WASHINGTON — Students at the University of South Carolina are justifiably proud of the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center, one of the largest such facilities on a college campus, which offers activities as varied as rock climbing on a 52-foot indoor wall and sand volleyball.
The 192,000-square-foot center, completed two years ago and named for the late South Carolina senator, is already improving its amenities, thanks to $5 million earmarked in this year's federal education budget. It was one of 418 handouts that members of Congress provided through the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education.
In the past, a number of the program's grants were awarded through competition -- but not this year. The competition was canceled because there was no money left to award: Congress spent the agency's entire grant budget on pet projects.
The 1,300 education innovators who had applied for the 50 to 70 grants awarded each year through the competition were out of luck.
The Bush administration's budget request for the 2006 fiscal year would restore money for a competition, the Education Department said. The House approved the appropriations bill for the department in June, and the Senate is expected to take it up in the next few weeks.
Since its inception in 1973 during the Nixon administration, the program -- known as FIPSE -- has provided grants, typically $100,000 to $600,000, to some of the boldest innovators in education.
It gave money for some of the first distance-learning programs, medical school programs on women's health issues and programs offering access to computers for students with disabilities, among hundreds of others.
The fund also has run exchanges of U.S. college students and faculty members with universities in Mexico, Canada, Brazil and the European Union. The exchanges are required by international agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement.
For the 2005 fiscal year, Congress approved $145 million for earmarks and $17 million to fund the year's portion of previous multiyear grants. Gone was all funding for new grants, including the international programs.
"It's tragic," said David Longanecker, who as assistant secretary of Education in the Clinton administration oversaw the program when congressional earmarks -- the more formal term for pork-barrel projects -- were introduced into the program.
