UA Part of $10 Million National Initiative to Increase Enrollment Among Low-Income Community College Students

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has awarded a $1 million grant to The University of Alabama as part of a nationwide initiative aimed at significantly increasing four-year college enrollment and graduation among low-income high school and community college students.

UA is one of 10 universities nationwide that will use the grant to establish a College Advising Corps to provide one-on-one college-advising services designed to help these students transfer to four-year institutions. The Capstone is the only university that will focus exclusively on assisting community college students.

“This program will provide thousands of Alabama students with the additional information and support they need to succeed,” said UA President Robert E. Witt.

The main goal of the program is to combat the high number of college-qualified, low-income high school graduates who fail to earn bachelor’s degrees by providing college admission and financial aid guidance to disadvantaged students.

“We are squandering a huge national resource when millions of America’s best high school graduates never advance beyond a two-year community college program,” said Matthew J. Quinn, Cooke Foundation executive director. “Our foundation is committed to addressing the college enrollment gap by providing crucial information to promising students facing financial barriers.”

The program, based at UA’s Education Policy Center, will provide advising services to nearly 9,000 community college students over four years at eight of Alabama’s 17 rural community colleges. UA seniors will be selected and trained to work full time as advisers for one to two years following graduation.

“We are pleased that, with this project, The University of Alabama and our Education Policy Center will be able to assume important leadership roles in expanding and extending access to academically talented, economically disadvantaged rural community college students in Appalachian Alabama and the Black Belt,” said Dr. Judy Bonner, UA executive vice president and provost.

“We are particularly pleased to host a program that will promote transfer to all Alabama institutions of higher education, and not just to UA, and to strengthen our partnership with the fine community colleges in our state,” she added.

The other grant recipients are Brown University, Franklin & Marshall College, Loyola College in Maryland, Pennsylvania State University, Tufts University in collaboration with the Massachusetts Campus Compact, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Missouri-Columbia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Utah.

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is a private, independent foundation established in 2000 by the estate of Jack Kent Cooke to help young people of exceptional promise reach their full potential through education. It focuses in particular on students with financial need. The foundation’s programs include scholarships to undergraduate, graduate and high school students, and grants to organizations that serve high-achieving students with financial need.