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Multicultural Scholars Program extended to community colleges

The KU Multicultural Scholars Program is being modified to help community colleges achieve similar success in academic performance and retention rates for underrepresented student groups.

The U.S. Department of Education will award $515,157 over the next three years to retool the program to fit the needs of several community colleges.

"We're providing organizations with outstanding professionals. Many go to graduate school afterward," said Renate Mai-Dalton, MSP director and associate professor in the School of Business.

Mai-Dalton, also the grant's principal investigator, says the schools that have expressed interested in an expanded version of the program are Kansas City Kansas Community College, Donnelly College in Kansas City and Colby Community College.

KU will team with representatives from those schools to modify and replicate the existing program as necessary. Those programs will be evaluated over the grant period.

In spring 2006, the average grade point average for students participating in MSP was 3.15, compared to the university's overall average of 2.97. The average GPA for MSP students has been consistently higher than the university's, since it began in Fall 2003.

Retention rates for students participating in MSP have also increased every year, reaching 99 percent in the 2005-2006 school year.

Mai-Dalton says the program works by providing students with scholarships, mentors, group meetings and cultural events.

"We believe that education is a much broader process than just passing credit hours and getting a grade," she says. "We expose our students to many different art forms and social situations, such as restaurants or Lied Center events, where they learn how to feel comfortable," in those situations.

The goal, Mai-Dalton says, is at the end of the three-year grant period, community colleges and universities across the country will not have to search for or develop mentoring models, as this one will already be tested to impact retention rates and academic performance, thus contributing to the future success of underrepresented students.

KU HISTORY

Comanche, a horse thought to be the only U.S. Army survivor of the battle of Little Big Horn, has been on display in Lawrence for more than 100 years. Although he was severely wounded in the battle, he was nursed back to health and lived until Nov. 7, 1891. KU naturalist Lewis Lindsay Dyche, a well-known taxidermist, was called to preserve the horse's remains. He agreed to waive his $400 fee if the Army would let KU keep Comanche. www.kuhistory.com