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Advocate Online
Speaking Out
The Importance of TRIO
As Congress contemplates cutting $50 billion from the federal budget during what it calls budget reconciliation, we at Oakton Community College are holding our breath. A 5 percent across-the-board cut proposed for education funding as part of the reconciliation would mean $40 million less for TRIO, a program that has made a vast difference in the lives of many of our students.
Several years ago, Oakton became one of more than 1,000 higher education institutions participating in TRIO, a federal program that provides real help for low income and disabled students by providing financial aid and other support.
TRIO, which was part of the original Higher Education Act, enacted under President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, got its name from the three original components of the program: Talent Search, Upward Bound, and Student Services. Now TRIO comprises nine programs, serving over 800,000 low-income Americans. Some of the programs benefit students in middle school and high school. Others aid disabled students and veterans, and still others, like the Student Services Program, help students like ours at Oakton stay in college.
Students in the TRIO Student Support Services program are more than twice as likely to remain in college than those students from similar backgrounds who did not participate in the program. Students in the TRIO Upward Bound program are four times more likely to earn an undergraduate degree. Nationally, 16,000 students with disabilities and 25,000 veterans are served by TRIO progams.
Oakton's philosophy is that every student who wants an education should be able to get one. Here, with TRIO's help, all students are eligible for free tutoring in almost any subject we teach. Our Learning Center is filled during the day with students getting help. There are computer labs all over our buildings which allow students who don't have them at home to have access to them at school. Thanks to Oakton's Educational Foundation, we have a book loan program. Students may borrow the money to buy their books and pay it back by the end of the semester. This means that students who can't put out $200 or more at the beginning of the semester can pay for them "on time."
Even without the proposed cuts, less than 10 percent of the 11 million Americans eligible for TRIO support can get it at current federal funding levels. Cutting back on these programs even more would be a tragedy.
 Sheila Schulman has taught English as a Second Language at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, Illinois for 22 years. She also serves on the Illinois Education Association Board of Directors.
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I'd like to say!
I agree with Tom Tipton (October Dialogue) that full-time and part-time faculty should be in separate bargaining units. I remain concerned about the California Faculty Association linking full- and part-time faculty and becoming too large with too many issues. Full-time faculty often have different concerns—the need for research funds, for example—than do part-timers. I would note that many large unions in other areas of the world have found it better to split.
In settings with large numbers, splitting the two makes sense (in smaller states, perhaps unity is better). I think the administration would be able to respond better to more specific bargaining positions brought by each group.
—Denise Stanley
California State University-Fullerton
I concur with JoAnn Roche (October Dialogue) on adjunct faculty being part of the same bargaining unit as tenure track full-time faculty.
When it comes to bargaining, I believe that there is collective strength in numbers of faculty behind the bargaining team, and that faculty are faculty no matter how they are classified. If divided, when one bargaining unit gets something and the other unit doesn’t, we may become divided as a community of colleagues instead of a united group.
—Lorraine O’Shea
Cal State University-Monterey Bay
Share your opinion
Write to the editor at: Clehane@nea.org
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