First-generation and minority students borrow far more for college and are much less likely to graduate, a problem that will worsen with demographic shifts. But three public universities have shown how, even in an era of declining state support for higher education, colleges can reverse those trends, according to a report being released on Tuesday by the Center for American Progress.
All three—the University of California at Riverside, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and the University of South Florida at Tampa—offer generous need-based scholarships as well as robust support services, including summer bridge programs and learning communities that allow freshmen to work in groups. All three have increased their percentages of enrollees with Pell Grants and all but eliminated graduation gaps between white and black or Latino students.
A report last year by the Education Trust found that colleges were making gradual progress in narrowing graduation gaps between students in underrepresented minority groups and white students. But those changes aren’t happening fast enough, according to the new report.
“As both communities of color and the poverty rate continue to grow, it is economically imperative to improve the value of college for the least-advantaged students,” it says.
At public four-year colleges, students in the lowest income group, who disproportionately are black or Latino, need to borrow nearly twice as much as do students in the highest income group to pay for college, the report notes. Minority, first-generation, and low-income students take longer to graduate, which adds to the cost. At public four-year colleges, 61 percent of incoming white, first-time students earn a bachelor’s degree within five years, compared with 46 percent of black students and 49 percent of Latinos.
As a result, the report notes, “college is becoming less affordable for the population with the greatest need for a path to the middle class.”
Students at the lowest income levels are almost three times as likely to drop out, leaving them with high debt and without the average earnings boost of $18,000 per year that bachelor’s-degree holders enjoy, the report says.
Following are a few ways the report says the three universities are bucking those trends, using a combination of federal, state, and institutional money.
University of South Florida at Tampa
Need-based grants have been key in helping the campus double its share of Pell Grant-eligible students while increasing graduation rates by 10 percent since 2008, according to Billie Jo Hamilton, assistant vice president for enrollment and planning management. The Florida Legislature requires public universities to spend at least 30 percent of their tuition dollars on need-based aid, the report says, but the university bumped that up to 40 percent.
It also instituted a professional advising system with more advisers, required freshmen to live on the campus, and expanded opportunities for campus jobs.
University of California at Riverside
A robust pool of need-based money was also key in helping the university support a student body where 59 percent are eligible for Pell Grants and 60 percent are first-generation college students.
The university maintains a need-based aid pool that’s several times larger than the value of the Pell Grants students receive, according to Bill Kidder, assistant provost. That, along with Cal Grants, provides “a robust infrastructure of support for low-income students,” the report says. The university’s Pell Grant recipients graduate at the same rate as high-income students.
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
In addition to maintaining generous need-based aid programs, the university offers learning communities by major and freshman-specific seminars. A six-week summer bridge program for incoming freshmen, now in its 28th year, has helped increase first-to-second-year retention by 12 percent, university officials say.
For all three universities, the most important factor is support from the top. “While many public universities offer robust need-based aid programs and student-support services,” the report notes, “it is strong leadership and institutional commitments to improvement that ultimately make these three universities stand out.”
