New Report Concludes National Campaign on the Return on Investment of Minority Serving Institutions

Philadelphia, Pa., September 6, 2017 —The Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions (CMSI) has published a new report that concludes the data-driven National Campaign on the Return on Investment (ROI) on Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). The report features the 52 data points from the yearlong campaign and provides 18 recommendations to bolster research related to MSIs.

The ROI campaign featured 52 weeks of 52 data points. The data points were curated and contextualized by CMSI researchers as well as their organizational partners in order to highlight the many significant, yet largely unknown contributions of MSIs in the field of higher education.

Marybeth Gasman, Director of the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions noted, “MSIs serve 40% of all students of color and have adopted practices, policies and programs to best accommodate these students. This campaign shares the impact of these institutions and can be used to motivate others to adopt similar models to better uplift and serve racial and ethnic minorities”.

The campaign’s goals were to bring more attention to MSIs, highlight the contributions of MSIs among higher education practitioners and general audiences, dispel common misperceptions about MSIs, and motivate scholars to conduct more data-driven research related to MSIs. MSIs disproportionately serve low-income and first-generation students as well as students of color yet often experience relatively high success (i.e., ROI) despite fewer financial resources.

“This campaign has introduced pivotal data that is advantageous to the advancement, growth and sustainability of MSIs across the nation", said Casey Boland, a Research Associate at the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions and one of the campaign’s data specialists. “These institutions serve students who often need it the most, sharing this data allows us to advocate for the preservation of MSIs”.

Sixteen partners joined the campaign to spread the data points through their respective networks and include the following organizations: American Council on Education; CIEE: Council for International Educational Exchange; American Indian College Fund; Hispanic Association¨of Colleges and Universities; Thurgood Marshall College Fund; Educational Testing Service; Institute for Higher Education Policy; Diverse; Noodle; HBCU Lifestyle; HBCU Nation; Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund; The Sullivan Alliance; National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education; American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education; and the Human Rights Campaign.

Full copies of the report are freely available at CMSI’s website.

About the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions

The Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions brings together researchers and practitioners from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander Serving Institutions. CMSI’s goals include: elevating the educational contributions of MSIs; ensuring that they are a part of national conversations; bringing awareness to the vital role MSIs play in the nation’s economic development; increasing the rigorous scholarship of MSIs; connecting MSIs’ academic and administrative leadership to promote reform initiatives; and strengthening efforts to close educational achievement gaps among disadvantaged communities. The Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions is part of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. For further information about CMSI, please visit www.gse.upenn.edu/cmsi.