AUBURN (AP) -- New York prison inmates awarded state university associates degrees are the first to graduate since prisoners' eligibility for federal Pell Grants was eliminated in 1995.

The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision says the ceremony Tuesday involved 15 Auburn Correctional Facility inmates who took courses offered through the Cornell Prison Education Program. That's a collaboration between Cornell University and Cayuga Community College.

The program offers free courses taught by Cornell faculty and graduate students and has grown over the past four years to as many as 17 classes each term. They include genetics, poetry, African American literature, biology and medical anthropology.

It enrolls 120 men from the Auburn and Cayuga Correctional Facilities and is funded by the Sunshine Lady Foundation and Cornell's Office of Land Grant Affairs.

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