Title V Grant Awarded to CSU Dominguez Hills for Latino Success Program

California State University, Dominguez Hills has recently received a five-year Title V grant of $2,768,113 from the U.S. Department of Education’s Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program. The funds will be used to establish a new success program for Latino students, “Encuentro Hacia El Exito” (Encounter to Excellence). Susan Borrego, vice president of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs was the principal investigator on the grant, joined by William Franklin, associate vice president, Student Success Services.

“This grant provides us with a great opportunity to coordinate student support targeted at the first two years,” says Borrego. “Research demonstrates that when student support is provided early, students are far more successful in attaining their degree.”

Encuentro’s goals include an increase in the satisfaction rate for students who use academic support programs and services; an increased retention rate for Latino students; first-time freshmen completing their first and second years in good standing; and successful remediation in mathematics and English for students within one year of admission to the university. The program will focus on strengthening developmental education completion rates, building learning communities, promoting supplemental instruction, faculty development, technology-mediated student progress tracking and advising; advisor training; and outreach to Latino families and communities. Borrego and Franklin proposed enhancing the learning environment inside and outside of the classroom with evidence-based best practices for developmental education and intrusive academic support.

“This is a student success initiative,” states Borrego. “We’re looking at the first two years [of college] and creating a network of programs and services. This will infuse support to a lot of student programs. As an HSI, we have a high number of underserved students and fully believe the adage ‘Rising tides lift all boats.’”

As of fall of 2008, CSU Dominguez Hills serves a 39.5 percent Latino enrollment. First-generation undergraduates make up 43.4 percent of that population, with 56.9 percent of students the first among their immediate family to attend college.

“Cal State Dominguez Hills is committed to educating all first-generation students,” says President Mildred García. “We are particularly mindful of the challenges faced by students from the Latino populations of California and are excited to be able to offer a success program such as Encuentro. With this effort, the university will continue to be instrumental in educating the workforce of the region and contributing to the socioeconomic recovery and strengthening of California.”

- Joanie Harmon