http://www.state.nj.us/highereducation/eof.htm

Mission Statement
The mission of the Office for Student Development (OSD) / Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) is to serve the educational needs of under represented and disadvantaged students through a range of support programs. The OSD/EOF office is designed to provide students with a network of services that encourage academic, personal, and professional development. The OSD/EOF office achieves this by offering seminars, workshops, leadership programs as well as individual and group activities that help students acquire the skills necessary to successfully navigate through a large, complex and competitive environment. Through creative and strategies, students can improve their chances of academic success.

Program Description

The New Jersey Educational Opportunity Fund was created by law in 1968 to ensure meaningful access to higher education for those who come from backgrounds of economic and educational disadvantage. The Fund assists low-income New Jersey residents who are capable and motivated but lack adequate preparation for college study.
The Fund is distinctive in the comprehensiveness of its approach. To ensure the opportunity to attend college, the Fund provides supplemental financial aid to help cover college costs (such as books, fees, room and board) that are not covered by the state's Tuition Aid Grant Program. To ensure a viable opportunity to succeed and graduate, the Fund supports a wide array of campus-based outreach and support services at 28 public and 13 independent institutions.

The Fund is governed by a Board of Directors, which is appointed by the Governor. The Board sets policy, approves all necessary regulations for program operation and student eligibility, develops the annual budget request for the statewide program, and supports EOF programs at public and independent colleges and universities. The EOF Board also supervises a small graduate grant program, as well as the C. Clyde Ferguson Law and the Martin Luther King Physician-Dentistry programs.

Program History

In November 1967, in the aftermath of the previous summer's riots in Newark, New Jersey's newly appointed Chancellor of Higher Education, Ralph A. Dungan, directed a memorandum to the presidents of all of the state's institutions of higher education. In it he outlined a proposed program of special assistance to young men and women from economically and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. The presidents' response was immediate, widespread, and overwhelmingly favorable. Enthusiasm was particularly marked at those institutions that were participating in the federally supported Upward Bound Program, which sought to help high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds prepare for entry into college.

The following February, the Select Commission on Civil Disorders (the Lilly Commission, established in response to the events in Newark) made its report to Governor Richard Hughes, who subsequently submitted his Moral Recommitment message to the New Jersey State Legislature. The message called for the establishment of a broad range of programs to address the basic conditions the Commission had cited as contributing to the summer's unrest. Among those programs was the Educational Opportunity Fund, established by legislation sponsored by then - freshman legislator Thomas Kean.

EOF set the pace for many initiatives, which today are widely incorporated into college life. Among the many powerful strategies implemented by EOF are precollege articulation, basic skills testing and remediation, systematic retention efforts, peer counseling and peer tutoring, academic support courses, multicultural curricula and human relations programming, student leadership development, and outcomes-based program evaluation.

EOF has also been a leader and a linchpin in the higher education system's effort to increase diversity. While participation is not limited to minority students, EOF sponsors more than one-third of the African American and Latino students at the state colleges and New Jersey's independent institutions, and over one-quarter of the African American and Latino students enrolled at New Jersey colleges and universities participate in the EOF program. EOF enrolls about 12.5% of the first-time, full-time New Jersey freshmen who enter the state's colleges and universities each fall.

Eligibility

For information on eligibility, please click here.