By Gabriel Elmosleh
News Editor

Clackamas Community College lost more than $300,000 in grant funding this spring due to Trump administration budget cuts; one CCC student said the cuts will mean she’s not transferring to Portland State University.

The biggest loss was for the Bridges to Baccalaureate Training Program, which gives underrepresented students the chance to pursue majors and careers in science, technology, engineering and math by giving them tuition money and a stipend to cover their living expenses when transferring to Portland State University.

Jessica Niemetz is a CCC student who joined the program last year. The sudden end of the program has had a direct impact with Niemetz’s plans to transfer.

“It has completely changed my academic plan. Originally my plan was to basically use the help from the program financially to go through PSU, and that would be a major weight off me on the financial side, because PSU is expensive,” said Niemetz. “Since the funding cuts and since the program will no longer be continuing for that additional year, I think that I likely won’t be transferring to PSU.”

Jessica Niemetz. Photo by Gabriel Elmosleh

Niemetz finds these cuts to STEM grants and programs discouraging.

“It’s also just sort of disappointing, not just on like, you know our administration’s part, but like the governments fault, because this was bringing opportunities to a lot of different students and seeing it just sort of, you know, get pulled so quickly and without much recompense, to help people deal with that change, the burden basically lies with the B2B personnel to try and scramble together for a solution so the students were not just left hanging without anything to do.”

Tory Blackwell, chair of CCC’s science department, said his colleagues anticipated the cuts.

“No one in our group was surprised when we saw the loss of funding,” said Blackwell, who heads the B2B program at the college. “It’s not like we were the first grant that was impacted by the change in administration, and the change of directives so as we started looking at the landscape, we thought we might be on the list of grants that aren’t supported going forward.”

While the loss of the grant money is far from devastating for the science department, Blackwell is more concerned for the students that were in the B2B program at the college, and how they’ll move forward.

“What worries me a little bit more isn’t the loss of funding, it’s the type of students they were supporting. This program was designed to help students who might not have seen themselves in this type of program, this STEM science-y space, be able to feel comfortable moving into it.”

Tory Blackwell, chair of the science department at the college. Photo by Gabriel Elmosleh

The B2B program at the college had three CCC students in it. The $275,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health was meant to help community college students from CCC and Portland Community College transfer to PSU and complete degrees in biomedical fields.

Blackwell said he hopes that the majority of students at the college will still be successful, but for those who need it, the B2B program is no longer an option.

“I just worry that we will slowly erode some of these programs,” said Blackwell. “The bulk of students are still able to get through, but it’s very specific populations that get impacted, and aren’t able to be as successful.”

Blackwell thinks the removal of programs like the B2B program will make the world of STEM even more isolated and closed off than it already is for underrepresented students.

“If we start to create this climate where certain populations are not welcome in the first place, then we’re going to start to lose that pipeline into science. I’m worried about the narrowing of the routes into STEM, and I worry about whether it’s going to create an atmosphere that’s not going to encourage lots of different types of people into that space.”

Amy Cannata, the director of grants development at CCC, said the loss of the grant, and in particular, the B2B program, will have negative long term effects for the college.

“I think the topic of biomedical research and trying to diversify that field is really important. So it’s just very unfortunate that NIH ended the program,” said Cannata.

Amy Cannata, Director of Grants Development at the College. Photo provided by Amy Cannata

In addition to the B2B Program, the College has also lost two programs from AmeriCorps, a governmental program that promotes stipend-based volunteer work across the country. The college also lost another $100,000 in funding each to pay AmeriCorps members to work on campus.

AmeriCorps had an employee on campus at the Environmental Learning Center for the confluence environmental center program. The volunteer had a leadership role in several ELC outdoor education programs, including field trips, livestreams and day camps. They also managed a volunteer program that interacted with the community by engaging in a variety of activities in the outdoor learning space at the ELC.

The Coalition for Racial and Educational Justice, Connect to Complete program, which was meant to help Spanish-speaking students with  math, writing, and in-class support, was also cut.