Crowds of passionate people from all over Arizona showed up to the Pima Community College District’s Oct. 8 governing board meeting, all in support of one program — TRIO Upward Bound.
On Oct. 13, Pima’s governing board voted unanimously to approve the college’s legal counsel to provide declarations regarding the grant cancellations to the Council for Opportunity in Education in connection with the lawsuit it has filed in federal court
A week following the meeting, the district discussed the matter in an executive session to join the Council of Opportunity and Education.
After canceled grants forced the program to close its doors at Pima Community College, students, alumni, educators, and community members alike gathered to urge the board to join the Council on Opportunity in Education lawsuit against the Department of Education.
The Department of Education has discontinued five Upward Bound grants for the Pima Community College District. The grants were discontinued mid-cycle, resulting in a total loss of $3.2 million, forcing the program to officially close its doors at its active Pima college and high school campuses on Sept. 30.
Upward Bound programs at the Pima Community College Downtown and Northwest campuses have been shut down since the end of July.
Upward Bound — one of eight TRIO programs — is a federally funded program that helps low-income and first-generation high school students prepare for and succeed in postsecondary education.
Its projects provide academic instruction in math, laboratory sciences, composition, literature and foreign languages. It also provides tutoring, mentoring, counseling, cultural enrichment, work-study programs and education and services designed to improve the financial and economic literacy of students.
Through Upward Bound, students can explore local and nonlocal colleges, gain leadership skills and college experience and meet with career industry, college and university professionals. The experiences are extraordinary, including out-of-state university tours, new language classes every summer, instruction from post-secondary educators, the list goes on.
In 2024, the program was one of six in the country to partner with NASA for the education downlinks program and students were able to ask questions of Astronaut Jeanette Epps while she was livestreaming at the International Space Station.
In Tucson, the program served students at Amphitheater, Flowing Wells, Rincon, Desert View, Sunnyside, Palo Verde, Santa Rita and Marana High Schools. Each of the five Pima campuses served about 60 high school students through the program.
The discontinuation letter from the U.S. The Department of Education states that the grant provides funding for programs that reflect the Biden Administration’s priorities and policy preferences, conflicting with those of the current Administration.
In the letter, Murray Bessette, Ph.D., principal deputy assistant secretary of the Department’s Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, writes that Pima’s grant application included proposed activities that might conflict with the Department’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education; or that could violate federal civil rights law.
Specifically, he cites that the college’s application for funding, “states the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Plan guides faculty staff and administration in treating all PCC students with equity,” and cites the college’s General Education Provisions Act (GEPA).
The letter continues, stating that the application included information about community partnerships that would offer programs focused on cultural diversity, leadership, service learning, and racial justice workshops, citing the college’s partnership with the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA).
Carlos Romero, Upward Bound Coordinator at Pima’s Desert Vista campus, emphasized that the information cited in the continuation letter is not actually included as part of the program’s funding application. He expressed that general Pima Community College statements not included in funding applications, such as the GEPA, are being cited and used against these programs.
“For the U.S. Department of Education to suggest that we conflict with their policy of prioritizing merit and fairness, or that we violate the letter and purpose of federal civil rights law without any explanation of their policy or any findings or citations or notice of where we violate the law is absurd and unfounded,” Romero said during the meeting’s call to the public. “They’re accusing a civil rights program of violating civil rights.”
Canceling federal grants mid-cycle is highly unusual, Romero noted. He explained that the federal regulation the Department cites in the cancellation letter is normally used to address serious performance or budget issues, such as failing to meet multiple objectives or student objectives over consecutive years. Even in those cases, programs are rarely canceled outright, funding reductions are typically applied first in a tiered approach before any full termination.’
“I’ve never heard of that in 15 years,” Romero said. “I’ve never heard of a program being completely canceled — well, at least an Upward Bound.”
The college requested reconsideration for all five discontinued grants and initially received a letter stating that three of the five had been approved for reconsideration, according to Joseph Mais, Pima’s director of community and government relations.
The very next day, however, the college received a follow-up letter explaining that the earlier notice had been sent in error. All five requests were ultimately denied, despite advocacy from U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), as well as U.S. Reps. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) and Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.).
Now, the college is being urged to join a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education. High School Sophomore Mariateresa Alejandres was brought to tears testifying the impact that Upward Bound has made on her life at the college’s governing board meeting.
“Upward Bound gave me opportunities that I didn’t think I would have,” Alejandres said. “They have helped in tough times at home, school, anything and I didn’t think I was going to get out of it…The people in the Upward Bound TRIO are amazing. They are people I am forever grateful for. I cherish every memory I have made with them.”
“…And I know that with these programs being taken away, I don’t know if I’ll even make it to college,” she continued. “My parents do not have a high school diploma or college education. They don’t have a lot, and I know that they came here to give me those opportunities that they didn’t have, but those opportunities are also being taken. So where do I go now?”
The nonprofit organization, Council for Opportunity in Education, has filed two lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Education — one challenging the discontinuation of TRIO grants and another contesting the denial of Student Support Services grants.
The lawsuits claim that the Department unlawfully applied new anti-DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) policies retroactively, bypassed required federal rulemaking procedures, and withheld peer review scores that should have determined funding. Council claims these actions caused high-scoring programs to lose grants and forced TRIO services for students to be discontinued.
The Council for Opportunity in Education is a nonprofit, established in 1981, committed to expanding college access and opportunities for low-income, first-generation and disabled students across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., the Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico.
Though there was no action to be taken, Governing Board members expressed their gratitude to the people who came and spoke in support of TRIO Upward Bound. The crowd’s passion made a sure impact, and a future Executive Session has been added to the board meeting schedule.
“It’s insulting to our intelligence that they would just make up stuff in our proposal and say, ‘You’re canceled ’cause of this,’ — as if we can’t just go and read our proposal,” Romero said.
“And even if that stuff was there, this is not stuff that’s bad in any way. Service learning, leadership, volunteering, things that highlight cultural diversity, diversity and racial justice workshops. Nothing is bad with any of those things.”
“Something new will rise,” Romero concluded. “We go fight back. I don’t know if it’ll be Upward Bound again, but there’ll be another program like this that will emerge.”