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The United Way of the Columbia-Willamette announced a $148,000 grant to Warner Pacific University on Monday to sustain an education scholarship that helps students from diverse backgrounds to become teachers in high-need fields, including special education and bilingual education.
The bridge funding comes as Warner Pacific’s ¡Adelante! Scholarship Fund for these students, supported by $3.2 million in federal government funding, is under some financial duress. That’s because under the Trump administration, there have been significant cuts to the Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence grant program that provided the funding. Warner Pacific abruptly lost the funding that it was awarded in 2024 earlier this year.
Like many other institutions nationwide serving people of color, Warner Pacific saw that grant cease abruptly under the Trump administration. As Education Week previously reported, many of the affected universities received letters that emphasized that the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives the Hawkins grant funded were out of line with the White House’s priorities, even as the 2024 applications for the grant had asked universities to show how they’d use the money to support underserved and underrepresented students.
Indeed, Warner Pacific’s 2024 application made significant note of its status as “Oregon’s most diverse university and the state’s first four-year Hispanic-Serving Institution.” The Southeast Portland university is a private Christian liberal arts college that enrolls about 700 students a year. According to that application, 61% of its students are students of color, and 32% are Hispanic.
The bridge funding is meant to support 25 education students at Warner Pacific whose tuition was immediately affected by the abrupt cut to the scholarship fund.
“Most of this grant was dedicated to tuition assistance, and without it, many students cannot pursue these pathways,” Dr. Kevin Spooner, the university’s associate dean of education, said in a statement. “Several have shared that they are unable to continue without financial support.”
But the grant was also meant to support other initiatives that the $148,000 doesn’t appear to cover. Spooner said there was work underway to bolster at-need jobs in special education and in dual-language programs. Some of these teachers are training to support multilingual learners, some of the lowest performing in the state.
The university’s application to receive grant funding in 2024 noted intentions to establish several licensure and endorsement programs for specific needs in Oregon’s teacher pipeline.
Warner Pacific was also planning to deepen its partnerships with community colleges and Portland Public Schools to reduce barriers for teaching. (As Education Week also reported, cuts to Hawkins grants have trickled into K-12 schools, affecting student teachers who work in those buildings.)
A spokesperson for the university did not immediately respond to questions about how much money Warner Pacific had spent so far from the $3.2 million, or about long-term plans to the scholarship outside of the current 25 students.
Kelly O’Lague, president and CEO of United Way of the Columbia-Willamette, said providing the funding matched the organization’s mission to “advance youth opportunity and financial security for all of our neighbors.”
“Investing in the ¡Adelante! Scholarship Fund is a direct investment in the future educators of our region, leaders whose impact will be felt in classrooms and schools for generations to come,” she said in a statement. “When we ensure these students can complete their degrees, we are also investing in a more stable, representative educator workforce and a stronger regional economy.”
