Registration for our 2012 TRiO Day celebration is open!! Please put the date, Feb. 25, on your calendar and gear up to come. Remember, we will have a poster contest so have your students get started. This years theme for both National TRiO day and Policy is “College Opportunity Programs: Paving the Way to America’s Prosperity”. In addition, we hope to have lots of Coins for College donations to provide as many scholarships as possible to our TRiO high school seniors and college students. Jeanette Berry will be compiling our Hall of Fame booklets this year. She will need a student picture and short statement as to what TRiO has done for them to place in the booklet. We will send out the Congressional Cards for your students to fill out…please, please have your students do this and mail them before policy…these have a tremendous impact on our representatives. Once again, we will send the cards out for you to print and mail. Send receipts for printing or mailing costs to AASAP treasurer Vergina Smith, SSS program, College of the Ouachitas, One College Circle, Malvern, AR. 72104 for reimbursement. Due to high security measures in
the capitol, packages can sit for weeks before they are scanned and sent to the representatives office. Therefore, we would like for these to be mailed individually. How astonishing it will be for a representative to receive a large bag of cards from from students telling them how TRiO has impacted their lives!!
Remember, TRiO Day is for all TRiO programs in Arkansas. You do not have to be a member of AASAP to participate. Although our email list consists of AASAP members, please share this information with all TRiO programs so we can have a giant Hall of Fame booklet and thousands of Congressional Cards on the desks of our representatives!! We can make a difference!!
On another note, I would like to commend my TRiO friends for their hard work to secure funding for our students and programs. Here is a statement published by COE:
Due to the united efforts of TRIO champions on
Capitol Hill and grassroots support from the TRIO
community, TRIO managed to secure an increase of
$13.4 million for a total appropriation of $839.9
million for FY 2012. While this figure is far
below the $920.1 million proposed by President
Obama back in February of this year, an
examination of all other education funding
demonstrates what a staunch victory this is. In
fact, TRIO is one of nine programs within the
Department of Education and the only higher
education program to receive an increase.
All other programs were cut.
The final outcome of the FY 2012 appropriations
debate illustrates two points. First, the
advocacy of the TRIO community did, in fact,
positively impact action on Capitol Hill. For
that, all TRIO advocates must be commended. The
second point, however, is that more work remains
to be done. Looking ahead to FY 2013, the TRIO
community must build upon its success to secure
additional dollars to prevent the losses of
additional students and restore losses already
suffered. With National TRIO Day (February 25,
2012) and COE’s Annual Policy Seminar (March
11-13, 2012) just around the corner,
opportunities abound for greater TRIO advocacy.