May 8, 2025

Dear CT State Colleagues and Friends,

As we enter the final month of the academic year, I want to thank each of you for your enduring commitment to our mission and students. This spring has brought many moments of pride — but also sobering national developments that strike at the very core of who we are as an institution and whom we serve.

This month’s President’s Post will focus on three major federal issues that could have lasting impacts on our students, our programs, and our ability to deliver on our promise of equity and opportunity:

• Proposed changes to federal financial aid in the House Republicans’ “Student Success and Taxpayer Savings Plan”
• The cancellation of the National Science Foundation’s LSAMP grant
• Proposed elimination of TRIO and GEAR UP programs in the federal FY26 budget

Each of these issues threatens the progress we’ve made and — more importantly — threatens the futures of the students and communities we serve. I share these updates not to alarm, but to inform and to rally our shared resolve.

Threats to Pell Grants, Student Loans, and Workforce Aid
The “Student Success and Taxpayer Savings Plan” — a reconciliation bill introduced by House Republicans — proposes sweeping changes to the federal aid landscape. While framed as reform, the implications for our students are anything but supportive.

Key provisions include:

• Eliminating Pell Grants for less-than-half-time students, which would affect over 1,300 CT State students currently enrolled in fewer than six credits — many of whom are working parents or caregivers balancing education and life responsibilities.
• Redefining full-time enrollment to 15 credits, which would result in reduced Pell award amounts for all Pell-eligible students. Those enrolled in 12 credits — currently considered full-time — would see a 20% drop in their maximum award, from $7,395 to approximately $5,916.
• Ending subsidized student loans, affecting over 2,300 students who currently benefit from interest-free borrowing while enrolled at least half-time.
• Risk-sharing penalties for institutions, tied to complex graduate earnings metrics, which could impose unpredictable financial assessments on institutions like ours.
• Expanding Workforce Pell eligibility to non-accredited providers, raising significant concerns about quality assurance, oversight, and student protections.

While we acknowledge the bill’s attempt to expand workforce training support and address Pell shortfalls, these proposals — as written — would disproportionately harm community college students. They would increase barriers to access, affordability, and completion.

On behalf of CT State, I’ve expressed our strong opposition in a letter to Representatives Rosa DeLauro (current dean of the Connecticut federal delegation and champion of the Pell Grant) and Joe Courtney (co-chair of the Congressional Community College Caucus and senior member of the House Education and Workforce committee), emphasizing the lived experiences of our students and the consequences of undercutting need-based financial aid.

LSAMP Grant Cancelled — But Our Commitment Continues
It is with deep disappointment that I share that the National Science Foundation has officially cancelled the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) grant. This $1 million initiative, which supported STEM degree attainment among underrepresented students at Gateway, Norwalk, and Housatonic, was canceled on the grounds that it no longer aligns with NSF’s current priorities — despite the extraordinary work of our students, faculty, and staff.

Under the leadership of Principal Investigator Housatonic Associate Dean Rachel Cain and Co-Principal Investigators Norwalk Campus CEO Cheryl DeVonish, Housatonic Campus CEO Patricia Benson, Gateway Interim Campus CEO Thomas Coley, Norwalk Professor Michele Barber, Norwalk Professor Jonathan McMenamin-Belano, Gateway Professor Mary Mattheis, Gateway Professor Christine Cherry, and Housatonic Professor Emily Munk, LSAMP students engaged in transformative research, mentorship, and academic development.

Their accomplishments include:

• Peter Ly, of Housatonic, presenting his research on “Engineering Large Plasmids Using Site-Directed Mutagenesis Approach” at both the 2025 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Conference and the Emerging Researchers Conference.
• Maritza Sanchez, of Gateway, earning first place for undergraduate students in Physical Sciences at the AAAS Conference for her research poster — a success she attributed to LSAMP’s support and encouragement.

LSAMP also enabled students to participate in STEM fairs, monthly mentoring sessions, transfer preparation visits to Southern Connecticut State University, and national scientific gatherings.

Though we are unable to move forward with the summer bridge programs, I am pleased to announce that we have secured alternative funding to ensure that 24 students will still participate in the upcoming visit to Brookhaven National Laboratory. Our commitment to inclusive excellence in STEM is unwavering, and we are proud of the community that made LSAMP such a success.

Proposed Elimination of TRIO and GEAR UP
The federal FY26 budget proposal also seeks to eliminate funding for TRIO and GEAR UP — programs that have long expanded college access and success for first-generation and low-income students.

Here’s what would be lost:

• GEAR UP serves over 2,000 middle and high school students across four CT State campuses, supported by 10 full-time and 4 part-time staff. A second Upward Bound initiative serves 240 students with 7 full-time and 12 part-time staff.
• TRIO Student Support Services at Manchester and Norwalk serve 387 current CT State students, with additional reach through CONNTAC. These programs provide critical tutoring, mentoring, advising, and college success navigation services.

Eliminating these supports would directly impact more than 2,600 current and future learners — removing services that have demonstrably improved access, persistence, and graduation outcomes for some of Connecticut’s most vulnerable students.

Reserves, Responsibility, and Readiness
Recent headlines here in Connecticut have scrutinized CT State’s level of institutional reserves — often without context. As the largest college in the state, serving one in every four undergraduate students in Connecticut, our reserves are proportionate to our scale and essential for institutional stability. These funds help us withstand unexpected disruptions in federal or state funding and ensure we can meet payroll, operational obligations, and emergency needs without compromising services.

Let me be clear: I support strategic investments in programs and student support that reflect our values — and I am equally grateful that we have reserves to buffer against unpredictable policy shifts like those we’re facing now.

A Call to Action
CT State is proud to be a leader in equity, innovation, and community advancement — and we do not take lightly the trust placed in us by our students and communities. But I am deeply troubled by the potential dismantling of the very resources that have enabled thousands of our students to persist, graduate, and thrive.

I urge all members of the CT State community — faculty, staff, students, alumni, and partners — to join me in speaking up. We must tell our federal leaders that these proposed cuts are not simply budget decisions — they are barriers to access and assaults on opportunity.

Let them know that Connecticut’s students deserve better. Let them know that community colleges are not a political afterthought — we are the frontline of economic mobility and educational justice.

Thank you for your tireless dedication to our mission and for standing with our students. Together, we will persist — and we will continue to rise.

In partnership,

O. John Maduko, M.D. 
President  
Connecticut State Community College