Close the Opportunity Gap
Impact Area: Invest in and provide training for students, staff, and faculty
View the DEI Action Plan for 2020-2021
Identify and address institutional barriers at DU to close the opportunity gap between minoritized students and non-minoritized students.
Action Item Details
Currently, minoritized students at DU have some notable differential outcomes related to their overall success through to graduation at DU. While persistence rates for the first three years for minoritized students are comparable to non-minoritized students, the graduation rates (4-year, 5-year, and 6-year) show that minoritized students lag by 3-4%. This action item will create a working group to identify the financial, climate, classroom, and other institutional barriers in place at DU for these students. Understanding initially that these outcomes are not the result of any deficits, the working group will be expected by Winter 2021 to identify specific remedies and investments to address these barriers.
Updates
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Initial kick off meeting – August 26, 2020
On August 26, 2020, a group from the Provost's office, admissions office, and financial aid came together to evaluate this issue and create a framework for moving forward.
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First Opportunity Gap Working Group Meeting
The first convening of the Opportunity Gap Working Group of the DEI Steering Committee was held in March 2021. Work to create a proposal for a College Access Center was discussed, as well as the logistics of the group.
Working Group leadership includes Sarah Hoffman, office of the provost, and Derek DeBose, office of admission.
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Mentoring and Learning Grants Awarded for Minoritized Students in STEM
Together, ODEI, the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science and the undergraduate research program awarded nearly $100k in summer grants for racially minoritized students to collaborate with DU faculty in research labs through DU’s E-STEM Summer Research Initiative.