Allen Community College should be largely unaffected — at least for now — after the federal government announced it was halting all visa applications for international students.
As of this month, Allen has 136 prospective students who will rely on visas to attend school in the fall, as well as seven returning students, ACC trustees were told Tuesday.
But most of those students — particularly student-athletes — already have their visas and are already in the United States, athletic director Doug Desmarteau noted.
Trustee Jessica Thompson also spoke about federal legislation that could affect Allen and other post-secondary schools.
Thompson serves as Allen’s representative on the Kansas Association of Community College Trustees, and spoke about the reconciliation and budget proposals under debate in Washington, D.C.
One of the biggest proposals — which is part of a federal budget reconciliation bill — would increase the number of hours a student must attend college in order to qualify for federal Pell grants.
Currently, students must be enrolled in at least six credit hours per semester to qualify for a Pell grant. The new legislation would effectively increase that threshold to nine credit hours.
“That would significantly affect both students and schools,” Thompson said. “Fewer students would qualify for Pell grants.”
The federal budget, which has already cleared the U.S. House of Representatives and is being debated in the Senate, also would eliminate federal work study programs, as well as federal supplemental educational opportunity grants. Funding for Gear Up and adult education programs also would be nixed.
Thompson said those attending the KACCT meeting also spoke about advocacy.
“They’d like to see each school create a three- or four-person team for advocacy, where they’d invite legislators to come see the campus, and talk to them about what’s going on in their school in particular, and why community colleges are important,” Thompson said.
WITH THAT in mind, trustees later approved a new position at Allen, focused on grant writing and governmental relations.
A successful grant writer “will more than pay for themselves and bring in money for programs we want to have here,” Thompson said. “And with everything happening at the state level, we’ve got to have somebody who has their finger on the pulse.”
Trustee Corey Schinstock wondered if it would be more beneficial to contract out grant-writing services, but also acknowledged having an employee under Allen’s hire would give the college more control of what sort of grants to seek.
“I do have concerns about how successful they’re gonna be in this atmosphere,” he said. “Are there enough grants out there to be successful?”
“There’s enough out there,” Thompson said. As deputy director at Thrive Allen County, Thompson oversees its grant-writing efforts.
