The Financial Aid Office would like to inform students that two federal grant programs are to “sunset” at the end of this academic school year.
The Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 (HERA) provided for the creation of two need-based grant programs – the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) and the Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (SMART) programs. These grant programs provided additional financial aid assistance to federal Pell Grant recipients based on students meeting certain academic performance standards and/or pursuit of specified majors of study.
The ACG and SMART Grant programs were authorized and appropriated funding by Congress for a five-year time frame that expires June 30, 2011. While these programs were deemed successful, there are no plans at this time to appropriate additional funding for them beyond the June 30 end date. Students who have received ACG funds or SMART Grant funds for this academic year will not receive funding from these grant programs for the 2011-12 academic year or beyond.
Undergraduate students currently receiving these grant funds or expecting to be eligible for these grants for 2011-12 should e-mail the Financial Aid Office or call (651) 962-6550 if they have questions.
