Catholic Institutions Commit to Action on College Opportunity

The Obama administration’s efforts to increase college opportunity has enticed the White House to ask colleges and universities to commit to helping more students enroll in and graduate from college. Several of our ACCU members have responded to the White House’s Commitment to Action on College Opportunity by pledging efforts in quite a few categories of commitment:

• Completion Commitments 
  • Association of Franciscan Colleges and Universities – Committed to producing an additional 11,500 graduates by 2020, the association will launch their project, “Stopping the Leak in the Educational Pipeline: Improving Matriculation and Graduation Rates at Franciscan Colleges and Universities.” With the help from this project, AFCU member institutions will join together and work closely with student success experts to develop systems, processes, and training to improve retention and graduation rates for all students, with a focus on at-risk students.
  • Loyola University Chicago – Loyola University Chicago has teamed up with Arrupe College in applying several strategies to help low-income, under-prepared and under-served students gain access to, succeed and graduate from a 4-year college or university. Together, they have commit to a total of 2,275 additional graduates by 2025.
  • St. Francis College – The Post–Prison College Opportunity Program at St. Francis College will promote civil rights by challenging the long-term consequences of mass incarceration by giving the formerly incarcerated the opportunity to earn a college degree. In addition, the program will provide tuition for accepted students through a combination of financial aid and scholarships.
• K-16 Partnership Commitment
  • Trinity Washington University – In partnership with the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), Trinity Washington University commits to improving college readiness, retention and completion for DCPS students who enroll at Trinity. The partnership will emphasize persistence and success for DCPS graduates who wish to pursue majors that require strong math preparation and that are associated with high-wage/high-demand careers, as well as engage key D.C. college access providers in implementing persistence strategies.
• STEM Commitment
  • Barry University – With the hopes of improving the retention and completion rates of low-income students, underrepresented minorities, and women in STEM majors, BU is working to develop a holistic engagement program designed to provide the outreach and opportunity structures that “fill the gap” for students who lack the pre-college academic preparation and developmental and personal experiences necessary for academic and professional success. As a Hispanic-serving institution whose 4-year graduation rate for the 2009 cohort was 45 percent, the university aims to increase that graduation rate by 10-15 percent by 2018 through interventions designed to foster community building, strong peer and faculty relationships, and a sense of academic self-efficacy.
  • Saint Martin’s University – In order to boost admittance and retention of women, low-income students, and underrepresented minority students in STEM degrees by between 5 and 10 percent, Saint Martin’s University will be launching a series of initiatives. Currently, the university is planning a series of monthly workshops for fifth through eighth graders, in conjunction with the Boys & Girls Club, designed to increase STEM admittance. Also, to increase retention, the university’s biology program is restructuring degree requirements, moving toward a core concept and competency model that includes an increase in active learning models and student research experience.
  • Trinity Washington University – With a strong track record of educating low income women of color in the Washington region, Trinity’s STEM initiative will include best practices such as cohort organization, special academic and co-curricular advising, and focused foundational courses taught by specialists who can provide individualized support. The university commits to increasing their STEM enrollments by 50 percent annually, improving their graduation rates for STEM majors from 35 percent to no less than 65 percent (with a reach goal of 75 percent) and seeking to improve first-to-second year retention from the current rate of 61 percent to no less than 80 percent for STEM cohorts, in order to meet the overall graduation rate goals.
• Counseling Commitment
  • Loyola University Maryland – The School Counseling Program (SCP) at Loyola University Maryland is planning a four-prong approach to support increasing college and career readiness among urban youth in Baltimore City and the surrounding counties. The components of the university’s four-pronged approach include providing direct counseling services to un-served and under-served youth in urban schools to enhance their vocational identity, program rigor, and college readiness; and expanding the research of counseling faculty regarding vocational identity.

Laudato Si Release: Act

Earlier today, Pope Francis released his long-awaited encyclical letter, Laudato Si.  We at ACCU are sharing resources and best practices to help our campuses pray for commitment to care for creation, learn about the encyclical and our call to stewardship, and act upon our beliefs to work for the common good.

˜ACT˜

ACCU member institutions have acted upon their call to care for creation through a number of sustainability and environmental justice initiatives.

• The Catholic Climate Covenant, with support from the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, the Association of Franciscan Colleges and Universities, and the Catholic Campus Ministry Association, have produced Sustainability and Catholic Higher Education: A Toolkit for Mission Integration (PDF; 3MB).  Through mission-based initiatives, the Toolkit offers practical suggestions to inspire individuals, families, schools, parishes, and dioceses to follow the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change’s St. Francis Pledge.
• 29 Catholic colleges and universities have taken the St. Francis Pledge, sponsored by the Catholic Climate Covenant, committing to living out the value of care for creation through reflection, action, and advocacy.  These campuses include: Aquinas College (MI), Cabrini College, Chestnut Hill College, College of Saint Benedict, Creighton University, Gonzaga University, John Carroll University, Lewis University, Loyola University Chicago, Marquette University, Mercyhurst University, Mount St. Joseph University, Neumann University, Rosemont College, Saint Anselm College, Saint Francis University, Saint John’s University (MN), Saint Joseph’s College (IN), Saint Mary’s College of California, Saint Michael’s College, Salve Regina University, Seattle University, St. Thomas More College, Stonehill College, University of Notre Dame, University of Portland, Villanova University, Viterbo University, and Xavier University.
• The Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability at Seattle University lives out a core tenet of the university mission.  The Center has undertaken a number of initiatives, including supporting faculty and student research through fellowships.  Dr. Trileigh Tucker, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Seattle University, and one of CEJS’s first Faculty Fellows, developed a teaching resource on environmental justice, compiling syllabi, assessment methods, and foundational documents used frequently in courses on environmental justice.
• Benedictine University in Illinois has received a $46,000 Food Scrap Composting Revitalization and Advancement Program (F-SCRAP) grant from the state to allow for the diversion of food scraps generated in the campus cafeteria and other buildings.
• In spring 2015, Cabrini College held a conference, “Faith, Climate, and Health”, to examine how climate change affects the health of the most vulnerable citizens.
• At the University of Portland, professors Dr. Russell Butkus and Dr. Steven Kolmes, teach a course entitled “Theology in Ecological Perspective”, exploring Catholic and Christian teaching and environmental science.

Read more ways ACCU member campuses have undertaken sustainability initiatives on the ACCU website.  Check back frequently as we will post new updates and ways that ACCU campuses react to the Laudato Si to the blog!