By GREGORY ZELLER //
A large U.S. Department of Education grant will supersize SUNY Old Westbury’s Panther Pantry – and open compassionate doors to a wider community in need.
The college has earned a three-year, $878,057 grant from the Education Department’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, earmarked for a new Panther Community Care Center – a comprehensive hub designed to provide financial assistance, emotional support and a wide array of other services for students and their families.
Staffed by a social worker and professional mental-health counselor – both funded by the grant – Panther Community Care will provide proactive case management and needs assessments for students, along with professional career-development assistance and other advisory services.
An “advancing wellness initiative” will step up student outreach and support on emotional and mental issues, while a Panther Community Care-led fund will help offset transportation costs “for those with greatest needs,” the college said this week.
Timothy Sams: Minding the gaps.
The center will also address student food insecurity through a souped-up Panther Pantry, the on-campus food bank that opened in 2018 and serviced nearly 1,000 students during the Fall 2022 semester – more than double the number serviced in Spring 2022, according to SUNY Old Westbury.
These kinds of non-academic services are critical to the success – both academic and otherwise – of many students, according to SUNY Old Westbury President Timothy Sams, who noted the modern college degree “requires more than the traditional financial and academic supports institutions are used to providing.”
“With the cost of living going ever higher, we want to help students and their families to meet their financial needs,” Sams said. “Our goal is to have a single point of support … to help stabilize students by helping to meet their financial gaps, which will allow them to better focus on their studies.”
Panther Community Care was one of 38 nationwide efforts supported this round by the competitive Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, the action-oriented arm of the Education Department’s Office of Postsecondary Education and its reform-and-innovation mission.
Miguel Cardona: Support system.
United States Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said the roughly $30 million in nationwide grants would help recipients “advance innovative and evidence-based strategies to better support their students,” addressing everything from basic needs to “open textbook” programs to on-campus veteran resources.
“We cannot be complacent with a higher-education system that leaves so many college students from diverse and underserved backgrounds without the supports and resources they need to succeed in school and, ultimately, graduate,” Cardona said in a statement. “These investments reflect the Biden-Harris Administration’s continued commitment to raising the bar for equitable outcomes in higher education and making sure students from all walks of life can thrive.”
That’s certainly the goal of Panther Community Care, according to SUNY Old Westbury Assistant Provost Cristina Notaro, principal investigator of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education grant.
“Receiving this grant is further evidence to our college’s unwavering commitment to student success and wellbeing,” Notaro said. “Panther Community Care will deepen our continued focus on supporting the holistic needs of our students and help us build a team and space to achieve these objectives.”
