McKenzie Scott's fortune going to rural places, too

I was impressed to see that the list of educational and other institutions receiving the charitable largesse of MacKenzie Scott extended to rural and quasi-rural locales, including here in California.  A salient excerpt from the Los Angeles Times follows:

UC Merced received $20 million; Pasadena and Long Beach City Colleges each received $30 million; Santa Barbara City College, $20 million; Chaffey College, $25 million; Cal State Northridge, Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State Fullerton each received $40 million; Cal State Channel Islands, $15 million; Porterville College, $7 million; College of the Desert, $18 million; and West Hills College Lemoore also received a donation.

Chaffey College, Porterville College, College of the Desert and West Hills College of Leemore are all rural by some measure, as is Merced, the youngest of the University of California campuses.  The story continues:    

Scott, 51, said she and her team looked for “equity-oriented non-profit teams working in areas that have been neglected” — campuses that serve disadvantaged students, organizations that bridge deepening ethnic and religious divides, arts and cultural institutions that strengthen communities by fostering empathy, economic mobility and improved mental health.

I note that the list of the "neglected" doesn't explicitly address geography, let alone rurality, but never mind.  I'm sure they'll eventually see (and, I hope, call out) that aspect of the inequities Scott is addressing.   

Three dozen recipients of the the $2.7 billion she just donated are in California.  The New York Times coverage of her gifts is here.  

This support for state universities and colleges--especially community colleges--comes on the heels of recent  enrollment drops in these schools.  Those drops have been driven in part by the pandemic, as reported by the Los Angles Times and the New York Times.  The Los Angeles Times story reports: 

California leads the nation with the largest drop in spring 2021 college enrollment numbers largely due to a steep decline in community college students, who have particularly struggled with pandemic hardships, according to a report released Thursday.

The state’s overall community college and university headcount dropped by about 123,000 students — the largest numeric decrease of any state. The percentage decline was 5.3% .The numeric downturn reflects California’s stature as the most populous state, but does not account for the entirety of the loss, researchers said.

* * *

“California is doing worse than the national averages by 1 or 2 percentage points in terms of the declines this spring compared with last,” said Doug Shapiro, executive director of [the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center].  

As I see the various community colleges announcing the gifts ($7 million here or there) from MacKenzie Scott, I wonder if/how these institutions will use the money to turn things around, for themselves and  their students.