Burroughs announces $360K grant to pay balances for Bowie State students from his district

Oxon Hill resident Noelle Pelham recently transferred to Bowie State University from another school “because it was a financial burden.”

She and her family have also had to carry that burden at Bowie State. But the weight will be lighter this semester for her and 63 other students.

Prince George’s County Council member Edward Burroughs has awarded $360,000 in grant funding to pay the outstanding tuition balances for Bowie State University students from his South County district.

“Being able to be here at Bowie State University for my first year, and getting my bill paid for, is very special to me,” Pelham, an undergraduate biology major, said during a press event Monday at Bowie State.

Burroughs said $180,000 will cover fall semester balances for 64 students from District 8 — which includes Andrews Air Force Base, Camp Springs, Forest Heights, Fort Washington, National Harbor, Oxon Hill and Temple Hills.

The remainder of the funding will go toward outstanding balances for students from District 8 in the spring semester, he said.

Burroughs was a Bowie State student in 2010. But he had to leave the following year, in part because he couldn’t afford his tuition and housing bills.

“That financial aid office called and dropped all my classes and kicked me out of housing many, many years ago,” he said. “And so I’m just grateful that you all will not have to experience that.”

He later graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

The funding will cover balances for 56 currently enrolled students, seven who have been prevented from enrolling because of their balances and at least one student who graduated but has not received their diploma because of a balance, Burroughs said Monday.

He said the funding draws from the council’s nondepartmental grant program, through which nonprofits can apply for funding. Bowie State is a public, nonprofit institution.

Bowie State President Aminta Breaux said that undergraduate tuition for in-state students is $6,672 this year.

“It’s a low, low price point,” she said. “But even with that, we see growing need.”

Breaux said the university, which is Maryland’s oldest HBCU, completed the largest fundraising campaign in its history last December, raising nearly $130 million.

She said the funding has enabled Bowie State to expand scholarships, improve academic programs and offer more opportunities to its students.

But she said the record level of philanthropy hasn’t erased growing financial need among students, nearly half of whom receive need-based Federal Pell Grants.

Breaux said the financial gap can mean the difference between a student graduating and leaving school.

“Councilman Edward Burroughs saw students facing a financial barrier to completing their education, and he didn’t just sit on the sidelines and say, ‘Well, you know, maybe we’ll put a policy in place,’ and what have you,” Breaux said Monday. “He took action.”