Trump close to ending program for colleges
Hispanic-serving grants called 'racially' discriminatory
By: Mary Ann Koruth
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... Urban community colleges enrolling large numbers of Hispanic, Black and low-income students in New Jersey and nationwide are canceling programs and staring at the possibility of funding cuts as the Trump administration moves closer to ending a critical grant program that supports Hispanic-serving institutions.
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Colleges eligible to apply for the grants must enroll at least 25% Hispanic students, according to federal law. Once awarded, the grants serve all enrolled students.
..... Passaic County community college in Paterson is among the New Jersey schools that have received grants since 1998, when the program was cerated, to help support its 60% Hispanic student population, said President Steven Rose.
..... "It's been millions of dollars through the years," Rose said. "Many of the grants we've been able to get is through the HSI program," he said, referring to the Hispanic Serving Institutions program.
..... "It's funded things that help students succeed, and that's the most important things," Rose said.
..... Rose learned in September [2025] that the Trump administration was withholding the final $600,000 installment form a three-year grant that supported the transition to college by high school school students in Paterson and the city of Passaic, proving career counseling collaboration between the college and the schools. The letter from the government, shared with NorthJersey.com , said it was discontinuing many other programs that strengthen minority-serving institutions nationwide, including programs for schools with large Black student
enrollment.
.... In total, the government redirected or ended $350 million in discretionary funding for minority-serving institutions, called them "racially" discriminatory.
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Passaic County Community Collage's discontinued grant spanned three years, from 2023 to 2026. the last year of funding has been court, Rose said.
..... The program to support colleges with enrollment of at least 25% Hispanic students was created "in direct response to evidence that Hispanic students were attending and graduating college at significantly lower rates than their white peers,' U.S. Representative Nellie Pou said in a letter form the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to the Trump administration.
Legal challenge against program
..... Pou and other Democrats ar4 asking the government to defend against a legal challenge brought against the program for Hispanic-serving colleges by Tennessee and an advocacy group called Student for Fair Admissions.
..... The Trump administration's Justice Department has declined to defend the program for Hispanic-serving colleges in court. In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Justice Department called the congressionally-created program "patently unconstitutional."
..... Students for Fair Admissions sued and won a historic decision by the U.S. supreme Court that challenged the constitutionality of race-based affirmative action in college admissions.
..... In its legal complaint against the program for Hispanic-serving schools, the group alleges that the federal government is acting in a discriminatory way "based on race and ethnicity," because schools that cannot show 25% Hispanic enrollment aren't eligible for the grants.
..... Rose said that while long-standing federal programs might benefit from "some re-engineering," the grants for Hispanic-serving schools eventually benefit all students enrolled and are "extremely competitive."
..... "Their high Hispanic enrollment is not the result of race-conscious admissions but rather reflects the geographic and demographic realities of the regions they serve," Pou and fellow House members wrote in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on November 12. [2025]
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Passaic County Community College, Bergen Community College, Hudson County Community College, Montclair State University, William Paterson University and Felician University are among 600 colleges nationwide in 20 states hat sand to see funding streams close if the program for Hispanic-serving schools is shuttered, Pou said in a vestment.
..... "The Trump administration's refusal to defend the program from a deeply political lawsuit threatens the funding for hundreds of schools and underscores a political agenda that targets minorities for the simple act of wanting an education," she said.
..... At PCCC, where more than 60% of students are Hispanic, the money is sued to support student's many of whom are the first in their families to graduate from high school and college. "It so happens that Hispanic students do have some stronger needs than some other students," Rose said. "Historically they haven't performed as strongly in higher education" and in STEM fields.
..... The grants are completive, with hundreds of colleges applying, and only a few winning them. "We have to provide an incredible amount of detail," rose said. "We have to say exactly what we are going to use these monies for."
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"The Hispanic-serving institutions program have never been political," Rose added. "We've had bipartisan support forever, until now. No one ever even brought up the fact that this is discriminatory. I would hope the federal government would defend this program."
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Passaic County Community College was awarded $2.9 million in a five-year grant spanning 2020 to 2025 to develop programs that help ensure that students form community colleges could transfer to a four-year college to obtain a baccalaureate degree, Rose said.
..... It won $2.8 million through another multi-year grant that ended in 2024 to "develop innovative pedagogy to improve student success," he said.