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UAPB WATCHES DEBATE OVER GRADUATE SCHOOL GRANTS

By Aaron Sadler/ARKANSAS NEWS BUREAU
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 9:24 AM CDT

WASHINGTON — Officials at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff are watching closely a dispute in Congress over federal grant money to historically black colleges. Depending on the outcome, UAPB may qualify for more government funds in the next few years.

The debate involves a bill that would expand the number of universities eligible for special grants designated to historically black graduate institutions, called HBGIs.

UAPB could conceivably compete for grant funding under the HBGI designation if it successfully establishes its planned doctoral program in aquaculture, its first-ever Ph.D. offering.

Currently, 18 graduate institutions associated with historically black colleges share grants under the program.

A new higher education bill being negotiated in Congress makes another six universities eligible, including Prairie View A&M University and Alabama State University.

Some organizations, such as the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, oppose expanding the field. They argue it would reduce money for the already established historically black graduate programs.

UAPB Chancellor Lawrence A. Davis Jr. said he clearly sees both sides in the fight.

“I’m not angry at anyone for the position they take,” Davis said. “If I was on the other side of the fence, I’d have the same attitude.”

The HBGI provision is the final sticking point in a rewrite of the broad higher education bill.

Please see UAPB on 2A

Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., said Tuesday that House and Senate negotiators were very close to a compromise. He did not provide the details.

“The solution is, they just need to appropriate more funds,” Chancellor Davis said. “If I were in the program already, I wouldn’t want my support to decrease.”

One proposal would create a separate fund to pay for grants to the graduate programs specifically named in the bill.

Rep. Davis, a Parkedale native and graduate of UAPB, said his alma mater could expect federal assistance if the aquaculture doctoral program is established.

“I think their Ph.D. program is certainly something that is desirable and something they could in reality expect to see some real help for,” he said.

The bill already contains at least $500,000 for UAPB’s existing master’s degree offerings, Rep. Davis said.

The university in total receives between $2.3 million and $2.7 million in federal grants annually because of its status as a historically black university.

About half that money is used each year for construction and renovation of buildings on campus, school officials said. The rest goes toward academic programs and UAPB’s endowment fund.

Rep. Davis said the grant programs to historically black schools are essential to institutions that government may have neglected years ago.

“Many of them never got the same high level of attention,” as other universities, he said. “That’s what we’re trying to correct.”

UAPB’s aquaculture doctorate program must first be approved by the state higher education coordinating board.

An official at the state Department of Higher Education said a decision would come in February, at the earliest.

If the program is approved, the school would join UA campuses in Fayetteville and Little Rock, the University of Central Arkansas and Arkansas State University as the only public institutions in the state to offer doctoral degrees.

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