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

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

  • close-up illustration of a hand signing a legislative document

    California Passes AI Safety Legislation, Awaits Governor's Signature

    California lawmakers have overwhelmingly approved a bill that would impose new restrictions on AI technologies, potentially setting a national precedent for regulating the rapidly evolving field. The legislation, known as S.B. 1047, now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom's desk. He has until the end of September to decide whether to sign it into law.

  • Copilot Propels Microsoft to Lead Position in Analytics/BI Market

    A new Gartner report on the analytics/business intelligence market places Microsoft in the lead position of the field. The Redmond cloud giant stands apart and alone atop the axes for both the ability to execute and completeness of vision in Gartner's latest "Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms."

  • a stylized magnifying glass and a neural network pattern with interconnected nodes, symbolizing search and AI processes

    OpenAI Unveils SearchGPT AI-Powered Search Engine

    OpenAI has introduced SearchGPT, a new AI-powered search engine designed to access information from across the internet in real time. The much-anticipated prototype will provide more organized and meaningful search results by summarizing and contextualizing information rather than returning lists of links.

  • UMGC Officially Adopts InScribe's Student Community Platform

    The University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), an offshoot of the University System of Maryland that focuses on hybrid and virtual courses for adult and military students, is officially committing to a university-wide rollout of InScribe's student networking platform.