Improving opportunites for post secondary education

The synopsis for this grant opportunity is detailed below, following this paragraph. This synopsis contains all of the updates to this document that have been posted as of 06/05/2009 . If updates have been made to the opportunity synopsis, update information is provided below the synopsis.

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Document Type:	Grants Notice
Funding Opportunity Number:	ED-GRANTS-060509-002
Opportunity Category:	Discretionary
Posted Date:	Jun 05, 2009
Creation Date:	Jun 05, 2009
Original Closing Date for Applications:	Aug 04, 2009    Applications Available: June 5, 2009. Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: August 4, 2009.
Current Closing Date for Applications:	Aug 04, 2009    Applications Available: June 5, 2009. Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: August 4, 2009.
Archive Date:	Sep 03, 2009
Funding Instrument Type:	Cooperative Agreement Grant
Category of Funding Activity:	Education
Category Explanation:
Expected Number of Awards:	28
Estimated Total Program Funding:	$7,000,000
Award Ceiling:
Award Floor:
CFDA Number(s):	84.116  –  Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education
Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement:	No

Eligible Applicants

Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
Private institutions of higher education
Others (see text field entitled “Additional Information on Eligibility” for clarification)
 

Additional Information on Eligibility:

Eligible Applicants: IHEs, other public and private nonprofit institutions and agencies, and combinations of these institutions and agencies.

Agency Name

U.S. Department of Education

Description

Note: Each funding opportunity description is a synopsis of information in the Federal Register application notice. For specific information about eligibility, please see the official application notice. The official version of this document is the document published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html. Please review the official application notice for pre-application and application requirements, application submission information, performance measures, priorities and program contact information. Purpose of Program: The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) supports innovative grants and cooperative agreements to improve postsecondary education. It supports reforms, innovations, and significant improvements of postsecondary education that respond to problems of national significance and serve as national models. Under the FIPSE Program, the Secretary may make grants for special projects concerning areas of national need. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 84.116W. Applications for grants under this FIPSE Special Focus Competition–CFDA number 84.116W must be submitted electronically using e-Application, accessible through the Department’s e-Grants portal page at: http://e-grants.ed.gov. While completing your electronic application, you will be entering data online that will be saved into a database. You may not e-mail an electronic copy of a grant application to us.

Link to Full Announcement

Special Focus Competition: Innovative Strategies in Community Colleges for Working Adults and Displaced Workers CFDA 84.116W; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009

If you have difficulty accessing the full announcement electronically, please contact:

Julius Cotton
ED Grants.gov FIND Systems Admin.
Phone 202-245-6140
julius.cotton@ed.gov
Program Manager:
Levenia Ishmell
Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education
U.S. Department of Education,
1990 K Street, NW., Room 6147
Washington, DC 20006-8544
Telephone: (202) 502-7668 or by e-mail: e-Mail: Program Manager

Synopsis Modification History

There are currently no modifications for this opportunity.

‘Eco-tourism can help Indian wildlife conservation’

{What of Eco tourism and the United States. How could this fit into the knew U.S. ecological economy?}

Prof. Raman Sukumar is not one of the salesman conservationists that you meet every other day trying to pitch themselves up rather than the wildlife they pretend to conserve. Yet, he is the most respected, most popular, most distinguished, and if one may say, the most saleable face of wildlife conservation in India and Asia – considering that Asian wildlife conservation needs, and can certainly do, with more than a-dime-a-day support.

Worldwide, conservationists look up to him for his scholarship. Scholars look up to him for his conservation acumen. Activists looking to do good work, and not knowing how, trust him with their might and energies. Donors looking to spend on conservation trust him with their monies. (They know he puts their money as well as his exactly where his judicious mouth is…!)

Though now Prof. Sukumar addresses the larger issues of conservation, including ecological pressures and impacts on flora and fauna, he is still widely known by his nicknames, Asian Elephant Man and Elephant Suku – names that he probably won, much like his Ph.D, for his pioneering study of ‘man-elephant relations and conflict’. (Years later, his work among the elephants was also to get him the Chair of Asian Elephant Specialist Group of IUCN.)

Shali Ittaman spoke to Prof. Sukumar about his work, about his concerns and about his steadfast belief that he represents a cause that is worth fighting.

Q: Prof Sukumar, so many years of work on the Asian Elephant… You are really the animal’s best friend, aren’t you?

Sukumar: I have tried a few things…!

Q: …and very successfully, I should think?

Sukumar: Well, I have made a few points…

Q: Has your interest now gone beyond the elephant?

Sukumar: Certainly, yes. Conservation biology is really the big area of my study, and it includes the elephant – being the flagship species that it really is…

Currently, I am studying global climate change and its long and short-term impacts on the flora and fauna, which is everything between the forest floor and the canopy.

fragmentation of wildlife habitat, degradation due to invasive weeds and poaching. There are also great dangers looming on the horizon from pressures of development activities such as mining road and rail traffic and tourism. India is on the fast track of economic growth, and I think that we are just beginning to see an escalation of developmental pressures.

But crucially, when one talks of danger, it must be understood not just from the point of risk to flagship species such as the elephants and the tigers, but also from the perspective of risk to flora and fauna, which, like I said, is everything from forest floor to tree top. It is only then that issues such as global climate change and weed invasion of wild lands begin to look alarming.

Q: Are these also the biggest threats to the elephant population in India?

Sukumar: The immediate danger to larger species such as the elephant and the tiger is from habitat fragmentation, which, from the view of conservation is no less a threat than hunting. Elephants especially are migratory by nature. They must move from one forest part to the other to meet their forage requirements. Today many of their traditional movement routes are either being blocked or under pressure the forests are bisected by roads and railway tracks and what remains in the name of forest tracts are patches of degraded wilderness.

Q: You have been asking estate owners to desist from development work near eco-sensitive zones? Do you see this as a big issue?

Sukumar: Yes. Mining, quarrying, logging and single crop plantations have often been talked about in the context. An equally big issue is encroachment by commercial plantations such as coffee and tea.

Q: Eco-tourism also seems to becoming the by-word near sensitive zones? How do you see it shaping vis-à-vis conservation?

Sukumar: In a democratic country like ours, it is difficult to ban people from going into the forest. After all, forests are a common resource and belong as much to the common man as much as to the conservationist. The need of the hour is therefore responsible eco-tourism based on thoroughly thought and rigorously applied rules and regulations.

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• Having said that, I also think eco-tourism has its positive sides. Eco-tourism can lead to sensitisation of the masses towards wildlife conservation. Eco-tourism can also bring in the much-need money for conservation and to local economies, though this is not happening now.Currently, poor farmers are selling their lands at cheap rates for commercial development. I propose an alternative … commercial ventures should be permitted on lands near wildlife reserves only through long-term leases, say 30 years. In this way, subsistence farmers are not deprived of their lands but have a regular source of income. Let us face it… conservation does need money but we should not open the floodgates!

  Q: You have also in the past talked of a land use policy on lands next to critical forest areas. Could you define this?

  Sukumar: I think there has to be a clear land-use policy for the entire country including all forest areas, not just critical ones. With respect to our protected areas, tiger and elephant reserves or biosphere reserves, this should include management plans that define not just what is to be done within the forests but also along the periphery. This should be public knowledge so as entrepreneurs know where to go to locate their projects, whether these be mines or tourism ventures, or which lands to keep away from.

  Q: The big debate on human-animal co-existence just does not seem to be going away? There was a rather stormy one recently when Sunita Narain, Valmik Thapar and others sat on the tiger study after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh intervened on behalf of the vanishing animal? Another one seems be in the making now with the forthcoming tribal bill? On which side of the line are you?

  Sukumar: I really do not want to get into this now. I will only say there has to be a balance.

  Q: But you have in the past talked about “keep off zones”, haven’t you?

  Sukumar: Yes, I have… and surely, there have to be keep-off zones, especially in ecologically sensitive forest areas. But then let me reiterate, there has got to be a balance. When one area is marked out-of-bounds, other areas can be opened out. The Bannerghatta National Park (Karnataka), for instance, is already fairly fragmented and fragile. A few more people in and out will make no difference. It can be developed as a safari park to cater to the large numbers of people including IT professional coming to Bangalore but do not have the time to visit either Bandipur or Nagarahole. Nairobi National Park in Kenya is quite a money spinner.

   

• be an honourable package for settling them elsewhere. In other non-critical areas, lands can be turned over to them.Q: Yes, of course Professor! But a studied response that you are suggesting may take a long time, and I wonder if our depleting forests and endangered wildlife have so much time…! Sukumar: It is not a very happy situation. But if we begin now we can settle these issues in about ten years…after all we have been talking for several decades!

  Q: This is for general information… What is the ideal forest cover that any nation must have?

  Sukumar: The national policy states 33%….

  Q: And how much does India have?

  Sukumar:  About 20%, according to the Forest Survey of India… But again, the question is what kind of forest this is… There can be good forests as well as bad forests. A few standing trees and a little shrubbery cannot constitute a forest.

  Q: So what is the best figure for India?

  Sukumar: I cannot go beyond the national policy…..even that is difficult to achieve!

  Q: …and to that you add the bad count of lions, tigers, elephants and other animals and birds …! Prof Sukumar, are you optimistic of the way wildlife conservation work is shaping? Do you think Indian wildlife has a chance?

  Sukumar: I am optimistic. Animals and plants are amazingly resilient! Otherwise, I wouldn’t be doing conservation but merely studying them.

   

•   

News you could use

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Architect John Blackburn Launches Eco-Friendly Barn Designs for Equestrian and Agricultural Use

Ready-to-Build Blackburn greenbarns(TM) offer Affordable, Sustainable, LEED-Worthy Alternatives to Traditional Barns (WORLD-WIRE) WASHINGTON, May 11, 2009 /PRNewswire/ — For the last 25 years, architect John Blackburn has been practicing sustainable principles in all his designs, long before “green” became cool. In recognition of Earth Day and to do their part this year, Blackburn and his team are introducing Blackburn greenbarns™ (www.blackburngreenbarns.com), starting with four, ready-to-build design models for horse owners that feature sustainable, LEED-worthy materials and finishes. Energy-saving, “passive design” innovations are hidden within the designs, for example, the large roofs are oriented to capture wind and sun in order to ventilate and light the barns naturally. Also offered are optional, eco-friendly systems such as solar panels and rainwater harvesting to take greenbarns™ to the next level in sustainability. Blackburn, AIA, senior principal of Blackburn Architects, PC and creator of the greenbarns™, is internationally known as a designer and builder of state-of-the-art equestrian facilities, with approximately 100 equestrian projects to date accommodating more than 4,000 horse stalls. In the Washington D.C. area, he also is an established leader in adaptive reuse of existing residential and commercial structures (www.blackburnarch.com, www.equestrian-architects.com). The downturn in the economy motivated Blackburn to explore more cost-effective ways of designing and building barns. “Just because it’s less expensive, doesn’t mean we have to compromise our values,” he states. “We still follow the same principles that have guided our practice from the beginning: design for the health and safety of the horse that reflects the needs of the owner and the site. Adding the green elements of design to further drive this home only adds to the value.” Currently there is no LEED category for agricultural structures, but the U.S. Green Building Association (the organization in charge of LEED) has granted permission for its logo to be used on the greenbarns™ website, designating the barns “LEED-worthy.” The four Blackburn greenbarns™ design models offer clients the choice of purchasing Just the Plans; Plans Plus architectural consulting services to properly site and situate the barn for maximum potential; and a Turnkey service option that combines builder fees with design fees into one sum. For additional information, images, or to arrange to speak with John Blackburn, please contact Angie Mareino at 202-337-1755 or am@blackburnarch.com. CONTACT: Scott Busby of The Busby Group, +1-310-475-2914, scottb@thebusbygroup.com

Copyright © 2009, World-Wire. All rights reserved.

News you might need

Big Tax Breaks for Natural Gas Vehicles in New Senate Bill

WASHINGTON, DC, July 10, 2009 (ENS) – A bill that allows a tax credit of up to $12,500 for the purchase of a natural gas-fueled vehicle was introduced in the U.S. Senate this week.

 

The bipartisan legislation, S. 1408, would extend and increase tax credits for natural gas vehicles and refueling. It is sponsored by Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican as original co-sponsors.

Said Menendez, “We saw last summer how the wild fluctuations in oil prices helped to wreck our economy and we’ve seen how pollutants from dirty fuels are wrecking our planet. Our economic crisis has shined a spotlight on the urgent need for alternative, cleaner and cheaper sources of energy that we don’t have to import. By making it easier and cheaper to own a vehicle that runs on natural gas, we can help families save money on energy, create new manufacturing jobs and clean our air.”

“Because of new extraction techniques,” Menendez told reporters, “We now have 35 percent more accessible natural gas than we did two years ago.”

The bill, known as the NAT GAS Act, extends for 10 years the alternative fuel credits for natural gas used as a vehicle fuel, the purchase of natural gas-fueled vehicle, and the installation of natural gas vehicle refueling property credit.

“Each day, our nation consumes about 21 million barrels of oil – more than 25 percent of the world’s oil supply,” said Senator Reid. “Nearly 70 percent is imported from outside our borders. With only three percent of the world’s oil reserves, we cannot produce our way to a safe and secure energy future. I’m proud to join with Senators Menendez and Hatch in introducing legislation that will help encourage the development of natural gas vehicles to help save consumers and operators thousands of dollars per year, protect our environment, and decrease our dependence on foreign energy.”

Burning natural gas produces far less air pollution than burning gasoline. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, cars running on natural gas cut overall toxic emissions by at least 93 percent compared to gasoline.

“We must get serious about using cleaner burning natural gas and renewable energy, and this legislation is a strong step in the right direction,” said Reid.

T. Boone Pickens listens as Senator Orrin Hatch tells reporters why he supports tax credits to spur the use of natural gas. (Photo courtesy Office of the Senator)

Natural gas is an abundant resource, with 98 percent of natural gas used in the United States originating in North America, a key reason for his support of this bill, said Senator Hatch.

“Natural gas is an important alternative fuel to help pave the way to energy independence, which will not only help keep us safer, but will also help reduce the high cost of fuel and, thus, high utility bills across the board,” Hatch said.

“In our current economic downturn, it’s crucial to provide appropriate incentives that lead to lower prices for all Americans,” he said. This piece of legislation does just that while also helping clean up our environment; I am a proud cosponsor.”

Billionaire T. Boone Pickens, who drove his CNG-fueled Honda GX Civic to the news conference introducing the bill on Wednesday, said, “This bipartisan legislation does more to reduce our foreign oil dependency crisis than any other piece of legislation in the past 40 years. As I have said many times before and will continue to say, natural gas is cleaner, cheaper, it’s abundant and it’s American.”

“This bill will accelerate the use of natural gas in vehicles and is the only way I know to quickly and effectively reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” Pickens said. “For too long, our dependence on foreign oil has been one of the factors influencing our foreign policy and if we can eliminate that issue by using our own domestic natural gas resources I am confident that it will benefit our national security, our economy and the environment.”

Pickens stands to benefit from passage of the legislation. The company he founded, Clean Energy Fuels Corp., owns and operates natural gas fueling stations from British Columbia to the Mexican border.

The largest provider of natural gas for transportation in North America, on June 30, Clean Energy opened the world’s largest natural gas truck fueling station on a site adjacent to the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Natural gas has the ability to displace 100 percent of the petroleum currently used in heavy-duty vehicles, according to the EPA.

If the bill becomes law, it would increase the refueling property tax credit from $50,000 to $100,000 per station, a provision from which Pickens’ company would benefit.

The state of Utah also stands to benefit from this legislation. Americans use more than 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year. There are an estimated 350 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in Utah and surrounding states. Currently, natural gas for vehicles sells for 88 cents per gallon in Utah, and at least 5,000 Utah drivers fuel their cars and trucks with natural gas.

In February, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman announced plans to increase the state’s natural gas vehicle fueling infrastructure and in his State of the State address designated Interstate 15 (I-15) from Idaho to Arizona as a natural gas vehicle corridor.

Demand for natural gas as a vehicle fuel has quadrupled during 2008, Huntsman’s office says. Today, the state of Utah and the utility Questar Gas own and operate 25 natural gas fueling stations that are open to the public.

The legislation S. 1408:

• Allows the natural gas vehicle and natural gas fueling infrastructure credits to be transferred by the taxpayer back to the seller or to the lessor
• Allows state and local governmental entities to issue tax exempt bonds to finance natural gas vehicle projects.
• Allows 100 percent of the cost of a natural gas vehicle manufacturing facility that is placed in service before January 1, 2015 to be expensed and to be treated as a deduction in the taxable year in which the facility was placed in service. This decreases to 50 percent after December 31, 2014 and is phased out by January 1, 2020.
• Requires that when complying with mandatory federal fleet alternative fuel vehicle purchase requirements, federal agencies shall purchase dedicated alternative fuel vehicles unless the agency can show that alternative fuel is unavailable or that purchasing such vehicles would be impractical.
• Provides for grants for light-duty and heavy-duty natural gas engine development.

Copyright Environment News Service, ENS, 2009. All rights reserved.

Short Shrifted Skirt

 

 Draft:

“It took a harsh look or two, then after that a cat call from the car attendant across the street before anyone else reacted to the hemline that was not there.”

 - ficticious recounting

 

A former good friend from high school said that she and her sister called skirts like that: “duck skirts”.  The name had nothing to do with hunting. It had everything to do with needing not but to duck under the skirt to see a woman’s lower persona. Basically while in Alabama, or some such place that is known for nothing but heat during the summer month, she and her sister passed by a young woman on the street. This young woman had on a jean skirt that nary grazed two inches if one below her crotch.

 

Remembering this made me wonder about the demure and feminine sides I attribute to a dress. Not quite the pictures of a librarian and Fabio in a summer storm – the skirt whipping over Fabio’s knees. Ah, Yes! The bodice ripper – pornography for the demurely literate. I, in my innocence (ahem. Whether 100% of the time or not.) still can not believe how such an emotionally shaping garment could change with a high cut and a difference in fabric. I guess the difference would be a penguin suit made out of a flour sack. The whole mood changes by the feel. Hmm.. Clothes do manifest an intention.

 

I just remembered. One morning before seven a.m. The school van pulled out and we were headed back to the meeting point after some competition in the city. I think I was in Middle School. In my haze I looked out of the window to the right and saw a tall African American Woman with a large curly afro. Below the remnant of her carefully made up face the night before was a shiny purple tank top and a pleated skirt that had a zigzag fringe. Compared to the four and a half feet of legs, the skirt was a brief pause or coma that hung off her haunches. Guess what? After pulling the fly out of my mouth I asked a friend: Is that a prostitute? As if I didn’t already know, but I had to ask out of shock and to make a point. I had never seen a *real* one before. Especially odd was that she was seen in the daylight.

 

With asserting the lack of underdress for a skirt in “Your Kiltliness” I had to state the conclusion that bearing oneself is not the point. The reference was more in the vein of the bra-burning 1960’s and rebelling against the confines of convention. Personal I find no real reason for underwear except for protection or maybe support for the structure over top of it. In which case that would be better said to be pants. Which I am trying to get away from. An oddity that I’ll throw in is that somewhere in a factoid book, it says that Mormons invented underwear. It was a matter of showing modesty and defference to God.  A former female Mormon told me some never take off their underwear. I have no qualms with God, but freedom of movement becomes more important to me, the more weight I lose. Nothing and I mean nothing feels right or descent except for a skirt or dress.

 

Does the shortness of the hemline determine ethics? And the generosity of the cloth, wealth? What is the equitable and sensible length that conveys personality and not ready-for-work, tea length, cocktails, or after-5? Because if it gets that complicated, obviously the life I’m living precludes me from getting in the way of my personal shopper. Not to mention the individual team selecting my clothes for the evening. Money is for those who wear pants. Pants, in their craft and design, require more thought and structure. A skirt is the support to the main attraction. This is why tailors are paid more than seamstresses. A seam is general a straight line, A tailor must have the mark of a sacred geometrician to manifest around the shape that is you.

 

Pants have pockets. One is able to move seamlessly among a crowd without having to take much at all with you. Pockets are just a pocketbook that is attached to yourself. And deep pockets, such as cargo pants have, means you deliver the mail as well.

 

The real match, as is determining financial destiny is in who controls thee pocketbook in a marriage, or controlling your own pocketbook. Eventually the former had to happen. I have made so many financial mistakes, it comes down to changing my manor of dress and physical demeanor to find the life I wish to have. At least for a little while. To have someone else take the reigns, direct and plan. In the least, drive the car so I can be a passenger for a change. Cross country trips are so much better when the driving is shared and it is not expected for one person to bear the load for over  2,500 miles.