NORFOLK, Va. — Tuesday, Old Dominion University won a $105,000 grant to work on solutions that will help minority students enroll in, and graduate from, college.
The university won the grant by creating 11 "design thinking teams" to tackle barriers that tend to keep minority students from being successful in college. Each group will focus on one major issue.
Six of the teams are comprised of students, and five are groups of faculty members.
The funding came from the Lumina Foundation, an Indianapolis-based group that works to help minorities find success in higher education. The Lumina Foundation earmarked $725,000 to expand these opportunities at six public, four-year colleges in Virginia.
ODU has about 7,000 African American students, and a release from the university said this puts them at "14th in the nation in the number of African American students who graduate each year," according to Diverse Issues in Higher Education.
Bryan Payne, vice provost for academic affairs, said the grant would help the university review its enrollment and retention and make redesigns as necessary.
“We can’t assume that because we’re doing better than others that we’re doing the best we can,” he wrote.
Gov. Ralph Northam announced the grant, and said it would help minimize educational achievement gaps the pandemic particularly brought to light.
"This new funding will help Virginia further align our equity agenda with the promising efforts underway at six of our public institutions of higher education,” Northam said.
