Colleges to Share Federal Grant

Ventura College again has been awarded a five-year federal grant to enhance its educational programs for Latino students and improve its bilingual student outreach.

The grant of nearly $3 million will be shared with Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria. Under the terms of the grant, the two schools will cooperate on projects to better serve their respective Latino populations.

Ventura College, which was awarded a similar grant last year, will receive about $250,000 a year from the new grant. College officials at both campuses are excited about the opportunity to expand their “distance education” programs, which allow more students to study from home or other off-campus locations by participating in Web-or television-based courses.

“The distance education program, which is fledgling now, will really start to blossom,” said Gary Van Meter, a resource development coordinator for Ventura College. “We’re behind the rest of the education world in offering that.”

Distance education courses could be offered jointly by the two colleges and would allow them to offer a wider variety of classes. For example, there might not be enough interest at either campus to offer an advanced French course. But by offering it as a distance education course, students from both campuses could participate.

College officials also have earmarked funds to create Spanish-language versions of their Web pages, develop a promotional cable television video to generate interest in the Latino community about attending college and expand dual-credit enrollment programs.

Through dual-credit enrollment, high school students can sign up for a college course and earn both college and high school class credit at the same time.

Funding for the federal grant came from a pool of $86 million allocated for the Title 5 program, which aims to help colleges with large Latino populations better serve their students. A little more than 30% of Ventura College’s 12,581 students and 30% of Allan Hancock College’s nearly 15,000 students are Latino.

Competition for the Title 5 grants is fierce; the cooperative arrangement grant won by Ventura College and Allan Hancock College was among only six such grants to be awarded this year.

“We’re doing everything pretty much through a joint effort,” said Cheryl Dettrick, director of institutional grants at Allan Hancock College.

Budget woes caused Ventura College to search for grants to supplement state funding, Van Meter said.

“We just don’t have the discretionary funding to be able to provide all the things we’d like to and need to do,” he said. “Grants and contributions are about the only way we can start up new programs and replace old technology.”

A five-year, $2.1-million Title 5 individual development grant awarded to Ventura College last year has allowed the school to work at improving Latino students’ academic performance and expand programs at its east campus in Santa Paula.

Using funds from the new grant, college officials plan to create a full-time grant writer position. The college also plans to look into grants from corporations and foundations.

The idea is to keep the grant money rolling in, according to Van Meter.

“Our budget gets tighter and tighter each year, and grant money is increasingly important,” he said.