We write to share our deep concern for the impact this will have on the nation's colleges and universities. Over the years, it has supported creative and productive projects and had an enormously beneficial impact. It is a small grant-making entity with considerable autonomy to establish its priorities within a large bureaucracy. The projects that receive funding are those with the greatest potential to improve postsecondary education.
Support goes to all types of colleges and universities in all states.
The innovative projects selected for support have an important multiplier effect through widespread dissemination of outcomes throughout the university community. The decision to cancel this year's competition means that 1,700 pending applications in hundred of colleges and universities from coast to coast will be discarded. Most federal grant applicants have had the experience of not getting a grant because their proposal did not survive the rigors of peer review. Such a step could be taken through a supplemental funding bill. With your assistance, we believe it will play a similarly effective and important role in the future.