In February, NTU President Dr. Elmer J. Guy and Student Senate President Roland Begaye Jr. visited Capitol Hill to advocate for funding impacting tribal colleges and universities from across the country. Last week, Congress released the details of the final FY2018 omnibus funding bill, which included a $4M increase for TCU Title III—Part A funding (discretionary) and about $30M for Part F, the mandatory funding portion. The increase in discretionary funding is significant because this sets a new baseline for future years.

The bill also includes a $2 million increase for 1994 Extension funding, $2 million increase for 1994 Research funding, and a $800K increase for the Department of Energy-NNSA MSI program, including a minimum of $2 million for the TCU program (up from $1.2M currently).

Below is a brief summary of the FY2018 omnibus spending bill:

While NTU will benefit from these funds involving all tribal colleges and universities, we will continue advocating on behalf of all TCU's to secure the funds well into the future. We appreciate everyone’s support as we strive to increase the resources of our institution in hopes that we increase our overall impact on student learning outcomes.

For more information about the funds and their impact on NTU, please contact Daniel Vandever at dvandever@navajotech.edu.