PROTECT AND PRESERVE FUNDING FOR HBCUs --YOU MUST ACT NOW!
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Posted By: How May I Help You NC on January 27, 2012 URGENT SOCIAL ACTION ALERT! Dear Sorors and Friends, I am sending this URGENT SOCIAL ACTION ALERT for your information and IMMEDIATE Action. I am sure that you are aware that our Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have increasingly been operating under threats, and in some instances have experienced serious cuts in funding from federal sources. However, due to the deficit reduction process now underway in congress, the survival and existence of these institutions is seriously at risk. Therefore, it is essential that we all take action to fight threats to our students and these institutions immediately. Congress has tasked a Congressional Super Committee with coming up with an agenda of ways to reduce the national deficit. The deliberations and recommendations of this Super Committee poses a “double-barreled” threat to HBCU’S: The Super Committee could recommend cuts to programs important to HBCUs such as Title III, Part B, “Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” of the Higher Education Act ; Congress, which must vote the Super Committee’s agenda up or down in its entirety, might feel compelled to pass it with cuts included: or The Super Committee agenda could be defeated which would trigger across-the-board cuts-“sequestration”-in both defense and domestic programs, including Title III, Part B and Pell Grants. ACTION PLAN: HOW YOU CAN HELP The United Negro College Fund has launched an Advocacy website which has an HBCU Coalition Advocacy Day Tool Kit with information and materials to help HBCU member institution presidents, faculty, staff, students, alumni and other supporters make the case for maintaining adequate funding for HBCUs and their students. Please go to UNCF’s advocacy website, (www.UNCF.org/Advocacy) and click on the Take Action button. Read the information in the Advocacy section which will ultimately direct you to the Legislative Alert Center which contains the Tool Kit. A sample letter for your use to correspond with your elected officials is in the Tool Kit along with other background and resource information on this issue. Be sure to review the Congressional Delegation Chart 2011 which lists each HBCU and the Senator and congresspersons you should contact. Those of you who have access to large audiences through e-mail blasts to chapter members and other organizations, newspapers, radio shows, personal e-mail lists, facebook, etc., are asked to share this information with them and ask for their support and involvement. Don’t forget friends and family members and persons you know who are alumni of an HBCU or others who would readily support maintaining their existence. The United Negro College Fund,(UNCF), The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund are all working together to fight for the survival and funding of these great institutions and the students they serve. Please visit their websites often for current information on initiatives and strategies in which they are engaging. Also, our national Social Action Commission will post periodic updates on any new developments related to Congressional action on the Delta website as it takes place. Together we can make our voices heard! If you know persons who do not have access to a computer but would support this effort, please print a hard copy of the sample letter in the Tool Kit for them to sign and mail to their elected officials. THERE’S A LOT AT STAKE!!!!! Did you know: (1) one House of Representatives proposal would cut Title III, Part B funds by 86 million, i.e., hundreds of thousands of dollars for each HBCU? (2) As Congress debates budgets and debt ceilings, the future of approximately 10 million college student who are recipients of Pell Grants lies in the balance? For an estimated 20 to 40 percent of these students, the grant means the difference between going to college and forgoing higher education. THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW!!! November is a critical month for federal funding decisions. Members of Congress need to hear from all of us IMMEDIATELY. RESOUCE/BACKGROUND INFORMATION Additional documentation that will provide more information and perspective relating to this issue and other issues related to the United Negro College Fund’s overall advocacy strategy to protect and preserve HBCUs can be found in the Tool Kit. Please take the time to review this information. It is very helpful resource and background material, especially: *Issue Brief: “Protect Title III, Part B, Section 323 (Mandatory)” *Issue Brief: “Protect Title II, Part B, Section 323 (Discretionary)” *Issue Brief: “ Protect the Maximum Pell Grants at $5500” *Issue Brief: “Modify the HBCU Capital Financing Program” Thank you in advance for your cooperation and involvement in this serious endeavor and as always, we must remember that “Social Action is Action.” From the desk of Cynthia M.A. Butler-McIntyre, National President, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. http://www.deltasigmatheta.org/ If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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How May I Help You NC
Management, See Moss Interactive Bellarmine University class of 2021 Member Since January 2011 |
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