Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JULY 17, 2025

While I can't cover every facet of mentoring in a single article, I want to share three core principles—backed by research and real-world experience—that colleges should consider when developing or enhancing mentoring programs. When implemented intentionally, these strategies support student retention, confidence, and engagement.

Mentoring

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

MARCH 7, 2025

Jackson, who was appointed president at Nashville State Community College in 2018. Montague of Volunteer State Community College raised serious questions about the unique pressures faced by women leaders, particularly women of color. Success stories Among the initiatives success stories is Dr. Shanna L.

Educational leadership

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

NOVEMBER 1, 2024

While there are FAFSA webinars available, I believe community and family focused FAFSA and financial aid workshops in tribal communities might be an effective way to promote college going overall among indigenous students.” FDLTCC is both a tribal college and a community college part of the state system.

Higher education

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JUNE 9, 2025

Chancellor Joe Garcia As Chancellor Joseph Garcia prepares for retirement on July 1, his departure marks the end of a remarkable chapter for the Colorado Community College System. Perhaps Garcia’s most significant achievement has been transforming the leadership landscape within the Colorado Community College System.

Leadership

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

NOVEMBER 18, 2024

The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) New Beginning for Tribal Students (NBTS) program was created to help increase the retention and graduation rate of Tribal students attending 1994, 1862, and 1890 land-grant universities.

Grant

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

MARCH 12, 2025

Ezeonu previously served as where Vice President of Instruction at Green River College from July 2018 through February 2025. During her time there, she led full-time and adjunct faculty recruitment, development, retention and evaluation, curriculum and instruction.

Instruction

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

FEBRUARY 22, 2025

Highlighting excellence in community college education, Achieving the Dream (ATD) has named 23 institutions as either Leader Colleges or Leader Colleges of Distinction for 2025, celebrating their commitment to student success and institutional reform.

Student success

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

FEBRUARY 5, 2025

As chief executive officers in the California community college system, we embarked upon the topic of STEM out of an acute awareness of the lack of Dr. Lennor Johnson opportunities available to disproportionately impacted communities, and a shared commitment to forging increased pathways for those with the least access.

Student success

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JULY 24, 2025

HSI grants are made available in part to narrow this gap in college outcomes amongst Hispanic students. What is my college doing with its HSI grant? The average graduation rate in four-year postsecondary institutions was 52% for Hispanic students compared to 65% for white students.

Grant

Civitas Learning

NOVEMBER 14, 2024

As Northwest Missouri State University (Northwest) worked to improve retention rates, it recognized that faculty and staff needed a centralized location to communicate and access student data easily. Their data-driven student support ecosystem has led to significant improvements in retention, with a 16% increase from 2012 to 2022.

Advising

Civitas Learning

MAY 7, 2025

At Lakeland Community College , leaders used Course Insights to investigate performance in their First Year Experience (FYE) course. This effort contributed to an 8% increase in retention between 2016 and 2021, surpassing their goal with an 80% retention rate from Fall 2021 to Fall 2022.

Scheduling

Civitas Learning

DECEMBER 12, 2024

Traditional metrics, such as retention and graduation rates, don’t fully capture whether students succeed during college. SUNY Broome Community College (SUNY Broome) identified 184 students with academic warnings and financial aid concerns and launched a targeted outreach campaign. This was a key factor in their 3.7%

Students

Civitas Learning

JUNE 12, 2025

Create Spaces That Support the Whole Student It shouldn’t take a dip in retention or a crisis to recognize how vital spaces, like libraries and technology hubs, are to student success. Proactive Support in Action At Austin Community College (ACC) , support starts before students even set foot on campus.

Success

Civitas Learning

APRIL 17, 2025

This approach empowers institutions to uncover hidden gaps and drive outcomes like improving retention, scaling advising, and strengthening cross-campus collaboration. When vendors provide strategic, outcome-focused enablementnot just technical trainingteams are far more equipped to use the platform to its full potential.

Advising

College Planners of America

JULY 25, 2025

Moreover, they do this cost effectively by paying an exam fee of $97 instead of the cost of college tuition for a three-credit course, which can range from $300 or so at community college to over $5,000 at top colleges. Exams scores are accepted for credit at far more colleges than any other credit-by-examination program.

Mathematics

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

FEBRUARY 11, 2025

Dakota Doman attended a Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) HBCU fly-in event in Washington, D.C. in 2023, he wasnt planning to resurrect a defunct executive search firm. Williams, president & CEO of TMCF. Williams points to the unique challenges of HBCU leadership as a key driver behind the firms relaunch.

Leadership

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JUNE 27, 2024

A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center noted that more than 76% of students who started college in the fall of 2022 returned for their second year. Done annually, the 2024 Persistence and Retention report shows the persistence rate (returning to college at any institution) rose 0.8

Retention

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

APRIL 8, 2024

The profile of the average community college student is changing. While two-year institutions still have significant populations of adult students and people desirous of enhancing their career options, there is a growing number of first-time college students, age 18 to 22, that are seeking a traditional college experience.

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

The recent Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies report on the steep enrollment declines of Black male students at community colleges is a stark reminder that our sector must accelerate the crucial work to ensure the academic success of Black male students.

Equity

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JULY 9, 2024

Colclough hatched an idea — what if they could develop professional learning environments easily accessible for all faculty in North Carolina’s community colleges, and what if that development could move the needle on student success? Good ideas are good ideas.

Teaching

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

MAY 28, 2024

To be identified as a bellwether among community colleges is no small feat, but that is precisely why the Community College Futures Assembly continues to draw high-performing teams annually to compete for the Bellwether and Legacy Awards. Reading Area Community College (Pennsylvania), St.

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

APRIL 2, 2023

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, community colleges across the country saw a decline in enrollment for myriad reasons — financial, family, illness, lack of internet or inability to adapt to online learning. The purpose of community colleges is to increase access to higher education for the most vulnerable populations.”

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

APRIL 1, 2025

Stout, recipient of the 2025 Diverse Champions Award, has focused her career on helping community colleges achieve outstanding student success. Moono, president of SUNY Schenectady County Community College. Felder, president of Harford Community College in Maryland, where Stout began her community college career in 1984.

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

NOVEMBER 9, 2022

After two years of COVID-19, community college enrollment was in triage. Indian River State College (IRSC) in Fort Pierce, FL, and Coahoma Community College (CCC) in Clarksdale, MS, saw their efforts to rebuild their student populations pay off. Dr. Timothy Moore, president of Indian River State College.

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

However, the Minority Male Success Initiative (MMSI), a three-year project from the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) and Watermark, an ed tech company, has offered a glimmer of hope: students who received success coaching using an online platform were 22.4% The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the trend.

Retention

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JULY 14, 2023

Community colleges play a critical role, providing affordable and accessible education for diverse populations. According to the American Association of Community Colleges, our nation had over 1,000 public, tribal, and independent community colleges enrolling 10.2

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JULY 7, 2023

In fact, most studies concerning African Americans have focused on the retention of students or faculty (Wolfe & Dilworth, 2015). Yet there is little research on the underrepresentation of African American community college trustees. Dr. Terry Calaway is president emeritus, Johnson County Community College (KS).

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

AUGUST 7, 2023

Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) has received $75,000 to increase retention, completion, and transfer success for male students of color. Dr. Sunni L.

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

MAY 17, 2023

A rare partnership between a group of community colleges and a private, for-profit institution is aiming to fix that. The Alamo Colleges District, made up of five community colleges, is the largest provider of higher education in South Texas with over 100,000 students, 81% of whom are students of color.

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

Kirkwood Community College will be closing or modifying three programs and is laying off faculty and staff, citing low enrollment, Corridor Business Journal reported. The greater the number of our graduates, the greater the impact they will have on our region.”

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Financial aid, retention, and faculty/staff representation are part of the Seal,” says Dr. Deborah Santiago, co-founder and CEO of Excelencia in Education, who says she is delighted to see institutions with intentional practices actively working toward increasing Latino representation in key positions. Hawkins Jr. Hawkins, Jr.

Retention

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

MAY 8, 2024

The global nonprofit Aspen Institute has named 20 semifinalists for the 2025 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, a $1 million prize. The Aspen Institute plans to announce 10 finalists in June. The Aspen Institute plans to announce 10 finalists in June.

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JANUARY 8, 2024

In the new report, “Ending Unfunded Mandates in Higher Education: Using Completion-Goals Funding to Improve Accountability and Outcomes,” Complete College America (CCA) calls on states to evolve beyond performance-based funding to what they call completion-goals funding. There’s a referendum that needs to occur on funding."

Low income student

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

AUGUST 5, 2024

Across higher education, the desire for diversity among student populations is usually the responsibility of recruitment efforts but falls short in retention strategies. Colleges typically use a variety of assessments such as standardized tests, essays, and GPA to determine a student's readiness for life in academia.

Retention

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

SEPTEMBER 7, 2023

Military friendly is a common phrase used by organizations to communicate an appreciation of military service members (Kirchner, et al., If your community college is struggling to have those conversations, outside facilitators can support you. Dr. Susan M. 2) Who are your military-connected learners and how do you know?

Retention

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JULY 23, 2024

The City University of New York (CUNY) is responding to allegations it failed to honor an agreement to build a new community college facility with monies donated by The Stella and Charles Guttman Foundation. The foundation is a not-for-profit corporation established in 1959 by New York businessman Charles Guttman.

Retention

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Nicholas Cochrane, associate professor of business and economics at Mount Wachusett Community College. “To Now, Cochrane is an associate professor of business and economics at Mount Wachusett Community College (MWCC) in rural Gardner, Mass., To say I didn’t fit in was an understatement,” said Cochrane. “I

Students