WASHINGTON, D.C. – After public outcry, a federal scholarship for students at historically Black colleges and universities, including two in Alabama, has been reinstated after it was paused last week.
The U.S. The Department of Agriculture reopened the 1890 Scholars Program Monday after its website previously said it was suspended. The scholarship covers tuition and fees for students studying agriculture, food or natural resource sciences at 19 universities, known as the 1890 land grant institutions.
Alabama A&M University and Tuskegee University were two of the 19 universities impacted. Alabama A&M had 17 scholarship recipients in 2024. Tuskegee University had six scholars in 2024.
It’s not clear exactly when the program was suspended, but some members of Congress first issued statements criticizing the suspension of the program on Thursday.
As of Monday, the USDA website now reads the “application period has been reopened” and applications can be received until March 15.
Alabama A&M said its students in the program are in high-demand majors such as food science and forestry. Before the program reopened, the university said the pause could hurt the state’s agriculture industry.
“Considering wildfires in California, bird flu in the poultry industry, and 60% of Alabama’s economy being agriculture, these cuts are unexpected and will have a long-term negative impact on Alabama and the agriculture industry across the country,” Shannan Frank Reeves Sr., vice president of government affairs, said in a statement.
Reps. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile and Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, called on the Trump administration to reverse the decision before it was reopened.
Figures, who sits on the House Agriculture Committee, said the pause was “disappointing.”
“(It) puts universities across this country, and two in particular in our state, one in our district, Tuskegee University, in a bit of limbo, and students in jeopardy of not knowing how they’re going to fund education here going forward,” Figures told Alabama Daily News before the 1890 Scholars Program application reopened.
Figures said his initial review of the suspension was that it fell under President Donald Trump’s “anti-diversity agenda” as it only impacted historically Black colleges and universities.
In a post on X before it reopened, Sewell said the suspension would “rip opportunities away from our students and hurt our nation’s farming communities in the long term.”
A USDA spokesperson told the Associated Associated Press Saturday that every current scholar was set to complete their education under the program.
Tuskegee University did not respond to a request for comment.
The suspension coincides with a funding freeze President Donald Trump‘s administration instituted. The funding freeze has been challenged in court, with a temporary hold on the executive action already in place.
The scholarship program dates to 1992, but 1890 in the title refers to the Second Morrill Act of 1890, which established historically Black colleges and universities.
Eligibility rules include being a U.S. citizen with a GPA of 3.0 or better, along with acceptance to one of the 19 1890 land grant universities. Eligible students must also study agriculture or related fields and “demonstrate leadership and community service,” according to the department’s site.
In October, the department said it had set aside $19.2 million for the program. In fiscal year 2024, 94 students were awarded scholarships, the department said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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