Marquette’s McNair Scholars Program will no longer be accepting students.
The program supporting low-income and first-generation students was discontinued by the Department of Education at the end of September following funding cuts to all Federal TRIO Programs.
The university announced the closure Sept. 22, though it plans to appeal the decision.
Marquette’s Educational Opportunity Program — which enables low-income and first-generation students to enter higher education — was awarded a $324,000 annual grant in 2022 to fund the McNair Scholars Program from October 2022 through September 2027. Funding was discontinued September 2025.
The money was part of a $51 million grant that funded stipends for graduate school preparation at Marquette and 188 other McNair chapters across the country.
Students in the McNair Program attend monthly seminars and conferences, intern at the McNair Summer Research Institute and work with a mentor.
“With my mentor, I was able to learn more about my major and I was able to learn more about different opportunities that were offered in the school,” Ashley Sanchez Tiscareno, a junior in the College of Business Administration and former McNair Scholar, said.
The Marquette Wire reached out to recent McNair Scholars and program staff, but they either declined the interview or didn’t respond.
With the help of mentors and McNair faculty, students work on research papers for their applications to graduate school. Past research topics have included immigration, labor unions and foster care systems.
The budget cuts don’t impact the scholarship funds of current McNair Scholars.
At the national level, McNair Scholars is one of eight Federal TRIO programs, which combine to serve roughly 870,000 students each year.
Over six million students have graduated with the support of TRIO programs. McNair Scholars nationwide are 78% more likely to enroll in graduate school than other students in the bottom income quartile.
The Department of Education created the Dr. Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program in 1989 to honor the life and legacy of McNair, the second African American to go into space. He was killed in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.
The cuts stemmed from a May budget proposal in the White House to cut TRIO funding, saying that the programs, originally created when universities needed financial incentives to reach low-income students, are no longer needed.
“Today, the pendulum has swung, and access to college is not the obstacle it was for students of limited means,” the proposal said.
The decision to withdraw funding from TRIO programs like McNair Scholars before grant expiration has been contested by the Council for Opportunity in Education. In addition to urging public outcry, COE filed legal action on behalf of its impacted members on Oct. 3.
“Federal TRIO programs are not discretionary favors — they are competitive grants awarded on merit,” Aaron Brown, COE executive vice president, said in a statement. “When the Department disregards legislative and statutory procedures and substitutes politics for process, the students who need support most lose out. We cannot allow that precedent to stand.”
The COE litigation contends several failures by the Department of Education, including retroactively applying new mandates, not complying with rulemaking procedures and refusing to release program statistics.
“Rather than considering the criteria under the law, the Department relied on new policies that were not properly established,” Kimberly Jones, COE president, said in a statement. “In doing so, it is denying institutions the ability to operate grants that were rightfully earned and successfully performed and, more importantly, robbing students of opportunities that Congress has already funded.”
University updates regarding the McNair Scholars Program will be shared in Marquette Today.
This story was written by Lance Schulteis. He can be reached at [email protected].
