The College of Education lost $1.1 million after the federal government terminated civic engagement grants.
As a part of its ongoing campaign to minimize government spending, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has terminated civic engagement grants to universities nationwide. The grants, issued by the Department of Defense, were being used to fund civic curriculums and teacher preparation programs.
The College of Education originally received the civic engagement grant in Oct. 2024. The goal of the $1,134,860 stipend was to fund critical thinking, media literacy and civic participation, according to Communique.
According to Philip Morris, associate professor for the Department of Leadership, Research and Foundations, the College of Education was notified on Feb. 28 that they would no longer have access to the grant funding.
“Civics just doesn’t get as much attention in schools. We were excited to be able to fill some of those gaps through workshops and engaging students,” Morris said.
Civic curriculums
The civic grant was being used to support the Digital Citizenship and Civics Leadership (DCCL) program. DCCL focused on digital health and wellness, combatting misinformation and helping students to understand their civic role in digital spaces.
The grant funding was being used to expand Campus Connections, a community-serving youth mentorship program at UCCS. The program connected middle-school students with undergraduate mentors to provide academic support. Undergraduate mentors would receive field hours toward the completion of their degrees.
Campus Connections planned to partner with the GPS program to integrate civic education into a pre-collegiate curriculum. Alongside GPS, the College of Education was partnered with the Space Foundation and Air Force Academy to provide civic engagement lessons to K-12 students.
The Center for the Study of Government and the Individual was involved in the project. “We were going to support their programs, help engage students across the Pikes Peak region,” Morris said. A partner event has since been canceled.
Campus Connections will continue to provide a DCCL curriculum, but other initiatives in the planning stage, like scholarships and events, have been paused. Joe Wehrman, interim dean of the College of Education said, “We’ve just initiated the grant, so a lot of those projects were halted at the beginning.”
Teacher preparedness
Preservice teaching programs will also be impacted by the civics grant cut. Digital citizenship and civics engagement content were set to be embedded in social studies curriculum taught to preservice instructors. An additional professional development program was being planned at the time of the grant cut.
Morris said the funding cut led to the cancellation of a faculty workshop set to take place in summer.
Continued efforts
Due to the short time between the initiation and cancelation of the grant, some projects will continue with external funding. On April 4, the College of Education will host a Civic Day for middle schoolers without the support of the grant.
Morris and Wehrman are hopeful that initial interest from the campus community will allow the College of Education to continue with DCCL and the expansion of Campus Connections. “We have received so much support and desire to participate and engage,” he said.
The College of Education is reengaging with private foundations to secure funding to support the programs impacted by the grant cut.
Civic engagement grants have been cut at universities across the country. The University of Montana and Winona State University reported similar losses after the grants were deemed excessive by DOGE.
The United States Digital Service was renamed DOGE after an executive order from the Trump Administration on Jan. 20. The administration tasked the agency with identifying and eliminating excessive federal funding, including grants to educational institutions that do not align with the agency’s view of cost efficiency.
According to Wehrman, civic engagement is not political. “Civic engagement is a bipartisan activity. We want a good society,” he said.
It is unclear if the College of Education will continue with their planned programs, or if the introduction of new investors will alter their proposed initiatives. “It’s unfortunate that it didn’t work out, but we will think of new opportunities and new ways to serve this community,” Wehrman said.
This article is part of a series focusing on how the executive orders from the Trump Administration affect students. The previous article on federal research funding cuts can be found on the Scribe executive order page.
Photo courtesy of History.com.