[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 19 (Wednesday, January 29, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4454-4456]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-2004]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No. 84.031S]


Office of Postsecondary Education; Developing Hispanic-Serving 
Institutions (HSI) Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards 
for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003

    Purpose of Program: Assists eligible Hispanic-Serving Institutions 
(HSIs) 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 individual development grants and 
cooperative arrangement grants will be awarded in FY 2003. Planning 
grants will not be awarded in FY 2003. For FY 2003, 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 (IHEs) that 
have been designated as eligible under Part 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 cooperative 
arrangement grants. In addition, at the time of application, the IHE 
must provide assurances if applying for a grant in Title V 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 the enrolled Hispanic students are low-income individuals.

    Notes: 1. A grantee under the HSI Program, authorized under 
Title V of the HEA, may not receive a grant under any Title III, 
Part A Program. Further, an HSI Program grantee may not give up that 
grant in order to receive a grant under any Title III, Part A 
Program. Therefore, a current HSI Program grantee may not apply for 
a grant under any Title III, Part A Program in FY 2003.
    2. An IHE that does not fall within the limitation described in 
Note 1 may apply for a FY 2003 grant under all Title III, Part A 
Programs for which it is eligible, as well as under the HSI Program. 
An applicant may receive only one grant.

    Applications Available: January 29, 2003.
    Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: March 3, 2003.
    Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: April 30, 2003.
    Estimated Available Funds: The Administration has requested $89.1 
million for this program for FY 2003. The actual level of funding, if 
any, depends on final congressional action. However, we are inviting 
applications to allow enough time to complete the grant process if 
Congress appropriates funds for this program.
    Estimated Range of Awards: $400,000-$600,000.
    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 Awards: 18. 
Cooperative Arrangement Development Awards: 6.

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

    Project Period: Up to 60 months.
    Page Limit: We have established mandatory page limits for both the 
individual development grant and the cooperative arrangement 
development grant applications. 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:
    [sbull] A ``page'' is 8.5'' x 11'', on one side only, with 1'' 
margins top, bottom, and both sides.
    [sbull] Double space (no more than three lines per vertical inch) 
all text in the application narrative, including titles and headings. 
You may single space footnotes, quotations, references, captions, 
charts, tables, figures, and graphs.
    [sbull] 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 (ED 
424), the one-page abstract, the Certification Regarding Collaborative 
Arrangement (ED 851S-8), the Hispanic-Serving Institutions Assurance 
Form (ED 851S-7), and the Cooperative Arrangement Form (ED 851S-1). The 
page limit does, however, apply to all remaining parts of the 
application.
    We will reject your application if--
    [sbull] You apply these standards and exceed the page limit; or
    [sbull] You apply other standards and exceed the equivalent of the 
page limit.
    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.
    Applicability of Executive Order 13202: Applicants that apply for 
construction funds under these programs must comply with the Executive 
Order 13202 signed by President Bush on February 17, 2001 and amended 
on April 6, 2001. This Executive order provides that recipients of 
Federal construction funds may not ``require or prohibit bidders, 
offerors, contractors, or subcontractors to enter into or adhere to 
agreements with one or more labor organizations, on the same or other 
construction project(s)'' or ``otherwise discriminate against bidders, 
offerors, contractors, or subcontractors for becoming or refusing to 
become or remain signatories or otherwise adhere to agreements with one 
or more labor organizations, on the same or other construction 
project(s).'' However, the Executive order does not prohibit 
contractors or subcontractors from voluntarily entering into these 
agreements.
    Projects funded under this program that include construction 
activity will be provided a copy of this Executive Order and will be 
asked to certify that they will adhere to it.

[[Page 4455]]

    Priorities: This competition focuses on projects designed to meet 
the priority in section 511(d) of the HEA (29 U.S.C. 1103) (see 34 CFR 
75.105(b)(2)(iv)).
    The Secretary gives priority to a development grant application 
that contains satisfactory evidence that the HSI has entered into, or 
will enter into, a collaborative arrangement with at least one local 
educational agency or community-based organization to provide that 
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 applications that meet 
this priority.
    This competition also focuses on projects designed to meet the 
priority in section 514(b) of the HEA (20 U.S.C. 1103c) (see 34 CFR 
75.105(b)(2)(iv)).
    The Secretary gives priority to grant applications for cooperative 
arrangements that are geographically and economically sound or will 
benefit the applicant HSI.
    Invitational Priorities: Within the absolute priorities specified 
in this competition, we are particularly interested in applications 
that meet one or more of the following invitational priorities.

Invitational Priority 1

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

Invitational Priority 2

    Cooperative arrangements between IHEs that develop and share 
technological resources in order to enhance each institution's ability 
to serve the needs of low-income communities or minority populations.

Invitational Priority 3

    Cooperative arrangements between IHEs, where at least one does not 
currently have funding under the HSI Program.

Invitational Priority 4

    Cooperative arrangements that involve 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 the invitational priorities a competitive or absolute 
preference over other applications.
    Special Funding Consideration: In tie-breaking situations described 
in 34 CFR 606.23, the HSI Program regulations require that we award one 
additional point to an application from an IHE that has an endowment 
fund for which the 1999-2000 market value per full-time equivalent 
(FTE) student was less than the comparable average per FTE student at a 
similar type IHE. We also award one additional point to an application 
from an IHE that had expenditures for library materials in 1999-2000 
per FTE student that were less than the comparable average per FTE 
student at a similar type IHE.
    For the purpose of these funding considerations, an applicant must 
be able to demonstrate that the market value of its endowment fund per 
FTE student and library expenditures per FTE student were less than the 
average expenditure per FTE student when calculated using the data 
submitted by applicants for the year 1999-2000.
    If a tie still remains after applying the additional point(s), we 
will determine the ranking of applicants based on the lowest combined 
library expenditures per FTE student and endowment values per FTE 
student.

Application Procedures

    Note: Some of the procedures in these instructions for 
transmitting applications differ from those in the Education 
Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) (34 CFR 
75.102). Under the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553) the 
Department generally offers interested parties the opportunity to 
comment on proposed regulations. However, these amendments make 
procedural changes only and do not establish new substantive policy. 
Therefore, under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(A), the Secretary has determined 
that proposed rulemaking is not required.

Pilot Project for Electronic Submission of Applications

    In FY 2003, the U.S. Department of Education is continuing to 
expand its pilot project for electronic submission of applications to 
include additional formula grant programs and additional discretionary 
grant competitions. The HSI Program--84.031S is one of the programs 
included in the pilot project. If you are an applicant under the HSI 
Program, you may submit your application to us in electronic or paper 
format.
    The pilot project involves the use of the Electronic Grant 
Application System (e-Application) portion of the Grant Administration 
and Payment System (GAPS). Users of e-Application will be entering data 
on-line while completing their applications. You may not e-mail a soft 
copy of a grant application to us. If you participate in this voluntary 
pilot project by submitting an application electronically, the data you 
enter on-line will be saved into a database. We request your 
participation in e-Application. We shall continue to evaluate its 
success and solicit suggestions for improvement.
    If you participate in e-Application, please note the following:
    [sbull] Your participation is strictly voluntary.
    [sbull] You will not receive any additional point value because you 
submit a grant application in electronic format, nor will we penalize 
you if you submit an application in paper format. When you enter the e-
Application system, you will find information about its hours of 
operation.
    [sbull] You may submit all documents electronically including the 
Application for Federal Assistance (ED 424), Budget Information--Non-
Construction Programs (ED 524), and all necessary assurances and 
certifications.
    [sbull] After you electronically submit your application, you will 
receive an automatic acknowledgement, which will include a PR/Award 
number (an identifying number unique to your application).
    [sbull] Within three working days after submitting your electronic 
application, fax a signed copy of the Application for Federal 
Assistance (ED 424) to the Application Control Center after following 
these steps:
    (1) Print ED 424 form from the e-Application system.
    (2) The institution's Authorizing Representative must sign this 
form.
    (3) Place the PR/Award number in the upper right hand corner of the 
hard copy signature page of the ED 424.
    (4) Fax the signed ED 424 to the Application Control Center at 
(202) 260-1349.
    [sbull] We may request that you give us original signatures on all 
other forms at a later date.
    [sbull] Closing Date Extension in Case of System Unavailability: If 
you elect to participate in the e-Application pilot for the HSI Program 
and you are prevented from submitting your application on the closing 
date because the e-Application system is unavailable, we will grant you 
an extension of one business day in order to transmit your application 
electronically, by mail, or by hand delivery. For us to grant this 
extension--
    (1) You must be a registered user of e-Application, and have 
initiated an e-Application for this competition; and
    (2)(a) The e-Application system must be unavailable for 60 minutes 
or more between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 3:30

[[Page 4456]]

p.m., Washington, DC time, on the deadline date; or
    (b) The e-Application system must be unavailable for any period of 
time during the last hour of operation (that is, for any period of time 
between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m., Washington, DC time) on the deadline date.
    The Department must acknowledge and confirm these periods of 
unavailability before granting you an extension. To request this 
extension you must contact either (1) the person listed elsewhere in 
this notice under For Applications and Further Information Contact or 
(2) the e-GRANTS help desk at 1-888-336-8930.
    You may access the electronic grant application for the Title V, 
HSI Program at: http://e-grants.ed.gov.
    We have included additional information about the e-Application 
pilot project (see Parity Guidelines between Paper and Electronic 
Applications) in the application package.
    For Applications and Further Information Contact: Louis Venuto, 
U.S. Department of Education, Title V, Developing Hispanic-Serving 
Institutions Program, 1990 K Street NW., 6th floor, Washington, DC 
20006-8513. Telephone: (202) 502-7763 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 person 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 that person. 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 the following site: 
http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister.
    To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available 
free at this site. 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 a 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 U.S.C. 1101-1101d, 1103-1103g.

    Dated: Janaury 23, 2003.
Sally L. Stroup,
Assistant Secretary, Office of Postsecondary Education.
[FR Doc. 03-2004 Filed 1-28-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P