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Grants totaling $150,000 will fund research and scholarships

Lafayette recently received two grants totaling $150,000 for its Diversity Recruitment Project. This project is part of the College’s in-depth strategic planning process and is meant to increase diversity on campus through better outreach to underrepresented groups of students.

The first grant in the amount of $50,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will fund research for better recruitment mechanisms targeting students from underrepresented groups. The most recent grant comes from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation in the amount of $100,000. This grant will be used to establish a Hearst Scholarship Fund dedicated to diminishing the outstanding loan burdens of students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.

“Our goal of enhancing diversity on campus is ambitious, but necessary and fundamental,” explains President Daniel H. Weiss. “As I concluded in my article for Inside Higher Education, the challenges are great, but the opportunities to do the right things on the right issues are greater. If we wish to succeed in the new century and if we wish to have a transformative impact on higher education in the United States and throughout the world, we must accept the challenge that we can do more for our students and the broader communities that we serve.”

Roberto Noya, dean of enrollment services, will be overseeing the College’s Diversity Recruitment Project and working with Carol Rowlands, director of admissions. He comments on the benefits students would reap in the classroom from such diversity.

“The issue is really a pedagogical one,” says Noya. “A vast amount of the courses at Lafayette are discussion-based, and any discussion is deeply enriched with a greater diversity of contributors, and this, of course, extends beyond race and ethnicity.”

According to Noya, part of the overall plan for the $50,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation is to help the administration reassess how they evaluate applicants and incoming students.

“We would like to take a much more holistic approach to how we evaluate prospective students,” Noya explains. “Several organizations that have done this (including the Posse Scholars Program of which Lafayette is a partner) have found that many students that appeared ill-equipped for college programs based on their high school credentials and traditional evaluation processes, can succeed. These organizations are now trying to enlighten colleges on this issue that if they spend more time getting to know these students beyond traditional evaluation practices, they might get a far different picture of the students’ potential and what they can bring to the college.

“The numbers say a lot, but they do not say everything,” Noya continues. “Sometimes the story behind the numbers reveals the incredible odds a student has overcome to get as far as they have. With a little extra support and mentoring, many of these students can do well and also bring unique perspectives and resources to the educational experiences of their peers.”

The grant will help support the formation of focus groups with current students and young alumni, including current and recent Posse Scholars, regarding improvements to diversity on campus and students’ perceptions of diversity. Consultants will also be brought on board to examine the student evaluation processes identifying underrepresented students who would succeed at Lafayette.

With this, the admissions department plans to recommend programs for enhancing diversity in student residential life, explore new rubrics for evaluating applicants, and develop more printed and online materials to attract a greater diversity of students and promote diversity on campus. They also wish to explore additional ways to attract more underrepresented students, such as the Posse program.

The second grant for $100,000 from the Hearst Foundation will help establish a Hearst Scholarship Endowment Fund, which will also be part of the College’s Diversity Recruitment Plan. The fund will be used to supply scholarships to the most financially needy of Lafayette’s United States resident students to help diminish the loan portion of their financial aid package.

Diversity recruitment involves pulling from underrepresented groups, which, among others, include those of lower socioeconomic status, says Noya. The opportunity for such scholarships will help make Lafayette a more attractive place for students from families with lower incomes, as well as help the student enjoy a better quality of life on campus.

“The scholarships will enable students of modest means to graduate with less loans, or no loans, as well as free up more money for them to borrow for studying abroad and other enriching opportunities without having to max out on their loans,” explains Noya.

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