Posted on 10/08/2010 6:03:36 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
Naropa University has received a $1.9 million grant -- its largest ever -- to better serve low-income students.
The U.S. Department of Education awarded Boulder's Buddhist-inspired college with the grant through its Title III program, and the university will receive $386,000 for this fiscal year.
Naropa President Stuart Lord said he's grateful that the Department of Education recognized the school for offering a contemplative education and having a commitment to a diverse student body.
Naropa is among 48 schools across the country receiving the grant, offered under the Office of Postsecondary Education's "Strengthening Institutions" program. Schools can use the money to develop faculty, establish an endowment or improve academic programs.
"The President has set a goal that America will once again lead the world in college completion by the end of this decade," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a news release. "These grants will support institutions serving low-income students as they work to increase college completion rates to help our country meet the President's goal."
At Naropa, a new program of faculty mentors called "journey guides" will work with students over the course of several years. The journey guides will help advise students on course selection, career plans and help students reflect on their education, said Provost Stuart Sigman.
In the 2009-10 academic year, about 45 percent of Naropa's students were eligible for federal Pell grants.
Naropa leaders say they want to boost the six-year graduation rate of 48 percent to at least 53 percent by the time the grant project ends.
The grant will also help pay for tutoring and workshops on study skills and time management.
Sigman said low-income students represent a varied group, and the school doesn't want to treat them in a stereotypical manner. Some have attended strong high schools and community colleges and are poised for success at Naropa, and others may be less prepared for the academic and emotional challenges of contemplative education, he said.
"Therefore, we will begin each academic year with students taking a series of diagnostic tests," Sigman said. "This will help us determine what academic support they may need, and what other factors may become obstacles for their success."
Advisers will be trained to work with students to identify potential roadblocks -- possibly financial -- keeping them from graduating.
After they graduate, they can join the dropouts and bums camping along Boulder Creek.
6 years? And less than half graduate. They’d be better off at Hamburger U at McDonalds. At least they’d learn decent skills and a work ethic.
“Journey Guides” — aka “advisors.” But how else would you justify sucking $2 million off the public teat if you didn’t come up with a new age name for an old concept.
Lord, how I hate waking up every morning to another waste of our hard-earned tax dollars.
Do Christian colleges also get taxpayer funding? Whatever happened to that “separation of church and state” thing that the ACLU is always yammering about?
Right out of Atlas Shrugged or maybe Idiocracy.
Poor people can’t afford to live in Boulder.
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