Oregon Alliance of Independent Colleges and Universities

Fundraising for student scholarships:the Alliance's scholarships help 129 students achieve their dreams.thanks to investments by our participating partners, the Alliance is helping students with significant financial need access high-quality education at one of Oregon's private, nonprofit Colleges or Universities, with the personal attention and support they need to succeed - and less debt than they might otherwise have.see schedule ofor the 2022-23 academic year, nine of our donors partnered with 129 students through the Alliance's named scholarship program and a total of $199,150 in scholarship funds were distributed. * 101 students from Oregon received named scholarships, totaling $109,574. * 117 students of color received named scholarships, totaling $187,842. * 79 first-generation students received named scholarships, totaling $126,224. * 75 named scholarship recipients were both students of color and first-generation students and received a total of $121,516. * the average named scholarship award was $1,544. Per student.the Alliance's matched college savings program leverages every dollar.in 2007, the Alliance formed an innovative partnership with community and shelter assistance corp. of Oregon (casa of Oregon) to create an education individual development account (ida) program. The program is designed to help income-eligible oregonians secure the lifetime asset of a college education. In this program, Alliance member college and university students save $500 and receive a 6:1 match through the Alliance. This turns $500 of student savings into $3,500 per year for each participating student.this education ida program, called e3: earn, educate, empower, is an ideal example of how the Alliance leverages both private donations and public (state and federal) resources. The public resources target low-income populations, which aligns with the Alliance's goal of providing access, opportunity, and choice for low-income oregonians, as well as underserved populations (e.g., students of color, first-generation students, daca students, non-native english speakers, etc.). The e3 program helps ensure that young people have equal opportunity to access the quality and personalized experience offered at Oregon's private, nonprofit institutions of higher education. The program also advances the Alliance's desire to graduate financially literate students who have the skills to immediately impact the region's talent needs.participation has increased steadily since the program's inception. To date, 811 students at Alliance member institutions have participated in the Alliance education ida program. The aggregate total of participating students' savings to date is $828,589, and the total matches tendered to the member Colleges on these students' behalf is now $4,636,250. We project that program interest will continue to grow at a similar rate in 2023-24 and beyond. Programs that facilitate collaboration among member institutions & business/industrygrant encourages member institution collaboration with business/industry for conservation research. With annual funding from the katherine bisbee ii fund of the Oregon community foundation, the Alliance sponsors collaborative undergraduate research projects focused on conservation. The grant requires that an Alliance member college or university collaborate with at least one business/industry partner on the project. The Alliance awarded one grant of $11,250 in 2022-23 to the university of portland, who in collaboration with industry partners our village garden and backus agrilabs aim to tackle urban agricultural production as it relates to food insecurities and nutrition in the state. Oregon transfer pathways to the liberal arts (otp-la)transfer student self-studythe Alliance partnered with credo higher education consultants to develop a transfer student self-study, which is designed to help guide participating Alliance member institutions as they embark on a self-reflective and collaborative approach to evaluating current practices with a critical eye toward improving transfer student success.the self-study project, which was funded by a $99,500 grant received from the ford family foundation concluded on december 1, 2022. This self-study provided each team and institutional leadership an accurate and comprehensive picture of the transfer student experience on each campus and is serving as a guide to building a set of feasible strategies for implementation that provide each of our participating member institutions with a tailored set of steps forward to improve transfer pathways on their campuses.oregon transfer pathways to the liberal arts implementation projectin fall 2022, the Alliance launched a three-year otp-la implementation grant project, funded by the teagle foundation and arthur vining davis foundations as part of the teagle foundation's transfer pathways to the liberal arts initiative. The project aims to facilitate transfer and completion of baccalaureate degrees in the liberal arts from Oregon's community Colleges at participating Alliance member institutions.our implementation project began with the facilitation of targeted working groups that have begun to carry out the detailed work of developing transfer pathways. These working groups include faculty, course registration and advising professionals, and other student success staff from each of our Alliance and community college partner institutions. These individuals are not charged with making decisions on behalf of their institutions but serve as liaisons for their colleagues and curricula to help bring a greater understanding of their institution to the larger group. The working groups have been charged with producing the following outputs:* establish a transfer guarantee of admission for students who complete the Oregon transfer module (otm) or earn an associate of arts Oregon transfer (aaot) or associate of science Oregon transfer (asot) degree at an Oregon community college. We would complete and release the guarantee for the otm and aaot in the 2023-24 academic year and the asot in the 2024-25 academic year. * develop shared discipline-specific transfer pathways that will reduce the confusion around which classes to take at an Oregon community college, reduce the number of credits lost in transfer as a result of better planning, and create clarity for the path to an Alliance college or university. We will build on the transfer pathway work underway with the higher education coordinating commission (hecc). We will undertake this work over three years in four disciplines: mathematics, english/writing, biology, and psychology. * develop a stronger set of resources, training materials, and networking strategies for faculty, advisers, and other support staff for community college students transferring to Alliance institutions. We will explore ways to create a student-focused website to meet the needs of community college students. The website would clearly articulate and highlight the value of a liberal arts education, transfer-friendly policies, procedures and programming, along with developing transfer planning tools.the outputs have been broken down into 12 initiatives, each their own working group tasked to produce a specific output. Working groups with tasks to be completed by the end 2023 have met three times, by the end of 2024 have met two times, and by the end of 2025 have met once. Economic impact study and alumni outcomes project with lightcast the Alliance economic impact study was completed in spring 2023 and reports that its member institution's generated an annual impact to the state of Oregon of $3.5 billion during 2020-21. Additionally, students' average annual rate of return is 12.5% and for every $1 invested, students gain $3.50 in lifetime earnings and society gains $6.90 in added income and social savings. The Alliance is grateful to the m.j. murdock charitable trust for their support of this project. To view the full results of the Alliance's economic value report, visit www.oaicu.org/impact.