Morgan State University News June 15, 2018 Three Public HBCUs Form Innovative Collaboration to Forge New Career Pathways for Their Students $1.2 Million UNCF(r) CPI Cluster Grant to Create an HBCU Consortium on Transformative Teaching Practices for 21st Century Career Pathways. Morgan State University, Norfolk State University, and Tennessee State University have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create an HBCU Consortium on Transformative Teaching Practices for 21st Century Career Pathways. This groundbreaking and purposeful inter-institutional consortium will be centered on faculty development. These three state institutions, known as the C3 Cluster, serve approximately 20,000 students and are uniquely positioned to collaborate on work that will have a direct impact on over 1,000 faculty members among the three campuses. "This collaboration is designed to tease out best practices across three very large public HBCUs to enable our students to be even more successful in their chosen careers," stated Dr. David Wilson, President of Morgan State University "Collectively, we represent over 20,000 students, so the methods that we pilot on our campuses, and the resulting lessons learned, should prove quite helpful to other institutions. HBCUs rarely collaborate on innovative initiatives. I think partnerships like this one could be the beginning of our working more closely across a number of other areas as well. The UNCF(r) Career Pathways Initiative, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. through a $50 million grant, will enable selected Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominately White Institutions (PWIs) to address social and economic issues of minority graduation, unemployment and underemployment. Over the next four years, the Consortium will engage in structured activities that fostercommunity, identifies and validates new innovations, amplifies and scales best practices, and disseminates learnings. "For more than 80 years, Norfolk State University (NSU) has served as a pathway to prosperity and upward mobility for thousands of graduates. We are also excited to join our cluster partners in forming the HBCU Consortium on Transformative Teaching Practices for 21st Century Career Pathways because we firmly believe that best teaching practices should be standard teaching practices," states Dr. Melvin T. Stith, Interim President of Norfolk State University. "NSU is proud to be a UNCF C3 cluster grant recipient. We see the future in our students and provide ground-breaking academic programs and a supportive learning community to help champion student success." The C3 institutions have similar academic profiles of their students, are geographically located in urban areas, and have strong alumni bases. It is projected that the outcome of the Consortium will be a model for other schools of how to grow and learn in public. "One goal of the C3 Cluster initiative is to serve as a model for collaboration among universities committed to student success. Historically, Tennessee State University faculty and staff have always assisted students in developing career pathways to success. The collaboration with Morgan State and Norfolk State is the perfect synergy, given the missions of the partners and the tradition of excellence that we all value," says Dr. Glenda B. Glover, President of Tennessee State University. "We are happy to serve as an equitable partner in the C3 Cluster initiative and sincerely appreciate our UNCF funder in granting the funds to continue our efforts to help students succeed through innovative pedagogy." While primarily focused on faculty, the C3 Cluster will extend their collaborative efforts to include additional members of their university communities. Key to its work will be creating opportunities for alumni and employer partners to provide valuable input on preparing undergraduate students for post-graduate success. "With African Americans disproportionately unemployed or underemployed, it is imperative that colleges and universities unite in support of better employment outcomes for all graduates, not just the privileged. This grant will further help faculty provide the preparation necessary to help African American college students and graduates acquire the skills and mindset necessary for 21st Century work," said Dr. Brian Bridges, UNCF vice president for research and member engagement. This collaborative effort will be highlighted during the 3rd Annual CPI Convening and Data Institute, themed "Purposeful Disruption." The convening will be held July 23-25, 2018, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. During this year's convening CPI Partner institutions will have an opportunity to share promising practices and ideas on how they have been able to purposefully leverage disruptions within the higher education space to improve student outcomes. Please visit uncf.org/CPI<https://uncf.org/CPI> to learn more about how UNCF is promoting progress, creating change and providing value tools to HBCU faculty. For more information, please contact the C3 Cluster at c3cluster@gmail.com<mailto:c3cluster@gmail.com>. SANDRA M. PHOENIX HBCU Library Alliance Executive Director Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library 111 James P. Brawley Drive SW Atlanta, GA 30314 404-978-2118 (office) 404-702-5854 (cell) http://www.hbculibraries.org/ sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org%3cmailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org>> Honor the ancestors, honor the children. 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