National U Initiative to Boost Hispanic Student Success Through DEI, Teaching, Advising, and Transfer Practices

  • By Kate Lucariello
  • 01/03/23

National University (NU) in San Diego, a private, nonprofit Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), has been awarded a five-year, $3 million grant by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to help foster Hispanic student success through enhancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, teaching, advising, and transfer practices. The grant has been made available through the Title V Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (DHSI) Program.

NU serves over 40,000 students, almost a third of whom identify as Hispanic, giving it its HSI designation. According to the U.S. Census, Hispanic enrollment in college has more than doubled since 2008. ED notes that 44% of Hispanic college students are the first in their families to attend college.

NU will launch an initiative called ACCESS (Accelerating Curricular Change and Enhancing Student Support), led by personnel in student services, academic affairs, and the office of Social Justice Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. ACCESS will be a three-pronged effort toward classroom inclusivity, education equity, and reduction of education costs for Hispanic students. To help reduce costs, NU will pursue agreements with other HSIs to accept more course credit transfers to count toward a degree. Funds will also be used to train faculty and staff and support professional development.

Founded in 1971 as a nonprofit educational institution, NU has more than 75 degree programs and 100-plus online and on-campus programs with flexible four-week classes to help customize education plans for diverse students. Coupled with an asset-based teaching strategy that focuses on the strengths students and teachers bring to the classroom, NU's "Whole Human" approach to education focuses on five "pillars of support": financial, academic, career, family/community, and social/emotional. Visit the university's About page to learn more.

About the Author

Kate Lucariello is a former newspaper editor, EAST Lab high school teacher and college English teacher.

Featured

  • group of college students looking at large screen of data visualizations

    Scalable Cloud Strategies: Values for Higher Education

    From a massive, 23-campus cloud-and-security transformation, to a small college's "lift and shift" entry into the public cloud, Unisys Higher Education Strategist Christopher Wessells knows how higher education leverages the cloud. Here, he examines some of the values scalable cloud strategies offer our institutions.

  • a glowing golden coin with a circuit board pattern, set against a gradient blue and white background with faint stock market graphs and metallic letters "AI" integrated into the design

    Google to Invest $1 Billion in AI Startup Anthropic

    Google is reportedly investing more than $1 billion in generative AI startup Anthropic, expanding its stake in one of Silicon Valley's leading artificial intelligence firms, according to a source familiar with the matter.

  • abstract human figures stand on a glowing grid floor in a vibrant digital landscape with floating holographic buildings, luminous data orbs, and a neon blue and purple gradient sky

    Metaverse Org Declares the Technology Is Accelerating in Spite of Rise of AI

    A new report from the Metaverse Standards Forum (MSF) declares the technology initiative is alive and well, despite skyrocketing attention paid to artificial intelligence.

  • glowing brain, connected circuits, and abstract representations of a book and graduation cap on a light gray gradient background

    Snowflake Launches Program to Upskill 100,000 People in Data and AI

    Cloud data platform Snowflake is embarking on an effort to train and certify more than 100,000 users on its AI Data Cloud by 2027. The One Million Minds + One Platform program will provide Snowflake-delivered courses, training materials, and free access to Snowflake software, at no cost to learners.