By Erika Nichols-Frazer
Two years ago, I left my role as a staff writer at The Valley Reporter to pursue my love of working with students. Since then, I have been the Writing & Humanities Development Coordinator and a TRIO mentor on Vermont State University’s (VTSU) Johnson campus (I also work with online students). "TRIO refers to a suite of federal programs that help students overcome barriers to higher education."
TRIO is a federally-funded Department of Education program created by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to support low-income college students, first generation college students, and students with disabilities (or any combination of those factors) earn college degrees. VTSU Johnson has the oldest TRIO program in the state, having helped generations of primarily rural, low-income Vermonters earn degrees since 1971. In the budget request Trump’s administration proposed last week, Department of Education programs are slashed, and Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) and TRIO completely eliminated. This would be devastating to Vermont and the nation.
Roughly 80% of VTSU Johnson/online students qualify for the TRIO program. Without the supports this program provides, many Vermonters can’t afford college or will incur debt and be unable to persist to graduation. Many of our graduates have said they would not have earned a degree without this program. Our state is better with our college graduates. Vermont’s economy will suffer from cutting programs like GEAR UP and TRIO. We need an educated, professional populace. These are our future teachers, nurses and doctors, business owners, and so much more.
On our campus, incoming first-year TRIO students can join the Summer Bridge program which allows them to move onto campus early, get acclimated with the environment, introduces them to campus resources, provides college readiness skills workshops, connects them to the greater community and allows them to build friendships and connections before school starts. As primarily first-generation college students, many of them are nervous and this program allows them to feel more prepared.
Once the school year begins, all TRIO students are assigned a one-on-one mentor, like me, who checks in with them regularly; provides resources and information; helps them navigate academics as well as independent living; may help research and find scholarships and grants, jobs, and grad school opportunities; and makes sure they don’t fall through the cracks. TRIO provides additional scholarships and emergency funding for students; essentials such as food (especially during breaks when the dining hall is closed), toiletries and school supplies, even including laptops and other tech; academic and executive function coaching and workshops; graduate school visits and preparation; regular wellness activities; field trips and cultural activities; and, most of all, a community and place to belong. TRIO is a home for so many of our students, many of whom would not obtain their degrees without these supports.
Trump’s budget request says, “TRIO and GEAR UP are a relic of the past when financial incentives were needed to motivate institutions of higher education to engage with low-income students and increase access. Today, the pendulum has swung and access to college is not the obstacle it was for students of limited means.” It sounds like they haven’t talked to too many students or families “of limited means” lately. Access to college is certainly an obstacle for Vermont families.
Our university serves primarily rural, low-income Vermonters. Without TRIO, these students will not be able to get an education, and our state will be worse for it. And the future of our state college system and the many hard-working folks who work for it are at risk.
I have counseled and advocated for my students on many occasions. I’m just as happy to talk to the student in tears as I am to the student who came in to tell me they got an A on that assignment I helped them with or that they got the job I gave a reference for. I have helped research internships and jobs and graduate programs. Our tutoring center has hired students for their first-ever jobs (by the way, work study would also be cut significantly if this budget passes, eliminating many on-campus jobs for students who need them).
I could relate dozens of stories of the students I work with daily, but here are a few. There’s the student with a learning disability who wants to open a child care center in Vermont, who worked hard throughout this year to develop her capstone project and is about to graduate and pursue her dream. There’s the first-generation college student who came on the trip I chaperoned to Philadelphia, where we visited graduate schools and she learned that that’s a path she could follow, who just told me she was accepted into an MBA program. There’s the neurodivergent student who is estranged from their family and hangs out in our office regularly, relies on us often for food, met with me weekly this semester to get help with reading comprehension and writing assignments, who comes in to share academic and personal successes. There’s the non-traditional student in recovery receiving our TRIO Coaching award this semester for the hard work he’s put in tutoring other students, a student who thought he would never graduate college. There are so many disadvantaged students I see every day and I am honestly scared of what will happen to them if their support systems go away and they can’t access a college education. These students and their educations are not a relic of the past. This is the reality they live in right now. College remains unaffordable for so many. These supports allow Vermonters to create better opportunities for their futures, their families, and their communities.
Please call and/or write to our representatives and advocate for the education of Vermonters and students throughout America. Thanks to Representative Becca Balint for signing on to the appropriations letter circulating in support of GEAR UP and TRIO. (A Senate letter will circulate soon.) We must advocate fiercely for our students’ education. Vermont depends on it.
Nichols-Frazer lives in Waitsfield.
