20 U.S.C. § 1063b — Professional or graduate institutions

(a) General authorization. (1) If Congress has appropriated money for this section, the Secretary must award program grants to each postgraduate institution listed in subsection (e) that the Secretary determines is making a substantial contribution to legal, medical, dental, veterinary, or other graduate-education opportunities in mathematics, engineering, or the physical or natural sciences for Black Americans. (2) The Secretary may not award a grant of more than $1,000,000 unless the postgraduate institution assures the Secretary that non-Federal sources will pay 50 percent of the cost of the purposes for which the grant is made. The institution does not have to match any part of its first $1,000,000 award from the Secretary. After the funding rules in subsection (f) have made money available to each eligible institution, the Secretary must distribute pro rata among the institutions that met the matching requirement any amounts that were not made available because an institution failed to meet that requirement. (b) Duration. A grant may cover no more than five years. Money awarded for that five-year period that is obligated during the five-year period may be spent during the 10-year period beginning on the first day of that five-year period. (c) Uses of funds. A grant under this section may be used for—(1) buying, renting, or leasing scientific or laboratory equipment for education, including teaching and research; (2) building, maintaining, renovating, or improving classrooms, libraries, laboratories, and other instructional facilities, including buying or renting telecommunications technology equipment or services; (3) buying library books, periodicals, technical and other scientific journals, microfilm, microfiche, and other educational materials, including telecommunications program materials; (4) scholarships, fellowships, and other financial assistance for needy graduate and professional students so they can enroll in and complete a doctoral degree in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, or law, or a doctorate in the physical or natural sciences, engineering, mathematics, or another scientific discipline in which African Americans are underrepresented; (5) establishing or improving a development office to strengthen and increase contributions from alumni and the private sector; (6) helping establish or maintain an institutional endowment to support financial independence under section 1065 of this title; (7) funds and administrative management, and buying equipment, including software, to strengthen funds management and management information systems; (8) acquiring real property next to the campus in connection with building, renovating, adding to, or improving campus facilities; (9) education or financial information meant to improve the financial and economic literacy of students or their families, especially about student debt and student-assistance programs under subchapter IV; (10) services needed to carry out projects or activities described in the grant application and approved in advance by the Secretary, but no more than 2 percent of the grant may be used for this purpose; (11) tutoring, counseling, and student-service programs meant to improve academic success; and (12) other activities proposed in the application under subsection (d) that (A) help carry out the purposes of this part and (B) the Secretary approves as part of reviewing and accepting the application. (d) Application. An institution eligible for a grant under this section must submit an application that—(1) shows how the grant funds will be used to improve graduate-education opportunities for Black and low-income students and lead to greater financial independence; and (2) for an application for a grant of more than $1,000,000, provides the assurance required by subsection (a)(2) and states how the eligible institution will pay the non-Federal share of the application’s cost. (e) Eligibility. (1) In general. The independent professional or graduate institutions and programs eligible for grants under subsection (a) are—(A) Morehouse School of Medicine; (B) Meharry Medical School; (C) Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School; (D) Clark-Atlanta University; (E) Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine and other qualified graduate programs; (F) Xavier University School of Pharmacy and other qualified graduate programs; (G) Southern University School of Law and other qualified graduate programs; (H) Texas Southern University School of Law and School of Pharmacy and other qualified graduate programs; (I) Florida A&M University School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and other qualified graduate programs; (J) North Carolina Central University School of Law and other qualified graduate programs; (K) Morgan State University qualified graduate program; (L) Hampton University qualified graduate program; (M) Alabama A&M qualified graduate program; (N) North Carolina A&T State University qualified graduate program; (O) University of Maryland Eastern Shore qualified graduate program; (P) Jackson State University qualified graduate program; (Q) Norfolk State University qualified graduate programs; (R) Tennessee State University qualified graduate programs; (S) Alabama State University qualified graduate programs; (T) Prairie View A&M University qualified graduate programs; (U) Delaware State University qualified graduate programs; (V) Langston University qualified graduate programs; (W) Bowie State University qualified graduate programs; and (X) University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. (2) Qualified graduate program. (A) For this section, “qualified graduate program” means a graduate or professional program that provides instruction in law, the physical or natural sciences, engineering, mathematics, psychometrics, or another scientific discipline in which African Americans are underrepresented, and that has students enrolled in the program when the institution applies for a grant under this section. This section does not otherwise define “psychometrics” or “other scientific discipline.” (B) Even though subparagraph (A) requires enrollment, an institution may use up to 10 percent of its grant under this section to develop a new qualified graduate program. (3) Special rule. An institution that received a grant under this section before October 1, 2008, must continue to receive such grants, subject to available appropriations, regardless of whether the institutions described in paragraph (1)(S) through (X) are eligible. (4) One grant per institution. The Secretary may not award more than one grant under this section in any fiscal year to any institution of higher education. (5) Institutional choice. In any one fiscal year, the institution’s president or chancellor may decide which graduate or professional school or qualified graduate program will receive funds under the grant, if the application submitted to the Secretary under this section clearly states how the funds will be allocated among the schools or programs. (f) Funding rule. Subject to subsection (g), the amount appropriated for this section for a fiscal year is handled as follows: (1) The first $56,900,000, or any smaller amount that is appropriated, is available only to make grants to the institutions or programs listed in subsection (e)(1)(A) through (R). (2) Any amount above $56,900,000 but no more than $62,900,000 is available to make grants to the institutions or programs listed in subsection (e)(1)(S) through (X). (3) Any amount above $62,900,000 must be made available to each institution or program listed in subsection (e)(1)(A) through (X) under a formula developed by the Secretary. The formula must use these elements: (A) the institution’s ability to match Federal funds with non-Federal funds; (B) the number of students enrolled in the programs for which the institution received funding under this section in the previous year; (C) the average cost of educating each student, for all full-time graduate or professional students, or their equivalent, enrolled in the eligible professional or graduate school, or for doctoral students enrolled in the qualified graduate programs; (D) the number of students in the previous year who received their first professional or doctoral degree from the programs for which the institution received funding under this section in the previous year; and (E) the percentage contribution of the programs for which the institution is eligible to receive funds under this section to the total number of African Americans who received graduate or professional degrees in the professions or disciplines related to those programs in the previous year. (g) Hold harmless rule. Despite paragraphs (2) and (3) of subsection (f), an institution or qualified program listed in subsection (e)(1) that received a grant for fiscal year 2008 and is eligible for a grant in a later fiscal year may not receive less in that later fiscal year than the grant amount it received for fiscal year 2008. This rule does not apply if the appropriation is not enough to provide those grant amounts to all such institutions and programs, or if the institution cannot provide enough matching funds to meet this section’s requirements. (h) Interaction with other grant programs. An institution that is eligible for and receives an award under section 1102a, 1136a, or 1136b of this title for a fiscal year may not apply for or receive grant funds under this section for that same fiscal year.