b'SATURDAY NETWORKING Breakfast on your ownOnly coffee, tea, and soft drinks available Saturday morning.8:30AM9:45AM CONCURRENT SESSIONS VTRADITIONAL PANEL WHY HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES STILL MATTERHBCUs were founded upon the exclusion of African Americans from higher ed-ucation. Freedom has been historically linked with education for African Ameri-cans as a pathway to opportunity and economic mobility. HBCUs like the Black church were major institutions that were sources of pride and heritage despite their struggle for resources. In our contemporary times with the growth of large public institutions in urban areas and rise of community colleges the need for their continued existence has been questioned. This panel will explore the roles HBCUs have and continue to play in the landscape of higher education. The perspective of deans at these institutions will provide valuable insight into how the challenges and solutions that are used to recruit and retain students, special curriculum focus that these universities are able to take advantage of and the relevance of cultural climate in the education of students. EXPERT PRESENTER GAINING GROUND: Food Insecurity and Gardening as Curricular ReformJoe WilferthThis presentation will include a discussion of food insecurity, environmental Interim Dean, sustainability across our curriculum, and a campus vegetable garden that University of Tennessee became an ideal opportunity/site for engaged learning. The presentation will at Chattanooga highlight a new campus garden that emerged out of a college-level strategic plan and quickly became the locus of interdisciplinary activity. The garden became, in many ways, the embodiment not only of the arts and sciences but also a teaching/learning space wherein we would educate others on food literacy, food scarcity, and urban gardening practices. We would learn how those topics intersect both with engaged (and interdisciplinary) learning for a surprising array of students as well as with LEAP's Essential Learning Outcomes.TRADITIONAL PANEL RETENTION INITIATIVES OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOMRetention is a major concern for college campuses, not only because of high-er education funding models, but also because we promote higher learning as key to our civic ideals, career development, and to promoting equality. Students face a host of difficulties in regards to access and preparedness for education that affects their abilities to persist and complete college or course-work successfully. This panel provides participants knowledge about what is being done to promote student retention and persistence outside of effective and innovative teaching. New advising initiatives, support groups, and part-nerships in communities show that true solutions to retention involve thinking beyond the classroom too.Register at ccas201925'