CSUDH Receives Grant to Improve Degree Completion for Male Students of Color

November 02, 2017

Carson – California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) has been awarded a $166,000 grant from the College Futures Foundation to improve bachelor degree completion for male students of color in the California State University (CSU) system.

“Whether presented on a national or regional platform, the access, retention and graduation rates for young men of color are alarming,” said William Franklin, vice president for Student Affairs at CSUDH. He was also responsible for writing the grant and will serve as the principal investigator on this systemwide initiative. “While school success and postsecondary degree attainment of men of color at all levels in the national pipeline are important, this project will focus on the California State University, and the systemwide disparities that compel us to act.”

The grant will enable the networking of all 23 CSU campuses to plan, organize, and convene forums to share “models of best practices” for young men of color. The forums will include the participation of leaders from academic affairs and student affairs departments, and students from across the CSU system.

The educational experiences of young men of color, most notably, African-American and Latino males are “complicated by an array of challenges rarely faced by many of their female counterparts,” according to the grant proposal, and retention and graduation rates for young men of color are “alarmingly” low. Most of the 23 CSU campuses have documented significant underachievement and attrition among their male students of color, which may be the result of the lack of robust and coordinated systemwide and campus-specific practices proven to work.

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