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College of Continuing and Professional Education

BestColleges: California Program Makes Master’s Degrees More Attainable for Incarcerated Students

September 25, 2023 By Lilly McKibbin

CSUDH campus sign framed by palm trees

Source: BestColleges

California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) is partnering with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to offer a master’s degree program for incarcerated students.

The HUX program will offer a fully accredited master of arts in humanities and take two years to complete. Students will study topics like religion, incarceration, urban development, and abolition, among others.

“CDCR is proud to partner with CSUDH to further the Department’s commitment in expanding ‘grade school to grad school’ opportunities and also strengthen collaborative efforts with California’s public higher education system,” CDCR Secretary Jeff Macomber said in a press release.

CSUDH President Thomas A. Parham said that the HUX program affirmed the university’s mission of social justice and “transformative education.”

“This historic partnership between California State University and CDCR benefits students‚ and ultimately their families and communities — by distinguishing between what people did and who they are at the core of their being, and recognizing their potential, cultivating their talents, and preparing them to thrive in their paths moving forward,” he said in a press release.

Any incarcerated person within CDCR can apply to join the HUX program, as long as they have an accredited bachelor’s degree and at least a 2.5 GPA in past coursework.

The first cohort begins in fall 2023 and includes 33 students across several facilities, all learning through secure laptops.

History of HUX

The HUX program began in the early 1970s as a correspondence program, which is a distance learning program that’s more independent than your typical online course. But in 2016, fewer students were enrolling, so HUX closed down, director Matthew Luckett told BestColleges.

HUX was open to all students, but incarcerated students could especially benefit from the program’s flexibility and correspondence model to continue their education.

Luckett said he was hired to help HUX students finish their studies once the program closed, but he wanted to ensure incarcerated students could continue their education.

“It seemed like such a shame that we would not have a plan in place for those incarcerated students. So I and several other colleagues on campus started brainstorming and thinking about … how we can make that work,” he told BestColleges.

The solution came by way of funding from the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) allotted funding to help those who were negatively impacted by the pandemic.

“In 2020, we were able to get CARES Act funding to help support the rebooting and the modernization of the HUX program,” Luckett said. “We wanted to create a program, not only like a new HUX master’s program, [but] a program that had a starting point, a potent online curriculum, and pedagogy that was then able to export into a correspondence model, if need be, for you incarcerated students.”

Building the Best Program

Luckett wants HUX to improve the prison system. But, at the same time, he doesn’t want it to depend on mass incarceration for program enrollment.

“I thought it’d be more honest to go into thinking [that] this should be a public program. But right now, we’re just going to make it exclusive for incarcerated students. I can see down the line us making a public version of it,” he said.

Students can learn completely online, through correspondence, or a combination of the two.

Luckett describes the network as a “closed system,” excluding, for security purposes, many of the typical ad-ons that normal campus systems have, including Zoom calls, discussion boards, and embedded links in files. Incarcerated students instead have videos, announcements, and weekly check-ins.

“It’s structured and built in a way to ensure the security of its users because they don’t want anybody hacking out or anything like that,” he said. “We have to work within the confines of what’s permissible in terms of security.”

Cost of College

HUX program tuition will cost students roughly $10,500 and be paid by the student or their support people, according to CDCR.

Participants won’t qualify for traditional financial aid, including federal student loans and Pell Grants, according to Luckett.

While access to Pell Grants recently expanded this July to include incarcerated students for the first time since 1994, eligibility does not extend to graduate education.

However, according to CSUDH, scholarships and grant opportunities will be available through the CSUDH financial aid office, and the university is accepting donations to support program participants.

Additionally, in some instances, Luckett said students may be able to receive financial assistance for tuition and textbooks through the Department of Rehabilitation.

“We’re having to really sort of carve out our own funding sphere for the students,” Luckett said. “One of the really great things about working with the Department of Rehabilitation is that now that we have these students in our program, I’m hoping that our success will speak for itself and, then in time, we’ll be able to … diversify the sources of assistance that our students receive.”

Inciting an Impact

About 13.5% of the entire incarcerated population is enrolled in college courses, according to CDCR, including associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degree programs through California’s three public higher education systems.

However, the HUX program marks the first time the department has formally partnered with a public higher education system in the state to offer a graduate degree to incarcerated students.

Luckett says offering graduate degrees to incarcerated students not just helps students, but the state as well. While the HUX program costs $10,500 for two years, it costs the state approximately $212,000 to incarcerate someone for the same amount of time, according to the California Legislative Analyst’s Office.

“The only data we really have is pretty positive — it’s that the recidivism rate for master’s graduates is zero, or virtually zero,” he said. “It seems incredibly likely that our students will not return to prison, which already makes that an incredible dollar-savings proposition.”

Luckett also hopes this first cohort of students will inspire their fellow inmates.

“It affects the people around them because students in their yard see what the graduate education does,” Luckett said.

“It’s aspirational. It gives students something to strive for [and] most of our students are first-generation. So not only are they the first people, oftentimes, in their families to get a bachelor’s degree, but now they’re the first people to get a master’s degree. … It’s a ray of hope in what can ordinarily be a very dark place in prison.”

CSUDH and CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Launch Master’s Degree Program

August 31, 2023 By Lilly McKibbin

Students using computer inside a prison facility
Image courtesy of CDCR

Starting this fall, incarcerated people across California will have the opportunity to earn a fully accredited Master of Arts in Humanities degree from CSUDH.

The groundbreaking program, called HUX, is a partnership between CSUDH and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). It will be the first time CDCR formally partners with California’s public higher education system to offer a graduate degree exclusively for incarcerated students.

CSUDH first established HUX as a correspondence program in the early 1970s. Its subject-matter breadth and affordability helped it become one of the most popular and accessible humanities-based graduate degrees in the country–for both incarcerated and non-incarcerated students–until it ended in 2016.

In 2020, the CSUDH College of Arts and Humanities and College of Continuing and Professional Education began the process of rebooting HUX with a mission to help incarcerated people pursue their academic goals with support from CDCR.

“We wanted to bring back a legacy program that had a proven track record in distance education and tied in with CSUDH’s commitment to social justice,” said Matthew Luckett, program director of HUX. “We recreated this program to be a beacon and a leader within incarcerated education.”

The first HUX cohort will begin in September and includes 33 students across multiple facilities. Students commit to two years of coursework, focusing on subjects within the field of humanities that reflect their own interests and goals. Students work independently, completing coursework through secure laptops and working with faculty through video call and/or written correspondence. Whenever possible, professors will bring together students in the program for discussions and collaborative work.

Under CSUDH and CDCR’s interagency agreement, any incarcerated person within CDCR can apply for HUX if they have already obtained a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university and have earned a grade point average of at least 2.5 in past coursework. Before the agreement, students pursuing a graduate degree would have to do so completely independently, via correspondence college, and through out-of-state institutions.

“CDCR is proud to partner with CSUDH to further the Department’s commitment in expanding ‘grade school to grad school’ opportunities and also strengthen collaborative efforts with California’s public higher education system,” said CDCR Secretary Jeff Macomber.

“These efforts are vital, as education serves as a powerful rehabilitative tool–studies show that incarcerated individuals who participate in correctional education are 48% less likely to return to prison within three years than those who didn’t take advantage of these opportunities.”

CSUDH President Thomas A. Parham echoed the importance of providing advanced learning opportunities in correctional settings.

“Transforming lives is what we do at CSUDH,” Parham said. “Our mission is firmly anchored in social justice, and HUX reaffirms our commitment to providing accessible, transformative education.

“This historic partnership between California State University and CDCR benefits students–and ultimately their families and communities–by distinguishing between what people did and who they are at the core of their being, and recognizing their potential, cultivating their talents, and preparing them to thrive in their paths moving forward.”

Tuition for HUX is approximately $10,500, with opportunity for scholarships and grants via the CSUDH financial aid office. In some instances, CDCR may provide assistance not covered by comparable benefits. CSUDH also accepts donations to support the program’s greatest needs to help ensure student success.

“Few programs, academic or otherwise, have as high of a return on investment as prison education programs,” said Luckett. “Our students don’t just stay out of jail–they become leaders in their communities.”

To learn more about HUX and how to apply, contact Matthew Luckett.

CDCR’s ‘grade school to grad school’ commitment

CDCR partners with California’s public higher education system to offer associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees through the California community colleges, the California State University, and the University of California. About 13.5% of the entire incarcerated population are enrolled in college courses. HUX expands the partnership to include the master’s degree, providing increased opportunity for incarcerated students to continue their education.

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