UC Riverside Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox appeared on the nationally televised news program 60 Minutes as part of a segment on broadening access to higher education for low-income, first-generation, and minority students.
Originally airing on Sunday, April 29, the 60 Minutes piece explores how philanthropy and innovation are helping to close the college access gap between rich and poor in the U.S. 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley began by interviewing Bill and Melinda Gates, who have spent more than a billion dollars putting 20,000 students through college as part of their Gates Millennium Scholars program.
Moving to how colleges and universities are making a difference in access and student success, the piece featured the work of the University Innovation Alliance, a collaboration of 11 public research universities committed to increasing the number and diversity of college graduates in the U.S. As a founding member of the Alliance, UCR has been a key player in its efforts to provide innovative solutions to challenges in higher education. Pelley sat down with the leaders of the 11 campuses, including Wilcox, to discuss the Alliance’s plans and progress.
Founded in 2014, the University Innovation Alliance is focused on scalable programs that can have a national impact in higher education. With a combined undergraduate enrollment exceeding 400,000 students, the size of the Alliance campuses means that successes not only have a large direct impact but also hold the potential to be duplicated at schools across the country. In the four years since its founding, the Alliance schools themselves have increased their total of low-income graduates by nearly 30 percent.
UCR continues to be a national model of a diverse research university. Fifty-seven percent of UCR undergraduate students are first-generation students, 52 percent are Pell Grant recipients, and 85 percent are students of color. The Education Trust has recognized UCR as a national leader in African American and Latino student success. In 2016, the Association of Public and Land-grant universities named UCR the recipient of the “Project Degree Completion Award” for demonstrating innovation in boosting student success.
