Goal 2: Actions, and Measures

Goal 2: Address Equity Gaps for Vulnerable Communities to Overcome Barriers to Higher Education

This goal focuses on creating opportunities and reducing obstacles for historically marginalized and socioeconomically vulnerable communities, ensuring equitable access and success in higher education.

Actions

1. Conferences and Awareness
   1. Launch an annual conference on student success, equity, and innovation to explore how equity disparities intersect with vulnerabilities such as socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, indigeneity, gender, sexuality, ability, rurality, and generational challenges. Highlight culturally responsive strategies to foster a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive UH Hilo.
2. Community Partnerships
   1. Build partnerships with community leaders in vulnerable areas of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific region, such as American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau, to co-design programs and pathways to higher education and employment tailored to their needs.
3. Customized Programs and Services
   1. Identify equity gaps and vulnerable populations and address their needs through customized programs (e.g., housing, transportation, childcare, programs that address language barriers, etc.).
   2. Offer programs with flexible delivery and flexible timelines and adjust faculty teaching loads to these options.
4. Seamless Pathways and Support
   1. Establish seamless pathways and early advising for Hawaiʻi Community College and high school students to transition to a UH Hilo degree program successfully.
   2. Expand the Kilohana tutoring service to promote student success by ensuring students in challenging majors have the opportunity to seek help from their peers.
5. Cultural and Language Expertise
   1. Identify areas in academic curriculum and student services where additional support of diverse cultures and languages can increase student success, including through Graduate Assistants and student tutors with appropriate expertise in relevant cultures and languages to support remediation.
6. Housing-Insecure Programs
   1. Collaborate with Hawaiʻi Island businesses and nonprofit service providers to develop programs and pathways to higher education and higher employment customized to the needs of persons experiencing housing insecurity.
7. Cost and Affordability
   1. Create scholarships targeted at students in vulnerable communities to bridge equity gaps.
8. Student Engagement in Decision-Making
   1. Recruit students from vulnerable communities to help identify institutional barriers to student success, make recommendations for removing these barriers, and be involved in campus decision-making processes.

Measures

1. Student enrollment and program completion from each of the above-targeted communities, including from census tracts on Hawaiʻi Island and other areas of Hawaiʻi that are higher on the CDC’s socioeconomic vulnerability index.
2. Enrollment and program completion among students using UH Hilo childcare, housing, transportation, dual credit and micro-certificate options, and other support services offered by or through UH Hilo and local collaborators.
3. Socioeconomic outcomes for students (e.g., UH Hilo is currently ranked 524 out of 1,206 on the Social Mobility Index; UH Hilo is currently ranked 697 out of 1,320 on the Economic Mobility Index).
4. Percent of the population with a college degree in Hawaiʻi County and rural areas across the state.