University of Pennsylvania Launches Center For Minority-Serving Institutions

The University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education launch ed its new Center for Minority-Serving Institutions (CMSI) in late January 2014, to bring together researchers and practitioners from Hispanic- Serving Institutions (HSI); Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU); Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU); and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI). It will serve as a central hub for research, data, best practices, emerging innovations, and ideas surrounding Minority- Serving Institutions (MSIs).

CMSI Dr. Marybeth Gasman, historian and professor at the Graduate School of Education, has been named director of CMSI, which is focused on furthering higher education for underrepresented populations. Educational Testing Service (ETS), The Kresge Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Penn Provost's Office, and the Penn Excellence through Diversity Fund have contributed a total of $2.5 million in funding to date.

“Some 3.6 million undergraduate students — 20 percent of all undergraduates — enroll in MSI's,” says Dr. Michael Nettles, senior vice president of ETS's Policy Evaluation & Research Center. “Almost half of them are the first in their families to attend college. We have to ensure they have access to such colleges, that those institutions survive and expand the excellent job they're already doing and that they have access to research and findings to help them do that job. For more than 30 years ETS has worked with minority- serving institutions on similar efforts and we look forward to expanding that with this project.”

The official CMSI launch on Tuesday, January 21 included a town hall meeting and panel discussion, Envisioning the Future of Mi- nority Serving Institutions: Challenges and Opportunities, co-moderated by Dr. Gasman and Dr. Nettles. The panel included Deborah Santiago, the vice president for policy and research at Excelencia in Education; Cheryl Crazy Bull, executive director of the American Indian College Fund; Kalindi Doshi, campus engagement manager at Gates Millennium Scholars Program of the Asian & Pacific Islander American College Fund; and Karl Reid, senior vice president for research, innovation, and member college engagement at the United Negro College Fund.

Upcoming projects include a state policy report on HBCUs in Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Alabama and a research effort aimed at understanding doctoral pipelines for Latinos. Additionally, the CMSI will begin taking applications for its new Fellows program, which will award $5,000 to selected scholars to stimulate research about MSIs.