Each student who chooses Xavier has a different path. Beyond the degrees and accolades they get, Xavier students are empowered to create a more just and humane society in any area they choose. Now, Xavier’s efforts to transform students into beacons of excellence are being recognized with Carnegie’s Opportunity College or University (OCU) classification, which lauds Xavier for the access it offers to students and the high earnings they could receive compared to their peers upon graduation. 

Since 1970, the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education has developed a classification system for colleges and universities to support its research and policy analysis program. The framework was first developed in 1973 and has been updated every three years to reflect changes among institutions. The Carnegie classification is the leading framework for recognizing and describing institutional diversity in U.S. higher education. Earlier this year, Xavier achieved a Carnegie Research College or University (RCU) classification due to expansion of the research activity at the university, making it one of the 26 HBCUs that spend on average $2.5 million on research and marking it as a premiere institution for research. With its OCU classification, Xavier is among only 33 institutions that have both the RCU and OCU designations.  

“We are honored to be recognized as an Opportunity College and University,” said Marguerite S. Giguette, senior vice president and provost at Xavier University of Louisiana. “This shows Xavier’s capacity for promoting success for our students, an achievement that we have done for the last 100 years and will continue to do for the next century.” 

The OCU designation highlights Xavier’s ability to provide access in the areas that the institution serves and have graduates obtain higher earnings compared to their counterparts. To measure access, the classification evaluates whether institutions are enrolling a student population that is representative of the locations they serve. To do this, they used enrollment of undergraduate students by Pell grant status and underrepresented race/ethnicity, contextualizing the data based on the location that students are from. In 2023, 63% of undergraduates at Xavier received Pell grants, and 99% were from underrepresented populations. Additionally, 37% of students were from Louisiana, with other states like Texas, Illinois, Georgia, and California making up the other percentage. For Carnegie, comparing these statistics with data based on the areas that an institution like Xavier serves was how it deemed the university as having high access for its students. 

Likewise, the other part of the OCU designation is if graduates of a particular institution become high earners compared to their counterparts. The data used for this analysis comes from the College Scorecard, which measures the median earnings of entering undergraduate students with Pell grants and other similar financial aid eight years after starting at the institution. For Xavier University of Louisiana, the median earnings were 28% higher than the median earnings for all colleges. With this data, Carnegie determined that Xavier is an institution where graduates leave and obtain high-paying careers. 

The culmination of this data determined that Xavier is an Opportunity College or University, the highest Carnegie classification for institutions regarding student access and earnings. The institutions in this category can serve as a model for Carnegie to study how campuses can foster student success. This new classification, along with the RCU designation, highlights Xavier’s capabilities of providing a rewarding pathway for its students through access, research, and future earning opportunities.  

 “The success Xavier fosters would not be possible without the faculty and staff that are integral to the institution,” Giguette said. “It does not happen in a vacuum. It is dependent on the research our faculty conducts and the work they do with our students. That is what makes Xavier who we are.”  

For the Carnegie classifications, the data used to reach these designations highlights the long tradition of Xavier University of Louisiana in preparing its students to assume roles of leadership and service in a global society. In its centennial year, the university’s storied legacy lives on in everyone who has had the opportunity to walk its halls. While each student who chooses Xavier has a different path, in most cases, the outcome is the same: success.