Some college leaders have dismissed the White House’s Summit on College Opportunity—the second installment of which takes place on Thursday—as a dog-and-pony show focused more on drawing attention than on stoking action. But all of the more than 100 institutions that scored invitations to the first summit, held in January, had to pledge to do something to expand college access for needy students.
After the first summit, The Chronicle compiled a searchable list of those commitments. Now, as the White House prepares to release its own progress report, we checked in with six institutions to see how their pledges were faring. In some cases, they’ve had early success; in others, they’re still looking to get projects off the ground. Here’s a quick roundup:
Centre College (Ky.)
What it pledged: Centre College pledged to consider working with the Posse Foundation, a nonprofit group that trains students at public high schools for college, to add “a second Posse Program focused on veterans.” The institution also committed to explore ways to improve recruitment of Hispanic-American students.
What it’s done: Before the January summit, the college was already working toward strategies aimed at recruiting Hispanic and Latino students, said Robert M. Nesmith, dean of admissions. In the past year, the college has hired a native Spanish speaker to devise recruitment strategies and help with counseling programs.
In order to build relationships with high-school students who could be recipients of Centre College scholarships, the college also held counselor luncheons in 10 national markets with strong Hispanic and Latino populations.
The collaboration with the Posse Foundation hasn’t yet come to pass, but John A. Roush, the college’s president, said Centre had made clear that it remains very interested in creating a program for veterans. Because Kentucky is home to two military installations, Mr. Roush said, it would be an ideal location.
What it’ll do next: Centre College will continue putting into practice a long-term strategic plan, dubbed “The Centre Saga,” that focuses on diversifying the enrollment. In January 2015, the college plans to announce a campaign to raise its endowment for scholarships.
Georgia State University
What it pledged: Georgia State said it would adopt an “Early Alert System for Financial Risk” that would use “predictive analytics and timely interventions to mitigate student attrition due to financial factors and give low-income students the maximum opportunity to succeed.”
What it’s done: Georgia State already uses an early-alert system for academic risk; over the past year the university has worked off of that model to create a parallel system for financial risk. Timothy M. Renick, vice provost and vice president for enrollment management and student success, said the university had used 10 years of data—144,000 student records—to find patterns of early-warning signs that could indicate when students are in financial trouble.
Mr. Renick said the institution had found several interesting trends. For example, students who filled out federal student-aid forms within two weeks of the deadline were 27 percent more likely to be dropped in subsequent semesters for financial reasons.
“We don’t want to know down the road when they drop the class because they can’t make a payment,” Mr. Renick said. “The system helps identify risks so we can intervene and have the student sit down with a financial counselor or figure out a way to keep them in class.”
The intervention depends on the situation. Some students receive email reminders; others are invited to one-on-one meetings with financial advisers. Mr. Renick said the alert system had helped the university identify and assist 2,100 students with grants.
What it’ll do next: The university plans to open a financial-counseling center on the campus by the fall of 2015. Mr. Renick said the center would serve as the “point place” for staff members to collect resources to reach out to high-school students preparing for college. At this year’s White House summit, Georgia State is pledging to increase the number of underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors by 25 percent within two years.
Lewis and Clark College (Ore.)
What it pledged: Lewis and Clark pledged to enroll 50 percent more transfer students from local community colleges. The college also announced a pilot program to provide financially needy students with advances on their work-study funds before they begin on-campus jobs.
What it’s done: The college hasn’t yet met its enrollment goal. That was a longer-term plan, according to Lisa Meyer, dean of enrollment and communications, and Lewis and Clark intends to hit it by the fall of 2015. But Lewis and Clark has increased transfer-student enrollment by 20 to 25 percent since it made the pledge, Ms. Meyer said. (Since last fall, when the college began planning the effort, one admissions counselor has focused solely on reaching out to local community colleges to attract more low-income students.)
The work-study advances are currently available only at the campus bookstore. Students can buy books and supplies, Ms. Meyer said, and then pay them off over the course of the semester.
Ms. Meyer said the program had mitigated a problem with work-study, which doesn’t do much to help students with their needs at the start of a semester. “In the big-picture theoretical way, that’s great, they have enough money,” she said. “But in reality, they haven’t worked any hours yet, and they need to buy books and supplies now—immediately.”
What it’ll do next: Ms. Meyer said the number of Lewis and Clark students receiving Pell Grants had increased by about 20 percent since last year, as had the number of students of color. In response, the college is providing mentoring and training to the undergraduate faculty on how to work with a more-diverse student body.
Northeastern University (Mass.)
What it pledged: Northeastern pledged to fund 150 scholarships for students from Boston’s public schools, including 30 new scholarships covering the full “demonstrated need” of low-income public-school students who live near the university’s main campus.
What it’s done: The university has filled about 130 of the scholarship spots and says it will fill the entire 150 now that it has a full regular-admissions cycle to do so.
To fill those slots, Northeastern has planned outreach events at Boston public schools and has organized two college-readiness programs geared specifically toward the scholarships.
What it’ll do next: Northeastern will continue offering the 150 full-tuition scholarships.
Oregon Institute of Technology
What it pledged: Oregon Tech promised to explore “a personalized text-messaging campaign to increase STEM course-taking and achievement among underrepresented minorities and disadvantaged students.” It also said it would “reach 14 school districts with hands-on applied-science experiences by 2025,” and would help Benson Polytechnic High School, in Portland, with college-advising workshops and tuition assistance.
What it’s done: Oregon Tech is still preparing to start its first text-messaging campaign. Barb J. Conner, coordinator of retention, said the program would start with a group of 20 to 30 students in the winter of 2015-16.
Ms. Conner said the institution had combed five years of data to identify students in STEM fields who were at high risk of not succeeding, specifically members of ethnic and gender minority groups, first-generation students, and low-income students. The campaign, run by Ms. Conner and a student mentor, will begin with initial meetings to assess each student’s barriers; those meetings will be followed with weekly texts that direct students to campus resources and encourage those who may be questioning whether they can succeed in STEM fields.
“Students want someone there when they need someone but don’t want to be bogged down by email,” Ms. Conner said. “We are meeting students where they do business, and it’s on their phones.”
What it’ll do next: Next fall Oregon Tech plans to extend the text-messaging campaign to include students in local high schools with which the institution has built partnerships. Ms. Conner said this move is not about recruiting new students. “Even if they don’t come to Oregon Tech, we want to encourage high-school students [that] they can make it in these fields,” she said.
Tacoma Community College (Wash.)
What it pledged: Tacoma Community College committed to “a project to end homelessness,” pledging to team up with the Tacoma Housing Authority to create a housing-voucher program for low-income students. The college also said it would continue working with “feeder” high schools to study gaps in local high-school courses and to determine how to avoid remedial courses for students making the transition to college.
What it’s done: The first group of 25 students in the three-year, $150,000 housing-voucher program recently received funding, along with financial-literacy courses and counseling. So far, 21 students have been placed in housing, said Shema Hanebutte, Tacoma’s dean of counseling, advising and access, and career services. Ms. Hanebutte said the impetus for the program was a series of conversations with students about what they needed to succeed at Tacoma.
“Affordable housing was one of the first things that emerged,” she said. “There were students who were couch-surfing or sleeping in their cars.” The college began by focusing on its job-training program, which includes a range of nontraditional students.
The program was initially delayed, she said, as the college waited for approval of federal funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But money has now been secured.
What it’ll do next: With the newly approved funding in place, Ms. Hanebutte said, the college hopes to work with the housing authority to expand a program focused on homeless families.