January 17, 2025
“…Last night, a ribbon-cutting celebrated the opening of B-Mart—a new resource space in the Nontraditional Student Center in the EcoVillage.  B-Mart provides access to free food and essential products, including fresh produce from our farm, cooking supplies, laundry detergent, personal care items, children’s clothing, and more.  Student ideas and input, plus Student Life energy and dedication, created this new solution to student needs…”

January 20, 2025
“…As we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and look ahead to the mid-day Inauguration, this is a day to reflect on the inspirational ideals captured our Great Commitments.  As our moral framework, our Great Commitments ask us to always strive for more perfect expressions of ideals such as equality, democracy, interracial kinship, and service to others.  The Great Commitments also remind us that it is the striving—the hoping, the trying, the persisting—that animates these values.

Dr. King’s advancement of equality through nonviolence is an expression of a radical love for all humanity, even in times of deep division.  Striving to overcome the worst forms of racial segregation, Dr. King stressed the need to create a “Beloved Community” that expresses an “overflowing love” (or “agape”) that “makes no distinction between a friend and an enemy”…”

January 23, 2025

“…In the upcoming days and months, we will need to come together as our Berea Beloved community—to learn, question, and create new paths forward, all while strengthening our community of care, safety, and support for each other. We will stand strong and work together to understand our changing national landscape and determine truly Berean ways forward…”

January 30, 2025
“…With these rapidly evolving challenges, our work has never been more critical, or more transformative. In this context, Berea’s unique model of higher education—educational access and affordability, service to our region and community, the dignity of work well done, the moral framework of our Great Commitments—is a bright beacon of possibility…”

February 4, 2025
…Carter G. Woodson—Berea graduate (1903), founder of the field of African American history, and father of Black History month (being celebrated this month)—reminds us that education is full of inspiration and hope, writing, “Real education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin life as they find it and make it better.” As we strive for this sense of positive possibility, Woodson’s writings also remind as to remove the negative: “Let us banish fear.”  At a time of political uncertainty, we can rely on Woodson’s wisdom. Let us be true to his Berean insights—let us banish fear, inspire each other, and make life better.  

I am currently in Washington, DC, advocating for higher education on Capitol Hill. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve experienced disruption, and there is more ahead. We are preparing for all possibilities. As Bereans, we will rise to any challenge: we are ready to stand strong and stand together, for each other and with each other…

Financial Security: Monitoring and Preparation

• My time here in Washington, DC is helping us to advocate for Berea, create connections, gain the latest information, and plan next steps. We are prepared for disruptions to higher education. We experienced uncertainty last week, when an Office of Management and Budget memorandum was released that ordered a freeze in federal funding and seemed to include financial aid and educational grants. That memo was rescinded but heightened our need to be prepared.
• We are monitoring and are creating multiple contingency plans for our structures, including:
  • Federal Financial Aid, overseen by the Department of Education (DOE):
    The DOE oversees three forms of federal financial aid that our Berea students rely on: Pell Grants, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG), and Work College Federal Student Aid. We are monitoring all forms of federal aid.
  • Endowment:
    There are multiple Congressional proposals to raise the tax on endowments, such as the “Endowment Tax Fairness Act,” which proposes a tax of 21%. Our endowment is not taxed, as it directly funds our students’ “no tuition” scholarship model. We are monitoring this carefully.

February 13, 2025

While in Washington, D.C., I was advocating for higher education and Berea’s unique financial and work college model, as outlined below. An outline of the issues we are actively monitoring includes:

Endowment Strength

• Potential disruption to financial markets, which could impact endowment investment returns
• Potential endowment tax
  • Berea has a federal exemption from the endowment tax due to having fewer than 500 tuition-paying students. We are advocating for the continuation of this exemption.

Federal Financial Aid

• Potential cuts to the federal Pell Grant program
• Potential cuts to the federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) program

Work College Funding

• Potential cuts to Federal Work Study (FWS) as a whole
  • Work Colleges are a sub-report in Federal Work Study. If FWS is cut “across the board,” it would impact Work Colleges, including Berea.
• Potential non-funding of Work Colleges
  • In the current budget, Work Colleges are currently funded in the Senate version but are not in the House version of the budget. We are thus subject to the reconciliation process. The Work Colleges Consortium is working together to advocate for our full funding in the budget.
• Potential taxation of Work College Scholarship
  • As recipients of Work College scholarship funding that goes directly to tuition, students do not pay taxes on their Federal Work Study tuition funding. As federal education spending is being examined for taxation, the Work Colleges Consortium is working together advocate to maintain our tax-free scholarships.
• Potential disruption of our Work College Scholarship Disbursement
  • Berea has a special exemption to provide students with an “in the pocket” cash disbursement of a small portion of their Work College scholarship. We are advocating for the continuation of this exemption.