UNLV will celebrate the success of the TRIO program in assisting low-income and disadvantaged students in improving their education with the National Trio Day 2001 Banquet on Saturday (March 3).

U.S. Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee will be the keynote speaker at the event.

Scheduled for 5 p.m., the banquet will take place at the Richard Tam Alumni Center on the UNLV campus. Those wishing to attend are asked to call 597-2545 in advance.

Two alumni of UNLV's TRIO programs, Tracy B. Cotton and Edgerton Hartwell, will be honored at the banquet. Cotton, now deputy executive director of the Center for Academic Enrichment and Outreach at UNLV, was the first class president and student of the year of UNLV's Upward Bound program, which is part of TRIO. Hartwell, who also was an Upward Bound student, is a future candidate for the NFL draft.

Dignitaries expected to attend the event include U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.; Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates; Las Vegas City Councilman Lawrence Weekly; and Linda Howard, a member of the Board of Regents of the University and Community College System of Nevada.

TRIO is the result of the Higher Education Act of 1965 and is designed to assist students with getting into and succeeding in college. At UNLV, the Center for Academic Enrichment and Outreach houses several TRIO programs. Those programs include: Upward Bound; the Upward Bound Math/Science Center; Educational Talent Search; the Academic Support Program; and the Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Program. Thousands of UNLV students have been helped by TRIO programs at the university during the past 23 years.

For more information on TRIO programs at UNLV, call the TRIO office at 895-4777.