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Eastern Gateway Community College President Michael Geoghegan said Wednesday he's as confused as anyone after being told by the Department of Education to "cease the Free College Benefit program and not disburse Pell Grant funds to any new students enrolling in (it) until the program is redesigned."
"We have lots of questions," Geoghegan said. "We're all trying to find out what's going on here. This letter came, they've been doing this federal program review for a while, really since February, and we've been trying to figure out what's the purpose of the review and how can we help. We've turned over every document we have at the college -- obviously, we're cooperating with them. They've never given us any real indication of what they're looking for, so the letter came as a complete surprise."
The chief of the Department of Education's Federal Student Aid Division notified the college of the decision in a letter dated Monday, but Geoghegan pointed out EGCC's annual federal Title IV compliance audits during the past four years have not identified any concerns with the administration of the Free College Benefit Program. Although EGCC officials said they "firmly believe" their program administration is fully compliant with federal law, school officials said the college must follow the direction from the education department until the issues are resolved.
But Geoghegan said the Department of Education's focus on Title IV "is confusing. We're trying to get clarification on it from the Department of Education, exactly what does it mean, and do they really understand how we're administering the free college program?
"We're hoping to meet with the author of the letter, we're hoping to have that meeting as soon as possible, maybe even Thursday," he added.
"We're hoping to get a meeting with him as a first step, either Thursday or Friday. Depending on how that meeting goes, whether we need to take additional steps with (the Department of Education) or possibly other administrative remedies, like an administrative judge, to at least give us some time to prepare. If we have to do this with no time before the start of the fall semester, it's so unfair to students."
Geoghegan had said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon the college community "vigorously disagrees with their analysis and recommendations and have incorporated our objections and legal counsel's analysis in a letter to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Education and his top deputy."
"Until this issue is resolved, which we hope will be soon, we will continue to enroll students and notify new and prospective students of the situation, which we hope will be resolved quickly," he'd said.
He said the education department's position seems to be that, "You can't use Pell money to subsidize your free college program, I think. We're saying, we're covering the additional cost, so whatever Pell comes in, with other sources of revenue we're able to cover the additional costs of running the college, so we are paying for it. Basically, it's coming out of our bottom line."
More than 75,000 students participating in the Free College Benefit Program have enrolled at EGCC since 2015, saving students in excess of $175 million, the school said. EGCC students have advanced their careers and continued to pursue their education goals at more than 600 institutions across the United States, school officials noted.
"We've got a unique model here, it's very innovative," Geoghegan added. "More than 75,000 students have gone through our programs -- think of the savings. We don't allow anyone to take out more than $1,000 in debt -- that saves tens of thousands of dollars in debt for students who'd otherwise have to borrow to finance their education."
He said the letter from the student aid division chief "just threw a big wrench in it, right? We have to get clarification on all of this.
"It's very important," he added. "A month before (classes start) ... this is so detrimental to students. Maybe they think they're hurting us, but they're hurting students."