Without major changes in how Colorado funds and provides access to higher education the state is jeopardizing its economic future. That’s the message from the Colorado Department of Higher Education as they roll out the governor’s new higher education funding plan.
Colorado Rises: Advancing Education and Talent Development, the department’s August update to its higher education master plan is “a call to action for Colorado — our institutions of higher education, the governor, the General Assembly and other state policy leaders, business and community leaders to invest in educational access and attainment.”
Metropolitan State University of Denver, in partnership with our government and business leaders, is ready and well positioned to answer this call and help move the needle in degree attainment for our state.
The 2012 Master Plan called for 66 percent of Colorado adults to have post-secondary degrees or certificates by 2025. The current percentage is only 55 percent. Not unrelated to this poor statistic, Colorado continues to rank among the lowest in the United States in per-student funding.
Achieving the desired numbers will take determination, innovation, more public investment and a tremendous effort to get legislators and taxpayers to recognize that more-educated people are happier, healthier and contribute more — economically and in their communities — than it costs to educate them.
In 1965, MSU Denver (Metropolitan State College as it was then known) was explicitly founded to make a college education available to any student who wanted to attend and could meet basic academic standards. Attention was given to ensuring Colorado’s underserved populations were welcomed. Fifty years later, MSU Denver is still succeeding and leading the way in our state toward achieving those objectives in the Colorado Rises update.
Colorado Rises outlines four goals to pursue in order to hit the 2025 target:
- Increase credential completion, emphasizing workforce needs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), as well as teaching.
- Erase equity gaps, emphasizing underserved racial and ethnic groups, especially Colorado’s rapidly growing Hispanic/Latino population.
- Improve student success with innovative methods that will help students complete their education in a timely fashion.
- Invest in affordability and innovation so that Colorado will have educated workers able to adapt in a rapidly changing employment landscape by learning new skills.
These goals are already a part of our core mission at MSU Denver.
We have made great strides toward increasing retention and helping students complete their academic objectives — either degrees or certificates. Our first-time freshman retention rate climbed from 56 percent in 2005 to 72 percent in 2016; in 2007 one out of 6.5 full-time students received a degree and in 2016 the number was one in every 4.2 full-time students. MSU Denver awarded 2,100 degrees in 2005 and 3,600 in 2016. We’ve responded to workforce needs for more STEM students: almost a quarter of our students major in a STEM discipline. Our School of Education offers both bachelor’s and master’s-level degrees with opportunities for residencies and mentorships, and graduates many of Colorado’s teachers.
MSU Denver has Colorado’s most diverse student population. Students of color total 8,207 (42 percent) of our students, and our Latino students total 5,157 (26.4 percent). We are well on our way to becoming a federally accredited Hispanic serving institution. Almost 50 percent of our students are the first in their family to attend college, and “non-traditional” students — those who come to college at different points in their complex lives — comprise 67 percent of our students.
Our students come from every background and experience. We have veterans looking to re-establish themselves in the workforce, first-generation college students trying to earn that life-changing degree, and plenty of people who want to change directions in their careers. They may have taken a zigzag path to get to college, but they find their way here, and leave as Roadrunners.
Prominent on our campus is the “Student Success Building,” a tangible example of our commitment to ensuring students achieve their goals. It houses unique student-focused offerings, such as our First-Year Success program with wrap-around services that support students academically and socially. We carefully track student performance and intervene when we see our students struggling.
At MSU Denver, we believe that all students should have access to upward mobility through higher education. This is what drew me to serve as MSU’s president. And, this is why I believe MSU Denver should be the model in achieving the goals outlined in Colorado Rises. We are the American dream.
Janine Davidson is president of Metropolitan State University of Denver.
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