This past summer, Gabrielle Phillips, got a jump start on college. Phillips is a first-year Lang student tying sociology, anthropology and interdisciplinary sciences into a self-designed major. This summer, she took courses that ranged from financial wellness to those similar to the ones she would be taking in the Fall. The classes were part of the pre-entry freshman summer program under the Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP).
As she began to transition into her fall semester, she was told that she and other students originally admitted into the HEOP program would not, in fact, receive funding from the program.
“It was actually shocking. You hear you’re part of this program and it’s like, oh, actually, you’re part of something that sounds lesser,” she said.
Keisha Davenport-Ramirez, former director of the HEOP, announced in June 2019 that the program was not approved for a contract renewal between 2019 to 2024.
In an email sent to HEOP students and staff, Davenport-Ramirez explained that The New School sends a proposal to the New York State Department of Education every five years to ensure the HEOP program on campus receives state funding. Since the program was not approved for the following five years, The New School would no longer be accepting a new cohort of HEOP recipients.
The Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP), is a New York state-wide program that offers academic and financial services to students with New York State residency who would not otherwise be able to attend a private, four-year institution, such as New York University, Barnard College, or Pratt Institute, due to economic and educational circumstances.
The program was created in the 1960s. In 1966, the New York State Legislature passed a bill that would ensure students who were deemed “economically and educationally disadvantaged.” Higher education opportunity programs were emerging across the state, including the Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK), which started at The City University of New York (CUNY), and the State University of New York (SUNY) began the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP).
By 1969, the state legislature created the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) at private universities in New York State.
According to the New York State Department’s website, HEOP students are promised additional financial and academic services.
“You have to be academically and financially eligible. That is determined by the state and the institution. Students have to meet a certain GPA and have to meet certain income guidelines,” to be eligible for HEOP funding said Racquel Samuel, Student Success advisor for the HEOP program, and a former HEOP student.
When asked by the New School Free Press, Samuel had no information on the decision.
Although HEOP at The New School will not continue, students currently enrolled in the HEOP program will continue to receive the same academic and financial benefits as before without any interruption. The incoming first-year students that were originally admitted into the HEOP program will not receive funding from the program. Instead, they will receive funding from the Institutional Opportunity Program (IOP), a program where the funding comes directly from The New School. IOP recipients will receive the same benefits as HEOP students for their time at The New School.
“Everything is the same. The only difference is where the money is coming from,” Samuel said.
Some things are changing. One of the academic support services HEOP also promised to its recipients is a pre-entry summer program; the one that Gabrielle Phillips took part in. The program lasted for six weeks, starting from late June until early August. Recipients enroll in courses similar to those they will take in the fall.
“Having the exposure to what it’s like to be a college student here is really important for students who are from places where school resources are limited,” said Samuel. “Not many have exposure to what it’s like to be a college student.”
“The summer program helped me transition into college by helping me become more organized, become more mindful of how I use my time,” said Phillips. “[It] helped me have a community, not just including the students, but Racquel, Kiesha, and just a whole section of HEOP or IOP that I knew I could go to.”
Mirelys Mella, a second-year fine arts major and HEOP recipient, attended the summer program in 2018. “It was basically like having a college semester within this program. They treated us like we were having a semester at this college.”
Mella said that she thought students who were coming into TNS without the summer program were going to be at a real disadvantage.
“Especially with the school like this, anybody who’s coming in from a low-income neighborhood, people want HEOP for its benefits and for their purposes. If you’re gonna come to a school like this, you should be treated with the same benefits,” Mella said.
“But since they’re not, it’s kind of not fair. It’s really sad especially knowing people who were in the program before me have benefited.”