The Inquirer Digital June 13, 2011 2 Cheyney University scholarship programs face loss of state funds By Dan Hardy Tucked away on Page 593, midway through Gov. Corbett's budget proposal, are two lines that would mean little to most readers, but that could spell trouble for hundreds of students and graduates of Cheyney University. The spending plan would eliminate all funding for the Cheyney Keystone Honors Academy and the Bond-Hill Scholarships, two student-aid programs that last year together received about $2.4 million. Both were established as part of agreements in the 1980s and '90s between the state and the federal Office for Civil Rights, in an effort to erase the vestiges of segregation by enhancing programs and educational opportunities at the university. Cheyney, situated on either side of the border between Delaware and Chester Counties, has about 1,600 students, making it the smallest of the 14 schools in Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education. It is the oldest historically black institution of higher education in the United States. The student body is more than 95 percent African American. More than 90 percent of students receive federal Pell grants, reserved for students with great financial need. The Keystone Academy is Cheyney's academic-honors program, providing far more than just scholarships, said Tara Kent, dean of the academy. The state's allocation, together with help from the university and other fund-raising, enables the university to give out 90 scholarships that cover most costs and to offer the honors program to a wider group of 150 students. It includes everything from honors-level courses to speakers, poetry nights, cultural trips off campus, and postgraduate counseling. "We want to see them be fully engaged, with a developed sense of awareness of the world, and ready to enter the professional realm," Kent said. "They benefit greatly." The academy graduates more than 80 percent of students enrolled in it - twice the nationwide rate for historically black institutions of higher education, Kent said. The Bond-Hill program, Kent said, funds Cheyney graduates pursuing postgraduate degrees at Temple University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Pittsburgh. Chester County's Lincoln University also sends students. The program now has 28 students from Cheyney, with priority given to medical-school and law-school candidates; six others hope to get funding in the fall. Participants say their lives have been changed. "Without the Keystone and Bond-Hill scholarships, I don't think I would have gone to college," said Wesley Thomas, who graduated from Cheyney in 2009 and in May earned a master's degree in public health administration from Temple University. "It was a blessing for me." Ashley Benjamin, who transferred to Cheyney last fall from Community College of Philadelphia and who plans to go to medical school, said the program helped her thrive. "Keystone is my life; it's the air that I breathe," she said. "I've overcome a lot of obstacles, and I'm still able to pursue my dreams. The support system is here that enables me to do that." The programs are also popular with some legislators, and there is bipartisan support for funding them. But it's a sign of this year's tough budgetary climate that with about two weeks left before the June 30 deadline for a final budget, whether they will receive any money is uncertain. In an interview last week, State Rep. William F. Adolph Jr. (R., Delaware), chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said he was "trying to get something back in there. . . . If we are able to find some extra funds, we will restore as much as we can." Rep. James R. Roebuck Jr. (D., Phila.), minority chair of the House Education Committee, also said he was working to restore the money. The two programs, he said, "reward academic excellence and produce well-qualified professionals. Why cut them? They are part of a legal agreement and they do significant good." Backers are mobilizing support for the Keystone Academy, Bond-Hill, and Call Me Mister, another Cheyney program that helps steer African American men toward teaching and that provides partial scholarships. Last week, they videotaped an appeal that participant Joan Duvall-Flynn, the NAACP state education chair and president of the organization's Media branch, said would go out to chapters and other supporters statewide. "These young people here are brilliant, but because of their life situations, they couldn't even go to college without this help," Duvall-Flynn said. "They are good academicians and they are passionate to go back into their communities and to build up the social wealth there." ________________________________ SANDRA M. PHOENIX Program Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 Skype:sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.