Over 50% of American students in our public schools are Latinx, Black, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI), or American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN). Tapping into their talent and ensuring their access to a college education is essential to our nation’s future economic power and the success of our multi-racial democracy. Yet, despite the historical exclusion and current underrepresentation of many Americans in our colleges and universities—including those who are first-generation, undocumented, or low-income—anti-equity forces continually threaten to regress the nation back into a pre-civil rights era of darkness and exclusion.
These pressures are not new. The recent attempts to set back progress in higher education stem from a long lineage of discrimination. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ‘s ended historic race-conscious college admissions policies that for decades worked to bridge greater opportunities for historically underserved communities. Since then, students and higher education institutions have experienced a watershed of incessant attacks, challenging diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, defunding core programs that support America’s most vulnerable students, suppressing academic freedom, and other regressive actions.
The Campaign for College Opportunity launched the Equity, Inclusion, Action (EIA) national initiative in 2023, designed to counter today’s challenges through evidence-based strategies that ensure the growing majority of diverse students our country depends on have the support to unlock the power of a college education. Drawing on the expertise of national leaders and researchers, the initiative’s policy briefs and blueprints are grounded in data and proven practices. By boldly standing with students in equity, inclusion, and action, higher education and policy leaders advance the core value that all people in America—regardless of race, ethnicity, zip code, income level, or documentation status—can seek lifetime opportunity through higher education.
The Equity, Inclusion, Action Initiative
Introduction
A Higher Education Blueprint for Equity, Inclusion, and Action
Higher education continues to be our country’s greatest catalyst of change, helping students and families achieve upward economic mobility, producing the research and innovation that powers America’s global standing, and the open dialogue needed for a stronger society. But all of this is under threat with federal pressures mounting. Equally troubling, many colleges and universities that once stood by students are preemptively caving into unlawful demands that consequently expose students and higher education nationwide to greater danger.
If students are our North Star, then we cannot sacrifice the strategies that open the doors to college. The Campaign for College Opportunity’s Higher Education Blueprint for Equity, Inclusion, and Action calls on key policy and college leaders nationwide to resist regression through tailored roadmaps that recenter students at the heart of policy and practice.
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Thank You to Our Funders
We are grateful for the generosity of our funders for making the Equity, Inclusion, Action initiative possible. Their investment is ensuring a strong and equitable future for students across California and beyond.
The Lumina Foundation, The Stuart Foundation, The College Futures Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Eileen and Harold Brown, The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, and GPSN.