Mesa Community College (MCC) in Arizona has a strong commitment to dismantling structural barriers to equity on campus by investing in equity focused policies, practices, and behaviors that work to support all students and employees.
A key element of MCC’s Strategic Plan is that the college is an agent for diversity, equity, and inclusion. The purpose of the DEI Strategic Direction is to provide the College with a framework for moving DEI forward in a way that is collaborative, intentional, and measurable.
In 2020, MCC received a five-year Title V grant from the US Department of Education. MCC’s Title V project, Students & Employees Nurtured & Developed for Academic Success (SENDAS), is a comprehensive development plan that reinforces key institutional commitments to DEI and Guided Pathways to Success (GPS).
The project aims to increase student persistence, course completion, graduation rates, and transfer rates with (1) enhanced and integrated student support, (2) coherent, systemic professional development, and (3) the development of a more inclusive hiring process.
The grant includes the following goals:
- Increase student persistence and completion rates through enhancement and integration of student support targeting advising, academic support, and co-curricular programming.
- Improve responsiveness to diverse student populations through coherent, systematic professional development on mindfulness and culturally responsive practices.
- Develop a more inclusive hiring process in order to recruit and hire a diversified college workforce reflective of student and community demographics.MNA was selected to be the grant evaluators of the effort. We begin work soon!
