[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 16 (Wednesday, January 24, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7632-7633]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-2112]



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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No. 84.031S]


Office of Postsecondary Education; Developing Hispanic-Serving 
Institutions Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for 
Fiscal Year (FY) 2001

    Purpose of Program: Assists eligible Hispanic-Serving Institutions 
(HSI) of higher education to expand their capacity to serve Hispanic 
and low-income students by enabling them to improve their academic 
quality, institutional management, and fiscal stability and to increase 
their self-sufficiency. Five-year development grants will be awarded in 
FY 2001. One-year planning grants will not be awarded in FY 2001. For 
FY 2001 the competition for new awards focuses on projects designed to 
meet the priorities we describe in the PRIORITIES section of this 
application notice.
    Eligible Applicants: Institutions of higher education that have 
been designated eligible to receive funding under Parts A or B of Title 
III or under Title V of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended 
(HEA), are eligible to apply for individual development grants and are 
eligible to apply for cooperative arrangement grants. In addition, at 
the time of application, the institution must provide assurances that 
it has an enrollment of undergraduate full-time equivalent (FTE) 
students that is at least 25 percent Hispanic students, and that not 
less than 50 percent of their Hispanic students are low-income 
individuals.

    Special Notes: 1. An institution may not receive funding under 
the Title V program and the Title III Part A or B programs at the 
same time. An institution that is currently a recipient of a grant 
under Title III Part A or B may not relinquish that grant in order 
to apply for a Title V grant. The programs authorized under Part A 
of Title III of the HEA include the Strengthening Institutions 
Program, the American Indian Tribally Controlled Colleges and 
Universities Program, the Alaska Native-Serving Institutions 
Program, and the Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions Program. The 
programs authorized under Part B of Title III include the 
Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities Program 
and the Strengthening Historically Black Graduate Institutions 
Program.
    2. An institution may apply for a grant under both Title III 
Part A programs and Title V. However, an institution can only 
receive funding under one of those programs. Accordingly, if an 
institution applies for a grant under more than one program, the 
institution should indicate that fact in each application, and 
should indicate which program grant it prefers to receive.

    Applications Available: January 24, 2001.
    Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: March 12, 2001.
    Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: May 11, 2001.
    Electronic Field Reading: All grant applications under the HSI 
Program will be reviewed by a three member panel of peer reviewers. The 
reviewers will provide comments and score applications online via a 
secured website. Reviewers will have opportunities to discuss any 
significant scoring differences by conference calls.
    Estimated Available Funds: Congress has appropriated $68,500,000 
for this program for FY 2001. Approximately, $48,900,000 will support 
continuing grants. Therefore, approximately $19,600,000 will be 
available for the new grant competition.
    Estimated Range of Awards: Individual Development Grants: $400,000-
$450,000 per year. Cooperative Arrangement Grants: $575,000-$625,000 
per year.
    Estimated Average Size of Awards: Individual Development Grant: 
$425,000 per year. Cooperative Arrangement Development Grant: $600,000 
per year.
    Estimated Number of Awards: Individual Development Grants: 39. 
Cooperative Arrangement Development Grants: 3-5.

    Note: The Department is not bound by any estimates in this 
notice.

    Project Period: 60 months for Individual Development and 
Cooperative Arrangement Development grants.
    Page Limit: We have established mandatory page limits for both the 
individual development grant and the cooperative arrangement 
development grant. You must limit the application to the equivalent of 
no more than 100 pages for the individual development grant and 140 
pages for the cooperative arrangement development grant, using the 
following standards:
     A ``page'' is 8.5"  x  11", on one side only, with 1" 
margins top, bottom, and both sides. Page headings, page numbers, and 
footnotes may be outside the 1" margin.
     Double space (no more than three lines per vertical inch) 
all text in the application narrative, including titles, and headings. 
However, you may single space footnotes, quotations, references, 
captions, charts, forms, tables, figures, and graphs.
     Use a font that is either 12-point or larger or no smaller 
than 10 pitch (characters per inch).
    The page limit does not apply to the application cover sheet, the 
table of contents, the two page abstract, or the assurances and 
certificates. Furthermore, the page limit does not apply to the allowed 
appendices for the individual development grant and the cooperative 
arrangement development grant.
    Our reviewers will not read any pages of your application that--
     Exceed the page limit if you apply these standards; or
     Exceed the equivalent of the page limit if you apply other 
standards.
    Applicable Regulations: (a) The Education Department General 
Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 81, 
82, 85, 86, 97, 98 and 99, and (b) The regulations for this program in 
34 CFR part 606.
    Priorities: This competition focuses on development grant 
applications that meet the priority in section 511(d) of the HEA (see 
34 CFR 75.105(b)(2)(iv)). This priority is as follows:
    Collaborative Arrangement Absolute Priority. The Secretary shall 
give priority to an individual development grant application that 
contains satisfactory evidence that the HSI applicant has entered into 
or will enter into a collaborative arrangement with at least one local 
educational agency or community-based organization to provide such 
agency or organization with assistance (from funds other than funds 
provided under Title V of the HEA) in reducing dropout rates for 
Hispanic students, improving rates of academic achievement for Hispanic 
students, and increasing the rates at which Hispanic secondary school 
graduates enroll in higher education.
    Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(3) we consider only development grant 
applications that meet this priority.
    This competition also focuses on cooperative arrangement 
development grant applications that meet the priority in section 514(b) 
of the HEA (see 34 CFR 75.105(b)(2)(iv) and 34 CFR 606.25). This 
priority is as follows:
    Geographic and Economic Absolute Priority. The Secretary gives 
priority to grants for cooperative arrangements that are geographically 
and economically sound or will benefit the applicant Hispanic-Serving 
institution.
    Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(3) we consider only applications for 
cooperative arrangement development grants that meet this priority.
    Invitational Priorities: Within the Geographic and Economic 
absolute priority for cooperative arrangement development grants for 
this competition for FY 2001, we are particularly interested in 
applications that meet one or more of the following priorities.

[[Page 7633]]

Invitational Priority 1

    Cooperative arrangements between two-year and four-year institution 
partners aiming to increase transfer and retention of Hispanic 
students.

Invitational Priority 2

    Cooperative arrangements that develop and share technological 
resources in order to enhance the institution's partners' ability to 
serve the needs of low-income communities and/or minority populations, 
especially in rural areas.

Invitational Priority 3

    Cooperative arrangements that include at least one HSI partner that 
does not currently have funding under the Title V HSI program.

Invitational Priority 4

    Cooperative arrangements that involve the institutional partners 
from more than one university or college system.
    Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(1) we do not give an application that meets 
one or more of these invitational priorities a competitive or absolute 
preference over other applications.
    Special Funding Consideration: In tie-breaking situations described 
in 34 CFR 606.23 of the HSI Program regulations, the Secretary awards 
one additional point to an application from an institution that has an 
endowment fund for which the current market value per FTE student is 
less than the average endowment fund value per FTE student at the same 
type of institution (two-year or four-year). The Secretary also awards 
one additional point to an application from an institution that 
currently has library material expenditures per FTE student less than 
the average library material expenditure per FTE student at the same 
type of institution (two-year or four-year).
    If a tie still remains after applying the additional points 
specified above, we use a combined ranking of library expenditures and 
endowment fund values per FTE student as a final tiebreaker. The 
institutions with the lowest combined library expenditures per FTE 
student and endowment fund values per FTE student are ranked higher in 
strict numerical order.

FOR APPLICATIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jessie DeAro, 
Carnisia Proctor, or Sophia McArdle, Title V-Developing Hispanic-
Serving Institutions Program, U.S. Department of Education, 1990 K 
Street NW., 6th floor, Washington DC 20006-8501. Telephone: (202) 502-
7777, or via Internet: [email protected]
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) you may 
call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an 
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer 
diskette) on request to the program contact persons listed under FOR 
APPLICATIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain a copy of the application 
package in an alternative format by contacting those persons. However, 
the Department is not able to reproduce in an alternative format the 
standard forms included in the application package.

Electronic Access to This Document

    You may view this document, as well as all other Department of 
Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe 
Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at either of the 
following sites:

http://ocfo.ed.gov/fedreg.htm
http://www.ed.gov/news.html

    To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available 
free at either of the previous sites. If you have questions about using 
PDF, call the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-
888-293-6498; or in the Washington, DC area at (202) 512-1530.

    Note: The official version of this document is the document 
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the 
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal 
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html


    Program Authority: 20 USC 1059c.

    Dated: January 18, 2001.
A. Lee Fritschler,
Assistant Secretary, Office of Postsecondary Education.
[FR Doc. 01-2112 Filed 1-23-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-U