Skip to main content

About

About Title III Activities
Title III funds have enabled the University to initiate a wide range of innovative and crucial programs. Funds have been used to strengthen academic programs through specific projects which are categorized on this site by HBCU, HBGI and FUTURE ACT.

HBCU

Strengthening The Academic Enterprise Through Research And Program Enhancement: The Title III activity, Strengthening the Academic Enterprise through Research and Program Enhancement is developed to improve the infrastructure for the Academic Enterprise in support of its students, faculty, and administrative processes. It aims to establish a program-focused organizational structure for strengthening academic programs, realigning resources to promote research quality, and expanding administrative processes for academic and non-academic units.

Enhancing Student Persistence through Increasing Performance and Preparation: The Enhancing Student Persistence through Increasing Performance and Preparation activity will expand the capacity of the Office of Academic Engagement to implement targeted student success initiatives for increasing persistence and graduation rates at Norfolk State University (NSU). Student success initiatives will support undergraduate students strategically during all four years, with a special focus on the first two years.

Utilizing Innovative Digital Technologies to Build a Campus-Wide Culture of Assessment: Using innovative digital technologies, Norfolk State University proposes to create a campus-wide culture of assessment that facilitates continuous improvements in student learning and compliance with state guidelines and regional accreditation standards. The adoption of an electronic platform will assist the University in developing the capacity to manage the data collection and workflow associated with institutional effectiveness, outcomes assessment, accountability, planning, reporting activities and documentation/facilitation of continuous improvement associated with Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and program-specific accreditation needs.

Project Innovative Expansion: Increasing Online Degree and Certificate Programs: The Office of Extended Learning provides the instructional design and compliance, operations support and technology solutions needed for the provision of online degrees, classes and certificates to students who seek to pursue their education with non-traditional options. The goal of the Project Innovative Expansion activity is to empower educators and students to utilize technology to pursue higher education in an innovative way.

Using Technology to Deliver Innovative Services to the Norfolk State University Campus Community: Norfolk State University’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) supports a comprehensive range of Information Technology systems campus-wide on a daily and continuing basis. Therefore, it is critical that the Information Technology infrastructure is reliable and robust to meet the needs of the University and its end-user community. The proposed activity is designed to improve efficiency by reducing processing time through the implementation of a digital signatures online system for faculty and staff, reducing time, operational costs and continued improvement of customer service.

Strengthening the Norfolk State University Radio Station’s (WNSB) Infrastructure: The WNSB activity will concentrate its efforts on 1) improving Nielsen ranking, 2) increasing monthly listenership to include the involvement of more alumni, corporations, and friends, and 3) training NSU students to enter the broadcast industry with knowledge and skills required to be productive contributors using state-of-the-art broadcast technologies. The central elements needed to realize these foci include development of student-intern expertise in programming production, and renewed alignment of a state-of-the-art radio station with campus life and university alumni.

Enhancing Academic Quality: Strengthening Faculty Through the Center for Teaching and Learning: The University Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) mission is to advance teaching effectiveness, foster innovation, and translate educational research into practice. The proposed project will implement a fully staffed, five-tiered programmatic center consistent with the University Mission, Core Values, and Strategic Plan. To this end, the expected overarching outcome for the activity is to have an established, collaborative unit that will provide faculty members with professional development and growth opportunities throughout their entire academic career at the University.

Secondary Education Enhancement Program: The project seeks to enhance Secondary Education at Norfolk State University by building infrastructure, providing training, and creating cohesiveness. Identified ways to achieve this include the following related goals:

  • To create and implement an inclusive, advising model for Secondary Education majors across the disciplines of History, English, Mathematics, Biology, and Chemistry. and revised curriculum.
  • To train faculty and students on the steps to teacher licensure, to include test preparation for VCLA, Praxis I, and Praxis II.
  • To revise the curriculum for each content in Secondary Education to align with Virginia Department of Education and standards from each discipline’s professional organization, including the submission of a new BS in Secondary Education.

HBGI

Enhancing Graduate Student Success By Providing Support and Services That Lead to Program Completion​: This project proposes to increase enrollment and the success of African American students in graduate STEM programs by establishing a Graduate Resource Center to provide the necessary resources for successful degree completion. These activities will enhance the development of current students and increase the profile of the programs to recruit more African Americans into STEM disciplines. 

Enhancing Norfolk State University's Cybersecurity Complex: "The Enhancing Norfolk State University's Cybersecurity Complex" activity endeavors to 1. Augment its existing research environment where graduate students can actively engage in policy, risk, and audit management research on production-grade equipment in a hands-on environment; 2. Increase the enrollment and graduation rate for African American students in the Cybersecurity discipline; and 3. Develop an HBCU cyber contracting hub to facilitate the acquisition of contract funding for the HBCU ecosystem. 

FUTURE ACT

Strengthening Collaborations And Partnerships: Online Certificate Programs To Meet The Needs Of A Global 21st Century Workforce: The Online Certificate Programs activity will seek to provide students with knowledge in targeted key areas that help them to obtain a competitive edge in the 21st Century. To meet the ever-changing demands of the workforce in the twentieth century, institutions of higher education must provide a variety of educational opportunities to a diverse citizenry. 

With the support of Title III funds, this activity seeks to:

  • Expand and enhance the portfolio of credit and non-credit online certificate courses and programs, and
  • Implement quality assurance reviews as prescribed by the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric for University-approved online certificate programs.

As globalization, the U.S. economy and technology continue to reshape the job market, especially because of the COVID 19 pandemic, the offices of Extended Learning and Continuing Education are committed to offering degree and professional education programs that support adult students in their quests for 21st Century employability skills. Thus, the proposed grant focuses on the development of online certificate—academic (credit) and non-academic (non-credit) certificate programs.

Strengthening Library Resources And Services To Support Students And Faculty Performance: The Lyman Beecher Brooks Library (LBB) at Norfolk State University will seek to further enhance the delivery of services to students by implementing three primary goals:

  • Expand Access to Library Resources
  • Enhance Services to Students and Faculty
  • Strengthen Operational Capabilities and Resources

Expanding the physical presence on campus requires delivering specialized services for increased access to the campus community by providing automated access to collections and services.

Growing A Game Design And Development Program At Norfolk State University: Norfolk State University (NSU) proposes to use Title III funds to increase the collaboration between the university’s colleges and schools through gamification to improve undergraduate student engagement.

We will accomplish this initiative by:

  • Increasing undergraduate program offerings in the CS department through the development of a track and a minor in Game Design and Development, targeting a more diverse population from non-STEM majors for the minor and providing an increased online program offering and
  • Increasing the total number of undergraduate degrees produced in CS with a Gaming concentration.

These new measures will provide alternative and more direct paths to getting greater numbers of minority students into the gaming workforce to address the industry’s shortfall of minorities in this profession.

Strengthening The Academic Enterprise II: Enhancing Global Learning Through Curriculum Internationalization: The focus of the activity is to establish a program-focused organizational structure for strengthening academic programs, realizing resources to promote research quality, and expanding administrative processes for academic and non-academic units. 

This will be accomplished by:

  • Enhancing a Global Awareness Program to increase knowledge of societal issues affecting our community and abroad and
  • Enhancing international education through curricular reform and infusion, to include increasing faculty and student teaching and learning opportunities, and through national/global partnerships in higher education.

 

Establishing a Model for Leadership Excellence in Academic Affairs: The Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Norfolk State University (NSU) recognizes the importance of social mobilization to address issues targeting diversity equity and inclusion. Academic Affairs seeks to reorganize its infrastructure to meet the demands of inclusivity in higher education by promoting academic excellence through, succession planning, recognition of social inequalities and an increase of academic performance to meet the demands of the 21st century. During grant year 2021-2022 the focus of this activity is to develop a model for Leadership Excellence. This model supports the Division’s focus to: Reframe the Academic Enterprise through Access, Affordability, and Success.

The framework for this model contains three competencies:

  • Strengthening the Academic Affairs Infrastructure
  • Leadership Development and
  • Inclusivity Training.

Resources

Office of Management and Budget
For more information on the management and budget practices that govern Title III spending, visit https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/information-for-agencies.

U.S. Department of Education
For more information on eligibility requirements, awards, performance, laws and regulations pertaining to Title III Part B and other federal grants, go to https://www2.ed.gov/policy/fund/reg/edgarReg/edgar.html.

National Association of HBCU Title III Administrators, Inc.
If you would like to learn more about the purpose and history of HBCUs, go to http://www.hbcut3a.org.