With the recent defeat of House Resolution 1 by the U.S. Senate, N.C. Central University students may have dodged a bullet.
The resolution proposed a string of budget cuts amounting to $30 billion, $5.6 billion of which would have come from the Pell Grant Program.
The question that looms for students dependent on financial support: Will the proposed Pell Grant cuts remain in the final budget?
"This proposal would literally wipe out access for many of the students we serve," Chancellor Charlie Nelms told the Herald Sun.
"It would just decimate the whole notion of access and opportunity. We cannot afford to go backward."
The proposed cuts are leaving many students feeling stranded.
"I feel like if I'm going to school and doing the right thing, why would they cut my education?" said Devyn Shaw, nursing sophomore.
Pell Grant is money that doesn't require repayment and is given to students according to their financial need.
The maximum amount allotted is $5,550.
The cuts proposed in HR-1 would slash 15 percent, or about $850, from each student's yearly grant.
Currently more than nine million students nationwide receive Pell Grant support.
At NCCU, more than 60 percent of undergraduate students use Pell Grants to fund their college education.
"For the 2010-11 academic year, 4,388 students received a total of $18,492,973 in Pell Grants," said Sharon Oliver, NCCU's director of financial aid.
If proposed cuts go into effect, students receiving the full $5,500 would receive $4,650 and students receiving $850 would receive no funding at all.
"Being that the U.S. is one of the richer countries in the world, you would think cutting education would be the last resort," said Ceslie Covington, social work sophomore.
But some Republicans, including Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, from North Carolina's 5th district, dismiss student concerns over the cuts.
"It's hardly a devastating cut when you are cutting such a small amount," said Foxx, who chairs the Congressional Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training.
"We're cutting entire programs in lots of cases," said Foxx.
Some students expressed outrage over her comments.
"They don't know how much financial aid I need.
"I need my $850," said Shaw.
In response to the proposed cuts, about 85 NCCU students attended a March 3 rally at the state capitol in Raleigh.
"It is going to affect grades, and being that it is a state-funded school, you must meet certain criteria," said Covington.
"More work, less devotion to school."
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