As part of Lock Haven University’s ongoing commitment to diversity, it is my pleasure to announce our participation in a new and exciting endeavor. Beginning this spring, LHU will participate in the Center for Urban Education’s (CUE) Equity Scorecard ™ process. The Equity Scorecard is a data-driven process that uses existing data on admissions, graduation rates, GPA, and other fields to identify achievement gaps for all racial and ethnic student groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education. LHU’s designated Equity Scorecard evidence team will analyze this data, disaggregated by race, to find "equity gaps". These gaps are defined as instances of under representation of students of color in specific "measures" such as university enrollment yields, and academic major and program admissions.

The Equity Scorecard process was initiated by the Chief Academic Officers across the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) and approved by the Council of Presidents. The Scorecard process is a PASSHE-wide initiative that includes all system schools and is funded directly from the system office through re-allocation of PASSHE diversity grants.   The gain main goal of the Equity Scorecard process is to help institutions understand how to assess processes that may affect equitable outcomes, identify areas for improvement, and begin to implement changes as a result. The provost appointed Marianne Hazel and Kenneth Hall as evidence team leaders. The evidence team consists of Mike Abplanalp, Robin Rockey, Carol Latronica, Tulare Park, Kathleen Allison, and Jacinth Maynard.   LHU’s Equity Scorecard evidence team hopes to leverage existing committees and reports to help in this process. Communication and workshops during University Days and throughout the academic year will be provided to keep the university community aware of the progress. Additionally, information can be found on the LHU Equity Scorecard website at http://www.lhup.edu/cue/ .  

The Equity Scorecard process is divided into two major areas:

1. Admissions – The evidence team at Lock Haven has chosen to focus on acceptance rate of African American students. As part of this focus, the team will be evaluating various items including, marketing, recruiting, and the application process.

2. Retention – The second phase of the Equity Scorecard process, which will be the focus for the second year, is to evaluate factors that contribute to differences in retention rates across racial-ethnic groups.

The evidence team’s ultimate hope is not only to improve equity at LHU, but also that this process can contribute to other efforts across campus including Strategic Planning, Enrollment Management, Minority Retention, etc.