I really appreciated reading Ryan Nelson’s opinion piece, “Graduating low-income students must be a goal,” in the April 30, 2013, edition of the Daily Bruin. Graduating low-income students must be a goal of colleges and universities, especially after they have invested time and resources to admit them.
Nelson also writes that “a good benchmark for determining the graduation rate of low-income students is the rate at which Pell Grant students finish their degrees.” I would also argue that another benchmark is the investment and amount of support that universities provide to programs that contribute to the academic success of low-income students.
State funding for support programs that help enrich the academic performance of low-income students declined significantly over the last 20 years. California’s public colleges and universities once led the nation in the number of programs that supported low-income students and students from underrepresented communities.
These programs, along with the appropriate financial assistance, were very instrumental in not only graduating students from low-income communities, but also uplifting families and entire communities.
Low-income and first-generation students confront a number of obstacles to graduating from college.
In a 2008 study by the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, 60 percent of low-income, first-generation students who leave postsecondary education without attaining a degree do so after the first year.
However, colleges that have successful academic support and enrichment programs that target this population have high retention and graduation rates. Their success is attributed to the following.
They provide students an entry to and a road map through the institution by helping students become well-integrated into the campus community, a key factor in college success.
They offer bridge programs during the summer between high school and college, orientation sessions and courses before and during the freshman year and first-year learning communities. These strategies have all been shown to ease the transition to college by helping students get integrated into the university.
They remove the barriers (primarily financial) that prevent low-income, first-generation students from fully participating and engaging in the experiences that are associated with success in college, such as living on campus, involvement in extracurricular activities, interaction with faculty outside of class and use of available support services.
They create an institutional culture that fosters student success and demonstrates strong leadership from top college administrators.
There are other factors; however, these seem to be the common thread among successful programs.
UCLA is truly committed to graduating low-income students by its 40-plus-year investment in the Academic Advancement Program. A significant number of the program’s students come from low-income families, are the first in their family to go to college, are immigrants, and are also from underrepresented minority communities.
More than 6,000 students, 23 percent of the UCLA undergraduate population, are eligible for Academic Advancement Program services. The program is an academic community that proactively supports its students by providing comprehensive, integrated services. It sets the highest standards for its students, promotes academic and personal excellence, and builds communities of scholars who share learning.
Approximately 90 percent of the undergraduates the Academic Advancement Program serves are on financial aid and 73 percent are eligible for federal Pell Grants. The majority of students are from historically underrepresented populations. Of the Academic Advancement Program’s student population, 23 percent are transfer students and 66 percent are females.
The Academic Advancement Program also serves another important demographic: approximately 97 percent of Academic Advancement Program students are the first in their family to attend college.
Graduation rates tend to be higher than that of any other program of its kind in the nation. The six-year graduation rate for Academic Advancement Program freshmen is 86 percent; the four-year graduation rate for transfer students is 88 percent.
As the state of California continues to realize the importance of increasing the educational attainment of its citizens as the key to its future economic stability in the global marketplace, improving postsecondary access and success among underrepresented populations, such as low-income, first-generation students, is paramount.
Governor Jerry Brown should consider providing additional funding to California’s public universities to support academic enrichment programs, like the Academic Advancement Program, along with the appropriate financial aid if he wants to increase four-year graduations rates of low-income students.
Charles J. Alexander is the director of the Academic Advancement Program and the associate vice provost for Student Diversity.