Montserrat Garibay is the assistant deputy and director in the Office of English language acquisition for the United States Department of Education.
Garibay spoke with rolling out about the new grant competition programs that were announced by the Department of Education, and how students can learn about the programs.
Tell us about these grant competition programs.
These grants will award $50 million to minority institutions to implement transformational investments in research infrastructure, including research productivity, faculty expertise, graduate programs, physical infrastructure, human capital development, and partnerships leading to increases in external funding.
Why was now a good time to launch these programs?
The Department of Education announced the launch of these two grant programs to expand research infrastructure to increase the completion and retention rates among those who of higher education have been left behind. These grant programs represent the opportunities for our nation’s most inclusive and diverse colleges and universities to expand their capacity to drive research and innovation and strengthen evidence-based supports that help underserved students complete their degrees and build higher and brighter futures. So many of our students of color with low incomes still face many barriers to successfully enroll in and complete college and as the number of nontraditional students in higher education increases, additional and different supports are required to enable them to complete their credentials.
How can students learn about these programs?
The Biden and Harris administration continues to take this government approach to support HBCU campuses. For instance, the Department of Education has delivered nearly $7 billion in cumulative investment to HBCUs and these include many different ways in helping HBCUs to increase this type of capacity. What we’re asking is for you to check with your college and their websites, and they will be providing these types of information about the grant. It starts at the local level because they will be having announcements throughout.
