N.C. Senator: Community Colleges Need to Aggressively Go After Federal Grants
RALEIGH, N.C.
North Carolina community colleges need to follow the lead of the state’s public universities in aggressively seeking more grants as more federal money is tied up in entitlement programs, Sen. Richard Burr said.
Fifty-three percent of the budget is now tied up in programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, said Burr, R-N.C.
“We want to make sure that all of the entities in North Carolina are truly plugged in to the competitive grant process of federal money and in fact are players in that process,” Burr told more than 200 people meeting at the Legislative Building who gathered for an “economic development summit” organized by Burr’s office.
The all-day event attracted officials from all 58 of the state’s community colleges. Representatives from the U.S. Departments of Labor, Homeland Security and Commerce joined state officials in describing grant programs and how to request money.
More than 10 percent of the University of North Carolina system’s total revenues of $6.7 billion this past fiscal year came from federal grants, a UNC spokeswoman said. UNC-Chapel Hill’s health schools rank among the nation’s leaders in research money from the National Institutes of Health.
