Virginia Selected for $725,000 Lumina Foundation Grant to Advance Equitable College Degree Attainment
Posted by Staff | Feb 10, 2021 | News | |
RICHMOND Governor Ralph Northam today announced that the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) was awarded a grant of $725,000 from Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation to support efforts to advance equitable postsecondary outcomes across the Commonwealth’s institutions of higher education. This Equity Institutions grant complements a $500,000 Talent, Innovation, and Equity (TIE) Partnership grant that Virginia received from Lumina in 2019.
Governor Northam set a target of increasing educational achievement for students of color by 5 percentage points by 2024 and making Virginia the best-educated state in the nation by 2030 with 70 percent of working-age adults earning a degree or credential.
UpdatedTue, Feb 9, 2021 at 1:52 pm ET
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Members of Students Act Against White Supremacy speak on the campus of the University of Virginia during an event marking the one-year anniversary of the deadly Unite the Right rally. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
RICHMOND, VA Five public colleges in Virginia with ties to slavery would be required to pay reparations under legislation that passed last week in the Virginia House of Delegates.
According to the bill, HB 1980, which passed the House 61-39 on Thursday, all five schools built before 1865 would have to identify the enslaved people who worked on the campuses. The public schools would also have to offer full four-year scholarships or economic development programs to descendants of those who were enslaved.
Lawyers for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam have asked a federal judge to toss out a lawsuit brought by Liberty University alleging state officials unfairly denied financial aid to the schoolâs online students.
Lawyers for Northam and Peter Blake, the director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, said in a motion to dismiss last week the lawsuit fails to bring valid claims. They also argue Liberty lacks standing and Northam is immune from the suit.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Lynchburg last month, claims state officials discriminated against students in the commonwealth by distinguishing between online and residential students when distributing financial assistance through the Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant program.