Eastern Gateway Community college is violating federal regulations, according to the U.S. Department of Education resulting in thousands of students not receiving funding to pay for college.

The state ordered Eastern Gateway to stop providing the Free College Benefit program in a letter 21 News obtained.

"Free college is closed to enrollments for the Fall 2022 semester." This notice is appearing on Eastern Gateway's website after the Department of Education said the college's program violates federal law.

The move impacts more than 75,000 students.

Students who typically receive "Pell Grants" meet very low-income requirements to receive financial aid to help pay for college, but the state claims Eastern Gateway has essentially been providing non-eligible students the same benefits regardless of their income.

After conducting a review, the state said they found that the college attributes the program's scholarships to outside entities but said the "department determined outside entities provide virtually no funds" adding, "EGCC is merely waiving/writing off all non-Pell/state grant charges on student accounts, and falsely making it appear that the students are being funded by outside entities."

The Department said Eastern Gateway is ultimately using Pell Grants to fund the costs of students who don't qualify.

Eastern Gateway said they firmly believe the program is "fully compliant" with federal law and the president, Michael Geoghegan said, "We vigorously disagree with their analysis and recommendations and have incorporated our objections and legal counsel's analysis in a letter to the Secretary of the US Department of Education and his top deputies."

Eastern Gateway said students enrolled in the Free College Benefit program for this Fall semester should not anticipate receiving pell grant funding until this is resolved.

"EGCC understands that Pell Grant funding is necessary for many students to access higher education," said Senior Vice President and Chief Student Affairs Officer, Christina Wanat, "We understand that this may cause significant difficulty and hardship for our Free College students, and we are working hard to resolve this for them."