May 5, 2016 - Merced College has been awarded a $1.5 million grant through the California Community College’s Chancellor’s Office, announced Dr. Susan Walsh, acting president of Merced College.
“We are very pleased to receive this grant, which will serve our students well as we continue to focus on providing programs and services that guarantee student success,” Dr. Walsh said.
The Basic Skills Student Outcomes and Transformation Grant will allow Merced College to provide innovative approaches to remediation and placement, increasing student completion of transfer-level courses, according to instructional Dean Vince Piro.
“With this grant, Merced College will train instructors to teach in a new accelerated English pathway, create a new assessment process, which gives students more credit for high school performance, and consolidate academic support services into one building,” Piro said.
Merced College was one of 43 colleges awarded the grant from the 86 colleges that applied.
According to English professor Dr. Sean Epstein-Corbin, a major contributor to the grant application, “This grant demonstrates [Merced College’s] continuing commitment to student equity and making pathways to transfer courses easier to navigate for our students, especially under-represented students.”
Source: Merced College