Thousands of area students have a stake in ongoing national sequestration fights between Congress and the president, according to a statement from the University of Arkansas released Thursday.
The university is taking a side in the battle, saying it needs to keep UA programs intact that administrators said help low-income students graduate from college.
The statement singles out the university’s TRIO program, which administrators said would sustain a 5.1 percent cut if spending cuts, known as sequestration, go through at the federal level.
“This will either mean we have to cut back the number of students we can help get to college, or we cut back what we offer to the students we serve,” Gina Ervin, director of Talent Search programs, said in the statement. “Either way, I’m afraid it will mean fewer young people having an opportunity to go to college.”
The Talent Search program recruit’s middle school students and gives them ACT preparation and assists them with the college admissions process.
TRIO includes outreach and student service programs meant to help disadvantaged students, such as first-generation college students, veterans and students with disabilities.
The university contends that 325 UA students, 25 full-time staff members and 2,400 area students would be directly affected by the sequestration.
