Healey-Driscoll Administration Awards BHCC Higher Education Innovation Fund Grants

Thursday, June 6, 2024

The Healey-Driscoll Administration awarded more than $1.3 million in Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) grants to projects that are collaborations between all 15 Massachusetts community colleges, state universities, and private institutions of higher education to advance racial equity. Bunker Hill Community College is a partner in three of the grant projects.

The first, in collaboration with Salem State University, is a grant of $247,165 to create a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) conference, which will welcome and enroll Latino students and prepare to better serve them. Activities will include the creation of a consortium planning committee, the delivery of campus specific professional development, development and delivery of high-impact practices, creation of student leadership summit for Latino and students of color, convening of a Hispanic Serving Institution conference and planning committee, and post-conference implementation. 

The two other projects build upon existing initiatives among the state’s 15 community colleges, including BHCC: 

• A grant of $230,340 awarded to the Massachusetts Community Colleges Equity Consortium, created for the purpose of learning, sharing, and adopting equity and antiracist resources, policies, and practices. Planned activities for this grant funding include building upon the work of the HEIF 2023 Equity Ambassadors and the Faculty Fellows by establishing a sustainable statewide program for staff and faculty professional development. MCCEC’s purpose is to facilitate staff and faculty engagement with students in a way that recognizes and centers the cultural wealth students bring to their institutions. 
• A grant of $139,828 awarded to the Massachusetts Community College Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) Consortium, a collaboration between the state’s community colleges that builds on the Consortium’s progress by continuing to develop PLA options for a diverse student body. PLAs allow college credit to be earned for prior learning and work experience. Activities include aligning course equivalencies for transfer partnerships, enhancing marketing to Latino and Hispanic students, enhancing the PLA website for state practices, developing PLA opportunities for active military and service members and veterans, and supporting the Consortium. 

The Higher Education Innovation Fund grant program invests in helping colleges and universities reach their DEI goals. This program rewards cross-system collaboration, innovative thinking, and evidence-based practices at the campus and system levels. 
 
Read the Executive Office of Education’s announcement of the grants.