FAQs

What kinds of activities can be supported with Title III grant funds?

  • Purchase, rental or lease of scientific or laboratory equipment for educational purposes, including instructional and research purposes;
  • Construction, maintenance, renovation and improvement in classrooms, libraries, laboratories, and other instructional facilities, including the integration of computer technology into institutional facilities to create smart buildings;
  • Support of faculty exchanges, faculty development, and faculty fellowships to assist faculty in attaining advanced degrees in the field of instruction of the faculty;
  • Development and improvement of academic programs;
  • Purchase of library books, periodicals, and other educational materials, including telecommunications program material;
  • Tutoring, counseling, and student service programs designed to improve academic success;
  • Funds management, administrative management, and acquisition of equipment for use in strengthening funds management;
  • Joint use of facilities, such as laboratories and libraries;
  • Establishing or improving an endowment fund; and
  • Creating or improving facilities for Internet or other distance learning academic instruction capabilities, including purchase or rental of telecommunications technology equipment or services.

What are a few concrete examples of allowable activities?

  • Increasing student retention and progression through college-level courses by re-engineering student support services and supplemental instruction and providing enhanced faculty professional development;
  • Building a student tracking system that includes an early alert module and faculty reporting module to improve the institution’s information technology systems and ability to track students;
  • Strengthening assessment and integrating academic advising, academic support and academic enrichment under a new center;
  • Strengthening student information systems including the development of early warning systems with training for faculty and administrators in the new system;
  • Developing faculty development, including workshops in high impact pedagogies, technology, and instructional methods for teaching under-prepared students;
  • Developing an endowment fund to meet ongoing costs for maintenance and upgrades to technology;
  • Expanding access to high-demand STEM Programs through the conversion of high-demand courses, each with a Science, Technology, Engineering or Math emphasis to online and/or hybrid delivery; and
  • To develop six online student services—online readiness assessment, orientation, registration, tutoring, library resources and advising.

What kinds of activities cannot be supported with Title III grant funds?

  • Activities that are not included in the grantee's approved application.
  • Activities that are inconsistent with any State plan for higher education that is applicable to the institution, including, but not limited to, a State plan for desegregation of higher education.
  • Activities or services that relate to sectarian instruction or religious worship.
  • Activities provided by a school or department of divinity. For the purpose of this provision, a “school or department of divinity” means an institution, or a department of an institution, whose program is specifically for the education of students to prepare them to become ministers of religion or to enter into some other religious vocation or to prepare them to teach theological subjects.
  • Developing or improving non-degree or non-credit courses other than basic skills development courses.
  • Developing or improving community-based or community services programs, unless the program provides academic-related experiences or academic credit toward a degree for degree students, or unless it is an outreach program that encourages Indian elementary school and secondary school students to develop the academic skills and the interest to pursue post secondary education.
  • Purchase of standard office equipment, such as furniture, file cabinets, bookcases, typewriters, or word processors.
  • Payment of any portion of the salary of a president, vice president, or equivalent officer who has college-wide administrative authority and responsibility at an institution to fill a position under the grant such as project coordinator or activity director.
  • Costs of organized fund-raising, including financial campaigns, endowment drives, solicitation of gifts and bequests, and similar expenses incurred solely to raise capital or obtain contributions.
  • Costs of student recruitment such as advertisements, literature, and college fairs.
    Services to high school students, unless they are part of a program to encourage Indian students to develop the academic skills and the interest to pursue post secondary education.
  • Instruction in the institution's standard courses as indicated in the institution's catalog.
  • Costs for health and fitness programs, transportation, and day care services.
  • Student activities such as entertainment, cultural, or social enrichment programs, publications, social clubs, or associations.
  • Activities that are operational in nature rather than developmental in nature.