AASCU Institutions' Practices for Increasing Social Mobility

America's regional public universities provide the opportunity for upward social mobility, or the generational movement of wealth, education, employment status, social adjustment, democratic participation, and general well-being. A college degree is generally thought of as the ticket to social mobility for individuals, and collectively, higher education contributes to the nation's economic growth. AASCU institutions play an important role in social mobility as access points to education for low-income students, first-generation students, and students of color--historically underserved populations. This brief identifies institutional practices that appear to facilitate upward social mobility for historically underserved students. Several measures of mobility were assessed to select eight institutions for inclusion in this study. Each of the mobility measures has an access component, or the extent to which students of color and low-income students of color are represented, and a productivity component, or the rate at which these students graduate, attain degrees in high-mobility majors, or work in high-paying jobs (see the Appendix for the full methodology). Scans were then conducted using institutional and state websites, relevant publications, and policy reports to identify institutional policies and practices that affect social mobility. The scans relied on publicly available information. While this may be seen as a potential limitation, it is important that institutions make information about programs and policies transparent and easy to access. Where possible, follow-up interviews with directors of the identified programs and practices supplemented the scans to provide additional details unavailable through public documentation.