FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Charles F. Robinson, vice chancellor for diversity and community at the University of Arkansas, has been invited to testify before a Congressional budget sub-committee regarding funding for educational spending. Specifically, Robinson will be asking the committee to provide increased funding for a series of programs for low-income and under-represented students, veterans and students with disabilities.

Robinson is scheduled to testify before the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Services between 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, in room 2358-C of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Robinson will testify regarding eight programs, collectively known as TRIO, four of which are offered at the University of Arkansas:

• Talent Search and Upward Bound, which are aimed at helping high school students prepare for college.
• Veterans Upward Bound, which offers similar services for veterans.
• Student Support Services, which helps students once they are in college.

“The work that is done in these programs is vital to the success of first-generation and low-income students, as well as for veterans who want to attend college,” said Robinson. “I look forward to making the case before the House Subcommittee that the money spent on the TRIO programs is an investment in the future of this country. Cuts in this funding over the past eight years have hurt tens of thousands of students across the country, including here in Arkansas. These cuts are short-sighted, and the funding needs to be restored.”

The total funding allocation for the TRIO programs across the country in the 2013 fiscal year was $785.7 million. There were a total of 2,791 projects, serving 758,974 participants.

Robinson was nominated to testify by the Council for Opportunity in Education, based on the effectiveness of the TRIO programs at the University of Arkansas.

Robinson referred to the Talent Search programs administered at the U of A as typical of the TRIO programs. Talent Search has had no funding increases since 2008, and last year its budget was cut by an additional 5.23 percent. The programs have still been able to serve more than 2,200 low-income students in the Northwest Arkansas region, at an annual cost of about $450 per student. Eighty-nine percent of Talent Search students go on to attend college, and a greater percentage of them stay in school and graduate.