The South Dakota Board of Regents has joined a national effort to boost college success for low-income and minority students.
National data shows that fewer low-income and minority students enroll in college than their counterparts, and even fewer graduate.
That's why the board has taken on a strong position in the Access to Success Initiative to improve student outcomes on its six public university campuses, according to Jack Warner, Regents executive director.
"I think these goals are ambitious, and I think they need to be," Warner said.
With support from The Education Trust, the chief executives of 24 systems have agreed to pursue goals aimed at improving student success and cutting in half by 2015 the gaps in college enrollment and completion that separate low-income and minority students from their peers. That means South Dakota would need to graduate 411 more students annually, Warner said.
Minority students included in the initiative are Native American, Hispanic and African-American.
The process began in the fall of 2007 when leaders of about 24 public higher education systems — all members of the National Association of System Heads — came together to form the Access to Success Initiative, or A2S.
One of the first challenges was accurately tracking information from universities, said Jennifer Engle, co-author of the Access to Success baseline metrics report.
“The information was not robust enough with (what) was provided to the federal government,” she said. “We now have a common set of matrix.”
Baseline data released for South Dakota as part of the A2S initiative generally mirrored
national indicators. Among graduates who entered the South Dakota system as freshmen, there were fewer under-represented minorities and fewer low-income students than would have been expected if such students had entered and completed at the same rates as other students in the state.
The work now is for states to take that information and develop programs, boost recruiting and retention efforts, and provide more financial assistance. Because there are multiple systems working toward the same goal, they can learn from each other, Engle said.
Closing the gaps will improve the economy by training a better work force, she added, and more importantly, tackle a civil rights issue.
“Most folks don’t realize the kinds of disparities there are by race,” she said.
America is founded on equality, Engle said, and allowing income and race disparities plague higher education is against that belief.
“That’s not the kind of America we want or think we have,” she said. “That resonates with leaders. Once they saw that information, they couldn’t not do something about it.”
It has resonated at Black Hills State University, officials say, where a number of programs have assisted minority students for years. The university has focused recruiting and retention efforts on minority and low-income students by assisting 200 students in a federally funded support services program. The program offers tutoring, financial aid counseling and regular meetings with mentors.
“That group has a very high retention rate of 81 percent,” said Corinne Hansen, communications director for BHSU.
During the summers, the university also hosts the Upward Bound program, which brings students across the state to experience university life and take classes. The Cheyenne River Sioux tribe YMCA also brings students ages 12-15 to campus to discuss future college plans and careers.
“That’s a critical time in their decision-making,” Hansen said.
The university’s Center for American Indian studies also helps students make the transition from high school to college, Hansen said. BHSU also is establishing a La Masa organization to provide a forum for discussion and activities related to Hispanic/ Latino/Latin American populations and cultures.
At the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, minority students are encouraged to participate in one of several student groups including the National Societies of Black and Hispanic Professional Engineers. The campus also organizes several activities for Native American students, said Abena Songbird, program assistant for Office of Multicultural Affairs at the School of Mines.
The school hosts GEAR UP, a program designed to encourage and provide support for the pathway from high school to college for Native American or first-generation students.
“It gives them the support maybe they didn’t have a few years back,” she said.
Top administrators at the school have been allies in the idea that there should be more multicultural diversity on campus and support for minorities and low-income students, she added.
“School officials have made this a priority — to believe in diversity,” Songbird said.
Paul Gough, director of policy and planning for the Regents, said the system is making a renewed commitment to the initiative now that Warner has taken on the role of executive director.
“When Warner first arrived, we decided we would be much more involved,” Gough said.
The state is on the right track, he said, by recruiting first-generation students and assisting them from the moment they start class to when they are handed a degree.
“We want to close the gaps, and one way of doing that is by attracting people from families who have not traditionally gone,” he added. “We have to get people who are not going … to make a change.”
Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or
