Federal Funding is Cut from Colorado Colleges Including Morgan Community College

Colorado’s colleges that serve large numbers of Hispanic, Native American and low-income students are losing millions in federal funding after the Trump administration ended $350 million in grants for minority-serving institutions nationwide.

The U.S. Department of Education announced last month it will stop awarding those grants, calling them discriminatory and unconstitutional because they limit eligibility to schools with certain racial or ethnic demographics.

Fourteen Colorado colleges qualify as minority-serving institutions — thirteen as Hispanic-serving and one, Fort Lewis College in Durango, as Native American-serving. Those campuses are now scrambling to make up the lost money. Six institutions were identified as being the most impacted by the funding cuts:

• Adams State University in Alamosa

• Colorado State University Pueblo

• Fort Lewis College in Durango

• Lamar Community College

• Pueblo Community College

• Morgan Community College in Fort Morgan

The cuts will hit smaller, rural schools especially hard. Adams State University in Alamosa is losing about two and a half million dollars meant to help local high schoolers earn college credit. Colorado State University Pueblo will lose more than three million that supported student advising, internships and recruitment. And Lamar Community College in southeastern Colorado is losing nearly three million that had fueled a major boost in first-time enrollment.

State higher education officials say the grants funded programs that benefited all students, not just those from minority backgrounds. Lawmakers from Colorado’s Latino, Black and MENASA caucuses have urged the state’s congressional delegation and Governor Jared Polis to push back against the cuts, warning they will deepen inequities and limit opportunity in rural areas.