A federal education program known as TRIO that helps low income and disadvantaged students is effectively zeroed out in President Trump’s proposed budget. The program began as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s so-called War on Poverty in the 1960s, and today it helps nearly a million students in the U.S., many of them first-generation college students. In Oregon, more than 12,000 students are served by the state’s 55 TRIO programs. Oregon State University senior Bri Eck is one of them.

“My dad actually never graduated high school. I’m actually a high school dropout myself as well,” Eck said. “I got my GED when I was 28. So, I come from a background where college just wasn’t really modeled or expected. So like most first-gen students, I had to kind of figure things out on my own.”

Oregon’s 55 programs are supported by the nonprofit Oregon TRIO Association, which is a structure that’s unique in the nation. Matt Bisek, the executive director of the nonprofit, said he’s frustrated when he hears accusations that the programs aren’t effective.

“We have pretty robust data reporting required by the federal government. And if the programs are not effective, if we don’t put a substantial percent of our students graduating high school, enrolling in college, graduating college, you lose your program,” he said. “So, by the nature of us having 55 funding grants in Oregon, they exist because they’re effective in what they do. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t exist.”

Eck said TRIO was fundamental to their own experience getting through community college and into a four-year university.

“It’s because of the support from TRIO that I’ve been able to tutor and mentor other students. I created community through a campus club. I’ve helped facilitate programs and events as a peer educator on my campus,” Eck said. “I also want to make it super clear that I am not an exception. I’m what happens when students are resourced.”

In April, the Trump administration excluded students without legal status from being eligible to participate. The president’s most recent budget proposal referred to these programs as a “relic of the past,” and said that “access to college is not the obstacle it was for students of limited means.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/05/09/trio-programs-college-higher-education-students-donald-trump-oregon-state-university/