Feb. 4—State University of New York Chancellor John B. King, Jr. says a $3 million grant from Ascendium will help expansion of the state’s Higher Education in Prison programs.

SUNY’s Office of Higher Education in Prison (OHEP) supports 14 campuses that deliver degree programming inside 23 correctional facilities and serve 1,000 students each year. Ascendium, a non-profit organization, funds initiatives to help individuals from low-income backgrounds achieve upward mobility while also investing in education-focused innovations to improve learner outcomes; and provides information, tools, and counseling to help millions of borrowers successfully repay their federal student loans, according to a release on the program.

The grant is Ascendium’s largest to date and SUNY will use it to increase educational opportunity and equity for incarcerated New Yorkers and collaborate with the National Association of Higher Education Systems (NASH) on a national research study to better understand how public state systems of higher education are responding to the return of federal and state public funding to bring educational opportunity programs to incarcerated students.

OHEP has identified three specific areas that will utilize the grant funding:

—Expanding and Enhancing SUNY’s Community of Practice: OHEP will continue to provide technical assistance to its community of providers while helping campuses launch new programs and coordinating with the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to develop policies and reduce barriers to better serve students. This area will also focus on implementing faculty professional development training and campus community events centered around the voices and experiences of formerly incarcerated students, faculty, and staff within the SUNY System.

—Regrants to “The Equity Fund”: Equity funds will be used to support campuses in increasing student access to programs and scaling quality programming by addressing equity gaps.

—NASH collaboration: OHEP plans to collaborate with the National Association of System Heads, a branch of NASH, to conduct research and enhance its outreach to state university systems across the country to facilitate collaborative learning to establish a network and community of practice. The project will focus on the role, responsibilities, challenges, and opportunities unique to state public systems of higher education, especially those related to Pell funding for higher education in prison.

“SUNY not only has a public responsibility to increase access to a more equitable system of higher education for those who are incarcerated, but the existing infrastructure, geographic presence, expertise, and leadership to do so in a systemic way. This funding will allow us to expand our work on the local, state, and national level by removing barriers on the student level, changing policy and practices on the campus level, and building community with other public higher education systems on the national level,” SUNY OHEP Executive Director Rachel Sander said in the release.

Since 2017, the SUNY OHEP team has led SUNY System Administration’s efforts to expand and improve college opportunities for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, guided by longitudinal data collection and data analysis. SUNY anticipates eight additional campuses launching higher education in prison programs and establishing programs at seven new state prison facilities in the 2024-2025 academic year pending Pell application approval. This would bring SUNY’s presence in higher education in prison programs to 22 campuses offering degrees in 30 state prison facilities. The work has been supported by external grant funding.

“SUNY is dedicated to expanding opportunity and upward mobility through providing higher education to more incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students,” King said in the release. “Since becoming chancellor, I’ve had the privilege to attend commencements at correctional facilities, and throughout my career I have seen first-hand the positive impact education has on these individuals. It gives our students the power to strive for a second chance upon re-entry into society.”

For more information, visit: https://www.suny.edu/impact/education/hep/.