “seconds” late. The school has been told it will not be reconsidered, she said.