The U.S Department of Education awarded a $20 million grant to the National Center on Deafness at California State University Northridge. The money will be used to spearhead a nationwide drive to improve higher education opportunities for students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. The grant, which comes from Office of Special Education Programs, will be distributed over five years, with $4 million a year going to support new technologies, technical assistance and professional development at higher education institutions across the country. “This grant presents us all with an extraordinary opportunity to address issues among universities and colleges, vocational, technical, continuing and adult education programs to enhance the quality of education and life for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals,” Roz Rosen, director of the center, said in a statement. CSUN will partner with Saint Paul College in Minnesota, the University of Montana in Missoula, the University of Texas in Austin, the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Western Oregon University and a national cadre of researchers and consultants who will conduct research on how deaf students learn at the higher education level, and how they could be better supported. Cathy McLeod, who is heading NCOD’s project, said in a statement that the “goal is to find ways to improve the retention and graduation rates of deaf and hard-of-hearing students for employment success.”
