As states experience fiscal challenges, higher education institutions across the U.S. are facing reductions in publicly funded support. One of the ways to counter this loss of revenue is by winning grants from government and private entities. My school, Pima Community College, is actively competing for this source of funding.
Currently, we have 45 active grants, totaling more than $50 million. The grants range in size from $5,000 to $15 million. The grants serve 12,000 students and employ 200 staff and faculty. They provide student support services, curriculum development, professional development for faculty, classroom redesign and other services.
Our most recent grant award is a $3.1 million Hispanic-Serving Institutions Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (HSI-STEM) grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant will expand student support services and tutoring, and establish specific transfer pathways to Arizona's four-year universities. The goal is to improve the academic and career success of Hispanic/low-income students by increase the number of students who receive certificates or degrees from PCC in STEM-related majors, and-or who transfer to STEM fields at Arizona's three four-year universities.
As Program Coordinator Lupe Waitherwerch told Tucson's NPR radio affiliate, the goal of the grant is really straightforward: "We want [students] to feel like they belong in college to begin with and ... be able to believe that they can succeed."
It's important to put awards like these into context. First, PCC was in the running for the grant because we are viewed as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. More than 43 percent of our students are Hispanic, far exceeding the 25 percent threshold for an HSI designation from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.
The College's HSI designation benefits not only Hispanic-Latino students, however. Low-income students of every ethnicity are eligible to take advantage of the grant's resources. As individuals, the students who achieve academic and career success through the program will become Pima County's taxpayers, homebuyers and entrepreneurs of the future. Additionally, they will enhance southern Arizona's reputation for producing employees capable of powering cutting-edge 21st-century industries. Everyone will benefit.
It's also important to recognize the limitations of grants. While grants greatly enhance education of our students, they are not part of the operating budget; our fiscal hurdles remain. Additionally, grants pay for programs for a specific time. The HSI-STEM grant has a five-year life. It is a challenge for colleges and universities to find ways to institutionalize a promising initiative after the money runs out.
So PCC, like most of its counterparts in higher education, will continue to pursue grant opportunities that benefit our students and communities in order to ameliorate the impact of budget reductions. In that respect, we are walking the path well-trod by businesses everywhere. We're adjusting and diversifying our revenue streams.