Amelia Schafer
ICT
RAPID CITY, S.D. – June has brought significant challenges for the future of tribal colleges and universities across the nation. In addition to harsh potential funding cuts, many students may no longer be eligible for crucial grants.
Currently, nearly 80 percent of students attending tribal colleges and universities are eligible for the federal Pell Grant, said Cheryl Crazy Bull, CEO of the American Indian College Fund. The Pell Grant provides funding of up to $7,395 to low-income students per school year.
On May 5, the United States House of Representatives proposed major changes to the Pell Grant. Effective July 1, 2025, students would need to be enrolled in at least 30 credit hours per academic year to receive a Pell Grant. Currently, only 24 credit hours are required for eligibility.
Additionally, the Fiscal Year 2026 budget, which proposes cutting tribal college and university funding by up to 90 percent, proposes cutting $1,000 from the maximum pell grant award – reducing it to $6,395.
If these changes were to happen, Indigenous higher education organizations fear a significant number of Indigenous students will be discouraged from continuing their education and will be forced to choose between work and school.
“Changing the eligibility would have immediate negative impacts on students,” said Moriah O’Brien, vice president of Congressional and Federal Relations for the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. “Over time, the value of Pell Grants has eroded because it hasn’t kept up with inflation. When the full amount isn’t even sufficient, to further reduce that maximum amount would be incredibly difficult for students and could cause them to go into debt or be a negative determining factor in whether they continue their education or not.”
For tribal college and university students with an average tuition of roughly $8,000 per year, having the $7,395 grant is a big help – but these proposed changes would mean students enrolled less than half-time would no longer qualify for the grant, a grant that’s crucial for many low-income, non-traditional students.
“It has a disproportionate impact on Native students because many tribal college students, even the scholars the College Fund supports, 40 percent of them work,” said Crazy Bull, Sicangu Lakota. “They may be part-time or full-time students. Having another course and then eliminating (the option for) part-time has a pretty significant impact.”
At Oglala Lakota College, a tribal college in southwestern South Dakota, approximately 60 percent of students are non-traditional, meaning they don’t fit the typical college-student profile. These students are often older, many have families and full-time jobs. The average student age at the college is 33 years old.
Pell Grant changes could disproportionately impact these students, said Dawn Frank, Oglala Lakota College president.
“TCUs like Oglala Lakota College help the low-income, first-generation working adults and parents,” Frank said. “The Pell Grants make that possible. Raising the credit requirements, excluding the less than half-time students, will not only disproportionately harm OLC but I think our sister colleges in the state of South Dakota.”
Requiring more credit hours would put strain on staff and faculty at TCUs, Frank said, increasing the risk of burnout.
“(It’s already) a challenge trying to find qualified instructors to work in these rural areas,” Frank said. “More courses mean more instructors.”
This hit comes at the same time as potential drastic cuts to tribal college and university funding.
“We’re not taking this one hit overall, for tribal communities, we’re taking multiple hits and I think that that calls for alarm,” Frank said.
One change that could be beneficial, experts said, would be the new Workforce Pell Grant, which could expand Pell Grant funding to students in technical or vocational programs and could become available as soon as the 2026-2027 school year. The Workforce Pell Grant would specifically expand aid to students enrolled in short-term programs between 150 and 600 hours over a span of eight to 15 weeks.
“That could potentially be beneficial to TCUs because TCUs are doing incredible work in the workforce development space and almost every single TCU offers certificate programs,” O’Brien said.
TCUs like Oglala Lakota College offer several different vocational programs. Oglala Lakota College, in particular, offers Associate of Applied Science degrees for automotive technology, electrical, general construction and office technology.
“The workforce program idea that is considered in the Republican bill could potentially be helpful, but it’s outweighed by the negative impacts of drastically increasing the credit eligibility threshold,” O’Brien said.
Nothing is set in stone yet, and there’s still time to stop the changes.
“At this time, what we’re doing is trying to persuade Congress to leave the Pell Grant eligibility requirements intact and increase the amount of funding or level funds (to keep up with inflation) so that it remains stable as a program,” Crazy Bull said.
Crazy Bull and O’Brien said organizations and individuals will be lobbying and working to educate legislators on the dangers of the potential cuts and changes.
“We (tribal colleges) provide an atmosphere that is supportive of students,” Frank said. “We always overuse this term, but we are a beacon of hope, and a lot of people’s outcomes do not just affect the colleges, but also the communities’ economies.”