CONWAY -- Hendrix College and KIPP Delta Public Schools on Wednesday announced a partnership aimed at enrolling more low-income students at the private college, and at increasing such students' graduation rates and the college's diversity.
Under the agreement, the private college will recruit, enroll and support four to six KIPP Delta alumni annually, starting with the next academic year.
"Like any good partnership, this will be a two-way street," Hendrix board Chairman David Knight said at a news conference. "[The KIPP students] will increase diversity, contribute to the quality" of the college's classes and reflect the school's efforts to become more financially accessible.
Signed at the end of a news conference in front of dozens of onlookers, the agreement "provides that the college address the full financial need" of the KIPP alumni it recruits, and develop a program providing peer support to KIPP students and first-generation college students.
"Hendrix has always served as a social escalator in Arkansas, taking bright, young people" and helping them develop with an education, Hendrix President Bill Tsutsui said. "We're demonstrating again how Hendrix is dedicated" to excellence, diversity and the future of Arkansas.
Tsutsui said Knight had originated "the conversation" with KIPP Delta, a public charter school system that serves almost 1,400 students in five schools in Helena-West Helena and Blytheville. It plans to open a sixth school, in Forrest City, this summer.
Ninety-two percent of the children attending KIPP Delta schools are black, and more than 90 percent qualify for the federal government's free and reduced-price school-lunch program, according to a news release.
Scott Shirey, KIPP Delta's executive director, said in the news release that the agreement reflects "a real commitment from President Tsutsui and Hendrix to ensure that an economically and geographically diverse set of students has access to some of the best education in the state."
Speaking at the news conference, Shirey said, "We want to put them [the KIPP alumni] in the hands where they have the best chance of graduating. Simply put, that's Hendrix."
Shirey said a person who grows up in poverty has only about a 1-in-10 chance of graduating from college. But if a student comes from the top 20 percent of families in terms of income, he said, the graduation chance increases to about 80 percent.
Hendrix has the highest six-year graduation rate among Arkansas' schools at above 70 percent, he added, and it's the only college in the state were a black woman tends to graduate at the same rate as women in general do, Shirey said.
"What a huge accolade," Shirey said. "They're game changers."
Earlier, Tsutsui asked three KIPP students in the audience to stand, and told the crowd, "They all have multiple options for college." He said he hopes they choose Hendrix.
In February, Tsutsui said he, Knight and others from Hendrix visited KIPP Delta.
There, they saw college banners, including Hendrix's, hanging in the hallways.
"Scott and his team are changing lives one classroom and one young person at a time," Tsutsui said.
In the news release, Tsutsui said the partnership continues Hendrix's "heritage of providing Arkansas students with an exceptional liberal arts education" and "affirms our commitment to and the importance of a diverse campus community."
The partnership is in line with the school's other recent efforts to attract more students who otherwise might not be able to attend the college.
Earlier this year, Hendrix and the Arkansas chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, also known as LULAC, reached an agreement for the college to provide scholarships to qualified Hispanic students. And in December, the school announced the Hendrix Arkansas Advantage financial assistance program.
Hendrix, founded in 1876, has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884.
KIPP, which stands for Knowledge Is Power Program, describes itself as "a national network of open-enrollment, college-preparatory public charter schools with a track record of preparing students in underserved communities for success in college and in life."
State Desk on 04/09/2015