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In The News
March 19, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Five-Year Initiative at Minority-Serving
Institutions
Yields Significant Success in Student Learning and Participation
CSU Dominguez Hills’ engagement efforts
among best practices highlighted in recently released monograph
(Carson, CA)— California
State University, Dominguez Hills’ participation in the Building
Engagement and Attainment for Minority Students (BEAMS) initiative,
and the successes achieved by that participation, will be highlighted
at a luncheon from noon to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, March 25, in the
Loker Student Union Ballroom on campus. The invitation-only event
will also be webcast and archived for future viewing on the university’s
Center for Teaching and Learning web site, http://ctl.csudh.edu.
Launched in 2003, BEAMS was created to
bolster the important role Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs)
play in facilitating minority
students’ participation in and completion of higher education.
Through financial support, the initiative encouraged the more than
100 Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), Historically Black Colleges
and Universities (HBCUs), and Tribal Colleges and Universities
(TCUs) participating in the project to devise and implement data-driven
action plans intended to strengthen the academic success of students
of color.
Several best practices emerged from the
efforts of participating institutions and are outlined in a monograph
released this month
titled Increasing Student Success at Minority-Serving Institutions:
Findings from the BEAMS Project. The publication, along with accompanying
practice briefs detailing similar institutional change initiatives,
also highlights the project’s key findings and lessons learned.
“The BEAMS project is a remarkable accomplishment providing
clear evidence that positive campus change and student success
are possible when financial and other supportive resources are
made available to institutions of higher education,” said
Thomas D. Parker, Ed.D., interim president and senior associate
of the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP). BEAMS is a
project of IHEP’s Alliance for Equity in Higher Education. “We’ve
learned that institutions place themselves in a precarious position
when making campus change decisions based on assumptions of their
students’ needs and concerns. Although it may be costly to
implement and maintain, data collection helps institutions make
the right decisions to improve the postsecondary experience of
all students.”
The BEAMS project at CSU Dominguez Hills, a public
Hispanic-Serving Institution, received recognition on its five-year
plan of improving
multiple levels of academic engagement and university support of
faculty and students. Of special note was a focus on revamping
an introductory course on higher education, University 101, to
make it more relevant and have a greater impact on student success.
Designed
to ease the transition to college and provide skills for college
and beyond, the University 101 course had originally
been voluntary and only four sections were offered. Today, there
are 12 sections and more than 600 students enroll each year,
and as a result of a concerted effort by administrators and faculty
to make the course a success, retention rates have improved.
First-year
students participating in University 101 had a 78% retention
rate to year two, while freshman not participating had a 53% retention
rate. These results led CSU Dominguez administrators to make
University
101 a mandatory course for all freshmen beginning in fall 2009.
Another component of the CSU Dominguez
Hills BEAMS project was to strengthen the university’s
faculty development program. The team created a speakers series
that in the past four years
has featured internationally known higher education experts. The
exchange of information and ideas through the series and corresponding
workshops produce strategies professors can use in their classrooms
to enhance student learning.
These programs were among those illustrated
as best practices in the BEAMS monograph. The monograph, Increasing
Student Success
at Minority-Serving Institutions: Findings from the BEAMS Project,
is available on IHEP’s Web site at www.ihep.org. Also available
online are the project’s eight practice briefs that focus
on aligning multiple campus initiatives, campus leaders' support,
co-curricular activities, collecting survey data for assessment,
engagement among campus constituencies, faculty development, first-year
programs, student support services technology, and writing across
the curriculum.
The March 25 event at CSU Dominguez Hills
is part of a five-city national campaign to disseminate the BEAMS
monograph. The luncheon
event will feature a panel of experts who will discuss the project’s
findings and recommendations.
o Jim Cooper, Professor of Graduate Education
and Coordinator of the Curriculum and Instruction M.A. Program,
CSU Dominguez Hills
o Scott Evenbeck, Dean, University College, Indiana
University-Purdue University, Indianapolis
o Tony Fresquez, Faculty,
Department of Humanities, Oglala Lakota
College, South Dakota
o Cheryl Spector, Director, Academic First
Year Experience, California State University, Northridge BEAMS is a partnership between National Survey
of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Alliance for Equity in Higher
Education and is supported
by the Lumina Foundation for Education.
# # #
---------------------------------------------- About IHEP – The Institute
for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) is an independent, nonprofit
organization that is dedicated to access and success in postsecondary
education around the world. Established in 1993, the Washington
D.C.-based organization uses unique research and innovative programs
to inform key decision makers who shape public policy and support
economic and social development. IHEP’s web site, www.ihep.org,
features an expansive collection of higher education information
available free of charge and provides access to some of the most
respected professionals in the field of public policy and research.
About the Alliance
for Equity in Higher Education – The
Alliance for Equity in Higher Education was established in 1999
by the American Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), the Hispanic
Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) and the National
Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO)
to represent the shared interests of Historically Black Colleges
and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Tribal Colleges
and Universities. Combined, these Minority-Serving Institutions
(MSIs), represented by AIHEC, HACU and NAFEO, educate more than
one-third of all students of color in the United States. MSIs
disproportionately address the needs of low-income, minority
students while contributing significantly to generating a highly
skilled workforce, developing civic and community responsibility,
and producing citizens who are exceptionally attuned to the increasingly
diverse country in which we live. The Alliance is managed by
IHEP, one of the world’s premier higher education groups
concerned with policy development.
About
CSU Dominguez Hills -- California
State University, Dominguez Hills is a highly diverse,
urban university located in the South Bay, primarily
serving the
Los Angeles metropolitan area. The university prides itself
on its outstanding faculty and friendly, student-centered
environment.
Known for excellence in teacher education, nursing, psychology,
business administration, and digital media arts, new degree
programs include computer science, criminal justice,
recreation and leisure
studies, social work, and communication disorders. On campus
is the Home Depot Center, a multi-purpose sports complex
that hosts
world-class soccer, tennis, track and field, lacrosse, and
cycling.
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