HUD AWARDS $6.3 MILLION TO TRIBAL COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

WASHINGTON - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan today awarded $6.3 million to eight Tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) to help build, renovate, expand and equip their own facilities, and to expand the role of TCUs into the community through the provision of needed services such as health programs, job training, and economic development activities. The funding announced today is provided through HUD's Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP).

"These institutions of higher learning are investing in building minds as well as their local communities," said Donovan. "HUD is working with these colleges and universities to help enhance their learning environments as they devote themselves to shaping the next generation of leaders who will benefit from and build on what we do today."

The following Tribal colleges and universities were awarded funding (see attached for a description of these projects):

To be eligible to apply for funding, TCUs must meet the definition of a TCU established in Title III of the 1998 Amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965. In addition, all applicants must offer two- or four-year degrees and be fully accredited, or be a candidate for accreditation, by an accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. HUD's grants will help these institutions undertake a wide variety of activities. These activities include, but are not limited, to the following:

• Building a new facility (for example, classrooms, administrative offices, health and cultural centers, gymnasium, technology centers, and so forth).
• Renovating an existing or acquired facility.
• Expanding an existing or acquired facility.
• Equipping university facilities (laboratory equipment, library books, and furniture)
• Property acquisition.
• Health screening.
• Technical assistance to establish, expand, or stabilize microenterprises.
• Crime, alcohol and/or drug-abuse prevention activities.
• Youth leadership development programs/activities.
• Tutoring/mentoring programs.
• Childcare/development programs.
• Cultural activities/programs.
• Up to 20 percent of the grant may be used for payments of reasonable grant administrative costs related to planning and executing the project.

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HUD's mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and espanol.hud.gov.

Tribal Colleges and Universities Program Summaries

ARIZONA

Diné College - $700,000

Diné College (FPCC) intends to use its Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) grant to engage in pre-construction and construction activities associated with a new residential housing unit for students with dependents. This new student/family residence will be located on the main campus and will be approximately 30,000 square foot.

MINNESOTA

White Earth Tribal and Community College - $800,000

White Earth Tribal and Community College (WETCC) intends to use its Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) grant to construct a cultural learning center. The college needs to provide a facility where college staff can offer student services such as orientation, student assembly, cultural ceremonies, large group lectures, and student workshops at one location. The center also will serve the community by providing a facility where WETCC can offer community activities, from lecture series to theatrics to community workshops in health, and other social concerns, or for any of a wide spectrum of activities for large groups such as training and workshops on workforce development, entrepreneurship, and community development.

MONTANA

Salish Kootenai College - $800,000

Salish Kootenai College (SKC) intends to use its Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) grant to construct a teacher education building. In only 4 years, SKC teacher education has grown from one- to-three bachelor's degrees, four- to-nine faculty positions, and 52 to 246 students. By 2012, the college anticipates hiring two additional faculty members to meet the projected enrollment of 300 students. The project will serve the 7,739 low- and moderate-income Native American community members of the Flathead Indian Reservation.

Stone Child College - $800,000

Stone Child College (SCC) intends to use its Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) grant to implement its Capacity Enhancement and Rehabilitation project. This project will benefit primarily low- and very-low-income American Indian students, families, and children on the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation through the construction or rehabilitation of several facilities. These efforts will address the current and pressing need to offer culturally appropriate, socially relevant, high-quality education and services to the Chippewa Cree Tribal members, including their children, on Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation.

Fort Peck Community College - $800,000

Fort Peck Community College (FPCC) intends to use its Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) grant to construct a combined library, information technology, and community learning center. Expansion and construction of this campus facility has been a goal in FPCC's long-range plan, as the current library, learning center, and computer labs at FPCC's main campus in Poplar, Montana, are too small for the increasing usage by the 500 FPCC students, primary and secondary school students, and community members. The facility will address the absence of adequate educational research and technological communication opportunities found in isolated, low-income communities. This facility will enhance student, faculty, staff, and the reservation community's access to both educational and community service opportunities by providing library services, information technology access, Tribal archival documents, and learning space.

NORTH DAKOTA

Fort Berthold Community College - $800,000

Fort Berthold Community College intends to use its Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) grant to: reshingle the roofs of Phase I and Phase II college construction projects; renovate the business office; and construct a four-plex faculty housing unit. The target population is the students of the Fort Berthold Community College and advanced degree faculty as well as the population of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Fort Berthold hopes that this project will provide both enhanced learning environments and service delivery leading to improved graduation rates, retention rates, course completion rates and higher transfer rates, as well as increased student enrollment. In addition, the college will provide a sustainable community by renovating and constructing facilities that are in accordance with green and healthy design principles.

Sitting Bull College - $800,000

Sitting Bull College (SBC) intends to use its Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) grant for its efficiency apartments project, which will consist of a 5,000-square-foot structure that will house three efficiency units for females and three for males. Each unit will house four students for a total number of 24. The master plan for the college has been developed in phases. In 1998, with the purchase of 160 acres of land, building the new campus began. To date, the college has raised $22 million of an ambitious $40 million campaign to construct its new campus on a hill overlooking the Missouri River, home to native people for thousands of years.

WASHINGTON

Northwest Indian College - $800,000

Northwest Indian College (NWIC) intends to use its Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) grant to build a new NWIC library/information services (IS) center. The new library, which will replace the campus's cramped current structure that was built in the 1930s, will allow the college to better serve all NWIC students, faculty, and staff. The IS center will house the college's technology "brain," housing the servers and other electronic equipment needed to maintain a modern college campus. This new library/IS center will become part of NWIC's a multi-year, community-wide master planning process to improve its entire campus. In 2006, NWIC initiated a $40.2 million campaign to build a new campus. More than $30.5 million has been raised and six new buildings have been completed. Construction of five others, including the library/IS center, will begin at varying times within the next six months to three years. While approximately 75 percent of users of the new library will be NWIC students, faculty, and staff, the facility will also serve Lummi Nation community members. This and all other new facilities are being designed and constructed using universal design features.