Addressing Educational Access and Attainment Through Colorado's Rural-Serving Institutions
The Colorado Paradox refers to how Colorado is one of the most highly educated states, yet those born and raised in Colorado, overall, have low educational attainment. An expanded Colorado Paradox includes the fact that Colorado has a wide variety of cultural opportunities, healthcare infrastructure, and educational offerings for those residing in Colorado, yet those who are born and raised in Colorado access these offerings less than those from out-of-state. Rural-Serving Institutions are well-positioned to provide greater economic mobility and impact the well-being of their communities, therefore addressing the expanded Colorado Paradox.
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Rethinking Leadership by Design: Developing a Presidential Leadership Pipeline at Broadly Accessible Institutions
Despite the opportunities that broadly accessible institutions (BAIs) provide, these institutions continue to face immense challenges such as budget cuts, enrollment fluctuations, and volatile legislation, especially public regional BAIs. Thus, BAIs need leaders who are capable of moving these institutions in the right direction. This paper proposes an organizational capacity building model – the Presidential Leadership Capacity Building Model (PL-CBM) – to cultivate the presidential leadership pipeline at BAIs.
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Building Health Equity and Community Capital: Community College RN to BSN Programs Addressing Rural Health Professional Shortages
Utilizing the community capitals framework, this paper analyzed political, human, and financial capitals to understand the role of community colleges in conferring BSN degrees. Through case studies of two states, Colorado and Arizona, this paper examined how community colleges successfully transform political, human, and financial capitals into additional community assets aligned with addressing nursing shortages.
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Enrollment and Degree Completion at Rural, Broadly Accessible Institutions in Appalachia and Beyond
This paper examines 10 years of full-time and Pell-recipient enrollment trends, as well as six-year bachelor’s degree completion trends, at institutions identified by the Appalachian Regional Commission as serving Appalachia and at a sample of rural, broadly accessible institutions (BAIs) nationwide. Following a discussion of these trend analyses, we put forth implications for the field with regard to approaching future research in Appalachia and developing scholarship and policy on rural-serving institutions.
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Geography and College Access: Exploring Spatial Equity Gaps among Rural Latina/o Students in Texas
While extensive research about the college-going experiences of Latina/o students exists, few studies have examined the college-going process of rural Latina/o youth. Understanding the role that rurality plays in Latina/o students’ college-going process is of particular importance to Texas as the state is home to the largest number of rural students in the nation. This study explores the intersection of race/ethnicity and rurality in the college-going process of Latina/o students—an important but often overlooked student population.
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Building a Community: Using Regional Comprehensives' Peer Groups to Define the Sector
Scholars, researchers, and practitioners have always faced challenges distinguishing which colleges and universities are regional comprehensive institutions. An adaptability to regional contexts, focus on teaching, and historical service to marginalized populations are RCIs’ greatest strengths but collectively defy classification through quantitative data. The question this paper addresses, then, is how do we identify a group of institutions that is largely defined by mission, rather than by a specific set of data points? More to the point, how do we identify RCIs as a sector among U.S. institutions of higher education? This paper relies on institutional comparison groups, in which RCIs name institutions they view as comparable peers, to provide insight into which colleges and universities RCIs see as similar to themselves.
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