Rachel Potter Memo for HSI

MEMORANDUM

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

WASHINGTON. D.C. 20202­

DATE

SEP 1 8 2006

TO

Rachel Potter

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Office of Management and Budget

FROM

Josephine A. Hamilton

Team Leader

Title V, Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions

SUBJECT:

Application Package for Grants Under the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (CFDA # 84.031S)

Background and Program Focus

The Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program is authorized under Title V of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA). The purpose of the HSI Program is to expand educational opportunities for, and improve the academic attainment of, Hispanic students and to expand and enhance the academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability of colleges and universities that are educating the majority of Hispanic college students.

Application Highlights

New Title V grants will be awarded on a competitive basis for the following types of grants: individual development grant and cooperative arrangement development grant. An applicant may apply for more than one type of Title V grant. For the 2007 Title V grant competition, applicants should note the following funding restrictions: an eligible HSI that submits more than one application may only be awarded one Individual Development Grant or one Cooperative Arrangement Development Grant in a fiscal year. Furthermore, we will not award a second Cooperative Arrangement Development Grant to an otherwise eligible HSI for the same award year as the institution's existing Cooperative Arrangement Development Grant Award.

Institutions will be required to provide the Department with documentation the institution relied upon in determining that at least 25 percent of the institution's undergraduate FTE students are Hispanic and at least 50 percent of the enrolled Hispanic students are low-income individuals. The Department will cross-reference, for verification, data reported to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the institution's state reported enrollment data, and the institutional annual report. If there are any differences in the percentages reported to the above references, the institution should justify the differences as a part of their eligibility documentation. When providing eligibility documentation to support your HSI assurances, please note that the Department does not consider a replication of the instructions sufficient justification. If the Department receives a replica of the instructions and/or cannot validate assurances, the application will be deemed ineligible.

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Note the changes in the weights assigned to the selection criteria. While the total maximum score that an application may receive remains at 100 points, the total maximum score for each criterion may have changed and the points previously assigned to the sub-criterion under each major criterion have been removed. As an applicant, you must still address each selection criterion (in the same order as they appear in the application), providing compelling evidence to support your proposal. The changes in the weights of the criterion simply outline the importance of each criterion. The point distribution for FY 2007 will be included in the Federal Register notice inviting applications for FY 2007, and in the selection criteria outlined in the application package.