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This is to certify that the
dissertation entitled

CRITICAL FACTORS AFFECTING AFRICAN AMERICAN
COLLEGE COMPLETION AT TWO SELECTIVE RESEARCH
INSTITUTIONS

presented by

Vanessa M. Holmes

has been accepted towards fulﬁllment
of the requirements for the

Ph.D. degree in Educational Administration

 

 

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CRITICAL FACTORS AFFECTING AFRICAN AMERICAN COLLEGE
COMPLETION AT TWO SELECTIVE RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS

By

Vanessa M. Holmes

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of Educational Administration

2007

ABSTRACT

CRITICAL FACTORS AFFECTING AFRICAN AMERICAN COLLEGE
COMPLETION AT TWO SELECTIVE RESEARCH INSTITUTION

By
Vanessa M. Holmes
This exploratory study examined those critical factors associated with increasing
the quality of the academic experience for the Black collegian. Additionally, this
investigation considered how these factors may be replicated at similar postsecondary
institutions. Two public ﬂagship state universities, recognized as most selective, were
identiﬁed for inclusion based upon their demonstration of academic success with African
American college students. This study relied on the interviews of 17 participants. The
analysis of the data was conducted utilizing a qualitative design that included both
within-case analysis and cross-case analysis (Merriam, 1998) and (Miles and Huberman,
1994). This study exposed eight critical factors that have positively inﬂuenced the
educational attainment and graduation of African American students at the two public
ﬂagship universities used in this investigation. The eight factors are: (a) Faculty
Initiatives, (b) Institutional Expectations, (0) Institutional-Unit Response, (d) Presidential
Priorities, (e) Retention/Support Programs, (f) Special Purpose Ofﬁces, (g) Student
Affairs, and (h) Valuing Diversity through Collaboration. These factors should be
employed in conjunction with one another. Thus, in order to effectively heighten the
achievement of Black collegians, the institution should implement as many of the factors

as possible to enable an amalgamation of the speciﬁed factors.

Copyright by VANESSA MARIE HOLMES 2007

To my loving and supportive family Lonnie, Anita, and Damon

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

“Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid,
neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest”
Joshua 1:9.Teachers want the courage to impact the lives of their students. Students want
the courage to meet their teacher’s standards without giving up too much of themselves.
And we all want the courage to believe that our contributions are valued.

To my committee members, Dr. Robbie Steward, Dr. John Dirkx, and Dr. James
Minor for their continued encouragement and generous willingness to support me and my
study. To Dr. Marilyn Amey, my advisor, mentor, and friend, for sharing her gifts of
vision, compassion, and care.

To my parents, Lonnie and Anita Holmes for their ceaseless expressions of love
and support. To my brother Damon Holmes, for his unconditional love and ability to
make me appreciate the simple things in life.

And to the participants of this study who graciously shared their insights,
experiences, and hopes for a society that reﬂects true inclusiveness.

To Genarlow Wilson, Mychal Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Jesse Beard, Carwin Jones,
Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw, and the countless other young people who have been
subjected to discrimination, social injustice, and brutality, have the courage to pursue
your dreams, even when it seems that no one else believes in you or your capacity to

achieve. To have the courage to believe this is to realize and to know that the LORD is

with you.

 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I: THE PROBLEM STATEMENT ........................................... 1
SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY ............................................................................. 2
FOCUS OF STUDY .......................................................................................... 3
Research Questions ................................................................................. 4
CHAPTER 11: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...................................................... 6
Introduction. ............................................................................................ 6
Aﬁican American Students’ Pre-College Perceptions ............................ 8
RETENTION. ..................................................................................................... 12
FEDERAL EDUCATIONAL POLICIES AND BLACK COLLEGIANS ........ 22
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS OF BLACK STUDENT SUCCESS ................ 29
Pre-College Preparation 29
Self Efﬁcacy ............................................................................................. 34
African American Role Models ............................................................... 36
Resilience ................................................................................................ 38
Family Support ......................................................................................... 43
Faith .......................................................................................................... 46
African American Identity Development ..................................... 49
Cross’ Nigrescence Model ....................................................................... 51
INSTITUTIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS. ............................. 55
Climate ..................................................................................................... 56
Retention Programs .................................................................................. 60
Faculty .................................................................................................... 66
Administrators .......................................................................................... 72
Faculty and Administrators Enhancing Success ........................................ 74
Student Affairs Professionals .................................................................... 77
Black Collegians and HBCUS and PWIs .................................................. 79
Black Collegians and PWIs ...................................................................... 81
SUMMARY OF REVIEW OF LITERATURE/ RATIONALE FOR STUDY... 86
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ...................................................................... 88
SITE SELECTION .............................................................................................. 91
The Sample .............................................................................................. 91
DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES ............................................................. 92
DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURES .................................................................. 94
Role of Researcher .................................................................................. 99
STRATEGIES FOR VALIDATING ................................................................. 100
Pilot Study. ............................................................................................ 100
Peer Debriefers ....................................................................................... 100
ANTICIPATED ETHICAL ISSUES .................................................................. 101
Trustworthiness ...................................................................................... 102
Transferability ........................................................................................ 103
Limitations ............................................................................................ 104

vi

Editorial Comments .............................................................................. 105

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS ............................................................................... 106
Midwestern University ..................................................................................... 106
Midwestern University- Dissenting Voices .......................................... 134
Southern University .......................................................................................... 144
Southern University —Dissenting Voices .................................... 173
Special Purpose Ofﬁce-Dissenting Voices .................................. 181
CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION ............................................................................. 184
Midwestern University ........................................................................................ 185
Southern University ............................................................................................. 205
CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS .................................. 219
Midwestern University-Decentralized Public Institution ...................................... 222
Southern University-Hybrid Public Institution ...................................................... 231
Institutional Sample Comparison ......................................................................... 243
Institutional Points of Similarity .............................................................. 243
Institutional Points of Distinction ............................................................ 245
Implications ........................................................................................................... 248
Implications for Policy .............................................................................. 248
Implications for Practice: Administrators .................................................. 249
Implications for Practice: Faculty .............................................................. 251
Implications for Practice: Student Affairs Professionals ........................... 252
Implications for Future Research ............................................................... 253
Summary .................................................................................................... 253
APPENDICES ....................................................................................................... 255
Appendix A: Recruit Letter ................................................................................... 256
Appendix B: Participant Consent Form ................................................................ 257
Appendix C: Interview Guide ............................................................................... 259
REFERENCES. .................................................................................................... 261

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CHAPTER ONE
Problem Statement

According to The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, African American
enrollments in higher education have never been higher. The American Council on
Education’s "Minorities in Higher Education Twenty-First Annual Status Report 2003-
2004”cites that between 1991 and 2001, African American college enrollment increased
37 percent, by growing to nearly 1.8 million students between 1991 and 2001(ACE,
2005). For more than two decades, these students have continued to Show steady
increases in college enrollment. According to Status and Trends in the Education of
Blacks in 2000, 31 percent of 18 to 24-year—old Blacks were enrolled in postsecondary
institutions; this number was 19 percent higher than the rate in 1980. In 2000, Black
students comprised 12 percent of those enrolled in 2-year institutions and 11 percent of
those enrolled in 4-year institutions (2003). This data clearly substantiates the consistent
improvement in the enrollment of Black students. Ironically, the national graduation rate
for the African American student is 42 percent; this ﬁgure is 20 points below the 62
percent rate for White students (“Black Student College Graduation Rates,” 2006).
Additionally, in comparison with White students at predominantly White institutions
(PWIS), Black students are less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree within four years
because of problems in both the social and academic areas (Allen, Epps, and Haniff,
1991; Astin, 1982; Fleming, 1984; Hall, Mays, and Allen, 1984; Nettles, 1988; Thomas,
1981). At nearly half of all historically Black colleges/universities (HBCUS), two thirds
or more of all entering Black students do not go on to earn a degree (“The Nation’s

Colleges,”2003). Overall, a relatively small group of institutions have had a signiﬁcantly

 

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higher rate of African American graduates than other post secondary institutions. As a
result, a small number of HBCUS and PWIs are producing the highest percentages of
African American graduates. This exploratory study will determine how those critical
factors, utilized by those institutions with high college completion percentages, impact
the academic success of African American students. Additionally, the researcher will
gain an understanding of how the students, the institution, the faculty, and the
administrators interact. This study will determine what the faculty and academic
administrators and student affairs personnel, at the ﬂagship state universities, are doing to
facilitate the academic success and college completion of African American students.
This determination will be made by examining the methods employed by those
aforementioned university personnel at those institutions that have been identiﬁed as
“most selective.” My research questions are: What are the critical factors that faculty,
student affairs professionals, and administrators report their institutions are doing to
contribute to success among African American students? And, what are the similarities
and differences between the factors contributing to the success of Black collegians at two
selective postsecondary institutions?
Signiﬁcance of the Study

The examination of how educational leaders employ tactics to meet the needs of
their students is Signiﬁcant in understanding the overall academic performance of
students. Speciﬁcally, the African American college student is in a challenging position.
The college enrollment rate of these students has never been higher, and most would
interpret this as the lessening of some discriminatory practices and the overall leveling of

the playing ﬁeld, in terms of opportunities for advancement. Thus, it would appear that

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there are more opportunities for African Americans. Ironically, the college completion
rate for this student remains below both the national graduation rate of all students and
the rate of their White counterparts. This is highly critical in light of the elimination of
race-based admissions. If those in the academy do not become more responsive to the
needs of the African American student, this may lead to both wasted potential of Black
collegians and the loss of some of the advancements, made in higher education over the
last 20 years. Additionally, the US. Economy may experience Signiﬁcant ﬁnancial loss
due to an underprepared workforce.
Focus of Study

The focus of this exploratory study will be on identifying the pedagogical
strategies, administrative practices, and institutional policies that seem to contribute to
the high performance of African American college students. The selection of the
institutions was based on two criteria utilizing the publication US. News & World
Report: (a) compile a list of those ﬂagship state universities identiﬁed as “most selective”
and (b) based on that list of institutions, select the institution with the highest African
American graduation rate and the institution with the lowest African American
graduation rate. Additionally, the study will identify the similarities and differences
between the factors contributing to the success of Black collegians at two selective
postsecondary institutions?

In terms of identifying the rationale for this exploratory study, it is important to
acknowledge that many once viewed the HBCU as an enclave that provided entree into
the academy as effectively as those institutions that were once restricted to Whites. The

values and strategies, taught in HBCUS served to be the catalyst that would propel a host

of educators, politicians, athletes, and activists to extraordinary levels of both intellect
and inﬂuence. Unfortunately, HBCUS have failed to consistently produce African
American college graduates, in high percentages. Interestingly enough, in comparison to
HBCUS, some PWIS have higher percentages of African American graduates. This is
particularly disconcerting because of the historical relevance of the mission of the
HBCU, which is to offer the Black student an environment that reﬂects, promotes and
produces educated individuals prepared to make effective contributions to their
community and nation. Nonetheless, the Black college completion rate still remains 20
points lower than that of their White counterparts. It is my hypothesis that if an increased
number of both HBCUS and PWIS would duplicate the methods being employed at “most
selective” ﬂagship universities, the African American college completion rate would
improve. Thus this country needs the intellectual contributions of the African American
students and cannot afford the academic failure of this student population.
Research Questions

The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine what the institutional leaders
at the "most selective" institutions are doing to facilitate the academic success and college
completion of African American students. The following are my two primary research
questions: What are the critical factors that faculty, academic administrators, and student
affairs personnel report their institutions are doing to contribute to success among African
American students? And, what are the Similarities and differences between the factors
contributing to the success of Black collegians at two selective postsecondary
institutions? It is important to note that the responses provided from those at both sites

will be based on individual experiences and interpretations. Therefore, as a qualitative

researcher, the accuracy of these responses will be documented by the reiteration of
these same, noted strategies from other members of the institution(s), also referred to as
empirical saturation. In essence this term is deﬁned as “. . . to reach a moment in data
collection or analysis when similar or consistent patterns of argument or articulation are
being offered by the research participants. Such saturation presumably indicates that the

meanings. . . reﬂect some durable, and purposeful, shared cultural artifact” (Young, p. 2).

CHAPTER TWO
Review of Literature
Introduction

This research focuses on the irony that exists in the seemingly positive picture
that has been presented for African American collegians. Despite the fact that the Journal
of Blacks in Higher Education asserts that the enrollment of African Americans has never
been higher, these students are experiencing low graduation rates. In fact, the college
completion rate for Blacks in the academy remains 20 points below their White
counterparts, whose national graduation rate is an impressive 62 percent (“Black Student
College Graduation Rates,” 2006). A number of HBCUS were included on the list of
institutions with low graduation rates for African Americans and it is important to note
that only a small set of institutions, including both PWIS and HBCUS were experiencing
overall academic success and consistently notable college completion rates for African
American students. As a result, the researcher began to question the strategies that must
be utilized, by faculty, academic administrators, and student affairs personnel to enhance
and promote the academic success of Black collegians.

From my examination of the literature, 1 determined that researchers have
substantiated the notion that successful achievement of student outcomes is not solely
based on the student, the institution, or the environment, but rather on how each of these
variables interact with each other. Additionally, I found no short supply of studies
conducted to improve the college experience for the African American postsecondary
student. These studies have addressed success stories (Hall & Allen, 1989; Hebel, 2007;

Freeman, 1997;Graham, 1994; Stikes, 1984); student background and socio-economic

 

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status (Hebel, 2007;Thomas, 1981); pre-college academic characteristics (Astin, 1982;
Astin, Tsui; Avolos, 1996; Monastersky, 2006; Tinto, 1993) psychosocial factors
(Fleming, 1984; Glenn, 2007; Nettles, 1988); coping strategies (Glenn, 2003; Prillerrnan,
Myers, & Smedley 1989) institutional adaptation to diversity (Boyd, 2004; Richardson &
Skinner, 1991; Schmidt, 2005; Wade - Golden & Matlock, 2007) involvement in
academic and other campus activities (Fischer, 2007;Tinto, 1993) attrition (Hutto &

F enwick, 2002); and models of racial identity development (Cross, 1971; Phelps, Taylor
& Gerard, 2001;Vandiver, Fhagen-Smith, Cokley, Cross, Jr.& Worrell, 2001 ;Worrell,
Cross, Jr. & Vandiver, 2001). Although my study will examine some of these research
areas, it will not reﬂect this list in its entirety.

The next section of this chapter focuses on the retention of Black college
students. At the outset, this discussion on retention will provide an examination of
African American high school students and their perceptions of academic identity and
college aspirations. Next, this section examines “stereotype threat” and its implications
for the Black students’ educational success and navigation through the academic pipeline.
The third section on Federal Educational Policies discusses how legislative policies have
had an initial positive impact on the access of higher education for Blacks, but may have
inadvertently negatively impacted the persistence of these students, particularly at four-
year institutions, due to the increased ﬁnancial responsibilities. In the fourth section, I
identify and discuss seven factors, found in the literature, that have consistently revealed
positive correlations with the persistence of Black undergraduates. The ﬁﬁh section
examines the role of African American student development. Speciﬁcally Cross’ Model

of Nigrescence serves this discussion to acknowledge how Black students view

themselves and how this view impacts the students’ behaviors. In the sixth section,
institutional factors and their impact on African American students are offered to
substantiate the importance of institutional responsibility to its student demographic,
from university personnel, to policies, to extra—curricular programming. The seventh
section of the chapter will examine the practices of both faculty and academic
administrators that promote success for Blacks in the academy. These data are presented
to emphasize the positive correlation this relationship can have on the retention of .
Aﬁican American students. Additionally, the success of this relationship rests on the
university personnel’s capacity to acknowledge the role of race by displaying culturally
sensitive behaviors, while interacting with Black undergraduates.

Aﬁican American Students’ Pre — College Perceptions

Prior to examining retention, it is important to consider the viewpoints of Black
students before they enter the academy. This information can offer a lens into the psyche
of this student demographic, in terms of their concerns, expectations, and fears. This lens
can provide an opportunity for university personnel to create services that address these
areas in a manner that is mutually beneﬁcial for African American students and the
institution.

There has been a great deal of discussion about the African American student and
this student’s level of preparation, as compared to White students, for the university
community (Banks, 2005; Daire, LaMothe & Fuller, 2007; Dervarics, 2005; Fischer,
2007; Hawkins, 2005;Lum, 2005; Mercer, 2002;Wimberly, 2002). Ironically, many of
these conversations have not included the voice of the African American student. Thus,

Howard (2003) decided bring the African American high school student into this

 

 

 

 

 

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continuing discussion and shed light on how these students perceive their academic
identities and their aspirations for college. In a national climate that continuously
questions the Black students’ capacity to learn and to succeed, how do African American
high school students maintain their pursuit of higher education? What strategies are these
students using to move forward amidst the excessive questions and insinuations?
Howard’s study focused on African American students at two urban high schools, located
in the western and Midwestern parts of the country. The students ranged in grade levels
from ninth to twelfth grade, with a total of 20 students. Fifty percent of the participants
were from the high school in the western part of the country, while the remaining 50
percent were from the school in the Midwest. As a qualitative study, the data collection
emphasized the semi-structured interview conducted with the students. The study
revealed three key ﬁndings that inﬂuenced the students’ academic identities: the role of
parents, the inﬂuence of teachers and counselors, and the overall interest in attending
college;

1. Students were asked to describe their academic identity, many students
discussed the impact their parents had on their decisions to attend college; “Several
students had a positive construction of their academic identity and mentioned their
parent’s insistence on going to college. It also appeared as though several students took
these messages to heart despite what they have heard from others” (p.9). Here it appears
that the students place more emphasis on the opinions of their parents, as opposed to
those of others.

2. Many students discussed how school factors contributed to the development of

their academic perceptions. Issues like race and teacher expectations became more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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pervasive in the discussion on school — related factors, “ My uncle told me to that I
needed to go talk to my counselor at the beginning of the year to tell her all these classes
I wanted to take. She was like ‘you can’t take those classes, they are for college — prep
students. . . those classes would be too hard for you.’ It makes you think, what’s the
point?” (p. 12). This account suggests that educators need to be cognizant of their
attitudes, words, and behaviors because they can have a serious impact on the way
students view their academic ability.

3. Many of the students equated “academic identity” with being intelligent or their
plans to attend college, “My academic identity is not very good, because my grades are
just okay, so I probably won’t be going to college. I’m just going to have to ﬁnd a job or
something. But college is not in the plans” (p.13). These opinions reveal that there is a
greater need for educators to engage in more explicit discussions about the preparation
and requirements for admission into college. This student appears to be misinformed
regarding the requirements for college attendance. Speciﬁcally, there are colleges that
will accept students with mediocre grades, while providing the opportunity for the
student to both improve his/her grades and to receive a college degree. Howard ended his
discussion by emphasizing how the roles of parent and teacher expectations, race and
socioeconomic status are critical in the formation of the African American students’
academic identities, “What also became clearer in this work is that students continue to
rely on teachers, counselors, staff, and other adults to reinforce a belief in their abilities to
be successful learners” (p.14). In response to one of the questions that was presented
earlier in this section, how do African American high school students maintain their

pursuit of higher education?

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As we continue to examine the viewpoints of Black students prior to their
entrance into college, the role and impact of stereotype threat must also be acknowledged
in this discussion. In 2006, Monastersky discussed the effect of stereotype threat and its
repercussions on the academic achievement of Black students. The effects of stereotype
threat occur when “a person is concerned - - either consciously or subconsciously - -
about being a member of a group that is perceived as being inferior in some way” (p. 2).
This study on stereotype threat was conducted by Geoffrey Cohen and Julio Garcia. The
researchers studied 243 seventh graders, both Black and White, at a suburban school in
the Northeastern part of the country. At the beginning of the fall semester, during their
social studies classes, the students were placed into two groups and given different
writing assignments. One of the groups was asked to read a list of values, select the most
important, and discuss why they selected that value. Students in the control group were
asked to read the same list, but instead of selecting the value that held the greatest
importance for him/her, the students were asked to select the value that he/she viewed as
least important. Then describe why this value would be signiﬁcant to another person. At
the end of the year, the Black students who had described their most important values
experienced higher grades than the Black students in the control group. Speciﬁcally, the
difference was one — third of a grade point on a four — point scale. In the writing exercise,
this group, with the higher grades, focused on his/her values and discussed, without
judgment, why the values were important. Here, the students experienced afﬁrmation and
value for his/her perspectives and ideas. On the other hand, the students in the control
group were forced to not only reﬂect, but to justify what others might consider

“signiﬁcant,” while the student considered the same value “insigniﬁcant.” Here, the

11

students’ opinions and thoughts were not highlighted or viewed as relevant, leaving the
student to feel devalued and inferior. Thus this group of students was required to
acknowledge and think about how others, who were different, might view his/her
thoughts and might attribute these differences to racial biases. These results illustrated
how racial stereotypes can negatively affect minority students and lead to increased levels
of stress. As a result, the increased stress levels may lead to decreases in academic
performance.

At the beginning of the year in this study, on stereotype threat, there was an
achievement gap between the Aﬁican American and White students in the social studies
classes. However, as a result of the writing assignment, 40 percent of the gap was
reversed, “These results suggest that the racial achievement gap, a major social concern
in the United States, could be ameliorated by the use of timely and targeted social
psychology interventions” (p.2). It’s important to acknowledge that the achievement gap .
can be attributed to several factors including: economic constraints, lack of support, and
discrimination, but if secondary educators and administrators can ﬁnd ways to
demonstrate value and appreciation for the African American student, in terms of this
students’ sense of self, this students’ perspectives, and this students’ contributions,
increased usage of afﬁrmation could lead to higher levels of achievement, and ultimately
graduation, for the African American university student.

Retention

In terms of retention and the Black collegian, Michael Eric Dyson, African

American scholar, discusses the role of race and how it should impact the responsibilities

of those in the academy. “Race is an inevitable feature of the classroom; it is the

12

 

ineluctable product of the racialization of American society. To expect that the
classroom will somehow be exempt from the racialized meanings that circulate, even
explode, in our culture is to have a pedagogical perspective that is not only naive and
insular but in some cases destructive”(Open Mike, 2003, p. 83). Here Dyson reminds us
of the pivotal role that race plays in our lives and that it is actually irresponsible and self-
indulgent to believe that race should be ignored and not discussed in today’s university
classroom. Dyson adds, “. . . the classroom is the place where we should examine the
intents, affects, goals, ideals, norms, privileges, practices, and so on, of race” (p. 83).
Perhaps if more educators considered Dyson’s challenge, in terms of acknowledging the
true utility of race in our postsecondary institutions, the African American collegian
would experience higher levels of academic success and retention.

Over the past 100 years, the US. dropout rate has consistently remained at about
45 percent, other than when the GI Bill was in effect. In terms of retention and the Black
collegian, previous research has focused on the social and academic environments
(DeSousa & Kuh, 1996; Fleming, 1984; MacKay & Kuh, 1994; Tinto, 1993), predictors
of retention (DeFrancesco & Gropper, 1996; Levin & Levin, 1991;Rogers, 1991), and
programs related to retention (Dale & Zych, 1996; McCormack, 1995; Sherman, Giles, &
Williams — Green, 1994).“Because retention patterns and factors differ among
subpopulations of students, it is important to examine the factors associated with the
retention of each group in order to develop effective intervention strategies” (F urr &
Elling, 2002, p. 188), Furr and Elling examined those factors that have a positive
correlation with the retention of Black college students. Aﬁer identifying 183 African

American freshmen at a predominantly White southeastern public university, the

13

researchers spent the sixth and seventh weeks of the semester conducting telephone
interviews with the students. The researchers were interested in examining how those
ﬁrst semester connections, made by students, impacted the students’ retention for seven
consecutive semesters. Overall the researchers determined that there are several
persistence factors that educators can identify early in the university experience of Black
students and can be used as warning signs:

1. If the institution accumulates information during registration, orientation, or
other pre~enrollment activities, information related to ﬁnancial matters may also be
gathered, “by knowing students’ ﬁnancial needs and intentions to work, interventions can
be designed to reach those students most at risk” (p. 196).

2. If the institution gathers information shortly after the beginning of classes,
additional information related to social integration, employment, and participation in
extra-curricular activities can also be obtained. By collecting this information for a
second time, university personnel could measure and address changes experienced by the
students. As a result, advisors could assist students in increasing their connections with
the institution.

3. Prior to the ﬁnal exam, university personnel could use intrusive advisement.
Speciﬁcally he/she could ask students very speciﬁc questions about grades received on
assignments, mid —- terms examinations, and test grades. This knowledge could facilitate
the identiﬁcation of risky behaviors that encourage attrition and poor academic
performance. Thus, resources or steps could be recommended to promote academic

success.

14

Furr and Elling’s study clearly states that the retention of African American
greatly relies on the obtainment and utilization of information from all accessible sources,
“ ...institutions must ﬁrst make a commitment to collecting accurate information from all
available sources of data on campus, disseminating this information in appropriate ways,
and designing interventions to meet the needs of a widely diverse population” (p.198).
Historically, PWI’s have not fully addressed the needs of African American students. By
identifying the strengths of this demographic, PWIS may create a foundation that allows
them to design services and programming that will proactively address the barriers that
some Black students encounter during their university experiences.

Retaining incoming students is one of the most vital concerns encountered by
postsecondary institutions. This issue is particularly challenging regarding minority, low-
income and ﬁrst — generation students, “Many institutions, including non — HBCUS,
admit that until fairly recently retention has not been their main focus because they have
been more concerned with getting students into their respective schools than with keeping
them there. Yet, how to retain and graduate students is one of the major issues all higher
education institutions are wrestling with” (Hurd, 2000, p. 43). According to Dr. Jorge
Fuentes, retention expert and chairman of the Search for Education Elevation and
Knowledge Program at Hunter College, lack of ﬁnancial assistance and being
academically unprepared are the most common reasons for student dropout. Fuentes
added that the social and academic adjustments are key determinants in the students’
capacity to attain a college degree. According to Dr. Rodney Smith, Hampton
University’s Vice President for Planning and the Dean of the Graduate College, there are

two categories of at — risk students: the drop — outs and the stop — outs. During the

15

transition from high school to college, some students decide that college is not for them
and they would rather work, while others decide to transfer to another college. In both
cases, these students are considered drop outs. The students who are considered st0p —
outs are those students who have moved beyond the freshman year, yet they’re
confronted with ﬁnancial difﬁculties. These students leave college, work for a while, and
then return to college, “The ideal situation, say many administrators, is to have a well —
supported program to track every student and get them one — on -one help if they need it.
But in most cases, the onus is on students to make their academic problems known”
(Hurd, 2000, p. 44).

According to “Demography Is Not Destiny: Increasing the Graduation Rates of
Low — Income College Students at Large Public Universities, “ a 2007 report conducted
by the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, there are several
steps that institutions can take to increase the graduate rates of low — income students. In
this study, researchers from the Pell Institute examined 14 public universities, each of
which had relatively high student populations that received Federal Pell Grants. Based on
this information, the researchers predicted the expected graduation rate for each
institution. The predictions were based on two factors: the selectivity of the institution’s
admissions criteria and the enrollment percentage of low — income students. After
examining the actual graduation rates, some institutions exceeded the researchers’
expectations, while others fell signiﬁcantly below the researchers’ anticipations. Overall,
the high — performing institutions helped their students by: (a) implementing programs
that helped personalize the undergraduate experience, such as by closely monitoring

student progress through advising; (b) emphasizing teaching and compensating faculty

16

 

 

 

 

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members who did it well; and (c) encouraging student involvement on their campus
even among commuters.

As a result of this study, “Demography Is Not Destiny: Increasing the Graduation
Rates of Low — Income College Students at Large Public Universities,” the Pell Center
offered the following recommendations to institutions serving a large number of low —
income students: (a) track the academic progress of low — income students more closely
and (b) put in place admissions programs that will encourage more economic diversity
among entering classes. The report also urged the Federal Government and the states to
consider the provision of ﬁnancial and other incentives to reward universities for
effectively serving large numbers of low — income students.

Previous research has conﬁrmed that the transition tocollege plays 3.3”?!ng in
the students’capacity to achieve success at the postsecondary institution (Gail, Evans, &
Bellrose, 2000; Hurtado, Carter, & Spuler, 1996; (Padilla, Trevino, Trevino, & Gonzalez,
1997; Terenzini, Rendon, Upcraﬁ, Millar, Allison, Gregg & J alomo, 1994; Tinto, 1987).
In 2007 Fischer examined how race and ethnicity can impact both the transition to
college and the retention rates of both Black and Hispanic students. In the study, Fischer
noted that the adjustment to college for this student populace is different when compared
to the adjustment of their White and Asian peers. Fischer attributed the difference in
college transition to the increased likelihood that Hispanic and Black students tend to be
ﬁrst generation college students, that these students tend to come from low
socioeconomic status backgrounds, and that these students may encounter difﬁculty as a
result of being a minority student on a predominantly White campus (p.127). Overall the

author determined, “. . .that minority retention could be improved by efforts focusing on

17

increasing involvement in campus activities and improving the racial climate on
campus” (p. 155). To expand on Fischer’s ﬁnding, the author noted two major
conclusions: Aﬁican American and Hispanic students who are consistent participants in
formal social activities earn higher grades and are less likely to drop out. And, the I
institution’s atmosphere can play a crucial role in the college adjustment for African
American and Hispanic students. Speciﬁcally, the author revealed that minority students
had more negative observations of the racial climate than their White counterparts, and
African American students revealed the “most negative” appraisals of the university’s
climate. Thus, the university personnel must be cognizant of the images and priorities
that are reﬂected in the institutional climate.

According to the National Survey of Student Engagement (N SSE), students who [is
are involved in extracurricular activities and who spend time with faculty earn higher
grades, are more satisﬁed with their education, and experience an increased likelihood of
staying in college (W asley, 2006). These results revealed an even stronger impact on
minority students, “But the gains from those practices are even greater for students from
underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds, or who come to college less prepared
than their peers” (p.1).Also known as the “Nessie,” this survey included 260,000
freshman and seniors at 523 postsecondary institutions. The purpose of the survey was to
measure student engagement. Speciﬁcally, the survey administrators wanted to determine
the students’ involvement level in terms of both academics and university activities. The
survey determined that student engagement has a “compensatory effect” on both
academics and the retention of students, especially for underserved minorities and those

who entered the institution with academic deﬁcits. According to Dr. George D. Kuh,

l8

 

 

 

 

director of the survey, when postsecondary institutions implemented effective activities
that genuinely reﬂected student interests, they offered an incentive to those students who
entered the university with academic challenges. As a result, these students became more
involved, improved their grades and successfully met the same academic standards as
those students who entered college with higher levels of academic achievement. Kuh
added, “18 colleges found that once Aﬁican American students attained an average level
of engagement, the odds that they would return for a second year of college at the same A a
institution surpassed those of White counterparts” (p. 2). This data clearly substantiates
the value of African American student involvement in campus activities to increase this
students’ academic achievement and retention. Thus a discussion on student retention and
involvement would not be complete without including the contributions of lDr.Vincent
Tinto, a distinguished professor and researcher who has written extensively on higher
education, particularly on student retention.

Although Tinto’s studies on student departure have been widely noted and
utilized for addressing the needs of students and increasing institutional retention, some
researchers have criticized Tinto’s model for its inability to address the needs of non-
White students (“Attrition of Low,” 1997). According to William Tierney, “. . .
integration, as it is being used by Tinto, represents the imposition of the values of one
culture onto another, while Simultaneously forcing the members of the subordinate
culture to take responsibility for their inability to adequately and efﬁciently adapt”(in
Masursky, 1997, p. 6). Tinto (1987) stresses the importance of both academic and social

integration for student success and persistence to degree: “It is apparent

19

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that effective programs are those that are able to integrate individuals into the
mainstream of the academic and social life of the institution in which those programs are
housed” (p. 692). Additionally, some have challenged Tinto’s assertions and found that
the environment can play a pivotal role in the Black collegians’ integration, consequently
impacting this students’ academic achievement and graduation.

Fries — Britt &Tumer (2002) conducted extensive interviews and focus groups, to
examine the experiences of 34 Black juniors and seniors successfully persisting towards
graduation at an HBCU and a PWI. The purpose of the study was to identify experiences
that both challenged and supported the academic success of these students. The questions
highlighted the students’ college experiences, based on a framework of academic and
social integration (Tinto, 1987, 1993). Both institutions are public four-year colleges with
graduate programs and both enroll under 10,000 students. Fifteen of the students attended
the PWI and 19 attended the HBCU. The researchers described the data from both
campuses using two broad themes: (a) The ﬁrst theme, establishing support and campus
involvement, reﬂected the distinctive social and emotional experiences of the students on
both campuses. Students at the HBCU felt at home described activities that held their
interests, and developed important relationships with faculty and peers. The students at
the PWI lacked a critical mass of Black peers and faculty and described campus activities
as those that focused on White students and (b) the second theme focused on how Black
students’ energy was either nurtured or diverted by their interactions on campus. The
students attending the HBCU described increased energy from the tremendous
conﬁdence they gained in interactions with faculty and peers. In contrast, Black students

at the PWI described their energy as diverted away from their studies by their role as the

20

“token” Black representative. They believed that they were the “Black voice” especially
when the discussion focused on racial/cultural issues. Overall Fries — Britt and Turner
recognized the relevance and application of Black student retention and involvement and
integration (Tinto, 1987), however the researchers highlighted the challenges that the
environment can have on the Aﬁican American collegian. As a result, they emphasized
the continued need to learn about the Black collegian and to ensure that both the
environment, in and out of the classroom, is one that enhances the learning of all ‘
students. The researchers concluded the study by cautioning university personnel,
“Institutions must regularly reﬂect upon the numerical representation of students, faculty,
and administrators of color, and on the history of the inclusion or exclusion of certain
racial groups in both the curriculum and in campus activities (Hurtado et al., 1999), to
ensure that they reﬂect the changing culture and needs of the student body” (p. 328).

This literature reveals that Tinto’s theory on Black student retention and
involvement and integration (Tinto, 1987) holds true and that much can still be
accomplished through its application. Thus the academic achievement of African
American collegians can be positively impacted through increased levels of participation
in campus activities. Additionally, it’s important to emphasize that the data substantiate
the need for institutional personnel to continually monitor their climate to ensure that the
interests, needs, and cultures of the minority student population are reﬂected in the
campus environment.

In concluding this discussion on. retention, it must be accentuated that it is
impossible to completely eliminate attrition and that student dropout and persistence both

reﬂect the strengths and weaknesses of an institution Tinto (1982). However, the

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institutional emphasis should be on which types of students and in which setting should
those in higher education act to reduce student departure. If an increased number of
postsecondary institutions follow this plan, institutions will retain the more capable
students and a larger share of prospective students will seek to attend their institutions. In
terms of the dropout process, Tinto identiﬁed three basic elements of the theoretical
model: individual characteristics related to the students’ persistence in college,
characteristics associated with the individuals’ interaction with the college setting, and
characteristics of the institutions that have correlations with dropout. In terms of the low
percentages of African American college graduates, institutions may consider Tinto’s
three elements to identify those students who possess those characteristics that can be
translated into success and achievement at their institution. Once the institutions have
recognized these students, strategies and other sources of support can be implemented to
promote the collegians’ success.
Federal Educational Policies and Black Collegians
At this point in our country’s history states like Michigan, California, Florida,

Texas, and Washington have been confronted by legislative mandates that have forced
postsecondary institutions to make changes in admissions policies. Some critics believe
these efforts may have a negative impact on those African Americans who are
considering higher education (Schmidt, 2006). Detractors also believe that due to the
small percentages of Black students on campus, African American students will view
these campuses as having “a hostile climate” and believe they will be alienated. Others
view these forced changes as the perpetuation of educational imbalance and the revisiting

one of the most compelling forces in American higher education, institutional racism.

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However, this suspected revitalized threat to perpetuate unfairness in education can be
utilized as an impetus to improve the Black collegians’ academic experience.
Additionally, an examination of these legislative measures will provide a better
understanding of the critical factors required to heighten the Aﬁican American college
completion rate and how these measures can be duplicated at an increased number of
postsecondary institutions. It is important to consider the impact of federal educational
policies on the Aﬁican American collegian to acknowledge the perceived obstacles
students may experience from these policies.

For more than 50 years court decisions and legislative proceedings have
challenged the chief delegation and function of both the PWI and HBCU (Brown v.
Board of Education, 1954; Gratz v. Bollinger, 2003; Grutter v. Bollinger, 2003; Higher
Education Act, 1965; Hopwood v. Texas, 1996; Regents v. Bakke, 1978; US. v. F ordice,
1992). Although the espoused rationale for the implementation of these measures was to
promote equity in higher education, some viewed these policies as another obstruction to
postsecondary education access in a society that subscribes to marginalization and
disenfranchisement (Kinzie et al., 2004).

Prior to 1940, those in higher education discriminated against African Americans,
women, and the poor (Bonner, 1986). However by 1947, the G 1 Bill was enacted and the
United Negro College Fund (UNCF) created more access for Black collegians by
contributing to HBCUS through fund raising efforts. At this time, HBCUS were serving

more than 90 percent of the African American student population (Roebuck & Murty,
1993). However, the landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education opened more

doors for the Black collegian because this case forced White institutions to admit

23

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qualiﬁed Aﬁican American applicants. As a result, African Americans no longer
exclusively relied on the HBCU as the only source for higher education.

In 1945, 15 to 20 percent of high school seniors went on to college. By 1960, 40
percent of high school graduates were being accepted into colleges (Lucas, 1994). AS a
result, the 1960S and mid-1970s were referred to as the “Golden Age” of American
higher education. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 forced the academy to recognize the
importance of including women, minorities, and low-income students in college (Gelb &
Palley, 1982; Levine & Nidiffer, 1996). During this time, the Higher Education Act of Jr”
1965 was enacted under the leadership of President Lyndon B. Johnson. This act is seen
as the most comprehensive national legislation that provided ﬁnancial assistance to
private colleges, public colleges, and individual students. This act also established the
original Trio Programs: Upward Bound, Talent Search, and Student Support Services. 1:11
of these programs were funded by Title IV of the Higher Education Act, which was
established to provide educational access for all, regardless of race or economic
background (Kinzie et al., 2004). Under President Johnson’s “Great Society” plan, the
college enrollment patterns became more diverse in terms or race, ethnicity,
socioeconomic status, and geographic regions. During this time, there was tremendous
grth in federal student ﬁnancial aid, in terms of Pell Grants. Federal ﬁnancial
assistance greatly increased minority student enrollment in US. colleges and universities
and enabled more students to enter and remain in the college of their choice (Bonner,

1986; Roebuck & Murty, 1993; Spearman, 1981; Wolanin & Gladieux, 1975).
This sentiment of increasing the diversity of the academy continued into the early

,4,
19705 when afﬁrmative- action policies were enacted. These policies were created to

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ensure equal treatment for women and minorities. Additionally, Title IX of the 1972
Federal Education Amendments was enacted. This document outlawed discrimination on
the basis of sex. All of these policies enforced desegregation and required a diverse mix
of students and staff at public colleges and universities (Kinzie, Palmer, Hayek, Hossler,
Jacob, & Cummings, 2004).The goal of the legislation was to create greater access and
retention of minority students in higher education. Interestingly enough, despite all of the
_ emphasis on integration in higher education, more funding was allocated for both HBCUS
and minority college students.

By the 19803, the college participation rates of African American collegians
began to vacillate due to lack of academic preparation and the prohibition of race as an
admissions criterion (Hossler, 1984). Although the importance of diversity was supported
by federal ﬁnancial assistance, those underprepared minority students faced difﬁculty
navigating the postsecondary environment. During the 19903, the “diversity” campaign
was challenged by the Hopwood v. Texas case that asserted that race could not be utilized &-
to determine college admittance. As a result, access policies for minority students were
threatened (Bresler, 1996). Later institutions experienced a decline in the applications of
minority applicants. The afﬁrmative-action rulings in the University of Michigan cases
played a pivotal role in the decline of federal and state government ﬁnancial support
(Springer, 2003). As a result, African American students seriously questioned both their
ability to ﬁnance their educational goals and their capacity to achieve acceptance on
college campuses, particularly at PWIS.

In 2006, the state of Michigan passed a state ballot proposal that banned public

colleges and other state agencies from using afﬁrmative-action preferences based on race,

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color, ethnicity, national origin, or gender. Known to most as Proposal 2, the ban was
approved by 58 percent of Michigan’s voters. Previously, similar measures were adopted
by California in 1996 and by Washington State in 1998. Although Michigan is the third
state in the country to approve this kind of initiative, the measure passed by a larger
margin in Michigan than in California and it received as much support from voters as the
initiative that passed in Washington State (Schmidt, 2006). The impact of Proposal 2 is
expected to extend beyond race and ethnicity; this new policy will also impact those
student programs targeted to the recruitment and support of minority college students.
According to Jay Rossner, the executive director of the Princeton Review Foundation, a
nonproﬁt organization which assists minority students with meeting college admissions
standards, the adoption of Proposal 2 has placed Michigan’s public colleges and
universities in a challenging position, “Michigan’s public colleges may have more
difﬁculty than those in California did in maintaining diversity in the absence of racial and
ethnic preferences in admission. Along with being intensely segregated, Michigan does
not have nearly as large a minority population as California to try to draw upon to keep
its numbers of minority students up” (p. 4).

In addition to implementing changes in postsecondary admissions policies,
legislators are engaging in public policy debates and determining that most of the beneﬁts
of attending college are personal (The Value, 2002). Therefore, many policymakers
believe the majority of the ﬁnancial responsibility should fall on the student. As a result,
many students borrow money to attend college and the federal assistance programs
continue to decline, creating a schism in the right of entry to higher education. It is

unlikely that any federal initiatives will emerge to challenge this mind-set, “Some of the

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strongest language in a recent US. Supreme Court opinion in a Michigan case stated,
that in 25 years, afﬁrmative actions admissions policies shouldn’t be necessary” (Kinzie,
Palmer, Hayek, Hossler, Jacob, & Cummings, 2004, p. 46). Consequently, many wonder
about the growing stratiﬁcation in higher education institutions, meaning students from
middle-income and upper-income families will attend four-year institutions, while
students from low-income families will be disproportionately found at two-year
institutions. This will place a huge constraint on the college choices of students of color,
who come from low-income families. The schism in the right of entry to higher education
will also have an adverse impact on equity and access to the academy. Thus, students
from low-income families must ensure their early submission of ﬁnancial aid for fear
they will not have funding for their college expenses. As a result, this may affect those
Black collegians who sought to attend four-year institutions, but may be forced to
surrender their pursuit of higher education.

Who beneﬁts the most from higher education, the individual or society? This
question reﬂects the delicate balance that has impacted the right of entry to higher
education. Federal and state ofﬁcials base their economic and resource allocations on the
dominant sociological background of the institution’s student population (Kinzie, Palmer,
Hayek, Hossler, Jacobs, & Cummings, 2004) As a result access is heightened for that
student demographic. Recently Ward Connerly, well-known afﬁrmative -action critic, has
targeted ﬁve more states to vote on banning the use of race, ethnicity, and gender

preferences by all public colleges, and other state and local agencies. According to
Schmidt (2007), the political analysts believe that Connerly stands a very good chance of

getting the bans passed on all ﬁve states during the November 2008 election. Together,

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Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, “all account for 7.4 percent of
the nation’s population, have laws that make it fairly easy to place such referenda before
the voters. . . All have populations that are well over three-fourths White and all lack the
presence of minority —advocacy groups strong enough to easily mount large-scale
opposition campaigns” (p. 1). Recently each of the ﬁve states has experienced a backlash
against illegal immigration, heightening tensions between both White and Hispanic
populations. Thus in an attempt to make their argument stronger, the organizations .
leading the bans on afﬁrmative-action, have made efforts to tie the issues of afﬁrmative-
action with those of immigration. According to Ronald Keith Gaddie, University of
Oklahoma Professor of Political Science and president of the Southwestern Political
Science Association, “In Oklahoma, the illegal-immigration issue is fertile ground for
exploiting because the state’s predominantly Protestant non-Hispanic White population
and its predominantly Catholic and rapidly growing Hispanic population are clashing
across the board on language, on culture, on religion” (2007, p.2). Connerly’s targeted
attempts have the capacity to not only create even greater barriers for the African
American collegian; his attempts may systematically eliminate postsecondary access for
some members of this student populace.

This examination of federal educational policies has accentuated the growing
stratiﬁcation in postsecondary institutions. In addition this examination has emphasized
the importance of ensuring that African Americans are represented in the sociological
backgrounds of institutions across the nation. Institutions must heighten the Black
collegians’ level of acceptance and improve this students’ overall success at the

institution (Allen-Castellitto and Maillard, 2001. If university leaders espouse that they

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are creating programming and resources that facilitate a student population
representative of society as a whole, then the continued pursuit of equity and access
should be reﬂected in the institution’s economic policies and institutional culture. If these
policies and programming are not developed, these deﬁcits will serve as an additional
obstacle in the Black collegians’ pursuit of the baccalaureate.
Contributing Factors of Black Student Success

In terms of indicators of academic achievement for Black collegians, my research
has consistently documented six factors that have a positive correlation with persistence
for African American college students: pre-college preparation, self efficacy, African

American role models, resilience, family support, faith, and African American Identity

Development.

Pre-College Preparation

“Education reformers have a ‘long haul’ before them to raise high school quality
to meet the expectations of postsecondary education and the job market,” (Wasley, 2006,
p.1) this caution was offered in “Closing the Expectations Gap 2006,” a report compiled
by Achieve, Inc. This nonproﬁt group was formed by governors and business leaders to
help raise national academic standards. During this time, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan,
New York, Oklahoma, and South Dakota have raised their requirements to: (a) raise high
school standards to match college and workforce demands, (b) require high school
students to take rigorous curricula, (c) develop tests of college and work readiness, and
((1) hold high schools accountable for producing graduates able to cope with college-level
courses (p.1) However, there are several states that remain far behind in making progress

towards this goal. Previously, in 2005, at a National Education Summit on High Schools,

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it was revealed that one-third of high school students drop out and of those students who
graduate ﬁ'om high schooland attend college, one-third require remedial courses. 4
Governor Bob Taft, of Ohio and a co—chairman of Achieve Inc., said that it is “absolutely
critical” to improve America’s high schools and that this skills gap is a serious threat to
the economic vitality of America. Interestingly enough, these statistics do not take race
and ethnicity into account, but directly speak to a movement of inadequate academic
preparation that our young people now face. However the impact of this trend on low-
income, minority and underrepresented students, speciﬁcally Aﬁican American students,
is even more alarming because these students tend to take the standard courses, as
opposed to the more rigorous college prepatory courses. Additionally, these students
tend to suffer from issues of access because of America’s legacy of discrimination and
marginalization. Therefore if high schools are not adequately preparing students for
college, African American students will experience an even greater likelihood of not
achieving access or success at postsecondary institutions.

According to The Expectations Gap: A 50- State Review of High School
Graduation Requirements released in 2005, “Nationwide, about half of White students
and two-thirds of Asian students took a math course beyond Algebra 11, compared with
one-third of Aﬁican American, Hispanic and American Indian students” (Devarics, 2005,
p.2). These low rates of participation are profoundly troublesome because minority
students Show dramatically signiﬁcant achievement when they participate in these
courses and their chances of completing college greatly increase as well. According to

Matthew Gandal, executive vice president of Achieve, Inc. “Rigorous high school

30

courses also help African Americans achieve at a level closer to that of Whites, it’s a
gap closer” (p. 1).

In 2001, the National Center for Education Statistics found that only 17 percent of Q"
African American high school graduates were able to demonstrate effective literacy
skills. These skills include ﬁnding information, understanding, summarizing or
explaining complex texts (p.22). In 2002, the National Assessment for Educational
Progress reported that for the past 10 years the average twelfth-grade Black student has
experienced a decline in his/her reading proﬁciency score. As a result, these students
displayed lower proﬁciency in literacy. In terms of responding to this issue, Delpit (2002)
attributed the under preparation of these students to a school climate that was deﬁcient in
signiﬁcant cultural illustrations and an overall lack of appreciation for diversity. Delpit
went on to describe this shortcoming as the stimulus for both resistance and alienation, in
terms of the curriculum, for Aﬁican American students. The repercussions of limited
literacy skills among some African Americans is not limited to their university academic
experiences, but also have the potential to impact this students’ capacity to secure gainﬁrl
employment opportunities and to attain a productive quality of life.

To increase the knowledge of this literacy gap, Banks (2005) conducted a study
on 11 African American college freshmen enrolled in two freshmen English seminars,
both designed to focus on the cultivation of the students’ writing, thinking, and reﬂection
skills. Utilizing the qualitative phenomenological approach, the study focused on three
research questions: (a) how do African American ﬁrst-year college students perceive
their high school literacy preparation? (b) what factors do African American ﬁrst-year

college students perceive as necessary for college literacy success (c) how do African

31

American students develop strategies to cope with the transition from high school to
college? Banks found that the African American Students’ perceptions of their high
school preparation are integral in addressing this college literacy crisis. This researcher
determined that literacy performance was impacted by three factors:
63*“

1. Teacher expectations Signiﬁcantly contributed to the students’ perception of
his/her literacy preparation. Some students reported that teachers demonstrated low
expectations by assigning writing assignments that focused on rote memorization and
explicit recalling of comprehension, as opposed to assignments which required critical
thinking and analysis. Thus, during college these students were forced to overcome the
challenges associated with writing utilizing critical analysis and interpretation.

2. The inﬂuence of social comparison worked as both a source of burden and
motivation. Some students stated that their White counterparts were more prepared; they
attributed their preparation to afﬂuent school districts and the pervasiveness of AP.
courses. Interestingly enough these students acknowledged that they felt angry and felt
that they had been cheated by their high schools, but indicated that they remained
motivated to overcome this deﬁciency.

3. Coping strategies were developed in spite of the students’ frustration and lack
of preparation. Some strategies were based on active listening or participating in class
discussions that focused on the African American experience. Overall, Banks’ study
determined that students are aware of the impact that their high school literacy

preparation can have on their college experiences. One of the most compelling themes

revealed was the low expectations that some high school teachers had for their African

American students. ThisthemesuprES III? argument that, “.-_ _,- It. IS. IIOI the Aﬁican

32

 

 

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American students’ lack of capacity to learn that limits their “academic success, rather it

is the quality of instruction that most inﬂuences academic outcomes” (Hilliard, 2002;

Texeira & Christian, 2002).

There is a great sense of urgency to close the achievement gap among college
leaders and educators. As a result, new collaborations have been developed like The Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation, in conjunction with the WK. Kellogg Foundation, the
Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. All have provided nearly
$10 million in grants to fund the Early College High School Initiative, “the concept offers
local minority and disadvantaged high school students small classes, rigorous course
work, committed teachers and attentive counseling. . .” Hawkins, 2005, p.25). The
Coppin Academy is one of Baltimore’s public high schools. However this particular
school is distinctively located on the campus of Coppin State University, just an elevator
ride away from the university president’s ofﬁce. Supported by a 4.9 million grant from
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Coppin Academy is just one of the school
partnerships that exists around the nation. Recently HBCUS have been willing to launch
these “early college high schools,” in an attempt to provide both education and support to
this group of students. Although the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund (TMSF)
administers the grant from the Gates Foundation, TMSF has also partnered with several
HBCUS and school districts as part of this university-assisted initiative. The fund offers
merit-based scholarships and programmatic support to both HBCUS and the students who
attend these institutions as well. High school rigor is essential for African American
students, “Schools send a clear message if they do not have early and regular access to

college gateway courses, such as Algebra. If it’s not offered, there’s an assumption that

33

 

 
 

 

         

    

 
 
  

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students aren’t going to college” (Devarics, 2005, p.7). This literature has revealed that
the African American has the intellectual capacity to succeed in rigorous A.P. courses as
successfully as their counterparts of other races. This literature has also revealed the
perils that can be encountered without adequate preparation for the university setting. It is
imperative that the Black student is given the Opportunity to participate in college “I
prepatory courses to ensure their place in the academy and to ensure their contributions to
a society that is in desperate need of receiving them.

Self Efﬁcacy

According to Sedlacek (1998), the possession of strong self esteem is essential for

all students, but even more critical for women and students of color because of their
navigation through a system that was not developed for them. Sedlacek adds, “Studies
have indicated that self-esteem relates to academic success in much different ways for
students of color (particularly African American students) from the way it does for White
students” (p. 55). Why? Because of America’s history of racism, many African
Americans believe that their work will be judged in a harsher manner than that of their
White counterparts. Therefore they spend more time on their performance to ensure that

it satisﬁes the stricter assessment. For example, African American students who believed
they did not have total control over their environment tended to do better in college than
those Black collegians who believed they exercised total control over their lives. In
contrast, White collegians, described as high achievers, did not view outside factors as
Signiﬁcant to their success. Those in the academy should strive to positively affect the

students’ beliefs in their ability to achieve speciﬁed goals.

34

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Bandura (1999) deﬁned self-efﬁcacy as “people’s beliefs about their capabilities
to produce designated levels of performance that exercise inﬂuence over events that
affect their lives” (p.1). Bandura added that those with a strong sense of this concept are
very conﬁdent and assured of their capacity to accomplish difﬁcult tasks. In fact, these
individuals do not view challenge as something to be avoided. Conversely, those with
low levels of self-efﬁcacy doubt their abilities and avoid challenging tasks. They view
these tests as personal threats and when confronted by these scenarios, they focus on their
deﬁciencies and previous setbacks. Bandura offered four constructs that inﬂuence self-
efﬁcacy: experiences that demonstrate an individual’s mastery over a task, seeing those
who are similar to oneself achieve goals, social reinforcement of an individual’s ability to
overcome a difﬁcult situation, and a personal mindset that reﬂects strength and overall
self conﬁdence (p.13). Although Sedlacek’s and Bandura’s theories reﬂect conﬂicting
notions on the students’ perceptions about environmental control, both researchers
acknowledge the power of self efﬁcacy and its positive correlation with the pursuit of
academic achievement. Additionally, both theories can Shed light on the positive
correlation between self efﬁcacy and the Black collegian’s academic success.

In African American College Students at a Predominantly White Institution:
Patterns of Success, Hall (1999) found that there were more quantiﬁable distinctions
between successful Black college students and their White counterparts. For example, the
Black students provided a list of coping strategies that supplemented their academic
ability. Although the students mentioned ethnic organizations and a “critical mass” of
African American students as major coping strategies to assist their persistence, the

African American students who experienced success at White institutions also noted their

35

 

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use of “high self-concept, high aspirations” as two of their coping strategies. These data
support the notion that African American collegians who persist at PWIS are not
primarily relying on the institution to promote their achievement. Rather, these students
are taking responsibility for theirown success. However, this discussion highlights the
utilization of self-efﬁcacy to reduce the differential college completion rates of Black
students when compared to their White peers. Nonetheless, it must be noted that both the
institution and the Aﬁican American student must each contribute to the improvement of
this population.
African American Role Models

For more than a century, social scientists have emphasized the importance of the
relationship between role models and the development of aspirations for young people
(Cooley, 1982; James, 1962; Mead, 1934; Skinner, 1971; & Stryker, 1980). Studies on
race-and gendered-match role models provide compelling evidence of the possibilities
that exist for those from minority groups (Grifﬁths, 1995; Robst, et al., 1996; Sumrall,
1995). Young people learn how to navigate American society by noting the race and
gender of adults in various professions: “The presence or absence of like others in
different social positions implicitly conveys information to young people about the
possibilities for their futures” (Zirkel, 2002, p. 1). Students of color and women have
demonstrated success with grades, retention, and graduation rates with the support of a
role model (Ancis & Sedlacek, 1997; Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987; Tidball, 1986; Tracey &
Sedlacek, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, &1989). Unfortunately, many students of color,
especially at PWIS, are less likely than their White counterparts to have access to a

mentor or role model (Allen, 1992). Thus, the college campus poses great academic and

36

 

social challenges to these students who, in turn, become discouraged and may end up
dropping out of the institution.

Research supports the notion that young people will not devote their time and
effort to complete a task if they do not believe they can achieve it (F ordham, 1998;
Leondari, Syngollitou, & Kiosseoglou, 1998; Ogbu, 1991; Markus & Nurius, 1986).

Zirkel (2002) utilized a two-year, longitudinal study to explore the ways that race — and
gender-matched role models improved adolescents’ perceptions of their capacity to
positively impact the world. The study examined the implications of race — and gender —
matched role models on the development of self concepts and educational outcomes for
minority youths. Race — and gendered -matched role models demonstrate the unlimited
opportunities that are available to the adolescents’ own social group. And, these role
models can offer information, speciﬁc to the adolescents’ culture that nonmatched role
models would not consider. The results of the study proved that the availability of a race
- and gender — matched role model was predictive of better academic performance,
greater interest in high achievement, and more awareness and focus of one’s future.
Therefore it is logical to presume that Black collegians who have race - and gender —
matched role models would also experience improved academic performance.

Littleton (2001) emphasized the role of African American role models in the
retention of Black students saying, “The idea of an older adult with whom to share
cultural understanding seemed to be of interest to African American students. The term
‘mother ﬁgure’ or ‘father ﬁgure’ was sometimes used in reference to such a role model

“(p. 23). Although many African American students noted the importance of Black

37

faculty and administrators as role models. It is important to recognize that many
students already viewed members of their immediate families as their role models.

Lavant, Anderson, and Ti ggs (1997) conducted a study on how mentoring can
positively impact the persistence of Aﬁican American men. They found “Application of
mentoring proves to be an affective tool in providing the support necessary to overcome
barriers that prevent many African American men from completing college” (p. 48). This
study cited several national college programs created to recruit and facilitate the
academic achievement of Black men: The Student African American Brotherhood
(SAAB), The Black Man’s Think Tank, The Black Male Initiative, the Bridge, Project
BEAM, and The Meyerhoff Program. All of these programs include mentor relationships.
The philosophy of these programs is to give Black students an experienced and caring
adviser who will create a nurturing environment for the student. These programs exist at
institutions across the country, at both PWIS and HBCUS. Although one of these
programs is speciﬁcally targeted to graduate students, the Meyeroff Program, each
program couples African American students with mentors who range from college
students, to university faculty and staff, to business and community leaders. Because of
increased scrutiny, some of the programs admit women, but the primary focus is on men.
The pervasiveness of these types of programs documents the importance of the African
American role model for the Black collegian’s success in the academy.
Resilience

According to Rigsby (1994), resilience "is the response to a complex set of
interactions involving person, social context, and opportunities" (p.89). Resilient

individuals are said to have outlooks on life that make them attractive to others (Masten,

38

 

 

 

 

1994; Werner & Smith, 1982, 1992). They are reported to be intelligent (Anthony 1987;
Masten, 1994; Werner & Smith, 1982, 1992; Worland, Weeks, & Janes, 1987) and are
commonly described as conﬁdent, optimistic, and goal directed (Benard, 1991; Masten,
1994). For individuals who demonstrate resilience, life has great meaning and they are
said to exhibit loﬁy expectations and high levels of self-efﬁcacy (Benard, 1991; Masten,
1994). Resilience has been shown to have a positive impact on the success of African
American students. As a result, university personnel might consider different strategies,
in the form of curriculum development or student affairs activities, to promote and
cultivate resilience in their Black students.

Despite the fervent efforts of previous researchers to shed light on the challenges
confronting the African American student population, many criticized these studies
because of their emphasis on the deﬁciencies of this student population, “their historic
preoccupation with explaining the school failure of poor and minority youth has ‘netted
us nothing more than new theories of school failure,’ and regularly stigmatized these
populations as being deﬁcient, resistant, or less able learners” (McDermott, 1987, p. 361).
Today researchers are Spending their energies on explaining “how” and” why” those
students from marginalized backgrounds have attained school success; thus, literature on
resilience has become increasingly essential for those investigating this area.

Harrison (2001) examined the role of race in the educational experiences of
African American doctoral students at a PWI. Speciﬁcally, the study focused on their

COping strategies and the students’ use of resilience was heavily documented throughout
the study. The research revealed that despite being accepted into the university doctoral

Program, faculty and students still questioned the abilities of these Black doctoral

39

 

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students and resisted their presence on campus. The students noted several categories of
race — related difﬁculties: harsher grading from faculty, underestimation of abilities, and
denial of opportunities. Overall, these students utilized coping strategies to overcome
these struggles. The coping strategies were based on two themes: a strong sense of self
and a strong sense of connectedness. A strong sense of self was based on the
p sychological concept of “optimal theory,” which underscores spirituality and presumes
s e If worth is intrinsic, independent, and not based on external entities (Myers & Speight,
1 994). The students identiﬁed relationships with family and friends as connections that
C ontributed to their sense of self and their degree completion. These students manifested
tremendous personal control because of their prior experiences with race related conﬂicts.
C onsequently, “Their strong sense of self fueled a determination that helped them to rise

ab ove the difﬁculties of their doctoral studies. Through reﬂection on their

accomplishments and the adversities they had to overcome, they empowered themselves

and stayed on course” (Harrison, p. 235).
This literature review has substantiated the academic and social hardships faced

by the Black collegian. Thus, this literature has shown why resilience is paramount to the

Sllccess of the African American scholar. However, in addition to the academic and
interpersonal trials, these students may be forced to rely on their resilience to overcome
thI‘eats to their lives. In Race Relations on Campus (2004/2005), a compilation of recent

rac ial incidents at America’s institutions of higher education, numerous conﬂicts were

Dre sented:

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At Virginia Tech, the words “Hang the triggers” and “Go back 2 Africa” were
written on the door of the NAACP Chapter ofﬁce. A brown substance described as
‘ ‘feces or mud” was smeared on the door.
In a news conference, Bob Pruett, the head coach of Marshall University’s
football team, referred to The Ohio State University’s football team as, “a bunch of
M andingos.” The coach said, “I used the term in an effort to explain superior physical
abi lity. l was trying to be complimentary” (p. 1).
At the University of Virginia, a Black student found her car vandalized and the
Word “Nigger” was written across the front windshield.
At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a group of White students drew a
S eries of cartoons that were disseminated on campus. The illustrations depicted a White
S t1.1dent dressed in a Ku Klux Klan uniform, burning crosses, and included the caption, “I
10ve ALANA,” an acronym for a campus student organization created to support Asian,
Latino, Aﬁican, and Native American students.

The signiﬁcance of these recent racist occurrences conﬁrms and forces the reader
to acknowledge that African Americans are still devalued and viewed as expendable by
Some_ Additionally, the African American student continues to be unfairly burdened both

psYchologically and emotionally. Hence, this article reiterates that these students must
rely on their resilience to deal with the academic and racially motivated challenges that
also exist. Faculty, academic administrators, and student affairs personnel who work with
Black college students must be willing to discuss how race, class, and gender affect the

educational experiences of these students (Coker, 2003).

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"A Fly in the Buttermilk: Descriptions of University Life by Successful Black
Undergraduate Students at a Predominately White Southeastern University” is a
compelling look at the success factors utilized by African American students at a PWI
and a vivid illustration of how these students both rely and utilize resilience to effectively
chart and navigate their academic journeys. The study focused on 11 Black
undergraduates, 7 women and 4 men. Each student had successfully completed all
degree requirements and was preparing to graduate. The students were asked, “Please
describe some experiences that stand out to you from your own college experiences?”
Overall, the students noted themes that ranged from daily acts of sabotage and
C Ondescension, from both the faculty and the university community, to having to prove
tlleir worthiness as a student, to feeling both invisibility and hypervisibility. The students
de scribed invisibility and hypervisibility as ranging from feeling ignored by members of
th e campus community to having to act as their race’s Spokesperson when instructors
d iI'ected all of the questions, speciﬁc to Blacks, to those students. Overall, the students
e i ted their resilience as a major coping strategy to deal with these circumstances. “It also
appeared that while our participants perceived the need to prove their academic worth
and engaged in behaviors to do so, they also had the goal of invalidating negative
prejudices about the academic ability of black students. . . they did want to do all they
Conld to improve negative impressions the university community might hold concerning
the ability of black students to succeed (Dias-Bowie, Greenberg, Klukken, Thomas, &
ThOmpson, 2004, p. 439). In spite of the fact that these students compared their
e)“11>eriences to that of “A Fly in the Buttermilk,” because of the way they were viewed

and treated on a predominantly White campus, they demonstrated their resolve by not

42

 

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succumbing to this unfair treatment. Additionally, they felt compelled to successfully

meet all of the university’s academic requirements and to assist in eliminating some of
the racial stereotypes that exist for Black collegians. This depiction of the students’
resilience or fortitude illustrates their capacity to not only confront challenge, but also to

create opportunities for dismantling racial labeling.

F amilv Support
Rodriguez, Mira, Myers, Morris, & Cardoza, (2003) assert, “A supportive

re 1 ationship with parents has been shown to be important for the maintenance of

p Sychological well-being for ethnic minority college students” (in Dennis, Phinney, &
Chuateco 2005, p.225). Research examining the strong inﬂuence of family members on
B lack collegians dates back to the late 19808 (Hughes, 1987). Later in 1993, Tinto

surmised that strong relationships with procollege family and community members

facilitate adjustment and college retention.

Johnson (2001) conducted a study on the survival strategies utilized by African
American women at a community college. She found that the majority of the women
0 i ted family support as one of their major survival strategies. Although the women
included aunts, uncles, and cousins, most of the women cited the parents, children, and
Si[>1 ings as their three familial sources of support. The parents and mothers were
prominently highlighted by the women in the study as evidenced in this comment, “I had
a lot of support. My mom’s a teacher. There was a lot of pressure from my mom, and dad
a] So, to do the best I could so I guess you could call it support too but it came out ﬁne in
the end” (p. 52). Some of the other women stated that their mothers had encouraged them

to be highly motivated and to seek success: “My mother had always told us we could do

43

 

 

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anything we wanted to do in life. She really pushed us to do the best and be the best at
whatever we choose to do whatever it was . . .” (p. 54).
Although only some of the participants from Johnson’s (2001) study had children,
those who did stated that their children were great mechanisms of support for their
persistence and college completion. The women said they wanted to be role models for
their children and emphasize the importance of higher education; one of the women
attributed her persistence to her three sons saying they, “keep the motivation going by
a l lowing me to be their role model due to the fact that I am a single parent . . . Yes, she is
B lack in America, but she is still trying to succeed in life” (Johnson, 2001, p. 56). The
Women in Johnson’s study listed their siblings’ encouragement and inspiration as another
Survival strategy. They stated that they felt a sense of support that motivated them, “my
family has been very, very supportive. I couldn’t have done it [college] without them at
a1 1 you know from studying late at night and them watching her [daughter]” (Johnson,
2 001, p. 59). Although the women in this inquiry attended community colleges, their
perceptions of success and survival mechanisms are highly relevant and reﬂective of the
B 1rack collegian who attends a four-year institution.

In 2002, Hinderlie conducted a study that examined the effect of parental
attachment on the adjustment of 186 African American college students at PWIS. The
St"-de revealed that not only did the family play a major role in the persistence of the

Aﬁ‘ican American student, but that a supportive paternal attachment is positively
c0I‘related with self esteem. The researcher stated that university personnel should
recOgnize the relevance and value of parental relationships, in terms of the off-campus

Su13130rt they provide to Black collegians. Hinderlie cautioned those in the academy to

44

 

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ensure that on-campus support mechanisms did not compete with family support.
Institutional climate should promote an integration between the students’ familial values
and the cultural norms of the campus, “Colleges should maintain open communications
with parents, including fathers, enabling family members to become involved in and feel
e ornfortable on the college campus and better understand the college experiences of their
S ons and daughters” (2002, p. 6). Perhaps faculty, counselors, student affairs personnel,
and administrators can offer coursework and programming that will assist the students in
incorporating their cultural backgrounds with the institutional norms. How can university
personnel impact off-campus relationships and why should they be held accountable for
facilitating these relationships? These data support the notion that some African
A merican collegians utilize and rely on different sources of support to persist in college.
I 11 order for educational leaders to improve the experiences of African American students]
they must acknowledge those determinants of success provided by the students. As a
re Sult, these contributing factors must be noted and programming could be developed to
SI-113port these resources. Perhaps Black collegians would feel their presence was valued

by the interest expressed in their background. As a result of the increased value and

r e Spect from members of the campus community, the retention rates of Black collegians

c(>111d be increased.

In Hall’s (1999) “African American College Students at a Predominantly White
Institution: Patterns of Success,” he interviewed 45 recent graduates from several
di fferent majors to determine the factors that contributed to their overall academic
SIlccess at a PWI. Hall’s study revealed, “students overwhelmingly credited family

ITleInbers, particularly mothers, with playing a very important role in their success at the

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university. Students seemed to draw strength and inspiration from their parents” (p.17).
Other students noted different reasons for achieving academic success, including
crediting their parents’ ﬁnancial sacriﬁces as the reasoning for their academic
achievement. In essence, these students noted that they felt a huge obligation to achieve
because of the ﬁnancial investment made by their parents.
Faith
Although many deﬁnitions exist for the term faith, Black intellectual, W.E.B.
DuBois, presents a compelling look at this concept, “The history of the American Negro
i S the history of this strife—this longing to attain self-conscious [selfhood], to merge his
I: S ic] double self into a better and truer self’(Lazarus & Steward, 2002, p. 579). This
1 Onging has been identiﬁed as a spiritual awareness that acknowledges the interrelated
Ilature of the human experience and the need to feel complete, as an individual. DuBois’
e Incidation of this concept forces the reader to confront the African American’s desire to
i IIllarove as an individual, while existing in an environment that often reﬂects the African
American as inferior or inept. Additionally, the African American’s capacity to cling to
this aspiration, amid environmental struggles, reﬂects a religious cognizance that
reinforces an individual’s need to self actualize. Researchers believe this espoused notion
is reﬂected in the Aﬁican American students’ reliance on spirituality to navigate their
educational experiences (Fleming, 1984; Hughes, 1987; Sedlacek, 1987). The African
American student, particularly at PWIS, is placed in an environment that reﬂects the
doItninant culture. Here, these students must exist and achieve academic success by
relbv'ing on their spiritual consciousness to support their ability to overcome those

S'itetningly insurmountable challenges.

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James Fowler (1981) describes faith “as people’s ultimate support when the
other things they depend on in their lives collapse around them. Faith enables one to ﬁnd
meaning in the world and in one’s life, and is about making a commitment to what is
known and living in a way that is informed by that commitment” (Lazarus & Steward,
2 002, p. 581). Sharon Daloz Parks (2000) extended this deﬁnition by applying it to young
adults and the way they make meaning in different social contexts, such as higher
education. According to Parks, faith is “the capacity and demand for meaning, the self-
e onscious discovery of what is ultimately true and dependable in life” (p. 581). It is
i mportant to note that both Fowler and Parks emphasized that faith, in essence, is one’s
attempt to seek “coherence and wholeness among the myriad identities, responsibilities,
and relationships that all human beings possess” (p.582). This emphasis holds great
S igniﬁcance for the current challenges impacting the Aﬁ'ican American student.
Religiosity and spirituality are demonstrated in behaviors, attitudes and beliefs
tIlat include participation in worship services, prayers, and perceptions of a God image
( Smith & Richards, 2005). Johnson et al. (2003) also explored religious orientation
a~1”l'long African American college students. Speciﬁcally, they examined academic
performance differences as measured by g.p.a.s. They found that African American
Stlldents who exhibited more private, devout and rigid religious attitudes experienced '
higher levels of academic performance. According to the study “Spirituality in Higher
Education: A National Study of College Students’ Search for Meaning and Purpose,” the
reSllltS revealed, “African American students are more likely than other students to
believe in God, pray, and attend religious services frequently” (Bartlett, 2005, p. A3 8).

The study also showed that religious beliefs vary by race. For instance, 95 percent of

47

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African Americans believe in God, compared with 84 percent of Latinos, 78 percent of
Whites, and 65 percent of Asian Americans. Additionally, 53 percent of African
Americans frequently attend religious services, compared with 42 percent of Whites, 39
percent of Latinos, and 35 percent of Asian Americans. This literature demonstrates that
B lack collegians place great priority on faith. Speciﬁcally, these students take part in both
private and public behaviors to cultivate their faith. As a result, the achievement and
success of Black collegians is heightened.
Sanchez (2005) examined the relationships between religious orientation and
racial identity and found that racial and religious issues are an integral part of the self-
i dentity processes for African American collegians. Private devotional activities, like
prayer, are among the major strategies that African Americans use for coping with stress
and anxiety (Mattis & Jagers, 2001; McAdoo, 1995). Therefore, African Americans rely
On a religious system of meaning to combat racial inequities and to interpret other
S Ocietal challenges (Blaine & Crocker, 1995; Brega & Coleman, 1999; Ellison, 1993).
George, Larson, Koenig, and McCullough, (2000) distinguished spirituality as a
1'l‘lore comprehensive term that described an individual's personal relationship with a god
01‘ acknowledgement of a higher power. For those of African heritage, religious beliefs
and practices have and will always exist as an important feature of culture and rearing
(Boyd-Franklin, 2003). Many African Americans have a background that accentuates
I‘eligion, spiritual convictions, and a belief in God or a higher power (Richardson & June,
1 997). These ideas are all illustrative of the term, faith. Throughout much of American
history, African American society has placed great value on its religious institutions

(Lincoln & Mamiya, 1990; Moore, 1991). The African American church has been the

48

 

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most revered institution within the Black community (Billingsely, 1999). It is a major
purveyor of support for African Americans in their educational, social, and economic
development. For some African American students who persist and achieve college
completion, they have utilized their faith to assist and direct their academic journeys. The
navigation of their academic journeys was facilitated by managing their identities as both
Aﬁican Americans and members of the university community. These students utilized
their faith to effectively carry out their responsibilities as students and to maintain their
relationships with faculty, administrators, and other students (Fowler, 1981; Parks, 2000).
African American Identig Development
The desire to facilitate the overall success of the African American collegian
requires institutional personnel to be familiar with those developmental issues
Confronting this segment of the student population. According to “Identity Development
of Diverse Populations: Implications for Teaching and Administration in Higher
Education,” most people who have attended college emphasized this period as a time of
0Verwhelming and critical change, speciﬁcally stating that they became more grounded '
and stable. This notion reﬂects student development and the concept that the college
years are vital for the maturation of identity (2003). The belief that student identity is
developed through the college years is widely recognized and accepted. Thus institutional
Personnel must seek an increased level of ﬂuency to improve their role and impact as
they relate to the African American collegian.
Of all the racial identity models, Black racial identity has been the most studied
(Phelps, Taylor, & Gerard, 2001). Racial identity has been the focus of numerous texts

(Austin, Carter, &Vaux, 1990; Bagley & Copeland, 1994; Helms, 1990; Helms & Piper,

49

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1994); (Hughes & Demo, 1989; Parham & Helms, 1981). The central role of identity
development is the effective cultivation of a worldview, which encompasses how one
perceives society and feels connected to it (De Haan & Schulenberg, 1997). Race is a
concept that is an indelible feature of US. culture that carries many meanings and
stereotypes (Omi & Winant, 1986). This term has powerful implications for the mental
health and personality development of any individual (Bruno, 2002; R. Carter, 1995,
2005; McCowan & Alston, 1998). For African Americans and other minorities, personal
identity development is particularly challenging because we exist in a society that
requires minority individuals to overcome the negative perceptions that exist for this
group (Helms, 1994). As a result, people of color are bombarded with messages that

dictate and asses the appropriateness or inappropriateness of their behavior (R. Carter,

1 995, 2005).

In order to effectively combat those negative societal messages and address the
Black collegians’ important maturation issues, educators must acknowledge the relevancy
and impact of how these students view themselves in terms of racial identity.“ Cokley
(2001) found that some Black college students call upon their racial identity as a
powerful source of motivation. The author determined that Black females at HBCUS
Who exhibited high levels of racial awareness and greatly accentuated race as a large part
Of their identity reported high academic self-concept and elevated levels of intrinsic
motivation. Although this notion did not hold true for Black males in the sample, Cokley
concluded that Black females connected their academic achievement to their racial

identity, whereas males separated their achievement from their racial identity. This

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disparity might lead some to think that Black males do not view their academic ability

as a signiﬁcant contributor of their racial identity.

In another study that examined the impact of racial identity development on the
Black collegian, Grifﬁn (2006) examined the motivation for Black high achieving
collegians. The researcher found that those students who emphasized race as a large part of
their identity tended to exert more effort in the classroom, wanted to be an example of
pride for. the Black community, and wanted to make contributions to the Black community.
The researcher determined that a multidimensional framework must be utilized to examine
these students. The study incorporated three models: self-determination theory, socio-
Cognitive theory, and attribution theory. Grifﬁn’s research revealed that high achieving
B lack collegians were impacted by both internal and external forces of motivation.
Additionally, these students noted how their racial background served as a powerful
iIlfluence on their behavior. Although all of the students identiﬁed themselves as Black,
eight of the nine respondents acknowledged their awareness of common stereotypes about
Black students and felt that labels, held by their peers and professors, inﬂuenced their
behavior both in and outside of the classroom. Grifﬁn emphasized the students’ reliance on
bOth their racial background and their desire to improve their community, “Four students

also noted that they wanted to address the under representation of Black professionals” (p.

393).

@88’ Nigrescence Model

William Cross introduced one of the most important and widely-noted theories of
African American racial identity development, the Cross Nigrescence Model. According

to Cross (1971), Nigrescence is deﬁned as “the process of developing a Black identity.”

51

 

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He noted that there are ﬁve psychological stages: pre-encounter, encounter, immersion-
emersion, internalization, and intemalization-commitment. Cross characterized each
stage by combining race with self-concept issues. For example, the individuals’ stage of
racial identity greatly inﬂuenced their interactions with both Blacks and Whites.
Additionally, the stage of the person is signiﬁcantly inﬂuenced by the person’s feelings,
thoughts, and behaviors. By noting Cross’ dual analysis of race and self-concept,
researchers can gain insight on how both factors are manifested in an academic setting.

As a result, the institution may utilize this information in the planning of curricular

offerings, institutional programming, and economic allocations.

The Preencounter Stage is described as the realization that the White world view
i s dominant. Consequently, the Black person separates from the Black culture and denies
one’s Black identity. During the Encounter Stage, the individual experiences a desire to
interact with other Blacks and with Whites who appear to be sensitive to Black culture.
This stage is viewed as the individual’s determined and purposeful search for Black
identity.
The lmmersion-Emersion Stage is manifested in two phases. In the ﬁrst, the
individual idealizes Blackness and denigrates anything associated with White culture.
Emersion is the second phase. Here the individual develops a healthy perception of
Blackness, which allows for assessments of both the assets and deﬁcits found in the
Black culture.
In the Intemalization Stage, the individuals merge their unique personalities with

an acknowledgement of the African American identity. Although racism and

52

marginalization are rejected; the person in this stage does experience relationships with
Whites who support similar policies.

Cross characterized the Intemalization/Commitment Stage as one that reﬂected
social activism and cognitive development. The utilization of Cross’ Nigrescence Model
can aid university personnel in addressing some of the most compelling challenges that
Black collegians experience in the campus community, “Having a clear understanding of
race and racial identity, and their impact on the experiences and worldview of college for
students of color, is vital to providing developmentally appropriate and meaningful support

and services” (P0pe, 2000, p. 305).
Overall, racial identity theory is a psychological model that explains the complex

ego identity development process for African Americans” (Sanchez, 2005 , p. 283). Racial
identity theories propose that race is more than an individual’s skin color or features.

Rather, racial identity theories claim that a person's understanding of their identity is

cerebral. Thus, these theories guide an individual's feelings, thoughts, perceptions, and
1e\lel of investment in the cultural patterns of the individual (Helms, 1996) as well as other
aspects of their identity (Carter & Pieterse, 2005; R. Carter, 1995). In US. culture, Whites
have been given privilege based on race, while minorities have not (Helms, 1996; 2005).
Racial identity theories facilitate the minority individuals’ socialization in a society that
marginalizes those who reﬂect “difference.” If university personnel become more
knowledgeable of racial identity development for students, the information could be

utilized to create a more all-encompassing campus community, which may result in

augmenting the Black collegian’s acclimation to the university.

53

 

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Most would agree that the attainment of a baccalaureate degree remains to be the
most vital conduit to obtain a career, pursue graduate education, or to lay a foundation for
lifelong learning. Although this same sentiment is true for African Americans, its
importance takes on a greater meaning. For African Americans, the fulﬁllment of the
undergraduate degree represents the key strategy to overcome or to avoid those
undesirable conditions that were produced by slavery. Despite the fact that signiﬁcant
gains have been made in the African American population, the remnants of institutional
racism are still prevalent and present in the consciousness of most Americans. As a result,
the baccalaureate takes on more signiﬁcance for the Black collegian. Thus this study

takes on more importance and increased relevance for those who seek to support and
propel the African American collegian in the pursuit of higher education. The ﬁrst half of
the literature review discussed those crucial issues that have challenged the African
American student as this student has moved through the educational pipeline.
Additionally, the literature has shed light on those internal and personal methods that
Black collegians have used to prevail over challenges and to stay motivated. The
presentation of this literature has prepared the argument that proves the Black collegian
has the capacity to meet and exceed institutional expectations. However, it is imperative
that institutions create mechanisms that will acknowledge the needs of these students and
provide opportunities for academic achievement and graduation. Hence the next part of
this literature review focuses on those aspects that can be addressed and resolved by

postsecondary personnel.

54

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Institutional and Organizational Factors
Institutions of higher education must be held accountable to the entire student
population. As a result, the institution’s faculty, administration, student affairs personnel,
policies, curricular offerings, and extra-curricular programming should respond to a
cross-section of student interests and ability levels. In their discussion on the value that
diversity brings to educational institutions, Rothman, Lipset, and Nevitte (2003) noted
this enthusiastic endorsement by Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger:
Diversity is not merely a desirable addition to a well-run education. It is as
essential as the study of the Middle Ages, of international politics and of
Shakespeare. For our students to better understand the diverse country and world
they inhabit, they must be immersed in a campus culture that allows them to study
with, argue with, and become friends with students who may be different from
them. It broadens the mind and the intellect-essential goals of education (p. 25).
Thus, it is important to emphasize that institutional culture does have an impact on the
individual experiences of every student. Numerous studies have cited the correlations
between institutional environments and the persistence of students (Allen, 1981; Bean,
1980; Bollinger, 2007; Boyd, 2004; Clark & Crawford, 1992; Clewell, 1982; 1986;
Hebel, 2007; Tinto, 1982; and Wade-Golden & Matlock, 2007). Therefore it is
imperative for postsecondary institutions to recognize the value of diversity and fully
implement this concept into their campus community.
Additionally, those in the academy need to assist in the development of the
students’ educational goals and in the navigation of their educational experiences, “This
is particularly true for African American students whose families and communities may

simply lack the necessary information and educational resources to get them to college”

(Wimberly, 2002, p. 19). Consequently, it is imperative that postsecondary institutions

55

 

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are prepared to assist these students by creating environments that reﬂect both interest
and value in its African American student population. The institutional climate should
convey a genuine sense of belongingness to its entire student demographic that is
demonstrated through institutional initiatives and the behavior of university personnel.
Climate
In the October 2003 edition of Black Issues in Higher Education, the Rochester
Institute of Technology (RIT) was listed among a group of universities that has made
signiﬁcant progress in recruiting and retaining ethnically diverse faculty. In response to
this recognition, RIT’s Assistant Provost for Diversity Eulas Boyd offered his reaction in
a compelling and proliﬁc article, entitled, “Placing Diversity at the Core of Institutional
Excellence.” In this text, Boyd courteously reminds readers that the successful
recruitment and retainment of minority faculty “speaks to only part of our intended
rnission.” Boyd elaborates by emphasizing that in order for an institution to be truly
successful, the institution must have a broader institutional strategy. Speciﬁcally, Boyd
notes, “The diversity of the faculty is a key element, but not the only one. At the heart of
the mission is the education and graduation of increasing numbers of students of African
American, Latino American, and American Indian heritage. A diverse faculty has an
important role to play in this mission, but they are not solely responsible for the success
of these students. . . (Boyd, 2004, p.4).
In order to effectively understand college access, persistence, and graduation for
Aﬁican American students, institutional climate must be understood and scrutinized.
“Students on college campuses who experience a system of oppression every day have .4

:1
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56

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connecting with faculty, and feeling comfortable calling their future alma mater
‘home’”(Torres, Howard-Hamilton, & Cooper, 2003, p. 90). As a result, these students
develop a set of survival strategies that can have a negative or positive impact on the
students’ identity development and academic persistence. Torres et al. developed a
monograph entitled Identity Development of Diverse Populations: Implications for
Teaching and Administration in Higher Education that examined various controversial
issues, including how race can affect the college classroom and the campus community at
a PWI. The text began by acknowledging one of the unspoken truths that exists for any
campus community, “The ﬁrst aspect that should be understood about campus culture is
that dominant campus features reﬂect the inﬂuence of the dominant groups” (Strange &
Banning, 2001, p. 122 in Torres et al., 2003).

In terms of Aﬁican American students, Torres et al. offered two recommendations
to make traditionally White campuses reﬂect more inclusive environments to support the
adjustment of those from diverse backgrounds:

1. Increase the structural diversity of the faculty, staff, and student body. By
diversifying the university personnel and student body, there is a promotion of interaction
and challenge among those from different backgrounds. As a result, old paradigms can be

challenged, this challenge promotes a learning environment that reﬂects and values
diversity and expands one’s View of how the world should function (Hurtado, Milem,
Clayton-Pedersen, & Allen, 1999).

2.. Make an assessment of the current literature or other university representations

to ensure that all cultures are reﬂected. For example, “ Providing a group of students with

cameras to do a photographic assessment can provide administrators with interesting

57

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information on how messages are interpreted and what values students see on the
campus” (Torres et. a1, 2003, p. 91). It is important that the campus reﬂect a very
inclusive, welcoming environment to support those from diverse cultures.

In order to have an effective discussion on institutional climate, the role that race
plays in that climate must be acknowledged. Solorzano, Ceja, & Yosso (2000) used a
critical race framework to examine how racial climate impacts the undergraduate
experiences of African American students through microaggressions, “subtle insults
directed toward people of color, often automatically or unconsciously” (p. 60). Their
study, “Critical Race Theory, Racial Microagressions, and Campus Racial Climate: The
Experiences of African American College Students,” observed how African American
students responded to the microaggressions and how the collegiate racial climate was
impacted by this same concept. Their discussion on microagressions cited Steele and
Aronson’s (1995) research on racial stereotypes, which revealed “that racial stereotypes
are deeply woven into the fabric of US society, yet their daily effects are often
misunderstood” (p. 62). Speciﬁcally, Steele and Aronson determined that racial
stereotypes interfere with the Black collegians’ academic success. This interference
manifests itself as “stereotype threat,” which can result in low scores on standardized
tests, “ . . . in a high-stakes testing situation if African American students are reminded of
stereotypes that they are intellectually inferior to Whites, their test performance is
depressed” (p. 62).

Solorzano et al. coupled Steele & Aronson’s work with a critical race framework
to determine how a racial climate that includes racial microaggressions impacts the

undergraduate experiences of African American students. The study revealed that Aﬁican

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American students experienced microaggressions in both academic settings and social
settings. As a result, these students noted several negative outcomes: questioned their
academic ability, experienced feelings of frustration, and considered leaving the
institution. Overall, Solorzano, et al. cited (Carroll 1998; Guinier, Fine, & Balin 1997;
Hurtado 1992; Hurtado, Milem, Clayton -— Pedersen, & Allen 1999) and deﬁned a
positive collegiate racial climate as: (a) the inclusion of students, faculty, and
administrators of color; (b) a curriculum that reﬂects the historical andcontemporary
experiences of people of color; (0) programs to support the recruitment, retention and
graduation of students of color; and (d) a mission statement that reinforces the
institution’s commitment to pluralism. Some researchers (Boykin, 1983; Perry, Steele, &
Milliard, 2003) believe that Black students learn more in environments that are
characterized as harmonious, cooperative, affective, and emphasize a strong sense of ii
community. Conversely, they believe these students learn less in environments that are
highly stratiﬁed and competitive. This view is consistent with that of Gallien and
Peterson (2004), Delpit, (1996), and Hale-Benson (1986) who proposed that many Black
students use people-oriented and relational approaches to learning rather than the
independent and analytical style favored in most White higher educational environments.

If postsecondary institutions do not demonstrate an interest in Black students and
their academic success through institutional practices and policies, these students will not
have the inclination or tools to achieve success in the academy. According to Buck
(2001), if postsecondary personnel are going to understand the racial and cultural

differences that exist within their communities, they must understand that enlightening a

pluralistic populace is a sobering and difﬁcult task. Moreover this task requires

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institutional personnel to modify many facets of institutional life, by demonstrating
warmness through institutional initiatives, extracurricular activities, and positive student
interactions with faculty and administrators. This notion is not new and has been studied
for more than 30 years. Therefore, in addition to an obligation to prepare African
American students, PWIs should also feel accountable for creating an environment, for
these students that will support their success, “...Since the elimination of ‘dejure
segregation’ predominantly White institutions are responsible for educating a vast
majority of minority students, particularly students of African American heritage...”
(Psychological Barriers, 2003).
Retention Programs

“There’s an unfortunate gap in services once students reach college. We have
programs that help increase the pipeline of people going to college, now we want to help 7%
them become college graduates,”(Devarics & Roach, 2000, p. 21) says Representative
Chaka Fattah. This Philidelphia-based congressman worked with leaders of the
Congressional Black Caucus and the Clinton administration to earmark Federal ﬁinds for
college retention programs. Seven years ago F attah introduced a college retention
proposal that grew into a $35 million program that was apart of the Clinton
administration’s 2001 budget proposal. This documents that national retention rates,
particularly for the minority student, are bleak and can no longer be viewed as an
afterthought, but rather as an issue related to both the access and the preservation of
students of color.

Retaining incoming ﬁrst year students is one of the most vital challenges

confronting postsecondary. institutions. This issue is particularly critical for minority,

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low-income and ﬁrst generation students (Hammer, 2003). Every year Noel —I.eyitz, a
postsecondary consulting ﬁrm that advises higher education institutions on retaining
students and acknowledges the most successful retention programs. The winners are
selected by a panel of postsecondary administrators and consultants on “measurable
results, originality and creativity of the programs, resource use, and adaptability to other
institutions” (p.28). In 2006, Noel — Levitz recognized two institutions for their award-
winning retention programs:

1. "Excelling in Science and Engineering Learning,” is provided at Michigan
Technological University and the King-Chavez-Parks Initiative in Houghton, Michigan.
This program focuses on a partnership between the College of Engineering, the
Department of Educational Opportunity and the State of Michigan's King-Chavez-Parks
Initiative. This initiative is aimed at increasing student success and retention for both
minority and disadvantaged ﬁrst-year students enrolled in the College of Engineering.
Typically there are 108 students who participate in the program. The strategy combines
coursework, peer mentoring, progress mentoring, and personalized services. Since the
program began, student retention has increased 16.4 percent and the average fall semester
GPA has increased 30 percent. During this time, there’s been a 4.1 percent decrease in
students who are placed on academic probation and an 18 percent decrease in students
dismissed for academic issues (N oel-Levitz, 2006).

2. "Pegasus Success Program," is offered through the University of Central
Florida in Orlando, Florida. The Pegasus Success Program (PSP) is a collaborative
learning community that focuses on an integrated curriculum, interdisciplinary courses

and social interaction to provide students with a strong academic and personal

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development foundation. This program is targeted to students who fall short of the
standard admission criteria, but demonstrate the potential for success. Prior to the fall
semester, the program runs for six weeks. During this time, the students participate in a
structured environment that emphasizes succeeding in college through academic
advising, peer mentoring and supplemental instruction. On average, there are 150
participants. Since 2000, the retention rate for the PSP has consistently been 97 percent
with an average freshman-to-sophomore retention rate of 80 percent. These programs
effectively demonstrate that targeted approaches to facilitate minority students and
unprepared students can signiﬁcantly impact the students’ ability to achieve academic
success and to attain an undergraduate degree.

In “Leave No College Student Behind," Smith (2004) offers her personal
perspective on how retention programs can be enhanced by discussing the “hidden
curriculum” concept. This term refers to “. . . the unwritten and unspoken rules of how to
successfully navigate through the nebulous academic culture of higher education, which
is essential to academic success. For example, there is an appropriate way students should
interact with faculty when discussing grades, which might not be transparent to all
college students” (p. 48). The author went on to criticize retention programs for their
solitary emphasis on academic skills and their inability to also address those key 1‘
components needed to access the “hidden curriculum” or those rules that are needed to .
recognize and navigate the institutional culture. As a result, Smith suggests that retention
programs include this essential component to achieve overall success in the higher

education context. “. . .they should concentrate on how to teach students the academic

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cultural knowledge of the institution, for example the most appropriate way to engage in
classroom discussions” (p.48).

Additionally Smith (2004) went on to discuss the mentor component that many
retention programs offer by identifying two major problems: they do not include a plan
that would explicitly and comprehensively reveal the unwritten rules of navigating the
college environment and that one —on —one mentoring relationships lead students to be
poorly informed of the “hidden curriculum.” In order to address these concerns, Smith
suggested the restructuring of the mentor component by implementing a clearly
developed and systematic way of teaching the students to identify, interpret and navigate
the hidden rules of engagement in the university setting. And to eliminate the one-on —
one mentoring approach and replace it with avnetwork-mentor model.,This approach )1—
would require the student to interact with various individuals in the community, such as
faculty, administrators, and upperclassmen, all of which would be considered mentors to
the individual student. This network notion would ensure a more comprehensive
exposure to the university culture and those unspoken rules that are required for success
in that culture. The information on retention programs depicts the critical need for
universities to develop a more comprehensive approach to supporting the African
American collegian. Although it is imperative that students are highly efﬁcient in critical
reading, analysis, and writing skills, it is equally as important that this student
demonstrate a proﬁciency in the cognizance, recognition and application of those

obscured guidelines that are integral to the effective course-plotting of postsecondary

institutions.

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In “What Color is an A,” Schmidt (2007) discusses Skidmore College’s
overwhelming success of assisting those minority students who have academic
deﬁciencies. Skidmore utilizes two major retention efforts: the Higher Education
Opportunity Program, restricted to New York residents and the Academic Opportunity
Program, available to all out-of-state students. Both programs assist students who have
been identiﬁed as having academic potential, but lack an appropriate SAT score or
students who come from modest high schools that were not academically challenging.

Both retention programs were developed to facilitate the students’ college
transition. Prior to fall semester, incoming students are required to attend an academic
boot camp. For more than four weeks, students take intensive mathematics and writing
courses. Additionally, the students must take a third course on analytical writing, in
which students are introduced to the writings of ﬁgures like Plato and Darwin. At the end
of the day, students are required to study for three hours with the assistance of
professional tutors. The program has experienced success, “. . . As of last fall, nearly 60
percent, of the 133 students involved in the two Skidmore Programs had grade point
averages of at least 3.0 and more than a fourth had at least a 3.5” (Schmidt, 2007, p. 4).

In addition to the academic requirements, the ofﬁce that houses both retention
programs has a friendly and caring staff who appears to be ready and willing to assist
students with their homework or to chat with students. According to Susan B. Layden,
who oversees both retention programs and is the Associate Dean of Student Affairs, “To
help minority students feel they can achieve at higher levels regardless of what is going
on around them, we create a smaller environment within this place where students feel

safe” (Schmidt, 2007, p. 8). Student retention programs provide access to those who

64

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have been traditionally underrepresented in the postsecondary environment. This access
is found in the form of transition programs, course instruction, tutoring, mentoring
programs, and interest groups. The data in this discussion has substantiated the notion
that effective retention programs have a signiﬁcant impact on at-risk students and allow
these students to not only meet the institution’s academic standards, but in some cases
exceed them. Toney and Lowe (2001) emphasize the importance and value that retention
programs offer the African American collegian. However, these authors also question the
postsecondary institution’s commitment to genuinely seeking inclusion for their
campuses:

“They [at-risk students] can be retained, maintain acceptable grade point

averages, and graduate within a reasonable time frame from highly competitive

institutions if they are provided adequate academic support services. Nearly every
university in this country claims to be an equal opportunity institution. The truth
of these words lies in the treatment of those who were previously excluded from

participation in higher education” (p. 14).

The global workforce requires its population to be educated in terms of academic
disciplines, but also in terms of having the capacity to interact with those who are
dissimilar. As a result, the learning process for each individual is heightened and the
quality of the work is improved. Retention Programs allow students who reﬂect
“difference” to receive the academic and transitional assistance that is needed. These 1
programs also allow these students to enter a community that sees the value and beneﬁt 1
in their presence and in their contributions. As a result, the entire university community is

enhanced through the integration of various ideas, perspectives, and contributions made

by the entire student community.

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Faculty

For more than two decades, interaction between institutional personnel and
students has been consistently cited as a positive contributor to student success and '
persistence for all students, including Aﬁican Americans (Astin, 1985; Kuh & Hu, 2001;
Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Tinto, 1993). Previous literature still remains true and
signiﬁcant (Hale-Benson, 1986) in suggesting that Black students respond best to
teachers who are fair, concerned for their well-being outside the classroom, effectively "14‘
convey the academic content to students, and challenge them with an attitude of "we lift
as we climb" (Roebuck & Murty, 1993, p. 203). There are speciﬁc classroom strategies
that educational researchers associate with effective instruction for African American
students in all postsecondary environments. The ﬁrst is teacher immediacy, Canary, Cody
and Manusov (2000) deﬁne this concept as signs that show attentiveness, liking,
psychological closeness, and demonstrate active engagement in interactions. Verbal
behaviors include humor, addressing students by name, conversing with students before
or aﬁer class, praising student work, and encouraging students to ask questions and talk
(Gorham, 1988; Neuliep, 2002). Second, nonverbal immediacy behaviors include vocal
expressions, smiles, eye contact with students, and movement around the classroom
during teaching (Gorham, 1988). Third, teachers' communication of immediacy is critical
because researchers have demonstrated that students learn most from teachers who are
"warm, friendly, immediate, approachable, and fostering of close, professionally
appropriate personal relationships" (Andersen & Andersen, 1987, p. 57).

Although the data has clearly revealed that neither HBCUs nor PWIS are

experiencing great success with the African American collegian (Allen, Epps, & Haniff,

66

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1991; Astin, 1982; “Black Student College Graduation Rates,” 2006; Fleming, 1984;
Hall, Mays, & Allen, 1984; Nettles, 1988; “The Nation’s Colleges,” 2003; Thomas,
1981), there are some lessons to be learned from the HBCU’s classroom and its positive
impact on the African American collegian. The HBCU classroom is in contrast to that
experienced at traditionally White institutions. In pedagogical terms, professors at
HBCUS utilize teaching styles that are more consistent with the learning styles of Black
students. Rucker and Gendrin (2003) concluded that Black identity and instructor
ethnicity positively inﬂuenced student perceptions of learning objectives. Their ﬁndings
also suggested that African American instructors may manifest more teacher immediacy
behaviors than their Caucasian counterparts. Therefore, Aﬁican American students have
a stronger identiﬁcation with their African American instructors than they do with White
instructors. Moreover, Rucker and Gendrin (2003) concluded that “the racial/cultural
congruency of the HBCU classroom is likely to increase students' sense of racial identity
and enhance student cognitive learning within the context of student learning style,” (p.
208). This ﬁnding is also supported by Perry, Steele, and Hilliard (2003). The
pedagogical practices utilized by faculty at HBCUS, could prove to be highly effective
when combined with other teaching practices of faculty at PWIS. Thus, the achievement
and graduation of African American students could be heightened.

According to the text, “What Research Says about Race-Linked Barriers to
Achievement” (2007), “Some researchers say subtle factors, like fears of not ﬁtting in or
perceptions that professors have low expectations of them, may hinder the progress of

today’s nonwhite students more than blatant discrimination does” (p. 1).

67

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Fowler and Villanueva (2002) noted that White college faculty tend to take one
of three stanceS'in their interactions with African American students, particularly African
American male students. Although the ﬁrst two stances tend to lead to negative
consequences for the Aﬁican American college student, the third stance enhances the
rapport with the Black student: (a) deemphasize the effect of racial differences, by not
accentuating the students’ racial identity; (b) become overly hesitant or, in some cases,
paralyzed by their awareness of racial differences, as a result the faculty member ends up
unintentionally ignoring and avoiding interaction with the student; and (c) demonstrate a
special awareness of the effect racial differences have on students of color by
acknowledging the marginalization that exists in society (p.9). As a result of these
stances, the text demonstrates how faculty can unintentionally negatively impact the
African American student.

In the article, “Scholarly Research on the Higher Education of African
Americans” (2006), African American faculty were found to have a signiﬁcant impact on
higher education. Speciﬁcally, this group of faculty was examined by Dr. Paul Umbach
who used a 2003 survey of 13,500 faculty at 134 predominantly White colleges across
the country. Umbach found that African American and other minority faculty were more
likely than their White counterparts to interact with their students and to use a wider array
of teaching practices. He also found that Black faculty were more likely to create
classroom environments that promoted diverse interactions and emphasized active and
collaborative learning techniques. Umbach speculates, “. . . because Black and other
minority faculty come from diverse backgrounds themselves, they are more likely to have

unique perspectives and different teaching methods” (p. 2)

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Lundberg (2004) examined the imbalance that exists between Aﬁican American
collegians and African American faculty members, “within degree-granting institutions in
the United States, African Americans make up l 1,5% of the studentbody, bHLQQlXE-éﬁ’
__ oftheiacglty” (p. 548). As a result of this disproportion, there is an increased likelihood
that Black collegians will consistently interact with faculty who do not share their race or
ethnicity. To assess the impact of the imbalance that exists between Aﬁican American
students and non-Black faculty, Lundberg conducted a study on seven different
racial/ethnic groups that examined how the quality and quantity of faculty interaction
impacted student learning. Lundberg’s research substantiated the notion that frequent and
high quality facultystudent interactions were a better predictor of learning for students of
color than for their White counterparts.

Lundberg’s results revealed that satisfying relationships with faculty members
were deﬁned as frequent interactions and those that encouraged students to work harder.
Even though these relationships were noted as strong predictors of learning for every
racial group, Native American and African American students reported experiencing
slightly less satisfying relationships with faculty. Interestingly, these two groups of
students reported higher levels of working harder due to faculty feedback because they
believed they needed to work harder to disprove their instructors’ preconceived notions
of their abilities. Conversely, Steele's (1997) groundbreaking work in the area of
stereotype threat found that critical feedback to African American students can be a great
motivator when coupled with the students’ optimism about their intellectual potential.
However, receiving tactless criticisms from faculty resulted in a greater negative reaction

from African American students than it did from White students (Cohen, Steele, & Ross,

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1999). Steele also stressed the importance of other practices that he labels "wise
schooling" for students of color: giving challenging work to students, afﬁrming that they
belong intellectually in the college environment, valuing multiple perspectives, and
providing an environment in which the students receive nonjudgmental feedback.

Based on the results of her study, Lundberg (2004) suggested that faculty should
emphasize the quality of faculty-student interactions. Students assessed faculty
satisfaction, in terms of the extent to which faculty were “approachable, helpﬁrl,
understanding, and encouraging, rather than remote, discouraging, and unsympathetic”
(Lundberg, 2004, p. 563). Lundberg offered some recommendations to enhance the
interaction between faculty and students: (a) institutions must work to diversify the racial
and ethnic representation of the faculty; (b) all faculty members must make themselves
more approachable to students, particularly African American and Native American
students; and (c) institutions must create environments and opportunities for students and
faculty to engage with one another in an effort to make faculty members more
approachable. These opportunities can occur in orientation, residence life, recreation
programs, and in other student affairs domains where students may feel more
comfortable. The responsibility for enhancing student relationships should not be
restricted to faculty, administrators, and students, but should include student affairs
professionals. These individuals must strive to generate seamless learning environments
that support the institution’s mission (Kuh, 1996).

Though Lundberg emphasized the quality of faculty — student interaction, Fowler
and Villanueva (2002) extended this discussion in the text, Included in English Studies:

Learning Climates that Cultivate Racial and Ethnic Diversity. Here, the authors discuss

70

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the signiﬁcance of the faculty-student relationship in higher education settings. The text
reiterated the massive impact this relationship can have on the success of African
American college students (Allen, Epps, & Haniff, 1991; Grant-Thompson & Atkinson,
1997; Kobrak, 1992; Pascarelli & Terenzini, 1977). Additionally, some of these same
researchers noted that faculty-student relationships among mixed race pairings
demonstrate that race does inﬂuence how the interaction turns out. For example, Grant-
Thompson and Atkinson (1997) found that that White faculty who worked with Black
students found tremendous success when they displayed culturally sensitive behaviors.
The authors noted the example of the African American student who mentioned the
importance of race and ethnicity as a student at a PWI and the White faculty member who
openly recognized the importance of both, as opposed to ignoring the students’ comments
on this topic. This reinforcement of the students’ viewpoint leads to a greater rapport
between the faculty member and the Black student. The faculty — student relationship can
provide a powerful source of reiteration of the Black collegians’ value to the learning
environment and campus community.

The role that faculty play in the promotion of academic success for Black college
students is highly signiﬁcant. African American students rely on those verbal and
nonverbal cues, used by faculty, to communicate faith or disbelief in the students’ it
capacity to achieve success. It is important to emphasize that Black students’ academic
success is not exclusively based on the action of the White, Black or minority faculty
member, but rather that there are a myriad of other contributing factors, including the
students’ determination. However, it is imperative that an increased number of faculty

become cognizant of their role in promoting the Black students’ academic achievement.

71

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As a result, the African American college student will have an increased likelihood of
attaining academic success.
Administrators

“Leaders are key to how organizations function, and there is little doubt that the
leaders who are needed to guide postsecondary institutions in tomorrow’s complex
environments have to think about their work differently than did their predecessors”
(Amey, 2006, p. 58). Demographic research indicates that the population will continue to
experience racial/ethnic diversiﬁcation (N CES, 2002). As a result, if there are no
intentional plans to provide education on issues of race, our society may experience
disruptive interactions and repercussions (Gurin, 1999). Alternatively, if higher education
administrators design purposeful multicultural experiences for students, these students
will experience constructive learning and social outcomes (Milem, 2003).

Cross and Slater (2001) discussed several contributors of Black student attrition in
higher education, including two areas that academic administrators must address to
resolve this issue: implement mentoring programs and increase the availability of
ﬁnancial aid. Williams College, the University of Virginia, and Brown University are
institutions that have high Black student graduation rates and programs developed to
nurture and guide the Black collegian. These schools developed mentoring programs that
pair ﬁrst-year freshmen with upperclassmen. In terms of major barriers to college
completion, Cross and Slater write that, “The most important reason that Black kids drop
out WQL” (p.3). The authors cited a study by Nellie Mae, the largest nonproﬁt
provider of federal and private student loans that indicated 69 percent of Black collegians

who dropped out of college said that they left because of high student loan debt as

72

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compared to 43 percent of their White peers who cited the same reason. The availability
of increased ﬁnancial aid would reduce the students’ economic burden. In recent years,
Princeton University has been noted for their unprecedented use of ﬁnancial aid packages
in an attempt to draw more students from urban areas and working-class backgrounds.
Recently, this institution implemented a new program that “. . .consists of forgiveness of
all tuition charges for families earning less than $46,500 and the substitution of outright
grants in place of student loans for all ﬁnancial aid students” (“How Princeton
University,” 2001, p. 1). Although it must be noted that Princeton has the largest
endowment per student, it is evident that this institution is willing to take unparalleled
steps to ensure that African American students have access and success at their
institution.

Coomes (1994) discussed the importance of institutional policies and how they
should reﬂect the diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds of the student body. He
cautioned administrators to avoid implementing policies that substantiated and reinforced
the ideals of the dominant culture. Based on research from Manning & Coleman-
Boatwright (1991), Coomes discussed ﬁve recommendations to assist university
administrators in building a community that reﬂected equity and fairness by developing
policies that: (a) distribute power equitably; (b) blur gender role boundaries; (0) lead to
the development and inclusion in the curriculum of course work that explores the
contributions of multiple cultures; ((1) stress consensus and collaboration; and (e) foster
the development of nonbureaucratic organizational forms. These data support the notion
that administrators must ensure that the allocation of resources and programming

effectively represent both the majority and minority populations. If resources are utilized

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in a more equitable fashion, the Black collegian might experience increased levels of
both social and academic fulﬁllment.

In terms of how academic administrators can enhance the success of Black
collegians, Coomes (1994) offered the following, “Building a campus community
founded on the principles of equity and fairness presents a formidable task for campus
administrators” (p. 432). Some researchers have concluded that institutional policy is a
direct reﬂection of institutional economic values based on economics. Essentially
administrators make decisions that support the institution’s budget instead of making
decisions that advance the quality of the educational experience for all of the students
(Astin, 1993). As a result, African American or other minority students with different
needs do not receive the academic, social, or economic support required to heighten their
success. Ultimately, these students are placed in an environment that seemingly does not
acknowledge or value their distinctive backgrounds and they are left to feel as if they are
not appreciated members of the campus community. Additionally, these students will be
leﬁ out because the allocation of monetary and programming resources will coincide with
the needs of the majority students.

Faculty and Academic Administrators Enhancing Success

Many authors have examined strategies that faculty and academic administrators
can use to increase the likelihood of African American student success. A small sample
of this volume of research is presented to show examples of commonalities in the
literature. Wade-Golden & Matlock (2007) developed 10 recommendations to assist
university personnel in successﬁrlly fostering institutional diversity, ﬁve of which were

speciﬁcally directed to faculty and administrators:

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1. Campus Leadership Must be Visible and Heard. The campus community must
know that the institutional leadership places emphasis and priority on diversity.
University leadership must continually encourage those concepts and people that reﬂect
“difference.” Additionally, there must be an emphasis on placing minority faculty and
staff in leadership roles. These individuals should not be relegated to ofﬁces or roles that
primarily focus on meeting the needs of minority students.

2. Institutional Diversity is Everyone’s Business-No Exceptions. The entire
campus must demonstrate dedication to campus diversity. Additionally, institutions must
ensure that the academic units play a major role in institutionalizing campus diversity, for
fear of leaving the impression that diversity initiatives are limited to students and staff.
University personnel should also review programs, policies, institutional traditions,
curriculum, and climate issues to ensure that diversity is encouraged and supported

through institutional, college, and departmental programming efforts.

 

3. Integrate Campus Diversity Priorities with the Institutional Mission. The
institutional mission should be aligned with the institution’s diversity priorities. Meaning
the university’s mission should contain elements of the university’s diversity plan.

4. Campus Diversity is More Than 3 Numbers Game. In measuring its success,
the university should consider the retention graduation rates for minority students.
Despite the fact that these groups tend to have lower rates that their White counterparts,
universities fail to develop systematic efforts to address this issue.

5. Communicate Institutional Diversity Priorities and Successes. Institutional
leaders must utilize campus forums to share diversity-related successes and to address

generalizations attributed to people of color. Overall these leaders must send a direct

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message that demonstrates their support for diversity. The authors offered this
cautionary note for faculty and administrators, “Campuses have to be proactive and
aggressive in communicating diversity successes to counter some of the media and
campus constituents that view diversity only in negative terms” (2007, p. 7). Although
many colleges still struggle to promote inclusion, the demographic data report that our
country will continue to become increasingly diverse over the next 40 years. Failure to
effectively address these issues of diversity could put our country at risk if our students
are not prepared to compete in a global workforce. When university personnel
acknowledge the minority student population by enacting policies and programs to
facilitate high quality interactions, the educational experiences for all students will be
improved (Chang, 2001).

“Each faculty member and administrator must understand how he or she as an
individual and as a member of the institution inﬂuences the success or failure of those
who are not from the white culture. It is only when this discomfort is dealt with that

9”

higher education can truly say, ‘we value diversity (Torres, Howard-Hamilton, &
Cooper, 2003, p.7). A study conducted by Johnson (2001) highlighted that the actions of
faculty and administrators are pivotal to the success of the Black collegians at both
HBCUS and PWls. For example, one student in the study said “one-on—one
communication with the teachers is another major aspect of college survival. . . For me
that makes me feel like they care just a little bit if they learn my name. . . I’m able to go
talk to Mr. Whoever and ask for help and them being able to give out their time and help

me out” (pp. 77 — 78). Other students added that some instructors offered to continue to

assist them even after the course was completed. Another student reﬂected on

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encouragement from the college president, “. . . every time we are ever around his
office. . . he would always make a point to come up to me and say ‘Good job, stay
encouraged.’ I thought that was really nice” (p. 79). Other students mentioned mentors
and ﬁnancial aid representatives as additional sources of support and encouragement.

Dias-Bowie et al. (2004) examined the success strategies of Black collegians and
found many strategies that heighten the academic experiences of Black learners: (a)
university personnelneed to develop and constantly evaluate ways to help Black students
connect with various segments of the university; (b) faculty members should be
encouraged to learn about cultural identity development;(c) faculty and academic
administrators should examine their own behavior to assess where they are in this regard,
and set goals for further development; and ((1) faculty members should ﬁnd ways to hear
the stories of their black (and other) students (p. 443). These data prove how caring
faculty and administrators can be viewed as not only a survival strategy for Black college
students, but also a useful strategy to heighten the academic experiences for the entire
student population.
Student Affairs Professionals

When institutional personnel commit themselves to successfully cultivating a
pluralistic population, there is an expectation that the “business as usual” sentiment that
ignores the needs of African American and other minority students should vanish.
Furthermore, it is expected that those in student affairs realize that the students’ race and
ethnicity should not be viewed as the “the problem,” but rather the “university
environment” should be regarded as a major contributor to the problem (Buck, 2001).

Student affairs professionals often take the lead in seeking change in campus conditions.

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In terms of how student affairs personnel may assist in promoting a more wide-
ranging campus climate, Constantine (2002) studied 151 Black and Latino college
students enrolled at Midwestern PWIS. Constantine focused on the relationships among
collective self-esteem, perceived social support, and cultural congruity. Overall, the
research revealed that both Black and Latino women experienced higher levels of cultural
congruity than their male counterparts. Constantine determined that higher public
collective self-esteem and higher social support satisfaction were associated with higher
cultural congruity scores, and made several recommendations to improve the overall
institutional climate for students of color:

1. Student affairs personnel in predominantly White universities may wish to
consider how their environments contribute to Black and Latino men's comfort (or lack
thereof) on campus. For example, it may be useful for these universities to conduct
comprehensive self-assessments to identify the extent to which they provide comfortable
academic, cultural, and social milieus for Black and Latino men and other students of
color (Constantine & Watt, 2002).

2. Aggressive recruitment and retention efforts for the purposes of increasing the
numbers of Black and Latino men on predominantly White college and university
campuses may also be an indicator of the degree to which these institutions value and
appreciate cultural diversity.

3. Student affairs personnel may wish to consider engaging in outreach programs
that focus on educating the larger university milieu about the experiences of Black and
Latino men and other students of color. In particular, anti-racism and diversity sensitivity

programming may be fruitful in promoting a valuing of all cultural groups on

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Constantine believes student affairs personnel should play a pivotal role in creating an
environment that promotes success for students of color, “By serving as ‘social change
agents’ on their campuses, student affairs personnel may make enormous impacts on the
institutional climate of their universities in ways that support the personal, social, and
academic matriculation of students of diverse cultural backgrounds” (p. 10). Although
this holds true for all students, historically postsecondary institutions have responded
differently to the African American student population and left the students feeling
alienated.
Black Collegians and HBCUS and PWIS

In the next section, I will introduce institutional variables that impact academic
persistence. In The Road to Racial Equality, Beverly Daniel Tatum, ninth president of
Spelman College and author, expressed her concerns of teaching students to interact in a
pluralistic society,” Whether at an HBCU or predominantly White institution, we all must
ask ourselves, How do we create and sustain educational environments that afﬁrm
identity, build community, and cultivate leadership in a way that supports the learning of
all students?" (2004, p. 34). Today the African American student has found success at
both HBCUs and PWIS, however in both cases at just a select few institutions. In terms of
the HBCU and its graduation rates, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reports
that the lowest graduation rate was at the University of the District of Columbia, where
only 5 percent of entering freshmen go on to earn a bachelor's degree (“The Nation’s
Colleges,” 2003). At Texas Southern University, 12 percent of all entering students

complete college. This statistic is quite alarming considering the history of the HBCU.

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What factors have contributed to the African American students’ inability to achieve at
an institution that has a legacy of creating African American world leaders?

By a large margin, the highest Black student graduation rate at a historically
Black college belongs to the academically selective and prestigious Spelman College,
with a college completion rate of 76 percent (Cross & Slater, 2001). This institution is
highly noted because it has a higher Black student graduation rate than prestigious and
primarily White colleges such as the University of Chicago, Bates, Hamilton, Grinnell,
and Bryn Mawr. The success of Spelman College reﬂects the institution’s capacity to
embrace the changes that accompany competition in a global society. Dr. Tatum noted
some of the incentives that prompted improvements at the oldest historically Black
college for women. Because of the increased competition from PWIS, the institution
improved its faculty development, added new resources for scholarships and expanded
facilities, and ensured that the campus community continues to reﬂect an environment
that will motivate talented young women to seek Spelman as the “only” choice for higher
education (2004). According to Tatum, Black colleges like Spelman will always remain
relevant and the preferred choice for many talented Black students, “I recognize that
college choice is a reﬂection of identity--a statement about how you see yourself, who
you are now and who you hope to become. Students are drawn to an environment where
they see themselves reﬂected in the environment in powerful ways, places where they see
themselves as central to the educational enterprise” (p.34). The success experienced by
Spelman College reiterates the powerful impact that institutional climate can have on the

African American college completion rate.

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Additionally, there were similar impressive graduation rates for Black students at
other nationally ranked PWIS. For example, between 1998 and 2002, the University of
Pennsylvania, Rice University, and Columbia University each witnessed improvements
in its Black student graduation rate by at least 10 percentage points CW
WOver the past nine years Vanderbilt University has watched its Black
graduation rate jump from 69 percent to 81 percent. Interestingly, because of the small
number of Aﬁican American students, these percentages must be considered in a speciﬁc
and limited context because critics would argue that these institutions would restrict their
admissions to the “best and brightest.” Therefore, it should not be surprising that “any”
student, who is admitted to this type of institution, would achieve academic success and
timely college completion.

Although HBCUS have always been viewed as a “safe haven” that fostered
cultivation for African American students, some HBCUS lag behind in terms of college
completion rates. Ironically, in comparison to some PWIS, the HBCU is not experiencing
higher graduation percentages of these students (The nation’s colleges, 2003).

Black Collegians and PWIS

Research supports that some African American students who elected to attend
PWIs described their experiences as both undesirable and objectionable. Ancis, Sedlacek,
and Mohr (2000) concluded that African American undergraduates consistently reported
more racial-ethnic conﬂict at PWIs, pressure to conform to stereotypes, and less equitable
treatment by faculty, staff, teaching assistants, and campus police. These students also
reported less satisfaction with the institution and claimed that faculty members were more

critical of their academic performance in comparison to their White peers.

81

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The elimination of the race—based directives could lead many to believe that the
system of higher education has become “color blind.” However, many African American
students who attend PWIs still make claims of racism and disenfranchisement in their
interactions with other students, faculty, and administrators. For more than 30 years, the
socialization and academic difﬁculties experienced by African American students at
PWIs have been documented in numerous studies (e. g., Allen, Epps, & Haniff, 1991;

_ Nettles, 1988). According to Allen-Castellitto and Maillard (2001), PWIs enroll 80
percent of Black undergraduates and despite the fact that these students attend in great
numbers; the African American student faces great challenges in both academic and
social pursuits at PWIS. African American students do not always feel included in the
traditional White college community and feel alienated. As a result, a disproportionate
number of Black collegians lag behind their White counterparts, in academic success,
persistence, and enrollment in graduate studies, and attrition rates can be quite high
(Allen, 1992; Astin, 1975, 1982; Blackwell, 1987; Fleming, 1984; Grifﬁn, 1992;
Lomotey, 1990; Tinto, 1993, 1987).

The campus climate reﬂected at a PWI often perpetuates the notion that all who
enter must adjust. Those who resist this change are typically viewed as noncompliant or
uncooperative (Ibarra, 2001). African American students may also feel alienated because
of the limited interracial interactions between their peers and faculty (Braxton, 2000).
Eventually those who feel isolated may drop out.

The culture of the classroom on a traditional White college/university requires the
student to make accommodations in order to survive academically. For example, the

teaching styles utilized in many White university classrooms consist of lecture and

82

 

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question-answer techniques that are divergent to African Americans' dominant learning
styles of cooperation and extensive interaction (Delpit, I996; Hale-Benson, 1986).
Anderson (2001) argues that most of the teaching that goes on in higher education is
oriented toward learners who tend to be critical thinkers, comfortable with learning

material in relatively abstract terms, and at ease with separating concepts from their own
life experiences. As a result, Anderson concludes students who tend to be more

relationally oriented, such _as many African Americans, often feel excluded. As a result of
this mismatch in teaching and learning styles, African Americans may develop animosity .,
and become less interested in college completion (Delpit, 1996; Hale-Benson, 1986).

The disparity in educational outcomes between White college students and their
African American counterparts has been labeled the African American achievement gap.
Rovai, Gallien, and Wighting (2005) examined the under performance of African
American students and the conditions that exist at PWIS. Speciﬁcally, Rovai et al.
presented the major factors correlated with the achievement gap: the transmission of
knowledge by schools in cultural codes, mismatches between teaching styles and African
American learning style preferences, weak institutional support for minority students, a
fragile racial climate on predominantly White campuses, racial stereotyping, peer
inﬂuences, low expectations, and weak study habits (p.367). Efforts to close the academic
achievement gap between minority and Caucasian students have been largely
unsuccessful and that differences in educational performance persist at all achievement
levels, with the largest gap between students of color, and their White and Asian
American peers (Schwartz, 2000). Researchers (Boykin, 1983; Hale-Benson, 1986;

Ogbu, 1995) argue that pedagogical approaches must reﬂect differences that exist in

83

 

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Black and White cultures. If the faculty at PWIs do not incorporate culturally responsive
pedagogies, Black collegians may experience stress and ﬁnd no educative value in the
coursework. According to Hale-Benson (1986), students must ﬁnd relevance in their
education. Aﬁican Americans seek education that reﬂects their cultural background,
which reﬂects cooperation, collaboration, and cultural relevancy.

Although some believed the movement of many African Americans into PWIs
indicated a strong blow against segregation and discrimination Hurtado, Milem, Clayton-
Pedersen, & Allen (1999) report diversity does not always lead to positive interracial
interactions. In particular, Davids (2002) writes that students, faculty, and staff have
prejudices toward certain groups even though they have learned to restrain these
prejudices. In times of stress, inhibitions are reduced and prejudices may be manifested
and negatively inﬂuence educational outcomes of minority students.

By and large, if faculty at PWIs want to retain and promote success for Black
collegians, they must develop a new understanding of the obstacles encountered by these
students in postsecondary environments. Accordingly, both faculty and educational
administrators must commit themselves to reaching out to all students using a variety of
educational practices that can mitigate challenges and promote academic excellence
(Rovai, et al., 2005). These practices help avoid mismatches between teaching styles and
African American learning style preferences, weak institutional support for minority
students, a fragile racial climate at PWIS, racial stereotyping, and low faculty
expectations. Alternatively, Ibarra (2001) supports designing learning communities for
various groups of students, using learning communities as sites for curriculum

transformation, and developing pedagogical practices that heighten the comprehension of

84

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diverse learners.

To conclude this section on institutional and organizational factors, it is important
to accentuate that racial prejudice and marginalization are not “relics of history,” but are
a daily reality encountered by some African Americans and other people of color.
Bollinger (2007) offers four reasons for universities to seek and maintain the “racially,
ethnically, and socioeconomically” diversiﬁcation of their student bodies:

1. Universities need to understand that to remain competitive, their most
important obligation is to determine and then deliver-what future graduates will need to
know about their world and how to gain that knowledge. The emerging global reality
calls for new specialists who can synthesize a diversity of ﬁeld and draw quick
connections among them.

2. The experience of arriving on a campus to live and study with classmates from
a diverse range of backgrounds is essential to students’ training for this new world,
nurturing them in an instinct to reach out instead of clinging to the comforts of what
seems natural or familiar. It has been proven that connecting with people very-or even
slightly-different from ourselves stimulates the imagination; and when we learn to see the
world through a multiplicity of eyes, we only make ourselves more nimble in mastering-
and integrating-the diverse ﬁelds of knowledge waiting for us.

3. Afﬁrmative-Action Programs help achieve that larger goal. And the universities
that create and carry them out do so not only because overcoming longstanding obstacles

tO people of color and women in higher education is the right thing to do, but also

because policies that encourage a comprehensive diversity help universities achieve their

mission,

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4. At the same time, such policies foster a greater spirit of community on
campuses as well as between universities and the cities and towns they call home (pp. 1-
3).

Summary of Literature Review/Rationale for Study

Overall the most compelling topics found in this literature were: (a) retention;
(b) federal educational policies and Black collegians; (c) contributing factors of Black
student success; ((1) institutional/organizational factors; and (e) practices used by faculty
and academic administrators to enhance African American student performance. Today
the enrollment of African American college students has never been higher and these
students can be found on the college campuses of many HBCUS and PWIs. This
demonstrates that these students have made signiﬁcant progress and our nation’s colleges
and universities have eliminated some discriminatory practices. However, despite these
signiﬁcant gains, African American students are experiencing academic success at a
small number of institutions. Attrition rates for these students remain high and, in
comparison to White students, they lag behind in college completion. Although existing
literature has addressed the African American collegian’s academic deﬁcits (e.g., Astin,
1982; Astin, Tsui, & Avolos, 1996; Monastersky, 2006; Tinto, 1993), socio-economic
challenges (e.g.Hebel, 2007;Thomas, 1981), and dropout rates (e.g., Hutto & Fenwick,
2002), the literature has not examined those integral factors that propel Black collegians
to success at highly selective ﬂagship state institutions, though factors affecting success

in general of African American students are documented. Thus, this explorative study
10 Oked to uncover new ideas for Aﬁ'ican American students and address a gap in the

literature base.

86

In the next chapter, I present the methodology that was utilized to address my

research questions. My data analysis will also be discussed.

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CHAPTER THREE
Methodology
The African American college student is in a precarious position. The college
enrollment rate of these students has never been higher, ironically the college completion
rate for this student remains below both the national graduation rate of all students and
the rate of their White counterparts. This disparity in achievement is highly signiﬁcant in
light of the elimination of race-based admissions. If those in Higher Education do not
become more responsive to the needs of African American students, this may lead to both
the wasted potential and the wasted contributions of Black collegians. Additionally, an
underprepared workforce will place an additional burden on the US. Economy. Thus the
focus of this exploratory study was on the identiﬁcation of those pedagogical strategies,
administrative practices, and student affairs tactics that seem to contribute to the high
performance of African American college students. As a result, the nature of this study is
consistent with the Qualitative Paradigm, which supports the notion that multiple realities
are socially constructed by individuals, “Qualitative researchers are interested in
understanding the meaning people have constructed, that is, how they make sense of their
world and the experiences they have in the world “(Merriam, 1998, p. 6). All qualitative
research is based on the philosophical supposition that truth is created by individuals
working together with their social worlds. In addition to ﬁndings that are richly
descriptive, there are four characteristics associated with qualitative research: (a) In
Order to understand the phenomenon, the emic or insider’s perspective must be relied on
as Opposed to the etic or outsider’s perspective; (b) the data collection and analysis will

be solely conducted by the researcher; (c) the researcher must physically go out into the

88

ﬁeld to interview and observe behavior in its usual setting; and (d) the inductive

research strategy is primarily utilized in qualitative research (1998, p. 7). Additionally,
this research is characterized by highly interpretive methods that facilitate the
researcher’s understanding of the subjects’ life histories. These methods include:
interviews, case studies, photographs, introspection and any personalized artifacts that
reveal the character of the subject. This research type is in direct contrast to quantitative

. research, “Quantitative researchers use mathematical models, statistical tables, and
graphs, and usually write about their research in impersonal, third-person prose” (Denzin
and Lincoln, 2003, p. 17). It is my hypothesis that qualitative researchers have both an
intimate relationship and a greater rapport with their subject. As a result, there is an
increased level of investigation and, ultimately, an increased level of knowledge that
researchers may apply to address the needs of their subjects. Qualitative research, “. . . is
a situated activity that locates the observer in the world. It consists of a set of interpretive,
material practices that make the world visible” (p. 4).

Purposeful sampling, a form of nonprobabilistic sampling, was utilized in this
qualitative study. This sampling “is based on the assumption that the investigator wants
to discover, understand, and gain insight and therefore must select a sample from which
the most can be learned” (Merriam, 1998, p. 61). Patton stated that the “logic and power”
of this sampling strategy is heavily dependent on the selection and exhaustive
consideration of “information-rich” cases. As a result, the researcher can learn a great
deal about those critical issues related to the research question. My research questions

are; What are the critical factors that faculty, student affairs professionals, and

administrators report their institutions are doing to contribute to success among African

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American students? And, what are the similarities and differences between the critical
factors that contribute to the success of the Black collegian at two selective
postsecondary institutions?

This exploratory study was based on the inductive research strategy and it
examined those critical factors associated with increasing the quality of the academic
experience for the Black collegian. Additionally, this investigation considered how these
crucial aspects may be replicated at similar postsecondary institutions. The research
design for this inquiry was the multisite case study, which “. . . involves collecting and
analyzing data from several cases and can be distinguished ﬁom the single case study that
may have subunits or subcases embedded within” (Merriam, 1998, p. 40). According to
Creswell (2003), the case study allows the researcher to critically examine an individual,
a process, an activity, a program, or an event utilizing various data collection procedures
over a sustained period of time. Stake (1995) asserts that the case study allows the
researcher to conduct an assessment of individuals, processes, and events. Although the
cases are bounded by a deﬁned period of time, the researcher is offered an opportunity to
collect detailed information using a variety of data collection procedures. As a narration,
based on the Constructivist Paradigm (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003), the case study
facilitated a heightened level of knowledge of how factors affecting the academic
performance and college completion rates for Black students at two institutions because
the Constructivist Theory reﬂects “ . . .trustworthiness, credibility, transferability,

C'onﬁrmability” (2003, p.34). Thus, I believe the results from my multisite case study
Will prove to be highly useful to other institutions that are similar in terms of institutional

classiﬁcation, admissions selectivity, location, and overall student experience.

90

 

 

 

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Site Selection

Based on data from The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, US. News and
World Report, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association those national ﬂagship
state universities identiﬁed as “most selective” were revealed.
The Sample

This explorative study focused on ﬂagship state universities. A selection of two
organizations for inclusion in this study was based on the publication. U. S. News and
World Report. The focal point of this study was identifying the critical factors that
seemed to contribute to the high performance of African American college students. The
selection of the institutions was based on: (a) a compiled list of those ﬂagship state
universities that have been identiﬁed as “most selective” and that have demonstrated
success with the African American collegian and (b) the selection of an institution with a
high Aﬁican American graduation rate and an institution with a low African American
graduation rate Additionally, I wanted to examine the institutional similarities and
differences in the factors used to achieve increased success for African American college
students.

In an effort to maintain the conﬁdentiality of each institution, the names of each
university, study participants, institutional programs, and academic departments were
changed to pseudonyms. Additionally in this study, Southern University was identiﬁed as
the ﬂagship university with the highest African American graduation rate and
Midwestern University was identiﬁed as the ﬂagship university with the lowest Black

graduation rate.

91

 

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Data Collection

As a qualitative researcher, I wanted to learn more about the shared meanings that
exist among the faculty, academic administrators and student affairs personnel in their
efforts to facilitate the academic success and college completion of African American
students. To achieve this goal, I used a semi-structured interview format that was more
open ended and less structured (Merriam, 1998), “In this type of interview either all of
the questions are more ﬂexibly worded, or the interview is a mix of more and less
structured questions. . . This format allows the researcher to respond to the situation at
hand, to the emerging worldview of the respondent, and to new ideas on the topic” (p.
74).

In addition to the semi-structured interviews, the data collection process also
included gathering artifacts from each site, such as institutional literature, course outlines
and minutes from meetings. Patton (1990) emphasizes, “Multiple sources of information
are sought and used because no single source of information can be trusted to provide a
comprehensive perspective. . . By using a combination. . . the ﬁeldworker is able to use
different data sources to validate and cross-check ﬁndings” (p. 244). It is also imperative
to note that as I collected the data, I also analyzed it. In qualitative research, this practice
is not an option; rather it is highly recommended. Speciﬁcally, I conducted person-to-
person interviews with university administrators, student affairs professionals and faculty
members to gather their perspectives on speciﬁc strategies, policies, and institutional
initiatives that are employed to speciﬁcally heighten the academic'success and graduation

rate of African American students. These categories of subjects were selected because I

92

 

presumed people in these roles might provide the most pertinent and useful information
on this topic that cuts across institutional levels.

In terms of gaining entry to secure permission for my study, initially I contacted a
university representative in the Institutional Review Board (IRB) Ofﬁce at each
institution. During this time, I was required to submit documentation from the Michigan
State University Institutional Review Board Ofﬁce to document my permission to carry
out the study. Once my documentation was received by each institution’s IRB Ofﬁce, I
was asked several questions regarding the study and later I received institutional approval
to conduct my data collection at each site.

Subsequently at Midwestern University, I contacted a member of the central
administration, based on his title and listed responsibilities listed on the university web
site. He sent me a list of prospective faculty, administrators, and student affairs
professionals who might be willing to participate in the study. At Southern University, I
contacted a representative in the Ofﬁce of Black Studies who sent me a list of prospective
faculty, administrators, and student affairs professionals. Next I contacted each site’s
prospective participants and included a letter that explained the study. Once each
participant veriﬁed his/her consent for participation, I sent an additional letter that
conﬁrmed the onsite interview date and location. On the day of the interview, I provided
the consent form that outlined the interview process and explained how the information
would be used.

Overall, I interviewed 17 people: eight at Midwestern University and nine at
Southern University. I focused more on facilitating the interviewees’ ability to reveal

their own history with the challenges facing the African American student. During the

93

audio tape recorded interview, participants were asked about their role, experiences, and
insights relative to the African American'collegian. This procedure was facilitated by my
utilization of an interview guide, also known as an interview protocol (see Appendix C).
Additionally, I included probes as a part of my interview process facilitating my capacity
for understanding and providing the opportunity for respondents to provide additional
information or clariﬁcation on speciﬁc subject matter, “You sense that the respondent is
on to something signiﬁcant or that there is more to be learned. Probing can come in the
form of asking for more details, for clariﬁcation, for examples” (Merriam, 1998, p. 80).
During the site visits, artifacts were gathered such as programming brochures,
minutes from administrative meetings held with the university president and various
members of the campus community, memoranda from the university president requesting
the review of the organization’s diversity protocols, course outlines, institutional
literature, and anything related to student outcomes. The use of artifacts assisted me in
understanding the culture of each institution and in determining and studying the
participants’ setting.
Data Analysis Procedures

A qualitative design is emergent. Thus “qualitative research is not a linear, step-
by—step process. Data collection and analysis is a simultaneous activity in qualitative
research” (Merriam, 1998, p. 151). The analysis began with the ﬁrst interview and the
ﬁrst artifact that was gathered. As a result, the emergence of insights and tentative
impressions were used to guide the next stage in the data collection process. The validity
and reliability of qualitative research is found in the “. . . researcher’s presence, the nature

of the interaction between the researcher and participants, the triangulation of data, the

94

interpretation of perceptions and rich, thick description” (p. 151). At the outset, I
decided to utilize “within-case analysis.” Here the researcher considers each institution
separately ﬁrst, “Each instance is ﬁrst treated as a comprehensive case in and of itself.
Data are gathered so the researcher can learn as much about the contextual variables as
possible that might have a bearing on the case” (Merriam, 1998, p. 194). Next, I applied
“cross—case analysis” to facilitate my attempt “. . . to see processes and outcomes that
occur across many cases, to understand how they are qualiﬁed by local conditions, and
thus develop more sophisticated descriptions and more powerful explanations” (Miles &
Huberman, 1994, p.172).

After deciding how the two stages of analysis would be approached, I transcribed
verbatim 17 recorded interviews, eight from Midwestern University and nine from
Southern University. Each transcript was read twice. The ﬁrst reading was done to gain a
superﬁcial level of knowledge of the respondents’ comments. The second reading
facilitated a deeper familiarity with the information and prepared me for discourse
regarding the data. As I reviewed the transcripts, I searched for any constructs that
seemed to serve as contributors to the academic achievement and graduation of Black
collegians. In some cases, respondents speciﬁcally identiﬁed resources or actual
directives that encouraged achievement for this student population. In other cases,
individuals described the action that should take place to promote the academic success
for this student. During this time, I started to develop a preliminary set of broad themes
that emerged in the text.

In an attempt to corroborate the trends that appeared in the transcripts, 1

simultaneously reviewed the artifacts gathered during the data collection process, “in

95

judging the value of a data source, a researcher can ask whether it contains information
or insights relevant to the research question and whether it can be acquired in a
reasonably practical yet systematic manner. If these two questions can be answered in the
affirmative, there is no reason not to use a particular source of data” Merriam, 1998, p.
124). In addition to validating the emerging trends, the artifacts also served to
substantiate both the respondents’ and the institution’s overall commitment to the
accomplishment of African American students. The emerging trends were reﬂected in the
artifacts and translated into the development of the “critical factors” that answered my
research question. As Merriam suggests, “. . . the challenge is to construct categories or
themes that capture some recurring pattern. . . These categories or themes are concepts
indicated by the data” (1998, p. 179).

The themes that initially appeared in the transcripts and the artifacts were
identiﬁed as those “critical factors” that positively impacted the college completion of
African American collegians at two selective research universities. Those factors were:
(a) Faculty Initiatives, (b) Institutional Expectations, (c) Institutional-Unit Response, (d)
Presidential Priorities, (e) Retention/Support Programs, (f) Special Purpose Ofﬁces, (g)
Student Affairs, and (h) Valuing Diversity through Collaboration. Merriam offered
several strategies to ensure the effectiveness of the categories: (a) categories should
reﬂect the purpose of the research, (b) categories should be exhaustive, (c) categories
should be mutually exclusive, (d) categories should be sensitizing, and (e) categories
should be conceptually congruent” (p. 184). Then, I developed deﬁnitions for each factor

to ensure clarity and consistency throughout the analysis process.

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Next, examining each institution separately, the Midwestern University
transcript was carefully scrutinized for a third time. Both individuals and their comments,
which were reﬂective of the research question, were placed into categories. During this
stage, eight categories emerged from the data. Under each category, a record was
compiled that explicitly listed the individuals and their category-speciﬁc responses. Once
the list was assembled, I summarized each individual quote and then used this
information to generate an overall lesson or descriptive statement that reﬂected the
reactions, provided by each respondent, for each category. This information also provided
insight into how the category was illustrated and depicted at the institution. This
information was reviewed for accuracy and this same process was repeated for Southern
University.

Next I developed a description of each institution “The most basic presentation of
a study’s ﬁndings is a descriptive account; even that description requires thinking through
what will be included and what will be left out from the hundreds of pages of data
collected for the study” (Merriam, 1998, p. 178). In each depiction, I provided an
illustration that reﬂected the cultural knowledge and organizational expectations for those
who exist within each environment.

To ensure validity, clariﬁcation of researcher bias and peer examination were
utilized by the researcher. It is important to note that the constructivist — interpretive
paradigm of research guided my research methods in this study. Thus, a deﬁnition is
presented: Constructivism, is deﬁned as “. . . human beings do not ﬁnd or discover
knowledge so much as we construct or make it. We invent concepts, models, and

schemes to make sense of experience . . . We do not construct our interpretations in

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isolation but against a backdrop of shared understandings, practices, language, and so
forth” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003 p. 305). As a researcher who subscribes to the tenets of
this paradigm, I valued and relied on my subjects’ ability to re-enact their experiences
and understandings of occurrences. I also believe this paradigm guided my ontological,
epistemological, and methodological assumptions throughout my study. In this
perspective, the nature of reality was based on multiple realities. Therefore, the subjects’
personality, experiences, and life history all contributed to the reality or context for their
experiences.

In terms of the epistemology or the relationship between me and the known, the
constructivist—interpretivist paradigm required that I worked collaboratively with the
subject and negotiated understanding. According to Outhwaite (1975), interpretivist
epistemologies are depicted as hermeneutic because they emphasize that researchers must
comprehend the circumstances in which their subjects draw conclusions in order to say
one has an understanding of the particular action. The hermeneutic view is based on the
notion that in order for researchers to understand the comment or act, echoed by the
subject, they must understand the entire context. The researcher who engages the
constructivist-interpretivist perspective gathers knowledge in a naturalistic setting.
Speciﬁcally, I drew on hermeneutic and dialectical practices to gather knowledge of my
informants. And, the constructivist’s inﬂuence on the methodological assumptions
highlighted the utilization of dialectical methods to gain the data on the subject matter.
Dialectical collection methods are those that incorporate discussion and reasoning

through dialogue to investigate and gather information.

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Role of Researcher

I am an African American woman who has worked as a postsecondary educator
for 13 years, and has taught at both HBCUS and PWIS. As a result, I have a signiﬁcant
amount of experience teaching a diverse group of students in terms of race, gender,
sexual orientation, age, and ability level. Additionally, both my undergraduate and
graduate degrees were attained at two large, research universities. As a result of these
experiences, I have developed interpretations and biases that have shaped my views of
the concept of higher education. To assist my analysis, I utilized two peer debriefers in
my study. I wanted to ensure that my history as a student and as an educator did not
adversely impact my research.

In addition to working as a postsecondary educator, I have also worked as a
professional journalist. As a result, I am highly aware of the differences between leading
and open—ended questions. Thus my professional experience around the employed data
gathering techniques greatly facilitated my capacity to listen for the respondents’
constructions of understanding around those issues related to African American college
completion. My background also assisted me in my ability to appropriately consider the
institutional contexts of those understandings.

In terms of addressing my biases, overall, I do believe that postsecondary
institutions should be doing more to assist the African American collegian with college
completion. Although I am very aware of how the political, budgetary and societal
constraints can impede this process, I believe that every academic institution should
conduct an institutional review that examines its diversity protocols. This institutional

review would serve as a fervent attempt to ensure that all students have a solid foundation

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of both resources and support to achieve academic success and graduation. As some
know, many of the support mechanisms that were created to help Aﬁican American
students are rooted in helping all students.

As a researcher, I was quite humbled by my respondents’ contributions. These 17
individuals not only contributed their time and knowledge; they shared their passion and
dedication for the success of African American students. Thus, as a researcher, I felt a
greater need to be highly responsible and fair in handling this data.

Strategies for Validating Findings
Pilot Study

In an attempt to heighten the effectiveness and validity of the study, I conducted a
pilot study, which is “crucial for trying out your questions. Not only do you get some
practice in interviewing, you also quickly learn which questions are confusing and need
rewording, which questions yield useless data, and which questions, suggested by your
respondents, you should have thought to include in the ﬁrst place” (Merriam, 1998, p.
76). This pilot study provided an opportunity to ensure that the interview questions were
worded in a manner that promoted clarity and an effective response. The pilot was
conducted at Michigan State University with three individuals representing the
administrative, student affairs and faculty segments of the institution. As a result of the
pilot, I modiﬁed my list of questions and received positive afﬁrmation regarding the
overall focus and wording of my questions.

Peer Debriefer
To ensure that the researcher is cognizant of personal biases, misinterpretations or

elements of incoherence, I used two peer debriefers. Although both individuals shared a

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similar educational background with me, both debriefers were White males who were
mid-career professionals. In some areas, both debriefers offered responses that were
similar to mine. In other cases, their interpretations were different. As a qualitative
researcher, this distinction caused me to consider the role of both my educational and
professional history and how each might have impacted the interaction between me and
the participants. And, ultimately I reﬂected on how my history may have impacted my
review and interpretation of the data. This purposeful selection of the two debriefers was
employed to ensure the reader’s overall understanding and clariﬁcation of the
information. Although I was very familiar with this information, I wanted to make certain
that those from varied backgrounds also understood this information.
Anticipated Ethical Issues

By deﬁnition, the qualitative tradition is obtrusive because of the methods of
inquiry. Therefore, it is imperative that I respect the rights, needs and values of the
participants. Given my subject matter, I did not use language that was biased against
individuals because of age, disability, race or ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.
Also I ensured that my ﬁndings were not suppressed or falsiﬁed in any way because this
behavior is not consistent with those practices used in professional research communities.
In planning my study, I was cognizant that the results would not be misused to place any
group in a position of advantage or disadvantage. And, it is important to note that the
details of my research design were provided to facilitate readers as they determine the
credibility of my study. I also incorporated Creswell’s four safeguards to heighten the
qualitative process: (a) the research objectives were clearly expressed in both verbal and

written forms, (b) the participants provided written permission to conduct the study, (c)

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the researcher closely adhered to all policies required by the institutional review board,
and (d) the participants were informed of all data collection strategies (2003). ’
Trustworthiness

This concept focuses on how the research ﬁndings reﬂect reality. In essence, are
the ﬁndings corresponding with what is really there? This question is based on how I, as
the researcher, deﬁne reality. As a qualitative researcher, I believe that reality is
constructed utilizing my subject’s understanding of the world. Thus Merriam (1998)
stressed that, “. . .when reality is viewed in this manner, trustworthiness is a deﬁnite
strength of qualitative research. In this type of research it is important to understand the
perspectives of those involved in the phenomenon of interest, to uncover the complexity
of human behavior in a contextual framework, and to present a holistic interpretation of
what is happening” (1998, p. 203). To enhance the trustworthiness of this study, I utilized
triangulation, peer examination, and researcher’s biases.

The ﬁrst strategy that was utilized to enhance the trustworthiness of this study
was triangulation. This strategy implemented multiple and varied sources of information.
Additionally, the data collection emphasized both the semi-structured interviews and the
artifacts that were gathered at each institution.

The second strategy was peer examination. This tactic was conducted by two
colleagues, both of whom did not share my race or gender. Thus both peer reviewers
were White males. This examination served to scrutinize and clarify my thinking process
in preparation for both the assessment and feedback that may be offered from others

(Lincoln & Guba, 1985).

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The third strategy that was used to heighten the study’s trustworthiness was the
acknowledgement of my biases as a researcher. In the section entitled, Role of
Researcher, I presented my background, identiﬁed my biases and offered my views on
the institutional sample (Merriam, 1998, p. 204 -205). As previously stated, my biases
have been shaped by my educational background, professional experiences and my
observations as an African American woman.

Transferability

This notion is based on the degree that my study’s ﬁndings can be applied to other
contexts, meaning can the results be generalized to other settings? According to Patton
(1990), “. . .qualitative research should provide perspective rather than truth, empirical
assessment of local decision makers’ theories of action rather than generation and
veriﬁcation of universal theories, and context-bound extrapolations rather than
generalizations” (p. 491). Overall, the qualitative researcher must consistently and
effectively use ethics in every phase of the research process. Merriam (1998) captures
this notion best with, “The best a researcher can do is to be conscious of the ethical issues
that pervade the research process and to examine his or her own philosophical orientation
vis-a-vis these issues” (p. 219).

In this study, transferability was aided by my efforts to record and examine my
decisions to use purposeful sampling. This sampling type offered critical information
about my study’s context because this sampling strategy heavily relied on information-
rich cases. In turn, I was able to gain a greater amount of information, resulting in an

increased knowledge base to answer my research questions.

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Limitations

The limitations found in this study were a direct result of the type of study, the
research design, and the variability of organizational cultures and the occupations of the
respondents. Due to this study’s reliance on only two institutional samples, there are
inherent limitations in this study. As a result, only those institutions that are similar to
both Midwestern University and Southern University may experience success in
replicating those critical factors revealed by the participants. In this-qualitative
explorative study, my role took on increased importance because of the interpretive
methods employed. Additionally, the results of the interviews were contingent on the
level of rapport established between me and the respondents. There was also a potential
that the participants might have been unwilling to divulge information. Thus, as the
researcher I had no control over this facet of the interview.

As previously stated, the multisite case study was the research design for this
inquiry. Guba and Lincoln (1981) noted that case studies can oversimplify a situation and
erroneously lead a reader to believe that the researcher has addressed a “whole” when, in
fact, he/she has only addressed a “part-a slice of life.” Also, it is important to
acknowledge the role and impact of institutional variability. Hence, each institution had a
speciﬁc culture and a speciﬁc method of addressing challenges that may affect the
decision to adopt new supportive practices. As the researcher, I viewed this
organizational characteristic as a signiﬁcant indicator of the institution’s commitment to
the increased graduation rates of Aﬁican American students

Although the participants were found in three professional areas: administrators,

student affairs and faculty, some individuals held previous positions or current dual

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positions that allowed them to speak from more than one vantage point. Thus this served
as a delimiter on the study and the data was enhanced because some of the participants
could extend their views beyond one role.
Editorial Comments

As a qualitative researcher, I have gone to great lengths to balance the reader’s
needs for certainty and lucidity with the respondents’ needs for anonymity. Thus, I have
elected to present this study’s results in a very coherent manner that is consistent with the.
identiﬁcation and substantiation of those eight critical factors that were reported by
institutional administrators, faculty and student affairs professionals. The factors were
labeled as critical because of their positive impact on the academic success of Black
collegians attending either Midwestern University or Southern University. As previously
stated, all names of participants, organizations and institutional references have been
changed to protect the obscurity of the participants. The participants’ quotes have been
presented exactly as they were stated. This decision was made to protect the authenticity
of the data and to share the vibrancy of the respondents’ accounts. For clariﬁcation
purposes, I added information in brackets to aid the readers’ understanding. In this study,
improved retention percentages and heightened graduation rates will be used

interchangeably with the terms success and academic achievement.

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CHAPTER FOUR
Results

The information provided in this chapter will include: (a) a description of each
university, (b) a brief explanation of each critical factor and an illustration of each
institution’s relationship with each critical factor, (c) an institutional comparison,
((1) the institutional points of similarity, (e) the institutional points of distinction and (f)
the unanticipated responses.

Midwestern University

Described by members of its own community as tough, highly competitive and
one that has a student population that likes to ﬂaunt its wealth, Midwestern University
has an enrollment of more than 35,000 students. Despite the fact that this public
institution has a checkered history of exclusion and segregation, all of the students who
are admitted are viewed as highly prepared and fully capable of excelling and graduating
from the institution. The organization’s decentralized culture fosters opportunities for
students to make the university work for them. As a result, those students who are
aggressive and entrepreneurial are rewarded through increased opportunities for develop-
ment. Although the institution has an African American enrollment of more than 2200
students, these students were reported to feel disconnected from both Midwestem’s
community and that of the larger Black collegiate community. Additionally, even though
the overall graduation rate for Midwestern University is 86.9 percent, the graduation rate
for Black students is 67 percent.

In terms of organizational expectations, Midwestem’s leadership has a long

history of dealing directly with student issues and of consistently emphasizing, promoting

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and holding personnel accountable for implementing “difference” in all facets of the
university. This same sentiment has been supported by some of the faculty. As a
resource-rich place, those at Midwestern University believe it is very important for its
students to ﬁnd a “home” on campus, hence many resources are provided to both its
students and their organizational programming efforts. The institution conducts many
campus research projects that aid and infuse those services offered to students. Due to the
abundance of resources, each school and college has some type of support that includes
attractive scholarships and funding for student organizations.

The Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies (OMS) is Midwestem’s Special Purpose
Ofﬁce. The goal of the OMS is to offer a variety of opportunities to enhance the learning
experiences of the students for the express intent of building community among the
students, building community between the students and their teachers, and building
community among the faculty members and their disciplines. To achieve this goal, OMS
assembles a student cohort who participates in a small college setting by enrolling in
courses offered by OMS faculty. During this time students are provided with course
instruction throughout the academic year, academic support, academic advising, peer
mentors, and tutoring opportunities. Given all of these activities and the closeness that is
established, the OMS appears to operate as a learning community. In addition, OMS
includes an integrative seminar, which is called the Summer Transition Program. This
Program offers intensive academic training, personalized academic advising and
individualized attention from faculty in a nurturing environment. The students enrolled in
the Summer Transition Program typically take an English course, a mathematics course,

and a freshman colloquium. These courses are credit-bearing, academically challenging

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and become part of the student's ofﬁcial university transcript. The Summer Transition
Program gives students the opportunity to strengthen their academic skills, construct a
peer support network and to familiarize themselves with Midwestern University and its
resources. The OMS works closely with various academic units throughout the
institution. Although the services offered by this learning community are primarily
utilized by African American students, the Ofﬁce provides a wide-ranging support
system for the entire student pOpulation that includes tutoring, peer advising, educational
support, course instruction throughout the school year and a summer acclimation
program.

Midwestern University has placed several African Americans in inﬂuential
positions, such as faculty and administrators, within the organization. Also some
academic units have employed a race and ethnicity requirement for their majors.
Additionally, this University is a highly collaborative organization. There are many
collaborations found between some academic departments and university alumni to
improve the performance of future graduates. Other partnerships have included current
Aﬁican American students and off-campus entities and alliances between African
American faculty and other on-campus units.

Following is a brief explanation and an institutional illustration of each critical
factor. As previously said, these factors were identiﬁed as critical because of their
positive affect on the academic achievement of Black collegians at both Midwestern
University and Southern University. Although the factors are presented as distinct
constructs, it is important to note that the factors have to be enacted together in a more

comprehensive manner in order to effectively support the achievement of Black

108

collegians. Participants at Midwest University recommend that institutions implement as
many of the factors as possible to create the strongest environment for students’ academic
success. Both the critical factors and the institutional representations have been presented
in an order that reﬂects the dominance and emphasis that was expressed by the
Midwestern participants.
Institutional-Unit Response
Midwestern University supports the academic success of Black collegians at

many institutional levels. As a critical factor, Institutional-Unit Response was the most
noted among the participants and was revealed in four forms: (a) developing committees
to monitor diversity programming, (b) implementing academic stipulations and warning
systems, (0) placing African Americans in inﬂuential positions, and (d) encouraging non-
Black personnel to commit to enabling the success of Black collegians. In an attempt to
respond to the needs of minority students, the College of Engineering developed a
Diversity and Outreach Council. Damon explains his unit’s reasoning for this initiative:

. . . what we have is a diversity and outreach council that’s made up of

faculty, staff and students who are evaluating our diversity programs and

coming up with ideas for new ones. It was clear that we needed to address

this in a really formal way. So we formed a combined committee between

Literacy, Science and the Arts College, the STEM ﬁelds there and the

School of Engineering. And the people on the committee were made up of

faculty and staff who were concerned with success rates at the university.

Overall, but students of color are a signiﬁcant part of that. And they had,

over the winter, to look at what other people were doing and sort of to

glean the best practices from different places and recommend

something. Damon

Damon expressed dissatisfaction with his unit’s reaction to the challenges faced

by both women and other minorities. Thus, in an attempt to improve his college’s

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response to the needs of these two groups, Damon discusses his college’s plan for an
evaluation of their diversity programming and their plans to pilot a new program:

Diversity is all over the college. We looked at where we were a couple of years
ago and we saw some trends that were not what we wanted to see in the females
in engineering. Nationally, there was a slight decrease of a few percentage points.
And in the minorities, there was a considerable decrease; we were almost at half
of where we were before. So we said well if we continue to do the same things
we’re doing, we can’t expect a different outcome and so in any organization, the
ﬁrst thing you do is reorganize. . .So anyway, we have this recommendation now
and we’ll be taking it to the deans. Right now we’re trying to price, get a cost
estimate for a prototype program for this. fall with the idea of rolling out a full
program, if everybody agrees for the fall of 2008; So we’re not satisﬁed with how
well we’re doing even if we’re doing better than average. We hope to be doing
even a lot better in a couple of years. Damon

Elonzo describes how the College of Education has responded to the needs of
minority students. The College has attempted to improve and enhance the overall
academic experience for the minority student by developing a Social Justice Agency.
This commission directly deals with issues of inequity, conducts workshops, does
programming and tries to sensitize the university community on issues of social justice:

We have created, over the last several years, what we call our Board of Social

Justice. That’s a committee to deal with issues directly. But we also try to bring

people in, have workshops in the schools, give presentations for people to

sensitize all of our students, faculty, and staff about issues of social justice
because it doesn’t really matter whether you’re a secretary or a professor, you
contribute to the environment that the students come into. Elonzo

Although a signiﬁcant part of the mission of the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies is
to create a supportive environment for the minority collegian, the OMS introduces a
second type of institutional tactic that can be used to address Black collegians and their

achievement gap. As a senior leader in OMS, James discusses two of his ofﬁce’s

features: the early warning system and the electronic midterm estimate. Both enable

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students to avoid dismissal and have signiﬁcantly impacted the success of Aﬁican
American students:
I think that it’s [early warning system] really unique and different and a working
model. . . In this college, if you get a GPA below a 2.0, you’re going to get a letter
that says you’re on academic probation. If that happens, a second semester,
you’re going to get a “NTR letter,” not to return. Our ofﬁce has student progress
reports... And we now have an online midterm estimate and that lets our advisors
know whether or not this student is in jeopardy of failing the class. So . . . I
believe our expectations are high. James
Midwestern University departments seem to exercise autonomy over those
practices that support diversity. To demonstrate the institutional awareness and the
priority of this concept, Damon explains how one of the university’s academic units
requires its students to take courses that will raise their awareness and sensitivity to
diversity issues:
Also Composition, Fine Arts and Science has a race and ethnicity requirement. I
think it’s three or four credits and they provide a set of courses, I think 12 or so,
and a student can take any one of them, but the intent of any of the
courses is to raise the awareness and sensitivity to diversity issues. Damon
Placing African American professionals in inﬂuential position is another strategy
that Midwestern University has utilized to address the needs of African American
students. Senior Research Associate Marilyn addresses this tactic:
Uhm, Johnathon Winters, an Aﬁican American, over at the Society for Social
Examination, would be another important face. And I say that, he’s leading one of
the major social science institutes in the world. And, just by his presence
challenges people’s thoughts of what kind of person would be leading that effort
. . . Also we have a pretty good number of African American administrators in
high places. I think that’s a very positive thing. Marilyn

Damon expands on Marilyn’s point by accentuating the need to have African

American role models. Damon noted the importance of minority students seeing people

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who look like themselves in the faculty and that each group identiﬁes with its own
minority group, in terms of role models:
The Black faculty, it’s very important. I think each minority group identiﬁes
with their own minority faculty. When there’s a diverse faculty, that’s an
advantage so you look out and you see Hispanics, you see Native Americans,
and you see women, you get the idea that all of these can achieve, but I think you
get the strongest idea when you see someone who looks like yourself. Damon
Elonzo elaborates on the notion of placing African Americans in key positions,
but offers different reasoning for this measure. According to Elonzo, the College must
closely monitor the number of African American faculty. Low percentages of African
American faculty are conversely related to the satisfaction of African American students.
Elonzo shares this as another example of how his college facilitates the success of
minority students:
In this environment, what I’ve found is if you increase the number of minority
faculty, it improves the quality of support not only from the African American
faculty, but it helps with the non —African American faculty. As that number goes
down, we get more complaints about what the instructor said. Elonzo
The ﬁnal category of Institutional-Unit Response is presented as Lonnie
emphasizes the need for a collective effort to assist Black collegians. He discusses how
the facilitation of success for this student populace is not only relegated to African
American or minority university personnel, but rather those from other races should take
an interest in this student populace as well:
. . .But we have a great many people here: some of them work in our ofﬁce. . .
and, again, the people in the ofﬁces are not necessarily Black or minority, but
they may have an interest and a commitment to the students’ success or they may
simply have a commitment to that broader thing I talked about: society and the

future. They have a vision of what our society should be like and they want to
make sure that they have done their part to make it so. Lonnie

112

As a White adrrrinistrator and faculty member, Damon offers an open invitation
to fund faculty enrichment or faculty development opportunities. This includes support to
bring in women or other minorities from the engineering ﬁeld. This gives minority
students the chance to see people, like themselves, in leadership roles, and promotes
achievement for the minority student:

And also, part of my ofﬁce’s responsibility is called faculty enrichment or faculty

development. I have standing offers to every one of the departments. If they want

to bring in females or minority leaders, in their disciplines around the country, I’ll

pay for it. So that this provides an experience where students can see someone,

minority students, can see someone like themselves who has done very well and

are clearly respected leaders and the majority population can see minorities in a

leadership role, so that they understand that that’s a normal situation, so we do

that. Damon

As a ﬁnal thought, Marilyn acknowledges those Midwestern units that have
created initiatives to facilitate the achievement of the Black collegian. However, she
notes that the African American achievement gap still persists, even at her institution.
Thus she questions this discrepancy and believes her university should do more to
address this issue:

. . . but we have to ﬁgure out our way through these challenges. We have a gap

in graduation rates. And, as far as I’m concerned, that’s not achievement,

speciﬁcally to African American students. Most of our other groups of students

are graduating at a much higher rate. Why are African Americans leﬁ trailing?

That’s something we need to grapple with. Marilyn

At Midwestern University, Institutional-Unit Response is deﬁned by initiatives
at various institutional levels. These reactions include those committees, academic

stipulations, hiring decisions, and commitments from non-Black staff to close the African

American achievement gap. Additionally these responses serve to enhance the overall

113

experience for either the minority student community or the African American student
community in particular.
Institutiogrl Expectations

Institutional Expectations was the second most- noted factor. Participants spoke
of both implicit and explicit expectations for those at Midwestern University. The
responses in this section focus on three areas: (a) expectations for the entire university
community, (b) expectations for university personnel, and (c) expectations for students.
However there was great emphasis placed on the university employee’s role. Speciﬁcally,
the participants revealed that university employees view their environment as very
student-focused, that university employees are committed to creating a supportive
environment, that university employees are committed to helping students resolve
problems that may arise, and that university employees are committed to training their
own personnel to sensitize them to the various cultures found within the university
community. Additionally the study’s participants stressed that Midwestern students are
expected to assist other students. Robert describes Midwestem’s culture and expectations
for those within its community:

Well I think the cultures of Midwestern University; it’s a strong commitment to

diversity is one. It’s strong commitment to student leadership development,

leadership period. It’s a culture of activism. . . I think this whole thing of

activism, commitment to engagement, whether it’s community service, whether

it’s protesting is probably the primary part of institutional culture. Also the

commitment to academic excellence, those reﬂect the culture. . . It’s our job as

an institution, to produce outstanding leaders. Robert

Lonnie extends Robert’s description of the institutional culture by accentuating

the concept of collaboration and how this notion can positively impact Midwestem’s

culture. Lonnie notes how this notion can both empower those within the university

114

community and increase the intellectual discourse among those in this institutional
populace:

One of the things we’re constantly saying to people in the academy is that
knowledge precedes by working together, by interacting with your colleagues, by
sharing your thoughts, be being collegial. And so if you don’t feel like you can
actually talk to people, if you don’t feel that they are receptive to you, all of
these things make it much more difﬁcult for you to feel that you belong and to
take advantage of all of the resources that are available. But a big part of that
resource is simply interacting with other people in a collegial manner,
exchanging ideas, getting feedback. . . The idea is to have an impact, not simply
me, me, me. And I think that is our culture, it is certainly an intellectual, research
- oriented, hard working place, but a place that is concerned with the
development of people so that they can have an impact on society. Lonnie

Lonnie initiates the second set of responses which focus on expectations for
university personnel. According to Lonnie, those who work in Midwestem’s University
community are expected to be motivated to work with students to help them succeed.
And Midwstem’s employees are expected to remind students that the university is an
intellectual community:

We have a culture that is to be built on hard work, accomplishment. This is a

culture that requires one to be motivated, that requires commitment. When one

works here, one has to have a commitment to working with young people and
trying to see them succeed. .. This is a place where we are committed, as an
academy, to solving problems: sometimes they’re societal problems, sometimes
their engineering problems, sometimes they’re architectural problems, or
biological chemical problems, public policy problems. That means it’s an
intellectual community. It’s important to stop, think, and reﬂect ﬁom time to time.

Lonnie

Although those at Midwestern University hold great expectations for their
students to achieve success, they are aware that some students might enter their university
with academic deﬁcits that need to be addressed. As an administrator and faculty

member, Damon emphasizes that his academic unit is willing to do whatever is necessary

to accommodate students in their adaptation to meeting the standards of the university:

115

We’re willing to accommodate the transition that these students need and we’re
willing to do even more than we’ve done in the past. Damon

Marilyn provides an example that depicts how student affairs professionals can
effectively assist students at a large university. Additionally, Marilyn shares that this
assistance is directly reﬂective of the institutional climate that exists at Midwestern
University:

A key example, I may have one of my student employees sitting in here, from

time to time, talking about “you know I’m really frustrated about” and we’ve been

able to contact an ofﬁce that related directly. You know whether it was a need or
want or kind of an interest. And, connect that person directly, so that person had
the opportunity to then go take care of the need or explore the interest as the case
might be. Marilyn

In terms of Institutional Expectations for students, Marilyn emphasizes that every
student is expected to graduate. At the same time, she reiterates the accommodating role
of Southem’s institutional personnel:

So I think part of that is that there’s simply an expectation, here, that may not be

true at other campuses. . . here about nine out of 10 people graduate. Yeah so we

just expect that they are ready for it, they’re good for it, and our job is simply to
help them get through it. Marilyn

Although Midwestern University’s climate is very academically challenging,
Robert notes that the institution provides resources for students. Quickly, he adds that
there is an expectation for students to utilize those resources to facilitate their success in
this environment:

There are certain things that they [institution] are just not changing. They’re not

going to cut back on the amount of homework, they’re not going to cut back on

the philosophy that students here are expected to make their own way and ﬁgure
things out. There is kind of an attitude that you’re smart, so ﬁgure it out. The kind
of students who come here, generally, like that. . . The resources are here if you

need them, but you’ve go to make sure that you decide you need them and how to
make them work for you. Robert

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Elonzo shares his thoughts on how students are expected to behave in
Midwesten’s community and emphasizes the concept of helping one another. He
reiterates the acknowledgement that no one succeeds without receiving help from others:

The notion here is you’ve got to help out. It’s not I have mine, so you get yours.
We expect our students to help each other out. For example, our

doctoral students work with everyone from our undergraduates to

other doctoral students. I tell those doctoral students it’s expected

that you help others. After all, someone helped you. It’s good for them to

be role models for the others. Elonzo

In terms of Institutional Expectations for both students and professional staff,
Elonzo discusses how some resources can serve two purposes. Those resources that are
targeted to both students and professional staff can lead to educating those at Midwestern
University and they can also serve to sensitize this university’s populace on social justice
issues:

Well it’s part of the continuum of education because most of what we do is we
bring people in and we try to, at least, do some training and provide information
that will allow both our students and faculty to be more sensitive to the issues
we’re talking about now. I think by bringing in well known individuals to talk
about what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, providing information to our
students, faculty and staff is a way of making everybody more sensitive to the
equity and the need for it. Elonzo

Robert summarizes Midwestem’s Institutional Expectations and asserts that
because the university puts a lot of resources into engagement programs, students have a
greater likelihood of developing as individuals and in ﬁnding a home on campus:

Well I think the students have opportunities to develop as individuals. They can
get involved in research programs. We put a lot of resources into engagement
programs, community service, learning, mentoring high school students, tutoring.
Midwestern University has many student organizations that are supported by the
university. And if you don’t like any of them, you just start your own. But we
want students to be involved. . . This is a very decentralized institution. And that
really works for students because they can go to many different places for
assistance; there isn’t a single ofﬁce that they have to deal with. And, it works for

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them because there’s more variety. . . The most important thing is to have a
home, a place where you feel comfortable. And, it’s not forced on you or rammed
down your throat. They all work for students because you’ve got many places to
go to. As opposed to just one place to go to. Robert
Participants at Midwestern University expressed institutional beliefs, rules or
behaviors that reﬂect the identity of their community and that guide the actions of those
within that community, all of which promote the Black collegian’s academic experience.
Although they sometimes spoke of these factors as part of the university’s culture, more
often the participants referred to them as institutional expectations.
Valuing Diversity through Collaboration
The next factor that was stressed by the study’s respondents was Valuing
Diversity through Collaboration. At Midwestern, the participants noted three categories
for this critical factor: (a) Black and White student organizations effectively
collaborating with each other, (b) on-campus units successfully collaborating with other
on-campus entities, and (c) on-campus entities collaborating with various off-campus
entities to encourage diversity. In terms of partnerships between student organizations,
Robert opens this section by discussing the importance of African American students
partnering with other student groups and learning their role in the national diversity
model:
The focus is on cross culture and across race to get these groups to work together.
Because there’s no monolithic African American group, which is why we have
about 50 Black student groups alone. I would say 25 years ago, there might have
been 10 or 20, so that becomes extremely important, working across culture.
Because one of the things that I tell Black students is .that they ﬁt into the
diversity paradigm too. Because when you go into the job market, you’re going to
have to learn and understand other cultures, other isms, chances are your boss

may be a female or a foreign national, so you’re in this too. We’re all in this. They
have a responsibility too. Robert

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Marilyn discusses how one of Midwestem’s programming efforts that bring
student organizations together has greatly facilitated student discussion across race and
religion. She believes it has also eliminated conﬂict and strife across these same
constructs:

Uhm our Discussion Between Groups programming has interesting conversations
in terms of helping across both racial divides and other types of divides, but
speciﬁcally to talk through what’s the difference in experience for an African
American student here, as compared to a White student? Or across religion, Jews
versus non-Jews or Jews versus Christians? Uhm we’ve had African Americans
and Jews, a workshop over the course of the semester. Different combinations like
that where there has been strife at times and we strive to help students learn to talk
intelligently with each other about that. And really learn about themselves and
from each other, about that. Marilyn

Marilyn offers a second example of how African American and White student
organizations align to educate, promote and support diversity on Midwestern University’s
campus:

Uhm the students of IF C and Pan -Hellenic Conferences uhm last summer came
in wanting to study a little bit more about homophobia and racism, within the
traditionally White fraternities and sororities on campus. And really address those
issues in their community. . . They’re still some division I perceive in terms of the
organizations, but in terms of working together, they’re trying to do more of that
to at least be in proximity and actually enjoy each other’s company. Marilyn
The second category of collaborative measures provided by the Midwestern
sample was collaborations between on-campus units. Marilyn introduces this second
category and highlights how her area, Student Affairs, and the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic
Studies have partnered on several projects:
One key area, right now that we’ve been doing over the last few years is with our
Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies. He [Dr. Lonnie Smith] checks in with us frequently
for data about the students who are coming in through his program so that’s one
use of our CIRP data is we connect that with other admissions data and then with

the data that he has further down the line to get a sense of how students are
changing as a result of his program. Marilyn

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Lonnie elaborates on Holbrook’s point and share how his ofﬁce has collaborated
with a variety of other academic departments, student groups and on-campus ofﬁces:

That means we’re collaborating with academic departments, but we’ll also
participate in programs whether that means sponsoring it outright, co-sponsoring
in collaboration with someone else. But we collaborate all the time, sometimes
with student groups, sometimes with academic departments, sometimes with other
offices on campus; it’s a lot of what we do. Lonnie

To demonstrate the prevalence of collaborative measures throughout Midwestern
University, Damon offers an example of how his unit, the College of Engineering has
partnered with a campus theater group to promote and reiterate the importance of
diversity:

And so we try to set up situations where students can work through it and we try
to give them tools to work in teams, but some of that needs to be done better.
And, in fact, one of the recommendations from the Council of Diversity and
Outreach is being implemented. That in Engineering 100, which is the ﬁrst
engineering course that our students take, we’re going to use theater to
demonstrate good and bad practices among teams. We have a couple of theater
groups, on campus, that are used this way. And we’ve contacted one to develop a
skit that is “student team” and we saw one early this semester and it was
excellent. So we’re going to incorporate it into our normal curriculum. It was
really effective because it is very non -threatening. If you come in and lecturing to
people, that’s political correctness and people turn you off, but if you watch
something and you start to detect things that aren’t right or people around you do
and they start talking about it, that makes you more sensitive to something that
you didn’t see before. Damon

As an OMS math lecturer, Kenedhi discusses her reliance on collaboration with
her math colleagues to effectively meet the needs of her students:

My colleagues in the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies, we work as a team. We do a
lot of things together. If I’m not around, my students will go to them and vice
versa. All of the math instructors, we bounce ideas off one another. I’ve also
worked with the School of Engineering and people who do other academic things
around campus. With the instructors, in the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies, we do
everything from review sessions to planning and developing reading guides.
Kenedhi

I20

Kenedhi provides a second example of her partnering efforts with another on-
campus initiative. In this effort, the pre-college student population was the target of this
example:

Well just knowing Robert and John, I did a program in the summer where they
bring the high school students to campus, I’ve done that. They bring a group of
kids in every week and they stay in the dorms and they take certain classes. I was
teaching them math and SAT prep courses. Kenedhi

The third category of collaborations noted among the Midwestern institutional
sample was on-campus collaborations with off-campus entities. Marilyn shares her
thoughts on how several units across the institution have a number of collaborations in a
large metropolitan city:

Uhm we also have a number of service projects that take place in a large urban
area. We have a number of our university departments that do studies,

based out of this area in social sciences, the health sciences, and public health in a
wide variety of ways. Marilyn

Damon shares how his college collaborates with their alumni to address issues of
diversity and to address expectations for incoming employees:

There’s another aspect to it, we have a national advisory committee made up of
presidents and vice presidents of industry, mostly, who are graduates of our
institution, but they come from all over the US. They come back twice a year and
we spend a hill day, the ﬁrst half of the day presenting some key problems that
we would like them to advise us on. And then they sort of “caucus” among
themselves in the afternoon to suggest things that we should try. We start out
these meetings usually by asking a question. A typical question might be, tell us
what’s your main concern about the recruits that you might get from the School of
Engineering? What are your concerns? So you go around this table and there must
be 25 of these industry leaders and what struck me last year when we did this was
every last one talked about the global environment that they had to work in and
that the students they hire had to be comfortable working with people who aren’t
like themselves. They didn’t have time to bring someone in who had grown up in
an all White community and who had went to an all White college and then came
out and ﬁgured out that the world is not all White. So every one of them said that
and so when we think about diversity, in the college, we consider a quality of

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education thing. We’re not just teaching the academics, we’re teaching people
how to work on teams. . . Damon

At Midwestern University, Valuing Diversity through Collaboration includes
those activities that result in an increased awareness and/or promotion of diversity as a
result of combining the efforts of two or more on-campus and/or off-campus groups.
Participants were clear when describing the beneﬁts of cross-unity collaboration in
supporting African American student success. These partnerships also provided
opportunities to increase both awareness and sensitivity to diversity.
Faculty Initiatives

Faculty Initiatives was the next factor that was stressed by the Midwestern
participants. The Midwestern University participants accentuated four beliefs regarding
Faculty Initiatives: (a) faculty recognize the value of diversity and the beneﬁts it brings to
the learning experience, (b) White faculty express a fervent interest in the success of
African American students, (c) faculty are willing to assist students who hold academic
deﬁciencies, and (d) African American faculty are willing to cultivate strong
relationships with Black collegians, including representing a maternal or paternal ﬁgure
in the students’ life. Although each of the response types is represented by an understated
amount of quotes, the respondents who discussed this factor utilized great emphasis and
enthusiasm. As the single contributor to the ﬁrst category of institutional responses,
Lonnie highlights the importance of faculty who are willing to realize the genuine value
and beneﬁt that African American students bring to the classroom:

A realization, really, on the part of the faculty that the future of the country

depends on today’s young people. I think a lot of people also realize that, in the

past, and I’m talking about faculty members now, they did not have the beneﬁt of
the perspective of African American students in their classes and they began to

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realize that those are ideas and perspectives and experiences that are important...
So there’s a realization, on the part of the faculty, that what we mean by higher
education, is actually facilitated by having a diverse body of students. Lonnie

The next response type focused on White faculty who express a concerted effort
in assisting African American collegians. Associate Vice Provost and Director of the
Ofﬁce of Diversity and Academic Programs, Robert, believes when there is an overall
commitment from faculty to promote academic success, this assists Black students in
becoming more familiar with the university community and in navigating this
community:

But I also think the strong commitment of a lot of faculty — White faculty in
particular, is also very helpful. One of the things is that there’s no way that a
student can come here and have an all — Black experience, they just can’t do it.
You’ve got to deal with folks all over the board. And you just can’t come and say
I’m only going to take classes from Black faculty and deal with Black staff. It’s
just not going to happen here. So there’s a reality, no matter what I think or what
a student may think, the world should be about dealing with reality and this is a
White university and you knew that when you came here, it’s not a historically
Black school. And, so the trick is how do you navigate it?

Robert

As the Associate Director of the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies and a lecturer in
the English Program, James notes that OMS faculty is committed to making up for the
deﬁciencies that some students may have. James shares his thoughts on this third
category of responses offered by the institutional sample:

. . . and so we’re trying to make up for four years of inadequate high school
preparation, but we have people who are committed and willing to do this. We
give mock exams, that’s something else the department does. Our instructors will
give our students two or three tests that mirror the ﬁnal exam, prior to them
actually taking the test. Because one of the things our kids suffer from is test
anxiety. So that would be another feature of our classes; mock exams. We also
have prepared notes; actually the entire university uses this feature. Speciﬁcally
students can now go online and every handout that I’ve given them in class, they
can review it online. James

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The fourth and ﬁnal categorization of participant responses focused on African
American faculty and their willingness to cultivate strong relationships with Black
collegians. Participants also spoke of the ability of this faculty to project a maternal or
paternal ﬁgure for students, which was considered an important support mechanism.
Elonzo, an African American education professor and Director of the Educational
Opportunity Program, believes it is his responsibility to not only effectively teach, but to
also assist students, especially African American students, in any way that he can: .

But my role as a professor on campus is, as I see it, is to one do what I can to

teach what I teach as best I can, but having said that I also know that as we try to

attract students here, particularly Aﬁican American students, they’re interested in
other African American professors and when we say yes to that, it means will that
be someone that I can talk to? And part of my role, at least it’s an unofﬁcial role,
is to assist with whatever I can to make sure that this graduation rate, that we’re
talking about, continues to increase. So they come to me if there are problems.

Elonzo

Elonzo extends his point by elaborating on how he cultivates his relationships
with African American students:

Well I tend to have a fairly positive interaction with them [African American

students] because I think part of my job is to provide support for those students

and so we talk about anything and everything. It doesn’t have to be about the
problem they’re having in math or what the professor said, I mean we can talk
about how they feel about wanting to go home and why you need to go home.

And I guess I see it more of a counseling role with students. Elonzo

As a Mathematics Lecturer in the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies, Kenedhi takes
the initiative to encourage students to pursue their career goals. She also realizes that

faculty need to help students ﬁnd alternative ways to achieve these goals if they
encounter problems:

So with me. I’m trying to build conﬁdence and letting them know that they can do

this. Even if my students don’t do well, I let them know, don’t let one course alter
your life’s plans, not that you know your life plans at 18 — years-old, but if this is

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something you want to do take the course at a community college, but don’t let

this one course decide for you to block you out of everything you want to do.

Kennedhi

Kenedhi concluded her thoughts on Faculty Initiatives by describing how her role
as a faculty member is often coupled with that of a mother ﬁgure:

It’s very maternal, I’m everybody’s mentor. They ﬁnd a safe haven with me very

early on, like during the summer. Then they’re with me for all four years or until

they graduate. They keep in touch; it’s a very maternal relationship. Kennedhi

Those participants from Midwestern University view faculty initiatives as those
responsibilities or roles, articulated by faculty or other university personnel that speak to
the perceptions of how faculty should carry out their jobs to facilitate the academic
success of African American students.
Retention/ Support Programs

Retention/Support Programs was the ﬁfth highlighted factor offered by
the Midwestern study participants. In terms of this critical factor, participants revealed
four forms of Retention/Support Programs at Midwestern University that offer
instructional and/or transitional assistance to the Aﬁican American collegian or to the
university community as a whole. They are: (a) support programs located within every
school and college, (b) programs that incorporate the students’ cultural background to
speciﬁcally address student needs, (c) programs that incorporate a mentoring component,
and ((1) programs that are targeted to the pre-college student population. Robert talked
about Retention/ Support Programs located within the many schools and colleges of the

university. He describes how both the size and decentralization of the university has

facilitated the adjustment and success of the entire student population:

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Every school and college, here we’ve got more than 20 schools and colleges,
they each have some type of support: some of them in the academic area. . . and
they’re pretty comprehensive, the funding that we provide to student
organizations, and also our scholarships. Midwestern University has very
attractive scholarships and stuff like that. Robert

Damon echoed Robert’s comments and noted that in addition to support provided

through colleges and schools, there is centralized assistance at the university level as

well:

Our campus is very decentralized, but there’s a tremendous amount of support
within those colleges and within those individual ofﬁces for students. . . and each
one sets up their own programs to support their students where they need help, we
can go to the central university for ﬁnancial help. Damon

Echoing the sentiment of both Henry and Murphy, Elonzo offers an example of

one of his College’s Retention/Support Programs and notes its positive affect on African

American collegians:

We have an ofﬁce called the Minority Student Relations Ofﬁce and that ofﬁce is
within this School of Education. It was created to provide support for minority
students, and a sizeable portion of those are African American. There’s some
Hispanics and a few Asians, but primarily it’s African American. Elonzo

Damon shares the belief that Midwestem’s Retention/Support Programs actually

empower students. He talks of increasing the students’ capacity to take accountability for

achieving their own success:

And, essentially, over a period of the ﬁrst couple of years, you turn that kind of
control over to the students. You start out where it’s a very paternalistic system
where you deﬁne what the student has to do to succeed and put a carrot in front of
them and say if you follow what we say, you will succeed and they do. . . So what
these support programs do it’s more than academics, they essentially set up a
contract with the individual of the expectation. And you work in groups where all
of the members of the group agree that the academics are important and they try
to help each other Ieam. And the expectation is that you turn in every homework
and you attend every class and you’re the group that’s going to get the highest
grades in the class, not just the group that’s getting along. And once you start
building that kind of environment, then the success builds on itself. Damon

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Marilyn discusses the second form of Retention/Support Program that was
offered by the participants at Midwestern University. Two speciﬁc programs are those
that address student issues in a manner that is speciﬁc to the students’ cultural
background and those that pair ﬁrst and second year minority students with minority
peers who are located in their residence halls:

We have our Multiethnic Scholar Relations and that is one area I don’t say that as
all of our areas, but that’s an area that provides support for students from a
number of backgrounds in a speciﬁc way, support for Asian American students in
a speciﬁc way, support for African American students in a speciﬁc way, as
examples . . . we have minority peer advisors in our housing to help students in
their proximate environment, that’s 98% of our ﬁrst-year students and 40% of our
sophomores. Marilyn

Like Marilyn, Robert shares an example of Retention/Support Programs that
emphasize a mentoring component, which is another feature of these initiatives at
Midwestern. The Navigation Mentoring Program for ﬁrst-year college students also
addresses parents and their role in the overall success of their minority college student:

In the program, the students are paired with juniors and seniors. A lot of students.
. . are student leaders. And so we push the engagement piece. So ﬁrst we start
with a weekend program, where we invite the parents because with some of this
stuff we want parents to know what their role should be, how they ﬁt into this
equation, certain things that they need to avoid. For example, not encouraging
your son or daughter to come home every weekend. You may think that’s a
support system, but it’s not because people don’t study when they go home on the
weekends, where everyone else puts in studying on at least one of those days,
three or four hours a day studying. Robert

Robert concludes his comments by discussing the fourth type of

Retention/ Support Program, those programs geared toward pre-college students:
On this side of the fence, Educational Multicultural Projects, this is an academic
support ofﬁce that is in the Provost’s Ofﬁce. It’s a part of Academic Affairs and
we break down several things; we have an active pre -college program. We

probably deal with about 2500 students a year that range all the way down to 7th
grade. We have scholarship incentive programs. We have summer programs, so

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that’s the pre —college programs. But within the pre -college age, we have a large

number of student employees who work in our pre ~college program. They do the

mentoring, they do the planning. I think we have about 100 students who work in:

this ofﬁce. So therefore, it’s important for us to have a good student development

program and a student leadership program. Robert

Midwestern University has developed several kinds of Retention/Support
Programs that faculty and administrators believe are vital to the success of African

American collegians.

Special Purpose Ofﬁce

 

Midwestern University’s Special Purpose Ofﬁce is the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic
Studies (OMS), a learning community that provides opportunities for students to take
credit-bearing courses throughout the academic year, receive individualized attention
from faculty, and obtain personalized academic advising. According to the study’s
participants, there were three major themes related to the OMS and its contributions to
Black student success: (a) celebrating the Ofﬁce’s overwhelming success with Aﬁican
American students, (b) accentuating the Ofﬁce’s effectiveness in teaching Black students
to manage the academic component, and (c) noting the Office’s utilization of a all-
inclusive model that offers both instruction and adjustment assistance. As the Director of
the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies, Lonnie initiates this discussion on the ﬁrst type of
response. He credits his ofﬁce for having the most signiﬁcant impact on the academic
success of Midwestem’s Black collegians:

I would say the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies. I’ve been here 15 years and in that
time, more than 6000 of our students have graduated from Midwestern

University. And probably two-thirds of that number was African American. So

that’s probably in the neighborhood of around 4000 Aﬁican American students,
within our Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies. Lonnie

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Supporting Lonnie on the signiﬁcant achievement of the OMS, and speciﬁcally the
Transition Program it provides, is James, the Associate Director of the OMS. James
boldly credits the ofﬁce for the success of African American students, suggesting it may
be even greater than institutional data report for this student population:

The Transition Program. . . I’d have to say that the Transition Program is one of

our best examples of success. And I would think that the graduation for the

Transition Program students is higher than the 67 percent rate for all Black

students. James

When asked which program has. had the greatest impact on African American
achievement, Alonzo echoes both Lonnie and James and adds that this Ofﬁce’s success is
connected to its purpose:

The Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies and the Transition Program are the two. It’s

more systematic now. It doesn’t mean they have not made individual

contributions, but these are units that have large numbers of students and, as part

of their mission, they’ve been very successful in that regard. The Transition

Program is a summer program. The Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies offers year-long

programming, so it continues to provide that kind of support. Alonzo

Like Alonzo, Robert was also asked which program has had the greatest impact
on the success of African American students. Robert’s thoughts are similar to those of his
colleagues. He reiterates that the Ofﬁce’s focus is on the needs of all Midwestern
students and not solely on those of African American students:

. . . But if I had to pick one, I would say the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies

probably. They have done a good job with African American students. Although

that ofﬁce works with other groups, they have a long track record of working with

African American students and they’re more diversiﬁed now. Robert

_ Supporting the other respondents, Marilyn credits the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic

Studies as having the greatest inﬂuence on the academic success of Aﬁican American

I.

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students. She notes that this Ofﬁce greatly assists students in handling the academic
piece and in accessing the campus resources:

Overall, the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies is the one program that I believe has
had the most impact on African American achievement. The ofﬁce gives them
some idea of how to manage the academic piece. In terms of taking notes and
time management and that sort of thing, some about how to manage this
university in terms of where to go for resources. Marilyn

Finally, Lonnie discusses how the OMS takes an all-inclusive approach to
working with the African American student population and their success:
. . . We use the all encompassing model to provide both instruction and
adjustment assistance to students, not just African American students of course:
Hispanic, Asian, Native American, and White students. Anyone can use our
services, but we do have a focus on those who have been underrepresented in
higher education in the past. . . So we have different ways we work with students
that support them. We want them to be leaders on the campus. I guess you could
say we try to encourage them to do different things. And when I say different, I
mean innovative, come up with some new ideas. So our relationship incorporates
all of those things. We might contribute some funds to help them put on a project,
of some sort, to carry out a project. They might come to us with ideas that they
simply bounce off of us. Different parts of our staff will have different
relationships with the students. Lonnie
Although Midwestern University’s Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies was developed
to aid the entire student community, the Ofﬁce has experienced great success with the
Black collegian. By utilizing an all—inclusive approach which targets both instruction and
adjustment assistance, this Ofﬁce has effectively supported the overall achievement for
African American college students, while enabling them to cultivate productive
relationships with faculty, staff and other students.
Student Affairs
At Midwestern University, the participants in this study emphasized ﬁve

strategies that were utilized by their student affairs professionals to support Aﬁican

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American student success: (a) student affairs professionals offer an abundance of
programming to increase the students’ ability to ﬁnd a “home” on campus, (b) student
affairs professionals target students in many different ways and did not solely rely on race
and ethnicity, (c) student affairs professionals took the time to assist African American
students with problems related to their identity, ((1) student affairs professionals identify
environmental factors that may lead to student drop out, and (e) student affairs
professionals examine students over the course of their time on campus to assess the
institution’s impact on their development. Robert discusses the ﬁrst Student Affairs
strategy and expresses tremendous pride in the fact that Midwestern is a resource-rich
institution that will go to great lengths to meet the needs of its students:
We have lots of programs and activities. Sometimes people say there’s
duplication, but Midwestern University has always had this approach that if you
throw everything out, in terms of a smorgasbord, and [the institution] let students
pick and choose. The most important thing is to ﬁnd them a home, but our
institution puts more resources into students and student organizations than
anyplace I’ve ever seen. And I’ve worked with a number of institutions.
Robert
As a student affairs professional, Marilyn thinks it is important to create student
programming in several different ways including race, gender, etc. She believes that
students will engage based on the part of their personality that is the most relevant at a
particular time:
We target people in a number of different ways for services. We target them by
gender; we target them by age, by major, by race certainly. Uhm it’s worth it. And
we know that students are going to engage at different levels too because students
will see different parts of their personalities as more salient at different times.
Marilyn '

Marilyn thinks it is important to assist Black students who encounter problems and

doubts regarding their institutional selection. Here Marilyn describes how she assists

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African American students when the student feels alienated or feels that they have made
a mistake by attending Midwestern University:

Well part of that is talking with them about why did you choose this institution,
do you think you would choose something else if you had to do it over again?
Because helping them with some guided questions as far as helping them to think
through is this the choice that I wanted to make? Is this a choice that gives me a
feeling of belonging? Uhm yeah, are there people who embrace me here who will
be there for me here? Marilyn

C

To address issues of attrition, Marilyn believes it is important to create a proﬁle of
those students who leave and to identify environmental factors that might contribute to
someone leaving. As a result, she hopes the institution can reduce the number of students
who eventually leave the university. Marilyn shares the steps her institution is making to
combat the dropout rate:

Uhm we’re starting to work on ways in which we might be able to connect the
various data points that we have on campus to get a sense of at what points
students are leaving and why and perhaps a proﬁle of the types of students who
are leaving so that we can get a better sense of who needs support earlier and in
what ways? In the student affairs context, I am working with a wide array of
units to study how their offerings have an impact on students. I also do some
larger scale studies. I do the CIRP on our campus. And my use of the research
then is to help infuse how it is we offer our services on campus. Marilyn

Marilyn concludes this discussion on Student Affairs by emphasizing the need for
institutions to explore how students change throughout their tenure at the institution and
to use this information to address student drop out:

To take a look and see how students have tangibly changed over that time in a pre
and post test sort of way, measures a variety of things: conﬁdence levels, self
assessments on an array of traits ranging from fuzzy things such as warmth,
conﬁdence, to more tangible things such as mathematical skills. Their political
views, how they might have changed their views on speciﬁc pieces of political
issues. Their activities, what they thought they’d engage in, what they really do
engage in. Their long-term goals, a variety of things such as that. Marilyn

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Despite the fact that Student Affairs was not mentioned by every member of the
institutional sample as a contributor tothe success of the Black collegian, the examples
clearly illustrated that actions of student affairs professionals were signiﬁcant for this
student populace. The efforts of those in Student Affairs were connected to increasing the
African American students’ cultural capital, increasing their retention rates, and raising
their graduation rates.

Presidentiil Priorities

Those at Midwestern University describe Presidential Priorities as those
directives, initiated by the university president and/or central administration, which
require university personnel to examine, develop, implement, maintain, and evaluate their
unit’s programming in terms of diversity. Participants Midwestern University revealed
two major tactics that reﬂect Presidential Priorities in supporting the success of African
American students: the president emphasizes that diversity is a top priority and the
president establishes a team charged with leading the university on the implementation on
diversity initiatives. As the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and an engineering
professor, Damon opens this discussion on Presidential Priorities by noting the
importance of the president’s emphasis on diversity. He believes that this emphasis can
have a signiﬁcant impact and inﬂuence on how the entire institution embraces diversity:

The single thing that has made the biggest difference is leadership at the top

declaring that it’s [diversity] important. . . And if that leadership doesn’t keep

saying that, as our president keeps saying it. . . it’ll drift away in the organization.

It isn’t enough that at the working level you realize that it’s important, you’ve got
to have the leader saying it is. Damon

I33

Lonnie, Director of the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies, echoes Damon’s sentiment and
adds that the implementation of diversity is not an option; the president expects the
university to embrace this goal:
We have good leadership at the very top. The president of the university has to
say this is a priority; this is something we want to do. This is something we’re
committed to doing. This is something that we’ll put efforts into accomplishing,
not just something that’s on the periphery, so that we can do it if we want to.
Lonnie
As an illustration of how institutional leadership can hold campus departments
accountable for the success of their minority students, Damon points out:

. . . When each college is reviewed by the Provost, each year, we’re asked,
what’s your graduation rates? And if our minority numbers are signiﬁcantly
different, then our majority numbers, what are you doing about it? So they
encourage us to perform. Damon
Marilyn, a senior research associate in the Student Affairs Division, describes one

of the presidential initiatives that focus on underrepresented students:

. . . the Design Taskforce is a university — wide effort to identify initiatives in
ways to reach out to a variety of students, but predominantly students who
otherwise wouldn’t achieve well or who may be shut out of the system. To make
sure that they’re included and forwarded on to graduation... It’s a task force and
there are a number of people who are feeding the task force. So I’m in one of
those groups whose feeding the task force. Marilyn
Although Presidential Priorities was not highly emphasized by the respondents,

those that mentioned this factor attributed great signiﬁcance to its role in the success of

Aﬁican American collegians.

Midwestern University —Dissenting Voices

 

Throughout the data collection process, I encountered some responses that did not
appear to reﬂect or substantiate the comments of the other respondents. Additionally

some of the comments seemed to seriously challenge the institutional depiction that was

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presented by the other interview subjects. These perspectives are included because they
are often from the same participants who spoke highly of various aspects of Midwestern
University’s efforts to support Aﬁican American students. They show the complexity of
both Midwestern as a ﬂagship university and the task of really achieving a climate for
student success. Also these responses reveal the lack of knowledge that exists for some of
Midwestern University’s professional staff.

In spite of the many positive actions of faculty, for example, some participants
were sharply critical of Midwestem’s faculty. James alleges that the faculty lacks a
commitment to diversity and accused them of not supporting the efforts of his ofﬁce, the
Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies:

I think that Midwestern University is getting more and more anti —diversity and
anti-afﬁrmative action. Now keep in mind that we have a great president and a
great central administration, we have a great Ofﬁce of Student Affairs and all of
them are committed to diversity, but you know who’s not really committed to
diversity? The faculty. There would’ve been no way that [a piece of legislation]
would’ve passed if there weren’t tons of people who didn’t think that we were
getting some kind of advantage. So the faculty has always been anti —Ofﬁce of
Multiethnic Studies, but they would never articulate that. We’ve also had some
other faculty members who have been extremely supportive, but I would have to
say they’re in the minority. James

Like James, Kenedhi also believes that the Midwestern University faculty do not
value or see the beneﬁts of diversity:

I think the president is really, really dedicated, but I don’t think she has the
backing of the university community at large. I was in a faculty meeting, during a
time of great political turmoil on campus and I posed a question, I said you know
I never saw anything that the faculty signed and I want to be on board and part of
this, was there anything that went out? And they all got quiet and said, we’re not
political, we don’t have to back that, that’s not our place, we’re just instructors,
we’re just teaching. So she really doesn’t have the faculty support. And they did a
poll with the students and the students did not support diversity. Kenedhi

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As a student affairs professional, Marilyn expresses disappointment over her
inability to empathize with her African American students as they confront doubt.
Marilyn explains that her students share their inability to identify with African Americans

students who attended HBCUs and African American students who attended Midwestern

University:

And that’s a frustrating thing to work with them, to help them process because,
obviously, I won’t be going through that same processing that they’re going
through, but they’re dealing with some issuesof perhaps hurt or confusion that are
very difﬁcult or unnecessary, they’re great students. Uhm they chose Midwestern
and they’re doing well here. Marilyn

OMS Math lecturer Kenedhi ﬂatly declares that she would not want her children
to attend Midwestern University. Although she acknowledges the prevalence of the
c‘c'rllilpus’ retention/support programs, she criticizes the inconsistency in the quality of
support throughout the campus:

I think, personally, I would not send my child here. Some programs are different.
The Engineering College, the Minority Support Services Ofﬁce is extremely
supportive; it’s awesome over there. Also the business school is similar. This is a
big place, you can get lost. Kenedhi

Although Midwestern University has retention/support programs throughout the
camDUS, Damon notes why some African American students still encounter problems that

may lead to dropout:

But if they’re coming from a school located in a big metropolitan city if they’re
coming from a smaller city, or some place like this, even if they’re the top
students in the class, they haven’t had that competition and often they’re the ﬁrst
generation going to college. So their parents haven’t really explained why they’re
in college, they know they have to for this to succeed, but they haven’t built in the
real motivation for why it’s worth all the effort and what it takes to succeed. And
so they’re coming in at a disadvantage, even if they’ve had the same courses and
even if they’re straight “A” students and so their transition has to be longer
because you’re having to put in some support that they haven’t gotten before.
Damon

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Although Kenedhi believes that Midwestern University entices African
American students with promises of academic and career success, she does not believe
that these students are receiving the support that they genuinely need:

I think just giving them more support overall . . . but I think more should be done
in terms if retention and supporting them once they get here. The same effort that
went into bringing them here, they should get the same effort for four years to
help them stay here, to make it easy for them. Kenedhi

In terms of Institutional-Unit Response, Elonzo notes that because the School of
Education lacks minority professors and lacks minority students, this deﬁcit has
translated into minority students feeling unsupported and complaining about the
shortages:

We have had, over the years, complaints from students that started out more
generally, but they focused primarily on the School of Education when they
talked about the lack of minorities in teacher education and the need for minority
teachers in K — 12 settings. We have been sensitive to it, we have tried very hard
to address the issues, but we ﬁnd that the numbers of African American students
who were interested in education have dropped over the years. . . students often
feel that they don’t have the kind of support that they would need, the kind of peer
to peer interaction or faculty to student interaction and so we are very conscious
of that. Elonzo

When asked how Aﬁican American students were impacted by the placement of
African Americans in inﬂuential positions, Kenedhi did not view the impact on students
as signiﬁcant or noteworthy:

You know what, even though there are only a few of us here, I think we’re pretty

polarized. I don’t think we know each other, I think the community doesn’t have a

sense of who’s who . . . So I don’t think the students here or people here, in

general, have a sense of the Aﬁican American presence here. They might know us
individually, but nobody knows what we really do. Kenedhi

137

Although the institutional climate was reﬂected as diverse and valuing those
: from different backgrounds, Kenedhi blatantly challenges Midwestem’s claims of
diversity and openness and ponders her own personal safety:

So here, I wouldn’t consider this a diverse environment. The culture is not warm
and fuzzy. In fact, the bottom line is I would not be caught on campus in the
evening, late in the evening with a bunch of White guys. Over the summer, my
kids were telling me that they were being called “nigger,” they got intimidated.
We’re talking about guys and girls being out by themselves at night. This is not a
friendly environment, it’s hostile. Like last semester, when [a piece of state
legislation] was passed, there were many White students there at this rally on
campus and they were happy about the passing of [a piece of state legislation].
My kids came back crying because they heard them talking. They talked about
how vicious it was and that people were saying we’re happy it passed

Kenedhi

Marilyn shares her thoughts on how students at Midwestern University reacted to
the legislation and provides an example of what happens when students are given the
opportunity to freely express their views on diversity:

And particularly Midwestern has become known as a place that has been invested
in our admissions strategy to bring in students from a wide variety of
backgrounds, considering a wide variety of demographics, including race. Some
of our students on campus translate that to, let’s make African American students
feel unwelcome and that was particularly notable the days after [a piece of state
legislation]. We were running a survey about [a piece of state legislation] and
some of our White students, not a majority, but some of our White students said,
‘Well good we can get the wrong students off campus now.’ And those students
are the peers who are spending more time with our African American students
than we are. I mean they’re the ones spending time with them in housing, at meal
time, in classes. And that can’t be pleasant. . . I think in terms of the negative; 3
lot of the conversation around [a piece of state legislation] was very unhelpful in
terms of both on the street and in class. . . This whole notion that this university
should be owned by one particular race or exclusive of one particular race is just
offensive that peer to peer there seems to be empowerment of those students who
feel that way. And that’s decidedly unhelpful. Marilyn

138

Marilyn elaborates on how the use of stereotypes and assumptions can cloud the

perspectives and negatively affect the perspectives of Midwesten’s student population

and its institutional climate:

1 also think that sometimes we do different work with our students depending on
where they come from and we make different assumptions. So we know for
example that many of our students who come from other places in around the
state come from very racially segregated places. And they may not receive the
same support as far as coming to Midwestern University that they would come
from some other places. I know a number of students from a large urban city; I
meet them in my volunteer work, who end up at Florida A&M or Kentucky State.
Other institutions like that. And they wonder why people would go to
Midwestern. . . I think there are some SES factors at play as well. Our student
body is a fairly wealthy student body. And, then on top of that, they like to ﬂaunt
their wealth a bit. So it would be hard to compete in a sea of North based jackets
and Kates Bay Bags. If you think I have to be like that or I’m the only one who’s
not like that, we know that these people aren’t the only ones who aren’t like that.
One out of eight of our students is a ﬁrst —- generation student. Marilyn

Elonzo discusses the seemingly elitist climate on campus and how African

American students are confronted by feelings of inadequacy and of feeling poorly

prepared to achieve in that kind of environment:

shares:

. . . because we tend to have a higher socioeconomic level of students here. And
because of that, that seems to create some tension from time to time about how
people perceive what goes on here. It’s perceived, externally, as being elitist in
many ways, but this elitism comes across race. Because some people think that
the Aﬁican Americans who come here are also somewhat elitist as well. But I
think when you ask the average student, on campus; they will tell you that there
are some tensions here relative to Social Justice and just being an African
American student on this campus. Elonzo

When asked to describe how the institutional climate affects students, Robert
This is a tough place, it’s competitive, it’s a tough place and you have to be
clearly focused. Robert

Marilyn imparts a similar response when asked about the impact of the

institution’s culture on the students:

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I think they’re left pretty buffeted by our culture. I think it takes them a while to
tough up to it. And I don’t say that in terms of saying that students are weak, it
would take anybody a little while to toughen up to this culture. Marilyn

Marilyn offers her views on how those within various segments of Midwestern
University view themselves:

In parts of the university, a bit arrogant in thinking that ‘We’re Midwestern, the
world revolves around us’ . . .within our little division of student affairs, just 1300
of us, that’s taken a lot of work to gain that level of trust, because we have had
previous university presidents who have had as their motto, ‘every ship on its own
bottom’ or basically, I’m not looking out for anybody else, I’m just looking out
for us. And, that hasn’t contributed to collaboration very well. I think we’re in a
different place today with the administration we have, but we still have a lot of
people who worked a lot of years under those previous administrations, about a
third of our campus has been here for 10 years or more. Marilyn

Marilyn offers another view on why Midwestem’s climate might pose problem
for African American students:
I think another area of challenging assumptions is a lot of our students in this
state; in particular our White students who don’t come from a large metropolitan
area, uhm have a perception of African Americans, in general, as being poor and
being poorly prepared. And, we know that even most of our Aﬁican American
students on campus, come from fairly well off means, not all of them, but some.
And, they range a pretty wide spectrum of income, of political beliefs, of interest
in majors. And I think, sometimes our students from out — of — state need that kick
in the pants to realize that there’s not one blanket assumption that they can make
when they see someone of color on campus. They can’t make an assumption
about major, or preparation or anything like that. Marilyn
Midwestern University has been described as having a climate that promoted
student engagement. Even with the risk of duplication, institutional personnel took great
pride in noting the plethora of resources for their students. When asked how the campus
climate facilitated the participation of African American students on campus, Kenedhi

did not believe that African American students were engaged in the life of the campus:

College is so much more than academia and getting grades. It’s your proving
ground when you become an adult where you learn your leadership skills, your

140

coping skills, you need to get exposure, get experience with other things besides
academia. Well student activities are the things that expose you to what happens
in real life and I just don’t think the average minority student is involved, nobody
writes for the newspaper. I see a picture of one every now and then. If you look at
the yearbook, student government has made some strides, but as a whole, I mean
if you’re in journalism and you don’t write for the school newspaper out of four
years of college. And besides sports, it’s not a lot that minority students can do as
far as leadership, as far as planning things and being in charge. . . They have some
fraternity and sorority life, but other than that, there’s not a lot of avenues and
chances for minority students to really be a part. I mean if you vote for something,
the majority rules. So I think a lot of them go home every weekend. Their comfort
level is to go home, so they keep very, very strong ties back at home and in
church. They all go home for church when they go home for the weekend.
Kenedhi

James did not hold the university fully accountable for the challenges that
confronted the Black collegian and questioned the African American students themselves
on their role in facilitating their own success:

Midwestern used to be a lot more solid in terms of the African American student.

Well when there were fewer African American students here, they were much

more community — oriented and much more together as students. The greater the

numbers, the more diverse and disperse they’ve become, the less they seem to be
interested in being with each other, it’s strange. There’s like a vibe at Midwestern,
before people would just be arrogant then after a while they would calm down.

Then after they would encounter some academic difﬁculty, they’d realize I’m not

that hot and I need to be friendly with the other minority kids, but I don’t get a

sense of that, that is not happening here as much. It has gotten worse and that’s

sad to me. James

During my data collection at Midwestern University, I asked each respondent to
refer me to additional Midwestern sources who would be able to effectively contribute to
my study. I was referred to Michelle, the Director of Support for the College of
Mathematics. Over the course of the interview, it became increasingly apparent that
Michelle was highly competent and informed regarding her program area. However, she

was signiﬁcantly unaware of those institutional factors that contribute to the academic

success of African. American collegians. Michelle lacked the university-wide insight that

141

was needed to discuss those institutional strategies that facilitate the success of Black
collegians. She responded to the majority of the questions by relying on her program area
and providing responses that were more relevant and appropriate to the college of
mathematics.

This part of the discussion will address The Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies (OMS)
and four occurrences that were inconsistent with my initial viewpoints:

1. Despite the fact that Midwestern University has a student population that is
highly prepared, decidedly competitive and academically astute, the OMS personnel
consistently expressed the need to create academic support mechanisms to enhance
student success. I presumed that because Midwestern students are so academically
prepared, the accentuated need for academic support would be minimized.

2. In working with students, the OMS staff did not avoid being both paternalistic
and matemalistic. Instead, they openly embraced these forms of inﬂuence. For example,
during my interview with Lonnie he mentioned that if a student is consistently showing
up late for class or behaving in a noncompliant manner in class, this student is required to
meet with him to discuss his/her behavior. Due to the fact that college students are
“legally” viewed as adults, I did not anticipate that students would be required to explain
this “type” of behavior in a classroom setting, excluding behavior that would be viewed
as dangerous.

3. There is a signiﬁcant and noteworthy detachment that exists between OMS and
the rest of Midwestern University. OMS has not been fully integrated into Midwestern
University. Lonnie, OMS Director, stated that some view OMS as the “remedial” ofﬁce

and condemn those students who make use of the provided services. Associate Director

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James shared that the OMS faculty do not work with other Midwestern faculty and that
OMS does not receive an appropriate amount of support from the Midwestern faculty.
Additionally, during my interview with Damon, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
and an engineering professor, he never mentioned OMS in any manner or reference. All
of these factors suggest that there are those in Midwestem’s community who do not
recognize the value or contributions of OMS. Because of the university’s national
reputation for excellence, the heightened issue of discrimination within the institution is
inconsistent with my initial thoughts on the university community and the interactions of
those within that community.

4. Despite the fact that the services of OMS are available to all students, the
Director, Lonnie, remains highly concerned that his ofﬁce would be vulnerable to the
attacks and criticisms of various anti-afﬁrmative action groups. I found it interesting that
the director remained anxious and troubled of a potential verbal attack on the OMS. Thus,
the Director’s anxiety leads me to seriously question the level of support offered from the
Midwestern University community for both Lonnie and his ofﬁce.

Next, there were subtle nuances that occurred during my interviews that have to
be addressed. These nuances can be attributed to my race and gender and how each
impacted my rapport with the respondents.

At the completion of one of my interviews at Midwestern University, once I
turned the tape recorder off, an African American male respondent started to talk with
me. In what I would describe as a post-interview conversation, the participant described
the climate that exists among the African American professionals on campus. He went on

to describe how one African American Midwestern alumni, who currently worked on

143

campus, insisted that he wanted to seek employment elsewhere because he did not like
the environment that existed within the community of Midwestem’s African American
employees. The respondent described the young man as saying, “The Blacks on campus
are not supportive of one another. The environment is changing and I don’t like it.”
Based on both comments, I wondered if I would have been made privy to this
information if I was not an Aﬁican American. It appeared as though the participant
presumed that because I am African American, I would understand the ﬁ'ustration that
existed for him and the other university employee.

Southern University

As a public university that seeks to reﬂect the broader world in its student
population, Southern University has a student enrollment of more than 20,000 and
emphasizes student self-govemance and academic excellence. This university has an
overall graduation rate of 91 percent and an African American rate of 86 percent. Like
Midwestern University, Southern has a history of discrimination, speciﬁcally based on
gender, race, and sexual orientation. According to Aloni, Special Advisor to the Vice
President of Student Affairs, this institution “wants to move away from a discriminatory
past of all male and all White.” Although this centralized organization is currently
undergoing change, Southern University does revere tradition.

In terms of the institutional leadership, the president places great priority on
diversity. Even in light of university budgetary cuts, the president requested the
implementation of university-wide diversity initiatives and supported the implementation
of an electronic biased reporting system that would publicize and confront those who

participated in bigoted acts against members of the student populace.

144

As an organization, Southern University holds high expectations for those who
exist within this community. As well as believing that they should be role models, some
faculty at Southern University believe they should empower Aﬁican American students
by encouraging them to take ownership of the university. Additionally, other faculty hold
informal meetings to discuss ways to enhance diversity.

Those in student affairs work to develop effective relationships with students that
reﬂect mutual trust. These professionals also stress the recognition that all students have
varied backgrounds and experiences and that these students should be respected and
valued. In terms of institutional retention and support, the university has a summer
program, which introduces selected students to the university, its resources, and student
responsibilities. Furthermore, each college has an association/academic dean who is
placed in the residence halls to provide academic assistance to students. In order to
heighten student access to organizational resources and to make the institution appear
small, personnel place great emphasis on consistently being available to assist students
with their concerns. In addition, some believe that it is the institution’s responsibility to
educate those from underserved populations.

The Ofﬁce of Black Studies is Southern University’s Special Purpose Ofﬁce. The
Ofﬁce was established as an essential element of the Division of Student Affairs. The
primary responsibility of this Ofﬁce is to facilitate both academic and non-academic units
in meeting the needs of Aﬁican American students. In addition to fostering an
enviromnent of support for Black students, this Ofﬁce is responsible for educating the

university community on the needs and backgrounds of this student population.

145

Southern University places great value on collaboration and this value is
reﬂected in partnerships between: professors and students to prevent prejudiced acts in
the classroom, the admissions ofﬁce and Black student organizations to improve the
African American recruiting process and the university and members of the regional
community to recruit African American applicants.

Following is a brief explanation and an institutional illustration of each critical
factor. Although the factors are presented as distinct constructs, it is important to note
that the factors have to be enacted together in a more comprehensive manner in order to
effectively support the achievement of Black collegians. Participants at Southern
University recommend that institutions implement as many of the factors as possible to
create the strongest environment for students’ academic success. Both the critical factors
and the institutional representations have been presented in an order that reﬂects the
dominance and emphasis that was expressed by the Southern participants.

Special Purpose Ofﬁce

As previously stated, the Ofﬁce of Black Studies is Southern University’s Special
Purpose Ofﬁce. Founded as a critical component of the Division of Student Affairs, the
primary task of the Ofﬁce is to assist the campus community in meeting the needs of
African American collegians. As a critical factor, the Ofﬁce of Black Studies is highly
celebrated and overwhelmingly credited for the success of Southem’s Black collegians.
The participants from Southern revealed four major response categories regarding the
Office of Black Studies: (a) the Ofﬁce’s success in heightening the overall experience for
African American students, (b) the Ofﬁce’s assistant dean, Carolyn and her tremendous

effectiveness in effectively pairing students together for the Peer Counseling Program (c)

146

the Ofﬁce’s Peer Counseling Program, and (d) the Ofﬁce’s Dean and his overall
thoughts on the Ofﬁce of Black Studies. As the Dean of the Ofﬁce of Black Studies,
Lance introduces this ﬁrst section of responses by discussing the development of the
Ofﬁce of Black Studies and how the ofﬁce addresses the needs of the African American
student achievement:
. . . This ofﬁce was set up, in the 705, to provide a more welcoming environment
that you see now. We have three buildings, a number of deans who can help
- students out. There’s one dean whose job is to ensure that the cultural center
provides them with a home where they can celebrate Black History Month,
cultural activities of all kinds, Kinte cloth ceremonies, in addition to graduation.
You name it, anything that will help them deﬁne themselves as successful African
Americans. Lance
To expand on the deveIOpment of the Ofﬁce of Black Studies, Lance shares the
purpose of his ofﬁce and he notes some of the challenges that Black collegians might
encounter during their college career:
We are here to try to meet whatever need comes about for the African American
students. It’s a total experience going to school. It’s a total experience fumishing
what students need to succeed. You never know what somebody needs, how to
get good grades, or what’s getting in the way of the good grades. Lance
Aloni speciﬁcally addresses the Ofﬁce’s success in increasing the achievement of
Black collegians and shares her enthusiasm for the Ofﬁce of Black Studies:
. . . But the obvious entry point for them is the Ofﬁce of Black Studies, which
does a phenomenal job. I’m really excited for you to speak with them because
they will really lay it all out for you. Aloni
Deborah, Director of the New Student Orientation Ofﬁce, elaborates on Aloni’s
enthusiasm and stresses the contributions of the Ofﬁce of Black Studies and its capacity

to heighten the overall experience of African American Students:

The Ofﬁce of Black Studies. I think that ofﬁce does a great job of trying to retain
and attract Black students and all of the services and all of the things that have

147

been provided over there only help us help them have a better experience.
Deborah

Aloni introduces the second set of response categories by sharing her thoughts on
how the Ofﬁce of Black Studies supports the achievement of Black collegians’ through
their Peer Counseling Program:

I would say the Assistant Dean of the Ofﬁce of Black Studies, [her] Peer
Counselor Program. . . I think any good program is good because of the people
who run the program. And Dean Baker is so good at it, she makes such good
matches and such good connections with students and I think they’re very
successful because of that. And again, it’s a good way for us to feel small even
though we’re big because students come in and they’re immediately paired with
someone and they have that support. And the mentors that they are placed with
have such good training in so many different areas and, so really, pretty much any
issue or obstacle that a student faces, the mentor will know how to solve it. It’s
just very, very good. Aloni

Andrew introduces the third section of response categories by highlighting the
effectiveness of the Ofﬁce’s Peer Counseling Program. However, he also notes the
assistant dean’s contributions to the success of Black collegians:

Without question, the Peer Counselor Program, from the

Ofﬁce of Black Studies. And the assistant dean does a marvelous

job. It’s really the students helping one another. And it isn’t just

gaining [learning to navigate] the system, it’s really making people

feel that it’s okay to work, it’s okay to feel worried, it’s okay to

get a little behind you’ll get through it. It’s not gimmicky. Andrew

Andrew elaborates on his point by reﬂecting on his tenure at Southern University. He

credits the Office of Black Studies Peer Counseling Program with making the students
feel that they are genuinely valued and he feels the Ofﬁce has a positive impact on the
students’ overall experience:

I’ve been here for 21 years and the Ofﬁce of Black Studies has

really ramped up. They assign students to peer advisors from the

beginning, every student is made to feel as if he/she counts,
that they’re not just tuition — paying units and I think just that

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alone makes a huge difference. Andrew

When asked which program has had the greatest impact on the success of Black
collegians, participants typically credited the programs in the Ofﬁce of Black Studies,
even over the efforts of their own units. However, the Director of Admissions jokingly
offered to take credit for this success:

The Peer Counselor Program. We’d like to say it’s admissions, but
I’d have to say the real answer is the Peer Counselor Program. Michael

Like Michael, Linguistics Professor Marie credits the Peer Counseling Program
for its success. She speciﬁcally notes the Program’s peer-to-peer support which enhances
academic achievement:

I would really credit the Ofﬁce of Black Studies with having developed programs

speciﬁcally targeting African American students . . . I would guess the Peer

Counselor Program may be the most effective because students are more likely to

listen to each other and see them as role models and as people who are successful.

Marie

Anita, Associate Dean of Residence Life, notes the services offered by the Peer
Counseling Program as another example of support for African American students and
their overall achievement:

. . . and then when you add the peer counselor from the Ofﬁce of Black Studies,

you can see that they’re multifaceted elements of support that allow our students

to thrive here. Anita

Deborah extends Anita’s sentiment on the Peer Counseling Program by
highlighting the program’s emphasis on student engagement:

I think the other piece of our success is the Peer Counseling Program. So again,

it’s that feeling of being known. So every ﬁrst year student has a peer advisor who

is African American. Because I can’t stress enough how important it is for these
students to feel known and for them to know that this is their place. I think that

Dean Baker stresses to the peer advisors that this is “your” university; these are
“your” grounds. Thereby those students impress that upon the ﬁrst —year students.

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Then when they begin to feel like an outsider, you’re able to focus on your
academics. I think that program really impacts the graduation rate because those
students are motivating each other to do well, whenever they have difﬁculty, they
can call that peer advisor and that person is there to assist them. Deborah

In the last four quotes Lance discusses his views on the purpose of his Ofﬁce, the
rationale for his Ofﬁce’s mission, and his goals for his Ofﬁce. He offers an example to
illustrate the extent to which the staff is willing to go to meet the needs of African
American students:

For example, if a student walks in here and says, ‘I’m an engineering student, I

have one month to graduate. I have all of the quantitative skills on earth, but my

research requires qualitative skills to nuance my ﬁndings and I don’t know
anything about qualitative. 1 know I’m going to fail because there’s not enough
time for me to learn this, what can I do?’ Then I would teach it, so that this person
can graduate on time. I have all kinds of students with many different kinds of
needs and I’ve got to be ready to have the resources to deal with it or to have
colleagues, in house, or colleagues on the campus who can deal with it.

Lance

As a Dean, Lance’s experience puts him in a unique position to offer perspective
on the purpose and goals of the Ofﬁce of Black Studies. As illustrated, other participants
also recognize the importance and impact of the Ofﬁce and its various initiatives:

Because it’s important, because who else will do it? We have the next generation
and if we don’t do it, who’s going to run this country? Who’s going to run our
families, our homes, your corporations one day? So you have to prepare them for
life. Lance

This comment also reiterates Lance’s commitment to increasing the expectations for
Aﬁican American students to make contributions to society and to pursue advanced
education. Ultimately, Lance’s goal is to transcend those biases and misperceptions

associated with African Americans:

The direction that I’m shaping with this ofﬁce is the new direction because it says

that I’m not impressed with the g.p.a.s of our graduates. I’m not saying, publicly,
that it’s not impressive because it is. But I’m saying it’s the starting point for the

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next step. The next step is for me to get Aﬁican Americans, in the double digits,

into law school, Black faculty through our graduate schools, get more Black

doctors. That’s the next generation of success in my opinion. Ultimately we want

to be able to actualize a following. Human beings are deﬁned by their capacity to

transcend the received. They can reconﬁgure themselves and that’s the whole

point of education. Lance

Lance concludes by explicitly sharing his thoughts on his choice to focus on
Black Studies as opposed to diversity:

Therefore the effort to correct history has to be intensive and that’s why I do

Black Studies and not diversity at this time. Some day, I will do diversity. And

even in the context of this university, I do some diversity to try to collaborate with

Hispanic and Asian American students, but it’s not my primary goal. My primary

goal is to correct history and to make sure our students succeed. Lance

Southern University’s Office of Black Studies is devoted to cultivating and
implementing those actions that contribute to the overall achievement and success of the
Aﬁican American collegian.
ﬁrculty Initiatives

Faculty Initiatives was the second critical factor that was highlighted by the
participants at Southern University. The group’s responses reﬂected six areas: (a) this
organization’s faculty take a special interest in the African American student populace;
(b) both faculty and advisors monitor African American students from the beginning of
their undergraduate experience until graduation; (0) faculty members assure their African
American students that they can be successful; ((1) faculty members engage their African
American students in class by holding them accountable for learning from one another;

(e) faculty informally meet to create diversity practices; and (f) faculty utilize speciﬁc

strategies to demonstrate their dedication to the academic success of African American

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students. According to Michael, Dean of Admissions, the faculty at Southern University
has a genuine interest in promoting the accomplishments of the Black collegian:

And we have lots of faculty that really want everyone to do well, but I think many
of them take a special interest in African American students; they just want them
to do well. Here the faculty really want everyone to ﬁnish. There is an

overarching sense that everyone ﬁnishes, that everyone is prepared to be here and
works hard and graduates. Michael

To facilitate the sustained achievement of African American students, Andrew

discusses why faculty and advisors should create a system where both frequently monitor

the success of these students:

That means, creating a network of faculty advisor support, and not just checking
on them on their way out. That is making sure that someone is looking after them
at early points where we can make a difference. . . but I also think more than any
place we have made a commitment to give the students the education they
deserve, not just get them through, but get them an education. Andrew

Because of issues like afﬁrmative action and marginalization, Andrew believes
that African American students need to be reminded that they have the capacity to
successfully compete in the academy, so even while faculty may be committed to student

success, Andrew sees the need for more explicit faculty interaction and support for this

group of students:

In my experience, some African American students have a conﬁdence issue and
you have to let them know that they can do it. The general theme I’m developing
is that students need just a little more TLC than professors are used to giving
them. Aﬁican American students, in particular, for historical reasons many are
made to feel a little marginal where they shouldn’t be, there is still this lingering
issue about Afﬁrmative Action and all of that stuff. So the best way to address
that is to assure them and to tell them, look you’re here and you deserve to be
here, but I want you to work and I want you to not sell yourself short, by just kind
of taking “gut” courses and getting “B’s.” I think one of the reasons we do well

here is because we treat our students as more than a face in a sea of many faces.
Andrew

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.i

professors, Andrew offers that African American students are used to feeling a

connection to both their instructors and the classroom, but some postsecondary faculty

may not be comfortable with this level of engagement in their classes:

 

Black students, in my opinion, are used to being engaged. The faculty members
are afraid of them. Part of it is making everyone feel comfortable. Or I might
make them read something out loud to the class and then you sort of break down
the fear of talking out loud in class. Also I have a rule that you can always pass
and there’s no problem. You can say, I don’t want to answer and that’s ﬁne, I’ll
come back to you. Part of it is making everyone feel responsible, responsible for
learning from one another in class. I even emphasize that they’re not competing
with one another. It’s ﬁrnny because they think they are, but they can’t.” Andrew

When asked why some African American students may feel disconnected from their l

r‘

Expanding on his statement, which sanctions the promotion of diversity, Andrew
works to ensure that both his classroom and his program beneﬁt from the effects of this
concept. Because of Andrew’s personal commitment to diversity, he believes increased

measures are warranted. Thus, he uses additional tactics to recruit students who can add

 

diversity to his environment. When asked how he would respond to those who question

his methods, Andrew offered this response:

Because I want a diverse student, because we have illustrated that people learn
better in a diverse environment and the classroom experience is better. So I don’t
make any bones about it, I say look I have to use different techniques to get
different students . . Also, I’ve talked with the social studies teachers in this city.
I have mentees on campus. Also I go and talk with the Black groups all of the

time. Andrew

To illustrate how dedicated some of the Southern University faculty are to

diversity, Professor Anderson shared this example of a group of Southern University

faculty who work as mentors to Black students and work with the students on other

projects:

153

 

There’s a group on grounds, a group of faculty members who meet on their own
and get together to promote issues of diversity. They’re not an official group. The
younger faculty are very interested in this. . . I see evidence of their picking out

mentees and working with students. Andrew

The next set of quotes center on very speciﬁc strategies utilized by Southem’s

faculty to demonstrate their interest and commitment to African American students. As

another example of the faculty’s desire to promote and support diversity, Marie shares

how her department demonstrated their value for the Aﬁican American student

population: 1

There’s a controversial segment of the student population — athletes. In particular,
revenue — gathering sports, mainly football and basketball. And, in both sports,
there’s a certain amount of African American students who are recruited
speciﬁcally for their abilities in the sport and oftentimes they are not prepared
when they enter our institution. So the question is what are these students going to
major in and how are they going to get through? They [African American

athletes] have a lot of tutoring and they work with the students quite a bit. But a
lot of times some of these students are just really struggling academically. And we
had a discussion in our department about whether to put a minimum g.p.a.

requirement for declaring a major. And most departments, here, have that
requirement. We decided not to implement that minimum g.p.a. on the grounds,

partly that we felt those students had something to contribute to the university, not
just in terms of sports, but in terms of the perspectives they bring into the
classroom. And that was something that we didn’t want to just toss them out to

ﬁnd some other major. Marie

For those who may question Marie and her department for not implementing the

minimum g.p.a. requirement, she offers this response:

I think it’s the argument that we don’t want to close doors. We don’t want to put
up barriers, we want to be welcoming. If we’re going to talk about diversity, if
we’re going to talk about race and cultural difference, then we can’t be the
department that is putting up barriers to people. So we have to be prepared to

accept all kinds of students. Marie

As an Assistant English Professor, Anita tries to emulate the values that she

resses both in and out of the classroom:

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l‘.‘

Because I teach, in and out of the classroom, I also see my role as a teacher and I
try to role model that which I speak about and that which I believe and that is that
I value students’ learning, I value challenging them to learn. I value challenging
them to step out of their comfort zones; whether it’s in my classroom or whether
it’s in a one —on — one with a student that I’m interacting with. I value trying to

get them to understand how important it is to become a global citizen, someone
who is responsible ﬁrst to self and then to our community. And our community is

the planet. Anita

Anita elaborates on her statement by acknowledging the responsibilities that
African Americans have to the world. She tries to reinforce the notion that Southern

University belongs to them:

I also, even, do that in my classroom and I acknowledge that and I try to empower
them. I tell Black students, when I work with them in the particular, that this is
your university. I’ve been saying that for 32 years and I mean it. And this is truly
my university because if you don’t become invested in the place where you spend

your life, then what are you doing, just passing time? Anita
Southern University participants view Faculty Initiatives as those responsibilities
or roles, articulated by faculty or other university personnel that speak to the perceptions

of how faculty should carry out their jobs to facilitate the academic success of Aﬁican

American students.

Institutional Expectations

In terms of Institutional Expectations, the participants from Southern University
shared ﬁve types of expectations: (a) the university expects the whole community to see
the educational value of diversity; (b) the university expects its values to transfer to
students; (0) the institution expects the students to fully exercise their leadership and to

believe that the university belongs to them; ((1) the university expects all students to
graduate; and (e) the dean of admissions expects his staff to support the university’s value

for diversity and academic quality. Lance, Dean of the Ofﬁce of Black Studies, opens this

155

 

 

section by accentuating that Southem’s students are taught that diversity has an

educational value that is recognized by the entire campus community:

. . . It’s quite simple; people get to learn that diversity has an educational value,
plain and simple. You can’t educate with only the philosophies and mindsets of
one group of people, when we’re entering the global world. Without diversity as
an educational value, we’re handicapping all students; we’re not preparing them
for the world. The same is true for faculty, administrators and those in student
affairs. . . This is a good university, ﬁrst of all. A good university in the sense that
it has a very committed administration and faculty and they demand high

standards from our students. Lance

 

 

When asked about the university’s culture and how it impacts students, Lance

offers this example:

I can tell you that the aspirations of this university transfers to the students. The
students pick it up and they rise to it. One student here once told me, ‘they tell

you here that you’re smart and you get to believe it.’ Students have the
opportunity to test themselves and to discover that they can be smart. So ﬁom the

students’ standpoint, the expectation that they are going to be future leaders that
they’re going to be decision makers in their ﬁelds is an expectation that they’d

love to embrace and so they take charge of that at some point. Lance

When Aloni describes the institutional culture, she reinforces Lance’s emphasis

on student life, but includes that the university’s climate also focuses on student self

governance. Thus, the students are given a ﬁrll opportunity to cultivate their leadership

and this is found throughout the campus:

Well I think as you talk to people, the one thing you might hear out of their
mouths ﬁrst is student self governance, that is the culture that really permeates
this place. As I describe the university’s Judiciary and Honor Committee, the
students really do run the show here and we really serve to facilitate that, that
element. And, that’s a unique piece. As an outsider, when I came in, I thought, oh
yeah they really do pay lip service to that, but do they really walk the walk? And
they do, they absolutely do. And so it’s a real cultivation of leadership that we do.

Aloni

Aloni offers this example to demonstrate the latitude that is offered to Southem’s

students in an attempt to cultivate their leadership skills:

156

 

Well recently our judiciary chair, [an African American] who graduated last

year, came back to see us and said he’s now doing paralegal work in New York
and he said, “You know I feel so well prepared in a lot of ways I feel bored by the
real world because we were making such critical decisions and people really gave
us a lot of power here just to do that. And now that I’m out in the real world and
I’ve got that entry level job, you know I’m really doing very little and I feel
prepared to take on more. That’s what we want to hear from our students, that
they feel they’ve succeeded and are prepared to be good leaders. I think they can
offer us great perspectives. And I think our African Americans are coming from a
wide cross — section of cultures and they can offer us diverse perspectives in a
way that other communities, that exist here, can’t. As you know, from your
research, our institution does not have a pretty history. We’re a Southern school

and we discriminated. Aloni

To extend Aloni’s discussion on the latitude that is offered to Southern’s student

population; Lance reiterates the university’s priority of establishing a culture of ethical

self governance, which translates into student leaders who have the capacity to make

effective decisions both on campus and in their professional disciplines:

It’s a culture of ethical self — governance. That’s the very ﬁrst thing one should

say about this university. Students know that they’re expected to be leaders,
decision makers, and so that’s the ﬁrst important template that’s provided for our

students. Lance

Echoing both Aloni and Lance, Michael insists that the institutional climate has
convinced African American students to exercise their leadership skills and to believe
that the university belongs to them. To prove his point, Michael cites several examples of

African American students in prominent leadership positions on campus:

Another thing is this is a place where students run the university. We have over
500 clubs and organizations. And there are no faculty advisors. So this establishes
a sense of ownership and responsibility. One of the things you’ll see here is that
every couple of years, the student body president will be African American. And
the top positions: head of the honors committee; will go to a Black woman or a
Black man. Since 1979, we’ve had 6 — 8 Black student body presidents. And I
think it says that students come here and feel as if they have ownership and this is
theirs. It seems that almost everyone feels that he/she owns the place and wants to

be a part of it. They are engaged. . . Michael

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.‘-““‘—‘—".l

 

Deborah, Director of New Student Orientations, concurs with the observations of
her colleagues. She sees the autonomy that is offered to Southern University students as
another important cause for their academic and developmental triumphs. Deborah adds,

the campus climate is one that gives students a great deal of independence, which

 

translates into the students’ “buy in” and their ability to carry out those tasks that they

feel were developed by and for them:

 

At Southern, we certainly give students a little more autonomy than other
universities may give them, but it’s basically an educational philosophy that other

institutions really think is important. As most of us know, “buy in” happens
whenever it’s created from the students. It can’t happen when it’s us saying this is

what you have to do. Deborah

In terms of institutional expectations, the fourth type offered by Southem’s
participants was the expectation for all students to graduate. Andrew believes the success
of African American students can be directly attributed to the climate of Southern

University, which requires university personnel to accept responsibility for the students’

 

success. He also believes that Southem’s personnel is dedicated to the academic success

and graduation of every student who attends the institution. Notwithstanding all of this,

Anderson sees some ways in which there is room for improvement:

But also the university does take more seriously the idea that when we accept
these students, it’s our responsibility to help them get through, so we don’t regard
these students as sort of superﬂuous and once they’re here, they’re kind of thrown
in at the deep end and they’re on their own.” .. . But I think the university has
made a commitment that all of the students, who come here, should graduate. So
our graduation rate is pretty good, but there’s still a gap between non-White
graduation rates and Black graduation rates. And that’s really too high as well. I
think, more than most places, and we do make it a priority to help these students

get through. Andrew

Southem’s Dean of Admissions, Michael emphasizes both diversity and academic

quality to his staff in helping them support Aﬁican American students. Michael’s

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deﬁnition of diversity is not exclusive to race, but includes those who hold varied

perspectives, backgrounds and those from other parts of the world:

Well I tell my staff that there are two primary goals: there’s academic quality and
diversity. And everyone buys into that. We say diversity on many scales, not just
race or ethnicity, but we want people to know that we value different opinions,

different backgrounds. Also geography, to some extent. Right now, we’re at ﬁve
or six percent of international students. Michael

When asked about the institutional climate, Marie shares her views on the
direction of Southern University’s climate. She feels that a more diverse student
population serves to remind people to avoid stereotypical responses and view people as

individuals:

I think it’s important for this place to develop an identity that is not like it was in
the past; all White and all male, good old boy type. And I think that having
Aﬁican American students here is crucial for moving away from that image and
bringing this university into the 215’ century, and looking more like the country as
a whole. So I think that’s an important aspect. And also just continuing to remind
people that their own experiences are not the same as anybody else’s. So I think

just having the experience of having a range of students who are visible on
campus, makes people recognize that you can’t just stereotype everybody and you

should treat people as individuals. Marie

The Institutional Expectations of those Southern University participants are those
institutional beliefs, rules, or behaviors that reﬂect the identity of the community. Also,
these expectations guide the actions of those within that community, all of which promote
the academic experience of the Aﬁican American collegian.

Valuing Diversity through Collaboration

In terms of Valuing Diversity Through Collaboration, Southern University’s
institutional sample noted four types of collaborations: (a) those on and off campus
collaborations that help promote diversity and provide support for African American

student success; (b) those collaborations between various on—campus ofﬁces and

159

between faculty and staff to help recruit students; (0) those collaborations that facilitate
the students’ transition to college; and (d) those collaborations that requiremembers of
the campus community to work with those elsewhere to support Southem’s Black
collegians. Michael, Dean of Admissions introduces the ﬁrst type of collaboration
between campus units. He describes how the Admissions and Financial Aid Office work
together to provide admissions offers to students. Direct communication with the student
occurs through collaboration between the ofﬁces:

One of the things we do is go to the ﬁnancial aid ofﬁce in April and there will be
one ﬁnancial aid ofﬁcer with one admissions ofﬁcer and the admissions ofﬁcer
will call and congratulate the student. And then the ﬁnancial ofﬁcer will take the
phone and explain the aid award, and just take the student through what’s
involved in getting ﬁnancial aid. This is done for every African American student
who is offered admissions. So we do that and sometimes it might take a couple of
nights to do that. Michael

The Admissions Ofﬁce also actively works with Aﬁican American students to recruit
new students to campus:

I think we have a strong, active working relationship. We have a lot of students
who work with us in recruiting students. We have a program called African
American Student Admissions and our students call prospective students at
night. They even visit high schools as ambassadors. They host visitors in the
dorms. 1 think we’re certainly seen as a ﬁiend of the Black students here, and so
I think it’s a warm and positive relationship. . . Also we work with student
groups. There’s the Black Student Network, we work with them and try to

get them to help us out through our African American Student Admissions. They
visit high schools for us or they’re on panels. There are a lot of things they assist
us with. Michael

Michael also mentioned other ways in which Admissions and other campus units
work with “friends” of the university and with alumni for recruitment, placement, and
internship experiences:

Yeah we’ve got one with Rhonda Milton in a large metropolitan city. She
identiﬁes kids through a local scholars program and she sets up interviews in

160

hotels in the city and we go up and interview students and then she has some
scholarship money too that she gets from the local newspapers and some others.
She’s a great partner and asset. She isn’t an alumni, she’s just a good friend. . .
We work with a lot of partnership programs. For example, there’s one in this city,
that one of our alum started about 10 or 12 years ago. We place Black kids from
the city schools in businesses in Richmond for the summer. And some of those go
throughout the academic year too, putting them in a stock brokerage ﬁrm or a big
real estate ofﬁce, just to get the real world experience. And many of those
businesses are run by alum. One time, we actually placed one of our university
students there as a summer intern. Michael

Andrew gave examples of collaboration related to academic programs and units.
He discusses how he used collaboration to improve his Social Philosophy Program.
Speciﬁcally he collaborated with the Ofﬁce of Black Studies to recruit Aﬁican American
students for his program, resulting in higher minority student participation and a more
effective program:
I have a straight professor position in the Politics Department, but I also run a
program which is an interdisciplinary program to which students apply. And that
is the Political Social Philosophy Program. I take about 20 — 21 students for that
every year. . . When I took the program over, they were doing a poor job at
recruiting minority students. So one of the ﬁrst things I did was essentially
reach out to the people in the Office of Black Studies and said, look I want you to
help me. I need good students. So I addressed the misperception that students
needed a 3.8 to get into the program. I changed that. And, since then, I’ve had a
pretty good rate of participation among minority students in the program. And the
program has been better as a result. Andrew
Andrew expounds on other collaborative measures he has used to increase the
participation of African American students in academic programs with which he is
afﬁliated. He actively seeks advice and support from current students to acquaint his
program to new students:
Well I’ve done some direct recruiting of Aﬁican Americans, but I would ask my
current students is there anyone that I should be talking to? So I’ll say who is a

good prospect to get interested in Political Social Philosophy? I’ll talk to the peer
advisors and introduce my program to them. So I’ll go to the ﬁrst meeting called

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Harambe and I’ll introduce myself and I’ll talk to them about my program.
Andrew

Andrew discusses his co-teaching a diversity course with Anita, an English
professor and Dean of Residence Life. During the course, the students offered
suggestions to increase the participation of African American students in university
programming, thereby providing additional opportunity for collaboration:

Me and the Dean of Residence Life did a January class one time where we had the
students come up with some ideas on what kinds of. programs would work. And
the students actually gave us ideas on what programming our university could
implement. Andrew

As a student affairs professional, Deborah shares her thoughts on two of the
collaborative projects she has participated in, one with the outreach office and the other
involves parents of prospective students:

Yes for example the outreach ofﬁce has both fall kickoff and spring kickoff and
during fall kickoff, they ask me to come to speak to Black parents who are
considering Southern for their kids. So, in that way, yes I go and say yes send
your students here, it’s great for Black students. So I do those kinds of things all
the time. . . Also Dean Baker, of the Ofﬁce of Black Studies, has invited me for
the last ﬁve years to speak to the students in the peer advising program. There I
talk about the ﬁrst — year experience and I talk about things that are speciﬁc to
ﬁrst — year African American students. So those are the kinds of things, in terms
of collaborative ways that we’re able to come together to ensure that Black
students are successful and to help parents understand that if they send their
students here, that those students can be successful and that this is a good place
for Black students. Deborah

As an opportunity to educate Southem’s faculty on diversity, Anita discusses her
collaboration with another faculty member in which they developed a videotape to depict
the unfair treatment experienced by some Aﬁican American college students while
interacting with faculty:

This project was done with one of my colleagues. The tape really focused on
Aﬁ'ican American students’ experiences and then we used that tape to talk with

162

different departments. So we were trying to make inroads to increasing the
numbers of Black students... I interviewed and taped a panel of students. I got a
panel of Black students, a professional cameraman, and we walked around with
hand — held microphones and I just interviewed students. And we put it all
together on one tape. The stuff they talked about, I could hear their stories and so
I have a tape on African American student experiences at this institution, but even
though we did it a while ago, it’s still timely. I could show it to you and other
students today and the issues would still be relevant. The students would say, oh
yeah that happened to me, too. It was provocative to be able to put that in front of
faculty members because we’re so invisible to so many people, where they don’t
want to think that there is an issue here, especially if there are signs of success
and excellence. Anita

The Director of the Ofﬁce of Black Studies, Lance concludes this discussion on
Valuing Diversity through Collaboration by summarizing the importance of this concept
and the pivotal role it plays at Southern University:

I think it’s a composite experience, making sure that if my ofﬁce succeeds, career

services will succeed. If career services succeed, my ofﬁce has succeeded. So if

you want one thing, it would be the value -added collaborations between this
ofﬁce and other entities in the university. In a word, a ﬁrsion of experiences that
will build, not one isolated entity. Lance

Participants at Southern University, view Valuing Diversity through
Collaboration as those activities that result in an increased awareness and/or promotion of
diversity as a result of combining the efforts of two or more campus entities or the
combined efforts of an on-campus entity with external entities. Participants engaged in
such activities believe in the importance and utility of these collaborations in supporting
Aﬁican American students.

Student Affgi_r_s
Southern University’s study participants offered eight types of strategies used by

student affairs professionals to heighten the academic achievement and graduation of

Black collegians. The strategies were: (a) student affairs professionals provide mentoring

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programs in the residence halls, (b) student affairs professionals express openness and
appreciation for those who represent difference, (c) student affairs professionals increase
their effectiveness with students because of the low R.A. to student ratio, ((1) student
affairs professionals train their student staff in multicultural awareness, (e) student affairs
professionals establish strong relationships with students to cultivate mutual trust, (f)
student affairs professionals ensure that students have completed all institutional
paperwork prior to the start of classes and address the needs of their parents, (g) student
affairs professionals reiterate that the university belongs to the students, and (h) student
affairs professionals demonstrate diversity in the selection of student employees.
Associate Dean of Residence Life, Anita introduces the ﬁrst category of responses. She
stresses that the university community serves to facilitate the overall success of African
American collegians, including the availability of resources in the residence halls:
It’s not just one ofﬁce that supports our students in terms of their trying to make
sure that they have an environment where they can excel academically and where
they have comfort. I’m in charge of the residence halls. We require all of our ﬁrst
— year students to live on grounds in housing that is supported by a peer advising
program or peer mentoring program. . . Anita
Deborah introduces the second set of responses. As the Director of the New
Student Orientation Ofﬁce, Curtis and her staff place a high priority on cherishing the
experiences of all students and demonstrating an appreciation for the talents they bring:
I think that our ofﬁce does a good job of trying to be aware of the fact that
everyone’s experiences are different and everyone needs to be valued; feel valued
because of their experiences. So I think just having that level of awareness helps.
So I think because of the nature of our work, we have to be open and we haveto
create space for students who are different or the same to feel welcome at this
university and to feel like this is their university. I think that’s one of the things

that we really try to do is let students know that this is your university. . .
Deborah

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When asked why she believed Aﬁican American students ﬂourished at Southern
University, Deborah provides several examples from her own work and that of other
student affairs colleagues. Deborah credited the low Resident Assistant to student ratio
because students have a greater opportunity to interact with their RAs, so they are more
likely to become known from the beginning. As a result, the students have a greater
likelihood of becoming engaged in the university community which leads to greater
academic achievement:

I think the ﬁrst thing I’ve seen at Southern University, that’s been a little bit
different, is that the RA. to student ratio is really low. . . And most institutions,
particularly state institutions, you’ll ﬁnd that these students have one R.A. for
every 50 students. So it’s hard to feel like you’re known in an environment like
that. Whereas here, the RA. has 16 to 20 students to get to know and so those
students feel known from the outset. So I think that’s one thing, so the RA. is
heavily involved in connecting the students with other students. Deborah
There is a sense from several participants that part of Southem’s overall strategy

is to support Black collegians with early intervention. This may start during summer
orientation and continue throughout the ﬁrst year as Student Affairs professionals
establish relationships with the students and provide information on campus resources.
When asked about Southem’s low RA to student ratio and how that ration impacted the
success of the Aﬁican American collegian, Anita emphasized the staff’s training and the
impact of the RA / student relationship:
Ours are predominantly undergraduate, that we take the time to train, to train
them on issues such as multicultural awareness. I’ve been doing that with the
residence staff since 1978, meaning the R.A.s and I have 230. For ﬁrst — year
students, the ratio of an R.A. to a ﬁrst — year student is one to 18 or one to 20.
So it’s a program where they have an older student, second through fourth year
usually, who basically helps them to negotiate the environment, helps them to

negotiate the culture, the traditions of our institution, plugs them into academic
advising, is a referral for a lot of different things like counseling, etc. So it’s a

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very low ratio of RA. to student and that’s for all of our ﬁrst — year students. . .
Anita

As the Special Advisor to the Vice President of Student Affairs and Liaison to the
General Counsel, Aloni emphasizes the need for student affairs professionals to develop a
mutual trust with students:

Because in that culture, where they’re really rtmning the show, it’s so imperative

for student affairs professionals to have a really good intimate relationship with

students so that they feel that they can trust us and so even though they’re running
the show, it feels like a more hand in hand type of relationship. . . Aloni

When asked about her role and how it impacted the success of Aﬁican American
collegians, Deborah mentioned the inclusion of parents in their programming efforts. In
addition, in the New Student Orientation Ofﬁce Deborah and her staff ensure that
students have completed all of the necessary asks to start classes by working with
students and parents before the fall term begins:

My primary responsibility is to be sure that by the time students get here in the
fall, that they have all the tools that they need to be successful. So that means
registering for classes and ensuring that they have everything they need to get
done, providing an opportunity for them to get to know their peers. We offer that
during summer orientation. And also providing the opportunity for parents to get
to know the university as well. And so I see that as our primary charge to be sure
that the students have the tools that they need so they can begin the year
successfully once they’re here for the ﬁrst day of class. Deborah
When asked about other tactics that student affairs professionals can use to assist

African American collegians, Deborah emphasizes that they should remind students that
the university belongs to them and that institutional personnel are committed to providing
those vital campus resources that facilitate the students’ success:

I think that’s one of the things that we really try to do is let students know that

this is your university, it’s whatever you to make of it. There are some core values
that we certainly ascribe to, but this is your place you do with it what you will, but

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here’s some tools that we want to provide for you in your exploration of how
you’re going to make this university your own. Deborah

As the Dean of Residence Life and a student affairs professional, Anita was asked
to discuss how student affairs professionals can impact the achievement of Black
students. Anita mentioned that diversity in her staff was very important. This diversity
was accomplished by crosscutting race, sexual orientation, different viewpoints, and
geographical origin. As a result, she is proud of her area and she believes it is a very
dynamic environment that is highly visible and noticed by many students, particularly
minority students:

I have a very diverse staff and I’m not just talking about race. I’m talking about

international students, different points of view, and sexual orientation. So I’m

proud of what we do as a program, and it has an impact on African American

students because they can see those who are different all throughout my area. So
it’s a very dynamic environment. Anita

Southern University’s Student Affairs professionals draw attention to the value
and beneﬁts of diversity and assist in the establishment of cultural capital, which leads to
increased retention rates and heightened graduation percentages for Aﬁican American
collegians. These professionals reach out to students early on and try to support them
throughout their academic careers at Southern University.

I_n_stitutional-Unit Respong

Although this critical factor was not mentioned by every participant in my
sample, those that mentioned it conveyed its signiﬁcance and its presence on Southern
University’s campus. In terms of Institutional-Unit Response, the participants at

Southern provided ﬁve types: (a) university personnel act as a resource to assist both

Aﬁican American students and their parents; (b) university personnel have personalized

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some institutional processes and developed a program to recruit low-income students;
(0) university personnel are willing to hire more Aﬁican American professors; and ((1)
university personnel set deadlines for all students to ensure a timely graduation. Deborah
introduced the ﬁrst type of institutional response by explaining why she believes it is the
institution’s responsibility to facilitate the overall transition of students:
I think it’s our role and our duty to help them see that other people can also be
resources and helpﬁrl tot hem as well. Most parents and most students want to
succeed and we’re able to give them the names, faces, and phone numbers of
people who are going to help them succeed and if I’m recommending them, they
they’re going to think ok well she know, she’s Black, so she’s not going to send
me to someone who is crazy. So I think there’s some level of automatic trust right
there because we share that experience of being Aﬁican American. Deborah
In another attempt to respond to the inequities that exist for some African
American students, Southern University has created both a more personalized admittance
program and an initiative to attract those from diverse SES backgrounds. Michael, Dean
of Admissions, discusses both endeavors:

In the admission process, we deal as if we’re running a manual operation. We
talk individually with students and parents. So 1 think that through the admissions
process, we try to personalize it, and to make it small scale. We’re dealing with
about 18,000 applicants, but we try to break that down and humanize it as much
as possible. . . And now we’re trying to attract many students of many different
races and backgrounds, but also we have a new effort called Southern ACCESS,
which tries to attract low — income students and that cuts across every race and
ethnicity. It does bring a different kind of population. Michael
In terms of creating proposals to retain more African American college students,

Andrew believes that the university should hire more Black professors who could be role
models for Black students, whereby the students could see those who look like

themselves in inﬂuential positions. Andrew believes this is the best way for the

University to retain African American students:

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In terms of Black students, what I keep telling my colleagues is one of the best

things for retention is to just see more Black professors, it’s not rocket science.

Then the students will see that they can do this. Andrew

Deborah credits the institution’s four year requirement for graduation for
positively affecting Southem’s African American students. She asserts that this initiative
serves as both a motivator for African American student success at the institution and an
opportunity for students to intellectually challenge themselves:

The other thing is, I think it’s pragmatic; you only get eight semesters to be here.-.

Like, at other schools you can ride your college career out as long as six years,

eight years, you can’t do that here. They give you eight semesters to ﬁnish your

degree. If you have a family situation that precludes you from ﬁnishing, it doesn’t

mean that they don’t take those kinds of things into consideration. You will not

ﬁnd students here who say, I’ve been here for six years, there’s none of that. Once

they reach their fourth year, they’re done. Deborah

Southern University deﬁnes Institutional-Unit Response as those ideas,
committees, proposals, stipulations and hiring decisions initiated by any member of the
university community. The responses serve to enhance the overall experience for either
the low-income student population or the Aﬁican American student community in
particular.
Retention/Support Programs

Although most of the other critical factors mentioned by participants connect to
the support of Black collegians, a few were speciﬁcally designated as Retention/Support.
Thus, this critical factor was emphasized by only a few of the participants and it was
revealed that the African American students utilized this feature as a supplement to the

support received from the Ofﬁce of Black Studies. Those respondents at Southern

University revealed two types of Retention/Support programs: those that assisted the

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academic development of African American students and those association/academic
deans who are located in the residence halls:

Well we have a program called the Acclimation Program; it’s not designed for
Black students, although initially it was. And it continues now, but it’s not based
on race. But it involves counseling and advising. It involves a summer program
where students come and stay for about six weeks here, taking two courses and
doing a lot of things like seeing student groups and meeting faculty. Things that
help students ﬁgure out how to be successﬁrl here; like how to use the library,
make sure they have access to a computer. And, it’s really sort of an assimilation
process. And with that group, those are among our most at risk students,
academically. Their admission is contingent upon their participation in this
program. And the courses will be counted toward their graduation, and there’s no
cost to the student, including the supplies. Michael

The students who participate in the Acclimation Program come from high schools
that are less competitive, so both academic and transitional support are provided. Rollins
highlights the Program’s success:

The graduation rate of the students in the Acclimation Program is nearly 100

percent. It’s extremely high. . . The criteria for participation in the Transition

Program are typically if they’ve come out of a very modest high school, where the

challenges aren’t very great. They might have “A’s,” but there isn’t a lot of

competition or it could be that they’re weak in one area. They might have trouble
in math, where we think that a little support would help them. If we see a pattern
like they’re from a ﬁrst -generation family. Michael

Deborah elaborates on the support provided by the association/academic deans.
These individuals represent academic disciplines, but their ofﬁces are located in
residence halls across the campus. The deans provide both academic support and personal
counseling. Deborah discusses the role of the deans and how she views their efforts as
another form of institutional support for the African American collegian:

In all of the colleges, they have an association dean. And if any student is having
difﬁculty, based on where they live, meaning the residence halls, each group of

houses has an association dean. And I really believe the association dean is such a

great example of anybody who’s having academic difﬁculty or someone who just
wants to get academic advice, the dean is open and willing to talk. Most of them

170

have a good sense of difference and multiculturalism and stuff like that. I think
that is such a critical success factor that you know you always have a dean, within
your four years, that you can go to if you’re encountering any academic
difﬁculty. Each school has some version of that. . . And you have that person for
your entire four years. So I think that’s a critical success factor for Black students.
. . The academic deans who are assigned and placed in the dorms. They make a
point of having diversity within their ofﬁces. So there are pockets at this
institution and so when you have pockets, even though they might not all be
together, but we’ve got some places that will take care of students. Deborah
Andrew extends the discussion on the association/academic deans by emphasizing the
need to assist students and by challenging institutions to do more to support Black
collegians:
That is, we have to make college more affordable to students, and we have to
support these students by giving them the skills and the background that they need
to succeed in college. Andrew
The Retention/ Support Programs offer instructional and/or transitional assistance
to the African American collegian or the university community as a whole.
Presidential Priorities
This critical factor was not signiﬁcantly highlighted by the study’s respondents,
but those who discussed this factor viewed it as highly relevant to the awareness,
acceptance, implementation and continuation of diversity protocols at Southern
University. The participants’ responses fell into two categories: the president’s
unwavering commitment to cultivate diversity and the implementation of the
recommendations made by the Presidential Review Commission. As the Special Advisor
to the Vice President of Student Affairs, Aloni works closely with both students and

administrators. She discusses how the president has demonstrated his unyielding

commitment to diversity even in the midst of ﬁscal crisis:

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And even in the budget cuts, the aspects that kept getting funded were the
university’s various initiatives and the president of the university ordered a review
commission to review the state of the university, in terms of its diversity
protocols. And it’s an interesting document. It’s fairly long, but it gives you a
very good framework for the different diversity benchmarks that we believe we
need to meet. Aloni

Aloni expresses her admiration to the university president and the board for their
stanch dedication to expose the racial tensions that exist at Southern University:

And then another piece that I was involved in was the development of a biased
reporting system, which we now have online. And the president and the board
were very interested and involved in pursuing this project. The biased reporting
system is an electronic — based system whereby any student who believes that
they were the subject of bias, can make a report and it’s on our website. . . And
that’s really why I applaud the board and the president for moving forward with
that. Because as we studied that whole system and implemented it, there were a
lot of schools that had such a system and they removed it because they didn’t
want to advertise or track that they were having these problems. And our idea, all
along, has been that the best way to rid it is to expose it, so that’s what we’ve
been doing. Aloni

Like Aloni, Andrew offers an example of the university president’s inﬂuence on
institutional diversity programming. Here, Andrew, Professor and Co-chair of the
National Diversity Board, explains that the President’s Review Commission requested
that the university hire an individual who would cultivate and promote diversity.
Members of the President’s Review Commission were charged with examining and
implementing university-wide initiatives that would encourage inclusiveness for
minorities and ensure that members of the university are aware of their obligations to
promote and support diversity:

This is one of the reasons we wanted this Vice President of Equity and Diversity.

We wanted a very visible ﬁgure whose job it was to pull together the very

disparate elements of the university and make sure people were paying attention

to this. If it’s one of 10 things in your job description, maybe you’ll get around to

it, but if it’s not the way you think about it everyday, then it doesn’t happen. The
broader culture still needs a huge amount of education on race. Andrew

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Presidential Priorities was deﬁned by Southern University as a critical factor that
included those directives that were speciﬁcally initiated by the university president and/or
central administration. These administrative directives require university personnel to
examine, develop, implement, maintain, and/or evaluate their unit’s programming in
terms of diversity.

Southern University-Dissenting Voices

 

In this study, Southern University is the institution with the highest Aﬁican
American graduation rate, thus it would seem that this institution has made great strides
and has resolved many of the challenges that seem to confront Aﬁican American
collegians and impede their success. This section illustrates that Southern University has
not settled all of its problems and that there are several administrators, faculty and student
affairs professionals who are boldly willing to discuss those contentions and some of the
causes, as well. Although she is a student affairs professional, Deborah is not inhibited
when it comes to discussing faculty initiatives and the disengagement that exists between
university Black students and faculty. Deborah believes this detachment leads to poor
class performance and low grades for the African American students:

I think that more students and faculty members here need to see that there are

Aﬁican American students who aren’t just out here with their pants sagging

down and listening to hip hop all the time and not trying to focus in on their

academics, that they can do that and be successful academically. So I’m

impressed by that. When I see that they’re able to be bi-cultural and be successful

at it. Unfortunately, I think the faculty here think they already know who the

African American students are before they sit down in their classrooms. There is a

gap between the African American students’ g.p.a.s and the Whites. So I think

there is a disconnect between the faculty members and what they perceive about
the Aﬁican American students. Deborah

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As a faculty member, Marie describes her role as one that includes valuing the
experiences of all students and ensuring that her department is doing whatever is
necessary to assist students. However, Marie recalls an example when an Aﬁican
American student became very insulted by one of her course discussions, which resulted
in a very negative experience for both Marie and the student:

But also, I’ve had a student who was very offended about a discussion of

language. And he was an Aﬁican American student and denied that there was any

such thing as “Black English” and said it’s a racist concept to even talk about a

particular kind of language that’s associated with African Americans, and sort of

arguing that that was even racist to use that terminology. So I’ve had both
negative and positive experiences. Marie

Anita, Associate Dean of Students and Director of Residence Life, highlighted her
pride and enthusiasm in both her staff and the work that they do. She even described how
she personally spends time training her RA staff on various issues that might impact ﬁrst
and second year students. However, Anita shares an incident that caused her to become
both hurt and greatly disappointed:

This past year, one of the things that hurt me deeply was that one of my Black

female R.A.s was called the “N” word by her residents, who when she confronted

them, they denied it, but that is something that happened to one of my R.A.s. That
impacted her, she’s a student. It impacted that community, it was traumatic. So
glass half full. That shouldn’t have happened to her as a student, as an R.A. that
shouldn’t have happened, but it did because we have people coming in every year
and they come to us with these biases, with these prejudices, with this entitlement,
with this lack of civility. We’re no better, we’re no worse. I think that we are
trying, but to say that we’ve arrived well I can’t. Anita

In an attempt to promote leadership and integrity, those employed by Southern
University give the students a great deal of autonomy. However, Deborah, a student

affairs professional, discusses the challenges that accompany student autonomy:

So the way that plays out in terms of us saying this is your university is
sometimes students want to do whatever they want without input or perspective of

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faculty members and I think that tension is difﬁcult for many freshmen who
haven’t been here long. So what happens is that students want the privilege of
making independent choices without the responsibility that goes along with it. So
I think we’re constantly in that struggle. So that’s how it plays out, we’re
constantly talking to students about what does it mean to have student self
governance? And what are your responsibilities as a part of that? When things go
great, they get the credit, when things go wrong, we get the blame. So just trying
to share both the credit and the blame is a struggle. . . Deborah

The Ofﬁce of Black Studies has been depicted by personnel at Southern
University who participated in this study as a source of great pride and an organization
that is highly sought after for collaborations and other programming to facilitate African
American student success. However, Andrew shares an opposing viewpoint offered by
another segment of the university minority community:

We had a fairly awkward session with the Asian Student Association one time.
They said, well there are two deans in the Ofﬁce of Black studies and we don’t
have a single dean and how come they have all this and we don’t. I said, ﬁgure
out what you need and then ask the central administration for that. Don’t direct
your ire at somebody who has actually succeeded at getting what they need.
You’re ﬁghting for crumbs from the table to begin with. So why are you ﬁghting
with one another over these crumbs? Andrew

Marie endorses Anderson’s point about the Ofﬁce of Black Studies and adds the
dissenting voice of the student Latino population:

And this is not an area that traditionally had a Latino population, but it’s starting
to now. So it’s starting to be other groups of students who are saying, what about
us? Why are we all lumped together in the Ofﬁce of Student Affairs? And why do
the African American students have their own special ofﬁce? And so, at a certain
point, there was talk of creating a single ofﬁce that would be a sort of umbrella
for all students of color. And it was tabled. There was discussion over it and a
committee, but it was like, we’re doing something well here and so fooling
around with it is not necessarily a good idea. It might lead to us losing something
by trying to make this change. So nothing happened and things remained as they
were. Marie '

In terms of the many Institutional-Unit Responses that Southern University

implemented, there are many projects that have enhanced the overall experience of the

175

African American student community. However one of the major goals of this
institution is to recruit more Aﬁican American faculty and this institution has been
unable to accomplish this goal:

We’re in a awkward situation in this city, except for the few Black faculty and the
handful of Black doctors and ministers, most of the Black families who live here,
work in service positions at the university. And so there isn’t much of a Black
middle class here to attract other faculty here. So I think that’s one of the
problems that we have. We want more Black faculty. We don’t seem to be able to
get large numbers of Black faculty. Michael

Andrew questions the institution’s attempts to increase the African American
faculty and boldly charges the institution’s faculty for their covert demonstrations of
racism:

I do think we need to do a better job at recruiting Aﬁican Americans, staff and
faculty. . . You know I think, in most departments and certainly my department,
it’s the subject that never gets raised. In general faculty are, in a departmental
context, they get very formal and turf -— conscious about their ﬁeld. And even
people, who are quite reasonable on the subject of Afﬁrmative Action when
they’re not talking about hiring, become crazy when it comes to this subject. So
all of these issues are never addressed directly. It’s particularly true of someone
who does racial politics, they’ll say we don’t need another person doing urban, we
already have one. So race is something that is almost never said directly. Andrew

Here Andrew offers an example of how the faculty exercises subtle forms of
racism which converts into low numbers of African American faculty:
They will never say, I’m never gonna hire a Black man even though we know
that’s what they actually think, but they’ll never say it. But there’s this built — in
prejudice that someone has to be Tiger Woods to be included in their foursome.
So I think that in the departmental context, it’s still harder to address these issues.
You might get people to agree in the faculty senate that it is a goal of the
university to diversify the faculty, but as long as that’s somebody that’s
considered ‘a legend’ and that’s the hardest nut to crack. Andrew

Although Southern University has a history of both discrimination and

segregation, today those at this institution are fervently trying to rectify the institutional

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history by continually emphasizing and embracing diversity. Despite all of the
Institutional-Unit Responses to support diversity, the institution is still challenged by
issues of racism. Michael believes that students play a major role in the prejudiced acts
that have occurred on campus:

Of course we have some racism here. There are some awful things that have
happened. We’ve had a few incidents that happened this past year and we assume
those responsible were students. Michael

Aloni acknowledges the university’s history and shares her concerns for minority
groups that have seemingly been the target of many racist acts on campus:

. . . Southern University does not have a pretty history. We’re a Southern school
and we discriminated. . . I would say that I think we’re doing great things, but we
can do better. When I look at those “bias reporting” numbers, the populations that
we continue to see, feeling targeted, include the Aﬁican Americans, include sadly
some of our Asian Americans, it includes our LGBT community. Aloni

Anita discusses how the racial incidents have affected the institutional climate in terms of
both the impact on students and the impact on recruiting more minority faculty:

We have some retention issues because of our statistics, but we do have a climate
issue, in terms of the disparity in the amount of incidents that students of color
experience versus those who don’t. There are also these invisible kinds of or
really hidden rules. So when you have someone who doesn’t necessarily know the
traditions of our institution, or doesn’t have the same kind of comfort level
because their great grandfather didn’t live in those residence halls or they were
exceptional in their high schools and they come here and everyone is exceptional
and you are no longer the big ﬁsh anymore. So there’s challenges. Now where we
actually have done a better job is in terms of the student experience even though
we have those issues. We have yet to still excel in recruiting and retaining faculty
of color. We have yet to excel in recruiting and retaining women and that’s
ridiculous because you can’t say that there’s a lack of a pool as you can say with
certain ethnic groups, racial groups, so there’s that goal out there, but there are
efforts being made. Anita

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Lance shares a piece of Southern University’s history to reﬂect on some of the
obstacles that were imbedded in the institutional climate and that served as a great source
of pain for those who represented that which is different:

There was a time when Aﬁican Americans, who were qualiﬁed to come to school
here, were paid to go to Harvard, Meharry, and other places instead of coming
here because this university was originally set up for White males. So it meant
that if you were qualiﬁed and you wanted to come here, as a Black man or a
Black woman, the state would pay you to go to another university. And, this
changed only in the 503, in our lifetime. . . Lance

Andrew elaborates on Lance’s point and shares his personal history with the
climate of Southern University:

When I ﬁrst got here, I was really quite “put off” of basically the anti-
intellectualism of a lot of the prevailing culture. Also a lot of this stuff was
exclusive, not just to gays, but to those of color. You’re not included in all of
these old traditions. . . For example, one day me and a colleague were at the
alumni association and they sent out a little thank you card for people who had
contributed and the card had a picture of ﬁve “lolly gagging” White guys smoking
pipes on the lawn. And the message was ‘Well it’s changed, but it hasn’t really
changed that much it’s still your university.’ And on the back, there was this tiny
postage stamp which showed, if you used a magnifying glass, a woman and
maybe a Black person there, sitting on the lawn. And they thought it was a
charming, old picture. They weren’t being deliberate, so we said to the head guy
of the alumni association, what kind of message does this send to our Black
alumni? Or to our female alumni? They just didn’t get it. And this allowed us to
say, you know if you had a few more Black people in the ofﬁce or women, maybe
this wouldn’t be such a revelation to you? So I was a little more blunt than I
should have been. Andrew

Deborah provided her thoughts on Southem’s climate, emphasizing the role of
socioeconomic status and how it impacts the perceptions of “ﬁtting in” for some students:

I think it’s wealthy and elitist. I think the students who come here are certainly
privileged across the board, regardless or race. . . And so I think, because of that,
that’s why I feel like, on some levels, it’s a very preppy university. It’s a very
elitist university. There are many students here who are really wealthy. On that
level, I think there’s that part of the community. I also think there’s a part of the
community here that doesn’t necessarily ﬁt into that and then they feel like they
don’t ﬁt in here because they see this part of the university. Most of the students

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who go here, their parents’ income combined is over $100,000 a year, at least 50
percent of those students. So I think that says something that most of these
students here are middle class to upper-middle class to wealthy students. . . I think
we’re a community that tries to welcome and embrace everybody, but I think, for
some students, it might feel a little bit harder to ﬁgure out where they belong in a
community like this. Deborah

Deborah elaborates on how the socioeconomic status of some students can have a

negative affect on the ability of other students to engage and establish a sense of

ownership:

' I think it makes some students feel left out and not able to participate in some
things; like being part of a sorority costs whatever amount of money it costs, so if
you can’t afford that then you can’t be in. Students just take it for granted that
other students “summer” in different vacation spots over the summer, that kind of
stuff, just the language and the assumption that everyone does that. I think that
assumption is probably the most difﬁcult piece of being a part of this community,
that you assume that everybody is like you and they’re not, many of them aren’t
to that level of wealth. Deborah

.Marie explains that Southem’s institutional culture is one that continuously
reminds minority students that they are different. As a result, these students are left
feeling “on guar ” and unable to relax and be themselves. Marie also shares a similar

sentiment from an Aﬁican American colleague:

In terms of the culture of Southern University, I’ve heard people say that it’s not
a particularly comfortable place for students of color. . . So my sense is that in the
college, as a whole, there’s a ﬁshbowl feeling and so the comfort zone becomes
places where people can congregate and feel like they don’t have to be explaining
themselves all the time. They don’t have to be special or different all the time.
They can just be themselves. So one of my Aﬁican American faculty members
has also talked about this and she describes this as a plantation, but not in terms of
the student, but in terms of the workers. And there was a living wage campaign
here. So the plantation thing has to do with workers and the disparity in salaries.
Marie

Those at Southern University have made many important steps to diversify their

campus and to empower all students, yet issues of race and marginalization still persist.

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Anita expresses concern over the disconnect that seemingly exists between Aﬁican
American students and their White counterparts, but does not view these challenges as
signs of failure, but as an impetus for the university to continue to work:

A few years ago, I chaired a presidential commission on social justice and
diversity and we interviewed students of color and they reported a high level of
experiencing “biased incidents,” but we also looked at data from other institutions
and it’s the same, it’s unfortunate, but it’s the same. We’re no better, we’re no
worse. And, consequently, we studied tracking and put some things in place to
give our students some support and also the thing that was interesting was that
White students were not aware that-their fellow students of color were
experiencing these biases both in and out of the classroom and so there’s a
disconnect. When you have that disconnect and now we’re in the 21"t century and
we do have a very impressive graduation rate, folks think that things are okay.
When I say folks, I’m talking about our students here whose life is happy here and
some faculty who just have their heads into their disciplines. So we haven’t
arrived because this institution is a reﬂection of the larger society. We’re still
dealing with those issues and so our students come here and there are still some
barriers and challenges that they have to overcome even though this institution
has made great strides, in terms of embracing difference, but we’re still working
and we need to continue to work on it. Anita

As the Athletic Director, Patricia manages Southern University’s athletic
programs. Although Patricia ﬂuently represented the viewpoints of the athletic
department, she was unable to effectively contribute to a discussion on how to promote
the achievement of the African American collegian. Nonetheless, it appeared that Patricia
did not participate in activities that reﬂected a more holistic perspective of the university
and its contributions to the Aﬁican American collegian. In addition, she responded to the
majority of the questions by relying on her program area and by providing responses that
were more relevant and appropriate to the athletics department.

As a Professor of Humanities, Samuel has a wealth of knowledge on a range of
intellectual and expressive abilities, including those issues relevant to society, history,

and culture. However in terms of my research question, Samuel appeared to lack

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knowledge, be unable to clearly articulate his views, and provided one-word responses

to open-ended questions. Although he illustrated a fundamental knowledge of this student
population and their challenges, it appeared that his thinking had never moved beyond
that of basic knowledge. Thus, he was unable to shed light on those critical factors that
are needed to enhance the academic experience for the Black student.

Special Purpose Ofﬁce—Dissenting Voices

In this discussion on the dissonant program-speciﬁc. responses, l-will address
those revelations that occurred as a result of my interaction with the Ofﬁce of Black
Studies. I found three occurrences that were inconsistent with my initial viewpoints:

1. Lance, the Dean of the Ofﬁce of Black Studies and his staff are categorically
and unashamedly seeking to heighten the overall achievement of Aﬁican American
students. Currently, I exist in an setting in which most people carefully navigate an
environment of political correctness, and one ﬁlled with futile attempts to demonstrate
culturally sensitivity as is documented by the countless incidents of racism and social
injustice. So, for me, to visibly witness an ofﬁce that speciﬁcally targets the promotion
and achievement of African Americans was deﬁnitely surprising.

2. The university community appears to have accepted the Ofﬁce of Black studies
and its mission. Michael, Dean of Admissions and Aloni, Special Advisor to the Vice
President of Student Affairs, both expressed their enthusiasm, support and pride for the
Office of Black Studies all throughout the interview. While Michael shared his goals for
Afiican American incoming students as, “. . . to get them here and get them involved with
the Office of Black Studies.” At one point during my interview with Aloni, she

exclaimed, “I’m really excited for you to meet with them. . .” This integration and

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appreciation for this ofﬁce’s existence and this ofﬁce’s efforts was something that I did
not expect.

3. Lance believes that his ofﬁce can act as a model for other minority groups at
institutions all over the country. According to Lance, “I consider this to be a pilot for
parallel populations or for the rest of the nation, in some respect. So that if I succeeded at
how I’m going about this, there would be conceivably some lessons that could be drawn.”
This is the response that I received when I asked Lance how he would reply to those who
question his ofﬁce and its purpose. This was another response that I found surprising.

Overall, this discussion on dissenting voices illustrates that everyone in an
organization will never feel the same about any institutional feature. What does this mean
for the Black collegian and those critical factors that positively impact the retention and
graduation rates for this student? University communities must seek to understand and
demonstrate their appreciation for the educational value of diversity. Non-Black students
illustrate this value by being open and receptive to Black students and course content that
focuses on African Americans and other minorities. Faculty demonstrate this value by
incorporating teacher immediacy into their pedagogical strategies. Student Affairs
professionals illustrate their appreciation for diversity by utilizing retention/support
programming that addresses the Black collegians’ needs in a very speciﬁc way that
incorporates this students’ cultural background. Administrators depict their appreciation
for this value by continually reinforcing that diversity is an institutional priority. And
African American collegians may demonstrate their value for diversity by taking
accountability for their role in the national diversity model by being knowledgeable about

those who are non-Black.

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Lastly, I will discuss those unexpected nuances that occurred during my
interviews at Southern. I felt these nuances could again be attributed to my race and
gender and how some participants responded to both. During my data collection at this
institution, once the interview was completed, an African American female participant
continued to speak with me about how she viewed her job. During this time, I attributed
her passionate discourse to that of a committed educator. Soon she started to offer
numerous examples of her professional challenges, while continually referring to me by
name and insisting that I understood what it was like to be “an African American female
in the academy.” She went on to draw additional parallels that she believed we both
shared. Although I did not disagree with her nor did I think her assumptions were
incorrect, like the case at Midwestern University, I wondered how this verbal

contemplation would have been addressed if I were White and possibly a man?

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CHAPTER FIVE
Discussion
Both Midwestern University and Southern University are public ﬂagship
universities. Both universities have institutional graduation rates of more than 80 percent.
Both institutions have student populations that include the nation’s most prepared and
most afﬂuent undergraduates, and both institutions are successfully competing with Ivy
league institutions for students. Today, public ﬂagship universities are being criticized
for striving for national recognition and for targeting students who are not only
academically competitive, but wealthy (Lewin, 2006). In this regard, these public
organizations have become more like private institutions. Although public universities
are still less expensive, their increasing tuition has become a barrier for low-income
students. As a result, these institutions are being accused of ignoring their mission of
offering social mobility and of shortchanging low-income and minority students, who
tend to be critically underrepresented on their campuses. According to Kati Haycock,
Director of the Education Trust, an advocacy group, “Public universities were created to
make excellence available to all but that commitment appears to have diminished over
time, as they choose to use their resources to try to push up their makings. It’s all about
reputation, selectivity and ranking, instead of about the mission of ﬁnding and educating
future leaders from their state.” As many states continue to question postsecondary
institutions on issues of spending and accountability, these organizations are under
pressure and they are facing a dilemma. Should they seek to improve their institutional
status and tuition revenue by targeting top-achieving, out —of-state students? Or should

they focus on the ideals of the public university; broadening access for low-income

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students and preparing other local residents to fulﬁll the state’s needs for trained
professionals? Should these institutions serve the people of their states or compete
nationally with Ivy League institutions?

Midwestern University and Southern University both reﬂect this growing trend of
public institutions seeking the best and the brightest and competing with the nation’s best
private institutions. As public institutions, each is held accountable to its respective
region and its constituency. Most ﬂagship institutions were the ﬁrst public universities to
be established in their states, along with land-grant colleges which focused on agriculture
and general education. Flagship institutions were established after the Morrill Act of
1863 which provided federal grants of land to states to establish public universities. This
legislation, in addition to the GI. Bill and federal ﬁnancial aid programs, was enacted to
create more access and to support the pursuit of education by all (Duderstadt, 2000).

Midwestern University

Midwestern University reﬂects a decentralized organizational structure (Bolman
& Deal, 1997). This description was shared by members of the institutional sample. Each
college and school has its own source of support for its majors. These units also control
their own budgets and make autonomous decisions on how to allocate ﬁrnds for various
departmental and student initiatives. Additionally there is great duplication in resources,
as is evidenced by the comment by Robert, the Associate Vice-Provost, “We have lots of
programs and activities. Sometimes people say there’s duplication, but Midwestern has
always had this approach that if you throw everything out, in terms of a smorgasbord, and
[the institution] let students pick and choose. . .” The decentralized organizational

structure has actually facilitated the Black collegians’ achievement and graduation rate as

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is documented by the institution’s 67 percent African American graduation rate. The
decentralized structure provides more options for students to locate and use resources, so
the Aﬁican American student has an increased probability of getting the assistance that is
needed and thereby staying in school.

In terms of the critical factors revealed by this exploratory study, all of the factors
were not equally important throughout the Black collegians’ tenure at Midwestern
University. To be speciﬁc, the Special Purpose Ofﬁce [Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies]
plays a pivotal role when these students enter the university. During this time, OMS
provides both instructional and transitional assistance to the student. Also this Ofﬁce aids
the students in handling the academic piece and in accessing campus resources. All of
these efforts served to build the students’ conﬁdence and to increase their capacity to
believe that the institution’s personnel are genuinely interested in their success; for
example, relationships built with those who are part of the OMS staff seem to be
maintained over a students’ time at Midwestern. As a result, the Black collegian is more
likely to fully utilize campus resources, and to believe that they can be positively
impacted by the institution. This Ofﬁce provides a “proving ground” for Midwestem’s
Black collegians. Once students have established their abilities to ﬂourish in
Midwestem’s competitive environment, they become more open and more willing to
fully embrace the university and the other institutional resources.

The utilization of OMS can be problematic if the OMS students do not want to
engage with the rest of the university community, nor utilize resources that are provided
by other campus units. For example, the OMS has its own faculty, offers its own version

of university courses, and has a full advising staff. So if students feel more comfortable

186

with those afﬁliated with OMS, the student could spend the majority of their time
interacting with the Ofﬁce’s staff and those students who are enrolled in OMS courses.
As a result, this student would not become fully familiar with and integrated into the
institution, its resources, or other Midwestern students who do not participate in OMS or
its programming activities. This student would not beneﬁt from the other institutional
programming and services targeted to the entire university community (Pascarella &
Terenzini, 2005).

Overall, there are four critical factors that seem most important and that
signiﬁcantly contributed to the academic success and graduation of Black collegians at
Midwestern University: Institutional-Unit Response, Institutional Expectations, Valuing
Diversity through Collaboration, and Faculty Initiatives.

The signiﬁcance of Institutional —Unit Response was the most noted factor. The
positive impact of this response on the academic success of the Black collegian was
substantiated at many levels at Midwestern University. All of these responses served to
enhance the overall experience for either the minority student community or the African
American student community in particular. Based on the notion that individual units
responded to the African American achievement gap is another strong indicator that this
university is highly decentralized because the units had the autonomy to make decisions
that impact their students (Bolman & Deal, 1997).

Damon Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and College of Engineering
Professor noted that his college was greatly disappointed in the small percentages of both
women and minority students enrolled in their engineering program. As a result, they

decided to reorganize and establish a Diversity and Outreach Council comprised of

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students, faculty, and staff. This council is responsible for evaluating their college’s
current diversity programs and developing ideas for future initiatives. Another example
of on-campus units that develop their own boards in response to improving diversity was
the College of Education’s development of a Social Justice Agency. In response to the
academic and social challenges facing minority students, this group deals directly with
issues of equity by conducting workshops and providing programming to the entire
university community in an attempt to sensitize them on issues of prejudice and.
intolerance.

Both examples demonstrate that some at Midwestern University are highly
cognizant of the challenges confronting African American students in speciﬁc academic
disciplines and in university settings as a whole. In an attempt to minimize some of these
educational and social challenges, both of these units have made solitary decisions to
address these problems in a very straight forward and overt manner. This sends a clear
message that they want Aﬁican Americans and other minority students to ﬂourish in a
welcoming environment that encourages growth and accomplishment. Also the responses
of both the College of Engineering and the College of Education demonstrate that every
member of the university community should be aware of their contribution to the overall
inclusiveness of the environment. Thus, these individuals must consider their messages
and behavior as they interact with minority students.

Through different kinds of team/council efforts, both of these units have provided
a more responsive and nurturing environment for the Black collegians who participate in
the College of Engineering or the College of Education. As a result of these efforts, the

Black collegian has an increased likelihood of achieving success at this university. Using

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task forces or different kinds of committees or councils as ways of increasing university
diversity programming is in keeping with recommendations made by Wade-Golden &
Matlock (2007). The authors encourage campus teams to utilize both qualitative and
quantitative data, to ensure that both academic and non-academic units are reﬂected on
the team, and to make certain that all viewpoints are represented in the design and
execution of the team’s plan; they also recommend that university teams be charged with
examining the impact of campus diversity on students. In many ways, the two examples
from Midwestern are designed to achieve similar goals as those described by Wade-
Golden & Matlock.

In terms of problems that could occur as a result of Institutional-Unit Reponses
utilizing teams and councils to address issues of diversity, White students could start to
feel that their needs are being ignored. As a result, they might become resentful over the
initiatives to make the university more “welcoming” for the minority student.
Additionally, this resentment could lead to conﬂict between White students and minority
students (Altbach, Berdahl, & Gumport, 1999). The conﬂict could overshadow the
programming efforts of the teams and councils and create a hostile environment for both
White and minority students.

Implementing academic stipulations to promote success for Black collegians was
another Institutional-Unit Response offered by Midwestern University. Associate
Director of the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies James discussed the early warning system
and the electronic midterm estimate. Both features have proven highly inﬂuential in
assisting the Black collegian. The university early warning system sends a letter to all

students who receive a g.p.a. that falls under 2.0 and the OMS utilizes an electronic

189

midterm estimate that sends out student progress reports to enable OMS students to
address marginal grades before the semester ends. Both features provide opportunities for
students to remain aware of their academic performance. This example illustrates that
some at Midwestern University are genuinely interested in facilitating the success of
African American and minority students by ensuring that they are continuously aware of
their academic performance and have ample opportunities to address academic challenges
that may arise over the course of their college careers. These Institutional-Unit Responses
facilitate improved communication and interaction between the Black collegian and
faculty member (Lundberg, 2004). As a result, there is a greater likelihood that the Black
collegians’ learning will be increased and that they will receive a higher grade (Hebel,
2007). These policies will improve the educational experiences for the entire student
population (Chang, 2001).

Damon shared another example of an academic stipulation that has supported the
Black collegian and educated non-Black students on multiculturalism. Composition, Fine
Arts and Sciences has implemented a course requirement that obligates their majors to
take three or four credits from a group of courses that focus on race and ethnicity. This
race and ethnicity requirement speaks to creating a friendly atmosphere for minority
students attending a PWI. To require non-Black students to take courses that focus on
minority perspectives sends a powerful message that says minorities should be valued,
promoted, and embraced in this environment (Boyd, 2004 & Fischer, 2007). It also
reinforces the contributions of this student population and can serve to move the
institution and society forward in terms of facilitating a more harmonious atmosphere.

This effort is another mechanism that can improve the institutional environment,

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translating into an increased level of comfort and conﬁdence for African American
collegians as they navigate Midwestern University. The efforts of those in Composition,
Fine Arts and Sciences express this unit’s special awareness of the effect of racial
differences on students of color. It also demonstrates their knowledge of the
marginalization that exists in our society (Fowler & Villanueva, 2002). Still, how an
institution communicates this kind of requirement is important for all students to
understand. White students, for example, may not see the educational value of fulﬁlling a
race and ethnicity curriculum requirement and create racial strife that leaves the student
population fragmented and fearful of potential physical harm (Betzold, 2000 & Clegg,
2000). Faculty and administrative leaders need to be aware of how to frame the
requirement for all students so that it has the intended beneﬁt of increasing cultural
understanding on campus, rather than resulting in fragmentation and dissonance.

Placing Aﬁican Americans in inﬂuential positions is another Institutional-Unit
Response that was believed to aid the Black collegians’ achievement at Midwestern
University. Senior Research Associate Marilyn discussed the placement of Jonathon
Winters as the leader of the Society for Social Examination. She emphasized that because
an Aﬁican American was leading one of the major social institutes in the world, his
presence served to challenge people’s ideas on what kind of person was capable of
guiding that effort. Similarly, Damon discussed the need to have Afiican American role
models represented in the faculty. Damon stressed that each minority student identiﬁed
with their own minority faculty and saw their own capabilities for accomplishment
reﬂected in the mere presence of these faculty. “The presence or absence of like others in

different social positions implicitly conveys information to young people about the

191

possibilities for their futures” (Zirkel, 2002, p. l). The examples offered by both
Marilyn and Damon illustrate awareness and understanding of the pervasiveness of
racism and its continued impact on society (Duster, 2007). To boldly challenge society’s
assumptions and generalizations about a group that has been historically marginalized in
American society is not only a courageous response, but reﬂects an authentic allegiance
to eliminating racist perspectives and ideals (Torres, Howard-Hamilton, & Cooper 2003).
Therefore, it is crucial to the-accomplishment and graduation of Black collegians’ to
place Aﬁican Americans in high-ranking roles on campus including in advanced faculty
rank. Doing so provides the institutional opportunity for students at Midwestern to
experience the same aspirations and potential for relationships with role models that
previous research has documented as critical to student success (Cokley, 1982; James,
1962; Mead, 1934; Skinner, 1971; & Stryker, I980).

The responses offered by Marilyn and Damon could lead to an unanticipated
negative reaction from the African American professional that has been placed in this
inﬂuential position. Overall, they may view the role modeling and mentoring practices as
distractions to efﬁciently and effectively fulﬁlling their professional roles (Cleveland,
2004; King & Watts, 2004; & Milner, 2004). They may even believe that the additional
responsibilities and time involved with serving as “the” Aﬁican American representative
to various committees and primary mentor to students puts their own position in
jeopardy; this may be especially true for early career faculty at selective research

universities such as Midwestern (Turner, 2003).

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Institutional Expectations is the next critical factor that was identiﬁed as most
important to the achievement of African American students. The Midwestern participants
provided both implicit and explicit expectations for the entire university community.
Robert shared that those within Midwestem’s community are expected to embrace
diversity and have a strong commitment to student leadership development. Robert’s
comments illustrate that there is an institutional expectation for both students and
personnel to recognize the educational value of diversity. Asa result of this anticipation
these individuals should instigate approaches to advance this concept at Midwestern
University. In the Road to Racial Equality, Tatum expressed her concerns over how
institutional personnel could teach students to interact in a pluralistic society, while
nurturing the students’ growth and maturation “Whether at an HBCU or predominantly
White institutions, we all must ask ourselves, How do we create and sustain educational
environments that afﬁrm identity, build community, and cultivate leadership in a way that
supports the learning of all students?” (2004, p. 34). For the Black collegian, this
expectation reveals an acceptance of that which reﬂects “difference.” Additionally, this
expectation encourages the campus community to initiate endeavors that will encourage
the expansion of the inclusiveness supporting and rewarding individual initiative.

It must be emphasized that everyone in a community will never feel the same,
including about expectations to embrace diversity. So even when the majority seems to
support a position, there will be those who remain indifferent or simply disagree. They
might verbally. express their disagreement or participate in acts of symbolic terrorism like
leaving nooses around various parts of the campus (Duster, 2007). To discuss those

problems associated with expectations for leadership development, there are university

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employees and students who have not fully cultivated their leadership skills and do not
have the preparation to act as leaders. Thus, if these individuals pursue these leadership
roles, their participation may result in an error that is made or in heightening a problem
due to a lack of understanding.

Midwestern University’s expectations for students also played a key role in the
success of the Black collegian. Education Professor Elonzo emphasized that the
university expected the students to help one another. He accentuated the importance of .
role models and how they contribute to the success of others, using ways in which
doctoral students are expected to help both undergraduate and doctoral students as an
example. Littleton (2001) discusses this concept in great detail and reiterates
Whitehead’s contention that “everyone” needs help and that African Americans who
have achieved academic or professional success must be prepared to support the work
African American students. These explicit expectations need to be tempered, however, so
that doctoral students facing their own challenges of balance, identity, and time
management do not experience increased levels of stress or grade pressures that may
create difﬁculties with their own academic progress (Lovitts, 2001; Smallwood, 2004). It
is important that the university not rely too strongly on student-to-student support
networks, but that they balance these expectations of support with other forms of
institutional support strategies that beneﬁt all students.

Damon talked of doing whatever was necessary and of doing even more than
they had been done in the past to help students succeed. Speciﬁcally, he discussed the
transition that is needed for African American students who have an inadequate

secondary school preparation. As a result, Damon expressed the commitment that he and

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his staff have for facilitating the Black collegians’ capacity to meet Midwestem’s
academic standards. Damon’s declarations seem to acknowledge the need to be
particularly diligent especially for those students whose families or communities may
“lack the necessary information and educational resources to get them to [and through]
college” (Wimberly, 2002, p. 19).

Senior Research Associate Marilyn provided an illustration of how student affairs
professionals can effectively assist students who struggle with navigating a large
university. Speciﬁcally, Marilyn shared that one of her students expressed frustration
over not knowing who to contact for a particular problem. Marilyn took the time to not
only listen to the student, but she also located the appropriate person and was able to
assist the student in addressing the concern. Marilyn’s example illustrates that she takes
her role very seriously and wants every student to feel that she has an invested interest in
their success. In this example, Marilyn demonstrates her overwhelming compassion for
students, her commitment to her job, and her concern for the success of African
American students at her university. Constantine and Watt (2002) believe Student Affairs
professionals should play this kind of pivotal role in creating an atmosphere that
encourages success for Black collegians, “By serving as social change agents on their
campuses, student affairs personnel may make enormous impacts on the institutional
climate of their universities . . . that support their personal, social, and academic
matriculation of students of diverse cultural backgrounds” (p. 10).

Valuing Diversity through Collaboration was the third critical factor that greatly
assisted the Aﬁican American student populace at Midwestern University. The

partnerships provided opportunities to increase the community’s awareness and

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sensitivity to diversity, while encouraging Black collegians to take responsibility for
learning their role in the national diversity model. The participants clearly articulated the
beneﬁts of cross-unity collaboration in supporting the Black collegian. Marilyn discussed
Midwestem’s Discussion Between Group’s programming which is aimed at bringing
diverse student organizations together to facilitate discussion across race and religion.
Holbrook shared that the programming has focused on African American and Jewish
students and has helped to address conﬂict and strife existing between these two groups.
Marilyn’s comments depict the positive effects that communicating across race and
religion can have, particularly during times of unrest. Marilyn’s example proves that
collaborations between Black collegians and non-Black groups can work to resolve strife,
to increase the knowledge of other cultures, and to promote harmony among student
groups, whereby African American students feel more welcome in the university
community. It is not uncommon to read about discriminatory acts leveled against Black
collegians students who attend PWIs (Race Relations on Campus, 2004/2005) The
signiﬁcance of these racial incidents validates and compels the reader to acknowledge
that there are still some who fail to recognize the value that African Americans bring to
the educational setting. The need for the type of programming described by Marilyn is
documented by these incidents of racial unrest.

OMS math lecturer Kenedhi discussed her reliance on collaboration with her math
colleagues to effectively meet the needs of her students. She described team teaching,
developing reading guides, and conducting review sessions with her OMS colleagues.
These efforts demonstrate Kenedhi’s commitment to her students and to being an

effective instructor. She has used collaborative activities with other members of the OMS

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math faculty to create nurturing environments for her students and to promote the
accomplishments of the Black collegian (Torres, Howard-Hamilton, & Cooper, 2003). As
a result of Kenedhi’s efforts, Midwesten’s Black collegians can have faith in her
assistance because her actions demonstrate the overwhelmingly concern and
responsibility she has expressed for this student populace. Her efforts are similar to
research that reinforces the need for university personnel, especially faculty, to take more
accountability in assisting African American students who attend PWIS (Ancis &
Sedlacek, 1997; Lundberg, 2004; & Torres, Howard-Hamilton, & Cooper, 2003).
Damon described the College of Engineering’s collaboration with their graduates
to address issues of diversity and expectations for incoming employees. Ilis college
works with a national advisory committee that is comprised of 25 Midwestern alumni
members. These individuals are presidents and vice presidents of industry who return to
Midwestern twice a year. During these visits, Damon and his staff present key problems
to the committee and the alumni offer suggestions to Damon and his staff to resolve the
problems. Later, the advisory committee presents their key concerns or issues concerning
future employees. Damon emphasized that during the last meeting, one of the advisory
members mentioned that they did not have time to bring in employees who were
uncomfortable around minorities. Damon added that his college views diversity as a
quality of education and that education is not limited to academics; it must teach students
to work with those who reﬂect difference. To interpret the example provided by Damon,
the reader understands that the College of Engineering has taken the responsibility to
speak directly with those in industry. As a result, these individuals have assisted Damon

and his staff by offering suggestions for the diversiﬁcation of the College of Engineering.

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Additionally, the advisory committee offered suggestions on how to prepare upcoming
graduates for work in a highly diversiﬁed workforce. For the Black collegian, this
example is another demonstration of the lengths that Midwestern personnel have gone to
increase their diversity knowledge base and to prepare its students for inclusive work
environments. Both demonstrate the College of Engineering’s commitment to promoting,
assessing, and maintaining diversity programming, which leads to a more supportive
environment for the'Black collegian. Wade-Golden and Matlock (2007) encourage
campus leaders to seek assistance from external sources to advance campus diversity.
According to the authors,” External support from alumni, donors, and the corporate
community is essential to the long-term success of campus diversity initiatives” (p. 7).
Faculty Initiatives proved to be one of the most important critical factors and a
powerful way to heighten the academic success and graduation rate for Midwestem’s
Aﬁican American students. OMS Director Lonnie highlighted the importance of faculty
who are willing to realize and demonstrate an appreciation for the true value and beneﬁt
that Black collegians bring to the classroom. These individuals encourage the
participation of Black collegians in their classes and acknowledge that the voices and
perspectives of these students are important and beneﬁcial to the learning environment.
Lonnie went on to say that because some of the faculty have realized the true value that
Black collegians offer the college classroom, the overall experience for each member of
the class has been improved; he believes it also sent a message to the Black collegian
that their intellectual contributions are relevant and signiﬁcantly add to the classroom
discussion. This message heightens the collegians’ conﬁdence level and encourages

students to increase their learning to facilitate more participation in class discussions.

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Cody and Manusov (2000) would see the relevance between Lonnie’s point and
teacher immediacy. The authors deﬁned this concept as signs that show attentiveness,
liking, and psychological closeness. Teacher immediacy has been associated with
effective instruction for African American students in all postsecondary environments.
Teacher immediacy strategies promote one on one interaction between the instructor and
the student. As a result, the student may feel encouraged to speak more in class and to
direct questions to the instructor. Villalpando (2002) studied the effects of diversity on
student learning among 15,600 undergraduate students and found that after four years,
most students felt more comfortable when faculty utilized pedagogical strategies that
made all members of the class feel included as opposed to focusing on one segment of the
class. Additionally, the students highlighted the effectiveness of diversity in class
assignments, and course discussions that required them to think critically about diversity.
Villalpando’s results are similar to those advocated by Smith and other faculty
participants at Midwestern.

In another example, OMS Associate Director James shared his thoughts on why
faculty must de dedicated to making up for academic deﬁciencies that some African
American students may have as a result of four years of inadequate high school
preparation. One of the most common reasons students drop out of college is because
they are unprepared (Hurd, 2000). To address this deﬁcit, James emphasized that OMS
faculty utilized mock exams and prepared notes. The faculty who use mock exams give
students two or three tests that resemble the actual exam. Later when the student takes the
actual exam, there is an increased level of comfort because the student was familiar with

the types of questions found on the real exam. Both the university and the OMS provide

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prepared notes for students that are found online and allow students to access every
handout that was provided during the class session.

James’ example stressing faculty’s willingness to address four years of inadequate
high school preparation is a poignant expression of his commitment to these students, but
it also demonstrates James’ cognizance of the inadequacies that exist in secondary
education. Thus, why should faculty hold students accountable for what their high school
teachers never taught them? For the Black collegians, this example tells the students that
some at Midwestern University want to meet their needs and want to provide real
opportunities for Black collegians to not only improve their academic skills, but to
become learned individuals who are critical thinkers and who actively seek self
improvement. If faculty are prepared to address the academic deﬁcits of some Black
collegians, they may experience an increased likelihood of remaining in college and
excelling.

Education Professor Elonzo offered an example on how he cultivates his
relationships with Black collegians. He noted that he sees these relationships as a part of
his job as an African American professor and said he spends time talking with these
students about “anything and everything.” Although Elonzo indicated that his discussions
with Black collegians sometimes revolved around academic subjects, they also talked
about the students’ roommate issues or the students’ plans to go home for the weekend.
Elonzo illustrates the extra responsibilities that some African American faculty are
willing to accept on behalf of their students. The informal discussions Whitehead has
with Black collegians indicates his interest in their overall success and happiness as they

navigate through an institution that was not developed with them in mind. Elonzo’s

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interest in the welfare of these students shows that he recognizes the challenges they
may face and his desire to become a genuine source of concern and assistance.

Elonzo’s behavior and that of other faculty allows Black collegians to become
open and responsive to other parts of the university community. Based on their
interaction with Whitehead, these students become more ﬂuent on campus related
activities and issues. Thus, they student should feel an increased sense of ownership from
the knowledge and comfort gained from interacting with Elonzo, who presents himself as
a role model. For more than 20 years researchers have studied and substantiated the
positive impact of role models on students of color and women. These studies have
demonstrated the students’ success with grades, retention, and graduation rates with the
support of a role model (Torres, Howard-Hamilton & Cooper, 2003 & Zirkel, 2002).

As an African American, OMS faculty member Kenedhi described her role as
very maternal and one that offered a “safe haven” to her students. Additionally, she is a
math instructor with very high standards for her students. This combination of mother
and math expert results in Kenedhi having a strong inﬂuence over her students, especially
those who struggle in math and might need additional help. Her strong commitment and
eagerness to assist students often results in relationships that propel students to
successfully perform in her math course. This success can serve as a source of inspiration
for students to achieve in other courses, as well. The level of comfort established with
Kenedhi can provide the emotional stroking that might be needed for students facing
difﬁculty during their transition to Midwestern University, and the relationships she
builds with student often carry throughout students’ tenure at Midwestern University.

Like Kenedhi, Littleton (2001) noted the importance of Aﬁican American role models in

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the university, “The idea of an older adult with whom to share cultural understanding
seemed to be of interest to African America students. The term ‘mother ﬁgure’ or ‘father
ﬁgure’ was sometimes used in reference to such a role model” (p. 23).

There are a few issues that could be problematic for any instructor projecting a
“maternal or “paternal” image for an Aﬁican American student. The student may rely on
the relationship too heavily and not seek the assistance of other non-Black faculty. This
reliance on Kenedhi could lead to the students’ inability to become familiar with other
faculty and other campus resources. At the same time faculty members may be providing
a very nurturing and supportive relationship with students, they need to be sure that
students do not become dependent on them and build connections with other faculty and
support structures on campus (Fowler & Villanueva, 2002; Torres, Howard-Hamilton, &
Cooper; Wimberly, 2002).

At this point, it is important to emphasize that Institutional-Unit Response,
Institutional Expectations, Valuing Diversity through Collaboration, and Faculty
Initiatives have been identiﬁed as the most important critical factors. The study revealed
that these four factors had the greatest impact on the academic success of the Black
collegian at Midwestern University. Additionally, Student Affairs and Retention/ Support
Programs work together to create a foundation for the four most important critical factors.

Student Affairs and Retention/Support Programs work together because those in Student
Affairs are primarily responsible for offering the Retention/Support Programs (Ahuna,
Banning, and Hughes, (2000). At Midwestern University, Student Affairs was not
mentioned by every member of the sample as contributing to the success of the Black

collegian. However, the participants that did mention this factor clearly illustrated that the

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actions of these professionals were signiﬁcant for this student populace. The efforts of
those in Student Affairs were connected to increasing the Aﬁican American students’
cultural capital, increasing their retention rates, and raising their graduation percentages,
often by delivering various retention and support programs throughout the university.
Ahuna, Banning & Hughes (2000) believe that student affairs professionals should seek
to change the campus and recognize the beneﬁts that minority students bring to the
campus. In terms of Retention/Support Programs, they were found within every college
and school, included services that utilized the students’cultural background to address
student needs, incorporated mentors, and targeted the pre-college student population.
Based on the initiatives provided by Midwestern participants, the majority of the
Retention/ Support Programs remain relatively important to the Black collegian
throughout their four-year stay. It is my contention that at Midwestern, the Student
Affairs staff are most recognized for their contributions to African American student
success through their delivery of effective retention and support programs.

Student Affairs professionals who develop and carry out the Retention/ Support
programming to facilitate the academic success of the Black collegian may feel that their
work load has been increased. Due to the increased need to conduct research African
American students to ensure that programming is presented in a manner consistent with
their needs, these professionals may be required to do more and to not rely on
programming targeted to one group for use with other student groups (F urr & Elling,
2002; Dennis, Phinney, & Chuateco, 2005; Hinderlie, 2002; Rodriguez, Mira, Myers,

Morris & Cardoza, 2003).

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Presidential Priorities was revealed to have a marginal impact on the academic
success of Midwestem’s African American’s students. Although this leader has
consistently endorsed diversity on campus, challenged critics by pledging to maintain a
campaign of inclusivity, and fully documented the beneﬁts of interacting with those who
reﬂect difference, the Midwestern participants did not highly emphasize the president’s
efforts. Participants reduced this leader’s impact to the implementation of two tactics:
articulating that diversity is a top priority and establishing a team to address the
implementation of university diversity initiatives. This tells me that those with whom I
spoke did not view the contributions of the president as vital to the achievement of the
African American collegian.

Additionally, given the various reﬂections of participants, it seems that the
president does not have the support of the faculty on diversity initiatives, that university
faculty in general do not often collaborate with the OMS faculty and that the recent
passing of state legislation, placing limits on university admissions criteria, left
Midwestern students uncomfortable and fearful. These factors indicate that the
Midwestern community has not fully embraced the value of diversity. So when the
president speaks about these concepts, the impact is not as effective because there is not
enough support within the university community to fully integrate diversity into the
institution. Thus Presidential Priorities is not seen as important a factor in promoting the
achievement and graduation of Black collegians. In “The Dilemma of Presidential
Leadership,” Bimbaum describes limitations on the role of the president, asserting that
presidential decisions actually have a very “modest” amount of control over institutional

events “The contributions [the president] makes can easily be swamped by outside events

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or the diffuse quality of university decision making” (Bimbaum, 1989, p. 334). Thus,
there is a strong possibility that Midwestem’s resistance to diversity and the recent
passing of state legislation may have signiﬁcantly contributed to the marginal impact of
Presidential Priorities on the Black collegians’ success.
Southern University

Southern University’s organizational structure reﬂects a hybrid or mixture of both
centralized and decentralized institutional features. According to the participants at
Southern, all of the colleges and schools are decentralized, which means they have
complete autonomy, including budget authority. The decentralization of the academic
units was documented by Marie when her unit decided against the implementation of a
minimum g.p.a. requirement for its majors. The institution’s centralized features include
the Procurement Ofﬁce, Human Resources, and Emergency Preparedness. Although the
Ofﬁce of Black Studies was established as a critical component of the Division of
Student Affairs, the entire campus relied on this unit to take the lead in promoting the
achievement of the Aﬁican American collegian although the university supports this
Ofﬁce in their efforts. The organizational structure seems to have greatly aided the Black
collegian as documented by Southem’s African American graduation rate of 86 percent.
Although the academic units exercise autonomy over their areas, the entire university has
demonstrated its support and embraced the leadership of the Ofﬁce of Black Studies in
facilitating the success of this student population.

I found that not all of the critical factors revealed by my study were equally
important throughout the Black collegians’ tenure at Southern University as I did for

Midwestern University. In this postsecondary community, Institutional-Unit Response

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played a pivotal role in the recruitment of Black collegians and in the beginning of these
students’ college careers. Once the Black collegians and their parents established trust in
the university’s representatives and the students accepted the university’s expectations,
these students started to heavily rely on the services offered by the Office of Black
Studies. This dependence continued throughout the students’ tenure at Southern
University.

At Southern University, the four critical factors. that contributed the most to the
achievement and graduation of Black collegians were: The Special Purpose Ofﬁce
[Ofﬁce of Black Studies], Faculty Initiatives, Institutional Expectations, and Valuing
Diversity through Collaboration.

The Southern University participants depicted The Ofﬁce of Black Studies as
being highly relevant and integral to the success of the Black collegian. According to
Lance Dean of the Ofﬁce of Black Studies, the Ofﬁce was established in the 1970s to
create a more welcoming environment for this student populace. Lance emphasized that
the overall goal of the Ofﬁce is to provide “anything” that helps students deﬁne
themselves as successﬁrl Black Americans. In interpreting the Dean’s example, it is
necessary to acknowledge Lance’s willingness to assist the Black collegian in their
academic endeavors. Lance believes that this Ofﬁce is viewed as the “home away ﬁom
home” for Black collegians. Because it was developed for the express purpose of
celebrating African American students, these collegians have one ofﬁce that offers
academic assistance, social networking opportunities, cultural programming and services
to facilitate their adjustments to Southern University. The services offered in Special

Purpose Ofﬁces promote increased achievement, heightened self conﬁdence, and overall

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empowerment for Black collegians (Devarics & Roach, 2000; Noel-Levitz, 2006; and
Smith, 2004).

The services offered by this Ofﬁce could be perceived as problematic if other
students feel that Black collegians are receiving additional access to resources and are
treated more favorably. For example in Chapter Four, Marie shared an example from a
session with a group of Asian students during which the students criticized African
American students for having an entire ofﬁce that offered personalized services. In the
same chapter, Marie revealed that Latino students expressed dissatisfaction over the
Ofﬁce of Black Studies. They thought it was unfair that Black students had their own
ofﬁce that met their individual needs, while the Latino students were being “lumped in”
with the other non-Black students. The Asian and Latino students thought Black
collegians were receiving extra attention and increased services and felt the need to
express their concerns. This could be cause for increased racial strife among the students
(Lyman, 2006) and result in the need for institutions to be sure to provide necessary
support for all students of color without necessarily reducing those provisions that are
working for individual race or ethnic groups.

The Peer Counseling Program was highlighted as one of the Ofﬁce’s services that
had a huge impact on the success of Southem’s Black collegian. Special Advisor to the
Vice President of Student Affairs Aloni discussed the Peer Counseling Program and went
into great detail to describe the extraordinary efforts of the Assistant Dean Carolyn in
making successful pairings between the ﬁrst-year and older students who act as mentors.
These older students have been trained in several areas to heighten their success in

mentoring the new students. Aloni believes that the assistant dean goes to great lengths to

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train the peer counselors to address any issue or obstacle that may occur. This program
and the assistant dean play a major role in Aﬁica American students’ ability to
successfully manage the academic piece and the social environment of Southern
University and in their ability to take ownership of the university; all of these elements
are positively impacted by Carolyn and the Peer Counseling Program. The various
aspects of the Peer Counseling Program were similar in the ways they positively
impacted the achievement of Black collegians to those found in other studies of support
systems for students (Devarics & Roach, 2000; Smith, 2004).

Director of the New Student Orientation Ofﬁce Deborah offered an example that
emphasized that the idea of “being known” was very important for ﬁrst- year students.
She highlighted the Peer Counseling Program as successfully creating opportunities for
students to become known by their peer counselors and by the Assistant Dean Carolyn.
Deborah believes this program serves both the peer counselors and the ﬁrst-year students
because in these pairings, African American students are motivating one another to
succeed. In making sense of Deborah’s example, like Aloni she credits both the assistant
dean and the Peer Counseling Program for the Black collegians’ success, but credits the
program’s emphasis on being known as hugely important for ﬁrst-year students.
Additionally, Deborah believes that the pairings of ﬁrst-year students with older students
leads to opportunities for the students to motivate one another. Like in Aloni’s example,
the Peer Counseling Program serves as a major catalyst for the Black collegian because
of the emphasis on being known and the shared capacity for peer counselors and their
mentees to motivate one another. The Peer Counseling program is an example of students

offering support to one another while navigating a large PWI (N oel-Levitz, 2000. This

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illustrates that the mentoring component played a critical role in the overall success of
the program.

Based on the examples provided by Aloni and Deborah, the Peer Counseling
Program could become problematic if the students spend too much time interacting with
peers and not focusing on coursework. This could lead to problems in maintaining their
grades and ultimately students may drop out of the institution (Bowen & Bok, 1998). The
Assistant Dean and others would also need to monitor the academic progress of mentors
so that they continue to be supported while providing this important connection to new
students.

Lance Dean of the Ofﬁce of Black Studies shared his thoughts on the focus on the
Ofﬁce by accentuating his desire to correct the history of the African American in a very
intensive way. He added that this must be an overt and powerﬁrl effort that clearly
addresses the needs of the Black collegian. Lance reiterates that the traces of racism still
exist and still negatively affect African Americans, so his efforts must focus on leveling
the playing ﬁeld for this student population. For Black collegians, Lance’s goal reﬂects
his commitment to Black collegians. As a result, these students can utilize the services of
the Ofﬁce of Black Studies to ﬁrlly realize their academic potential, which can lead to
increased success and increased opportunities for leadership. Like Lance, Representative
Chaka F attah, a Philadelphia-based congressman, believes that universities need to do
more to assist minority college students in both their coursework and in achieving
graduation. According to F attah, “There’s an unfortunate gap in services once students

reach college. We have programs that help increase the pipeline of people going to

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college, now we want to help them become college graduates” (Devarics & Roach,
2000,p.21)

The critical factor Faculty Initiatives was also highly important to Southern
University’s Black collegian. I have provided three examples to demonstrate the impact
of this critical factor on Black collegians. Political Science Professor Andrew blamed
afﬁrmative action and marginalization for scarring the African American collegian, in
terms of making this student feel marginal in the classroom setting. Therefore, for
historical reasons, Andrew believes that faculty need to remind these students of their
ability to successfully compete in the academy. He sees the need for increased faculty
interaction and support for Black collegians to enable them to achieve academic
excellence and to not use racism as an excuse for mediocre work. All of this tells the
African American collegian that this faculty member is aware of the “educational
baggage” that may be carried by some Black collegians. Andrew has demonstrated his
concerned for Black students and a willingness to provide the extra assistance that is
needed to achieve academic excellence. Andrew’s comments are supported by Canary,
Cody, and Manusov (2000) in their discussion on teacher immediacy. These are speciﬁc
classroom strategies that educational researchers associate with effective instruction for
African American college students Verbal behaviors of teacher immediacy include,
“humor, addressing students by name, conversing with students before or after class,
praising student work, and encouraging students to ask questions and talk (Gorham, 1988
and Neuliep, 2002). These strategies could prove to be very beneﬁcial for all students’
learning, in terms of the increased encouragement and interest communicated from the

instructor (Bain, 2004 and Fowler & Villanueva, 2002). It may also be that not all faculty

210

have adopted these instructional strategies and may require additional professional
development to become comfortable with implementing this kind of learning
environment.

In another example, Linguistics Professor Marie demonstrated her department’s
value for the African American athletes by electing to not implement a minimum grade
requirement for declaring a major, which may limit the student-athlete’s choice of
majors. Marie and her. department decided against this option in an attempt to express the
value offered by student athletes. According to Marie, “. . . we don’t want to close doors.
We don’t want to put up barriers, we want to be welcoming.” This example provides a
compelling statement about Anderson’s department, their desire to create access for all
students, regardless of the students’ academic abilities and to welcome the contributions
of all students to the unit. Alexander’s point is elaborated on in “What Research Says
about Race-Linked Barriers to Achievement” (2007). The article reveals that non-White
students are greatly impacted by understated factors like concerns of not being accepted
or believing that faculty question their ability to handle coursework. The researchers
indicated that these factors may have a greater impact on the progress of these students
than overt acts of prejudice.

Although Anita is the Associate Dean of Residence Life, she is also an Assistant
English Professor and she noted that both in and out of the classroom, she acts as role
model who has a genuine passion for education. She described how she challenged
students to step out of their comfort zones and stressed their responsibilities to both their
communities and their nation. Anita demonstrated her devotion to students and also her

devotion to higher education. It is clear that this teacher sees education as a necessity for

211

self actualization and also as a necessity to move our nation forward. Anita expects her
students to stand up and take their rightful places as leaders in society. For the Black
collegian, this sentiment might be intimidating at ﬁrst, but with continued growth and
learning, this student will seek leadership roles and opportunities to advance their
community. Spelman College President, Dr. Beverly Tatum shares Anita’s sentiment and
expressed her concerns for teaching students to interact in a pluralistic society: “Whether
at an HBCU or predominantly White institution, we. all must ask ourselves, How do we
create and sustain educational environments that afﬁrm identity, build community, and
cultivate leadership in a way that supports the learning of all students?” (2004, p. 34).
Institutional Expectations was the third critical factor that I identiﬁed as most
important for the achievement of Southem’s African American student populace. Two
illustrative examples are provided to depict the impact of this factor. Michael Dean of
Admissions, shares that Southem’s African American students are expected to take
leadership roles on campus. Speciﬁcally, he noted that there are no faculty advisors for
student groups so there are increased opportunities for students to develop a sense of
ownership and responsibility within the university community. Since 1979, African
Americans have taken leadership roles as the student body president and head of the
honors committee. Michael believes this facilitates the Black collegians’ capacity to take
ownership of the university and to become more engaged with the university. In support
of Michael’s point, Fischer (2007) determined, “. . . that minority retention could be
improved-by efforts focusing on increasing involvement in campus activities and

improving the racial climate on campus” (p. 155).

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Political Science Professor, Andrew shared his thoughts on the expectations that
the university has for its personnel. He believes that university professionals are expected
to make time to assist all students. As a result, African American students experience
higher levels of success because university personnel have accepted responsibility for
these students and are dedicated to the academic success and graduation of every student.
Lundberg (2004) supports Anderson’s point in her study that examined the imbalance
that exists between African American collegians and Aﬁican American faculty members
“within degree-granting institutions in the United States.” Her results revealed that
satisfying relationships with faculty members were deﬁned as frequent interactions and
those that encouraged students to work harder.

Valuing Diversity through Collaboration was the fourth critical factor identiﬁed
as most important to the overall success of the Southern University’s Black collegian.
Michael described how the Admissions Office and the Financial Aid Ofﬁce worked
together to provide admissions offers to Aﬁican American students. Speciﬁcally, a
representative from each ofﬁce shares a call with a newly admitted student. The
admissions ofﬁcer congratulates the student and the ﬁnancial aid ofﬁcer explains the aid
award. Michael highlighted that even though it might take a couple of nights; this is done
for every African American student offered admission to Southern University. For the
Black collegian, this telephone call should serve as a great source of excitement and an
opportunity to ask important questions that may be critical to the decision to attend
Southern. Both ofﬁces want the student to feel special and that the university is genuinely
interested in their attendance and success at Southern University and an opportunity to

ask important questions that may be critical to the decision to attend Southern. Michael’s

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example is supported by Rovai, Gallien, and Wighting (2005) who examined the
underperforrnance of African American students and the conditions that exist at some
PWIS. The authors found the transmission of knowledge by schools in cultural codes,
mismatches between teaching styles and African American learning style preferences,
weak institutional support for minority students, a fragile racial climate at PWIS, racial
stereotyping, peer inﬂuences, low expectations, and weak study habits (p. 367). The
researchers determined that if faculty and educational administrators commit themselves
to reaching out to all students using a variety of educational practices, it mitigates the
challenges and promote academic excellence. The collaboration between the Ofﬁce of
Admissions and the Financial Aid Ofﬁce is an example of an educational practice that
can alleviate some of the challenges encountered by Black collegians.

In the second example, Andrew talked about his use of collaboration with the
Ofﬁce of Black Studies to recruit students for his program. In the Politics Department, he
oversees the Social Philosophy Program. The program accepts 20 -21 students a year and
the Aﬁican American participation was very low. Andrew contacted the Ofﬁce of Black
Studies and told them that he needed help. Later, he met with members of the Office staff
met and developed opportunities for Anderson to interact with Black collegians while
they were visiting the Office. Andrew spoke with the students and addressed some of the
misperceptions afﬁliated with his program. After that, several students expressed an
interest in his program and the minority participation increased. Wade-Golden & Matlock
(2007) supported Andrew’s contention in their discussion on holding institutional units
accountable for demonstrating diversity. Andrew was committed to diversifying his

program and sought others on campus with whom to collaborate in order to accomplish

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this goal. This is similar to Devarics & Roach’s (2000) statement that on-campus units
must be willing to collaborate to achieve individual and collective goals of diversity.

Dean Anita discussed her collaboration with another faculty member in which
they developed a videotape to illustrate the inequitable treatment experienced by some
Black collegians while interacting with Southern University faculty. Anita interviewed a
panel of African American students. Over the course of the tape, several students shared
their stories that revealed both inappropriate and thoughtless comments and behaviors
that offended the students. Anita and her colleague took the tape to every academic unit
on campus. After the tape was shown, Anita guided a conversation that centered on the
issues highlighted on the tape. She believed the tape served to make more faculty aware
of their roles while interacting with Black collegians. Dias-Bowie et.al (2004) examined
success strategies used by this student population one of which was that “faculty
members should ﬁnd ways to hear the stories of their Black (and other) students” (p.
443). Anita’s initiative attempted to educate Southem’s faculty on diversity through the
stories of Black students (Fowler & Villanueva, 2002). This collaboration led to non-
Black faculty receiving increased awareness of those race-related issues that may cause
African American students to feel that their contributions are not valued by some of their
Southern University professors.

In this ﬁnal example of Valuing Diversity through Collaboration, Lance discussed
the importance of collaboration and the pivotal role it plays on Southem’s campus.
Additionally, he emphasized that this concept has served to advance his Ofﬁce as well.
For example, the Ofﬁce of Black Studies is involved with much collaboration throughout

the university because it assists the campus community with programming directed

215

toward the Black collegian. So Lance believes that collaborations allow a unit to
progress with the support of another office or department, thereby increasing the
opportunity for Aﬁican American collegians’ success similar to research of Dias-Bowie
et al.(2000); Hinderlie (2000). Lance’s position demonstrates that he has given great
thought to the impact of collaboration on both his Office and the rest of the university
community. Like Lance, Torres, Howard-Hamilton, & Cooper (2003) believe that ”Each
faculty and administrator must understand how he or she as an individual and as a
member of the institution inﬂuences the success or failure of those who are not from the
White culture. It is only when this discomfort is dealt with that higher education can truly
say ‘we value diversity’” (p. 7). Through his collaborations with other on-campus units,
Lance brings greater visibility to the Ofﬁce of Black Studies. As a result, there will be
increased opportunities to develop funding, leading to increased programming efforts to
assist the Black collegian.

Similar to the discussion on Midwestern University, it is important to accentuate
The Ofﬁce of Black Studies, Faculty Initiatives, Institutional Expectations, and Valuing
Diversity through Collaboration have been identiﬁed as the most important critical
factors. The study revealed that these four factors had the greatest impact on the
academic success of the Black collegian at Southern University. Additionally, the four
most important critical factors are supported by Student Affairs and Retention/Support
Programs. As I previously stated, these two critical factors work together because those
in Student Affairs are primarily responsible for offering the Retention/Support Programs.
At Southern University, the student affairs professionals drew attention to the value and

beneﬁts of diversity and assisted in the establishment of cultural capital, which lead to

216

increased retention rates, and heightened graduation percentages for African American
collegians. These professionals made concerted efforts to reach students early and to try
to support them throughout their academic careers at Southern University. The efforts of
Student Affairs Professionals included the low Resident Assistant to student ratio,
establishing strong relationships with students to develop mutual trust, and reiterating that
the university belongs to the students (F urr & Elling, 2002; Glenn, 2007). Additionally,
these professionals assisted the student population by drawing attention to the value and
beneﬁts of diversity and in assisting the students’ establishment of cultural capital,
leading to increased retention and higher graduation rates (Furr & Elling, 2002; Taylor &
Miller, 2002).

In terms of the Retention/Support Programs, they provided instructional and/or
transitional assistance to the Black collegian and the university community as a whole.
Speciﬁcally, there were two types of retention/Support Programs that were mentioned:
the Acclimation Program and the association/academic deans. The Acclimation Program
was targeted to those students who came from a less competitive high school and needed
both academic and transitional assistance. The program included a six-week summer
session in which students took two courses, met with student organizations, and met with
faculty. Michael, Dean of Admissions called it “an assimilation process.” The
association/academic deans were located in the residence halls, but were represented the
academic units. These deans provided academic support and personal counseling where
the students lived. They were also very knowledgeable on issues of diversity and
inclusiveness. Overall, these students utilized the Retention/Support Programs to

supplement the services offered by the Ofﬁce of Black Studies, coupling the efforts of

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student affairs staff and faculty in important ways that beneﬁt African American student
achievement.

Presidential Priorities, was not signiﬁcantly highlighted as a factor, but those who
mentioned it viewed it as relevant to the awareness, acceptance, implementation, and
continuation of diversity protocols at Southern University. Overall, I believe that many in
Southem’s university community have embraced the idea and the signiﬁcance of
supporting the Black collegian, so, the president is reiterating a notion already accepted by
the majority. As a result, Presidential Priorities at Southern University served to support
the university’s diversity agenda and set the tone for the expansion and improvement of
the campaign to make Southern more inclusive. Bimbaum (1989) expands on this point
by explaining that the role of the university president does not have a signiﬁcant impact
on the success of colleges, “. . . Most college presidents do the right things, and do things
right most of the time. . But those who seek major changes in the ways presidents
behave, or believe that such changes will make major differences on our campuses, are
likely to be disappointed. . .” (p. 342).

An assessment of the institutional distinctions and similarities will be offered in
Chapter six, along with a discussion on the implications of both for the achievement of

the Aﬁican American college student.

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CHAPTER SIX
Conclusions and Implications

According to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, the college enrollment
rate of African American college students has never been higher yet the national
graduation rate for the African American student is 20 points below the 62 percent rate of
their White counterparts (“Black Student College Graduation Rates,” 2006).
Additionally, with a graduation rate of 42 percent, Black students are less likely to
complete a bachelor’s degree within four years because of problems in both the social
and academic areas (Allen, Epps, & Haniff, 1991; Astin, 1982; Fleming, 1984; Hall,
Mays, & Allen, 1984; Nettles, 1988; Thomas, 1981). Overall, considering both
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUS) and Predominantly White
Institutions (PWIS), only a relatively small group of institutions have experienced
consistent success in their graduation rates for African American collegians. This group
includes select Ivy League institutions, HBCUS and ﬂagship state universities.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine those ﬂagship state
universities, identiﬁed as “most selective” in their admissions criteria and answer two
primary research questions: What are the critical factors that faculty, academic
administrators, and student affairs personnel report their institutions are doing to
contribute to success among African American students? And, what are the institutional
similarities and differences that exist between those factors that contribute to the success
of Black collegians at two selective institutions?

The pursuit of postsecondary education is one that is ﬁlled with many personal,

social, intellectual, and ﬁnancial challenges for the individuals who aspire to be college

219

graduates. In essence, students who decide to attain a baccalaureate degree are
embarking on an experience that may leave them feeling challenged, discouraged,
accomplished, ﬁ'ustrated, empowered, unprepared, accepted or isolated. Despite the
impediments that students encounter, most would agree that the advantages of college
completion far outweigh the disadvantages. Those who are educated have successfully
competed with their peers, have participated in self actualization, and have the capacity to
contribute to both their communities and the nation. Individuals who have the ability to
demonstrate both their intellectual prowess and their tenacity to complete their education
are laying the groundwork for continued success throughout life (Rhodes, 2001). Thus,
the completion of an undergraduate education is integral for continued academic growth,
continued career growth and continued personal growth, leading to lifelong learning.
Every individual deserves the opportunity to successfully attain a baccalaureate degree.
However, as the literature has previously stated, inequities still exist in the American
educational system. As a result, some students are treated unfairly and left feeling as if
their contributions are not valued or needed to move our society forward. These facts
place an additional burden on those who work in higher education. Although these
individuals are expected to meet the needs of all students, they must also be held
accountable for the success of those students who represent “difference,” those students
who have been marginalized both in the school systems and in society. Those in higher
education must respond to the needs of the African American student.

This exploratory study exposed eight important features that have positively
inﬂuenced the educational attainment and graduation rates of Aﬁican American

collegians at both Midwestern University and Southern University. This is not to say that

220

the institution is or should be solely held accountable for the success of the Black
collegian; the success of the Black collegian is a shared responsibility that needs to be
addressed by both the institution and the student, as is true for all college students. The
eight critical factors are: (a) Faculty Initiatives; (b) Institutional Expectations; (c)
Institutional-Unit Response; ((1) Presidential Priorities; (e) Retention/Support Programs;
(f) Special Purpose Ofﬁces; (g) Student Affairs; and (h) Valuing Diversity through
Collaboration. Although the existing literature has addressed the Aﬁican American
collegian’s academic deﬁcits (e. g., Astin, 1982; Astin, Tsui, & Avolos, 1996;
Monastersky, 2006; Tinto, 1993), socio-economic challenges (e.g., Hebel, 2007;Thomas,
1981), and this students’ dropout rates (e.g., Hutto & Fenwick, 2002), the literature has
not examined those integral factors that propel Black collegians to success at “most
selective” ﬂagship state institutions, nor have these factors been compared in their
effectiveness across similar postsecondary organizations, though factors affecting success
in general of African American students are documented. Thus, this study uncovered new
ideas for this student populace. It must be emphasized that I determined that all of the
factors were not equally important throughout the Black collegians’ tenure.

In essence, under each critical factor, I have provided action steps that can be
applied to facilitate the academic success and graduation rates of African American
collegians who are attending postsecondary institutions that are similar to both
Midwestern and Southern University. These serve as lessons learned from the two
universities included in this exploratory study. Utilizing each institution’s organizational
structure, the factors will be presented in an order that reﬂects the ﬁrst part of part of the

Black collegians’ college career, those critical factors that have been identiﬁed as most

221

important, the role of Student Affairs and Retention/Support Programs, and the impact
of Presidential Priorities.
Midwestern University-Decentralized Public Institution

As a decentralized institution, each college and school at Midwestern University
has its own source of support for its majors. These units also control their own budgets
and make autonomous decisions on how to allocate ﬁrnds for various departmental and
student initiatives. As a result, there is great duplication in institutional services. Overall,
the decentralized organizational structure actually facilitated the Black collegians’
achievement and graduation rate by providing more options for students to locate and use
resources, so the Aﬁican American student experiences an increased probability of
getting needed assistance and thereby, remaining in school.
Special Purpose Offices

This critical factor played a pivotal role for the Black collegians who just entered
Midwestern University and were beginning their college career. During this time, the
Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies provided both instructional and transitional assistance to
the student. Also, this Office aided the Black collegian in handling academic issues and
in accessing campus resources. All of these efforts served to build the students’
conﬁdence and increase their capacity to believe that institutional personnel were
genuinely interested in their success. As a result, Black collegians were more likely to
fully utilize campus resources, and to believe that they could be positively impacted by
the institution as a result of participating in both curricular and extracurricular
programming. The Ofﬁce provided a “proving ground” for Midwestem’s Black

collegians and relationships developed early on between students and faculty and staff

222

often were maintained throughout college career. Once these students developed their
abilities to ﬂourish in the university environment, they became more open and more
willing to fully embrace the university and the other institutional resources.

1. Special Purpose Ofﬁces must play pivotal roles in the early stages of the Black
collegians’ postsecondary career. These ofﬁces assist students by providing instruction
and adjustment assistance, introducing campus resources, offering individualized
attention from faculty and academic advisors, and presenting instruction on various
college success strategies, including note taking and time management (Devarics &
Roach, 2000; Noel—Levitz, 2006; Smith, 2004).

2. Special Purpose Ofﬁces must be committed to the retention, academic success
and college completion of African American collegians (Hammer, 2003; Noel-Levitz,
2006). This recommendation places great responsibility on the Office’s staff and it must
be emphasized that those employed by Special Purpose Ofﬁces should be prepared to go
beyond the traditional roles of academic staff. For example at Midwestern University, the
OMS personnel appeared to utilize both maternal and paternal behaviors with students.
At one point, one instructor said that the students thought of her as a mom.

Additionally, this recommendation must be implemented even in the midst of
potential criticisms from those who do not understand the purpose of this Ofﬁce. For
example, despite the fact that the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies intended to serve every
member of the university student community, regardless of race, the director seemed very

concerned about attacks and criticisms from anti afﬁrmative action groups.

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Institutional-Unit Response

This critical factor was identiﬁed as one of the most important and its positive
impact on the academic success of Black collegians was substantiated at many levels at
Midwestern. This factor was revealed in committees, academic stipulations, hiring
decisions, and commitments from non-Black staff to address the Black collegians’
academic deﬁcits. At Midwestern University, this factor demonstrated that some
personnel were highly cognizant of the challenges confronting Aﬁican American students
in speciﬁc academic disciplines and in university settings as a whole. In an attempt to
minimize some of these educational and social challenges, some university personnel
made solitary decisions to address these problems in a very straightforward and overt
manner. As a result, the units sent a clear message that they wanted African Americans
and other minority students to ﬂourish in welcoming environments that encourage growth
and accomplishment.

1. Institutional personnel must be willing to develop Diversity and Outreach
Councils, comprised of students, faculty, and staff charged with evaluating their college’s
current diversity programs and developing ideas for future initiatives. Additionally, those
in units across the institution must be willing to develop Social Justice Agencies that deal
directly with issues of equity by conducting workshops and providing programming to
the entire university community to sensitize them on issues of prejudice and intolerance
(Wade-Golden & Matlock, 2007).

2. Institutional personnel must be willing to implement academic stipulations to
promote success for Black collegians. These stipulations include early warning systems

that send letters to students whose g.p.a.s fall below 2.0 and electronic midterm estimates

224

that send student progress reports to enable students to address marginal grades before
the semester ends (Chang, 2001).

3. Institutional personnel must be willing to incorporate race and ethnicity
requirements for their majors. These courses will educate the student population and
assist in creating a more welcoming environment for minority students (Fowler
&Villanueva, 2002).

4. Institutions must be willing to place several Aﬁican Americans-in high-ranking
positions to challenge society’s assumptions and generalizations about a group that has
historically been marginalized in American society. This recommendation reﬂects an
authentic allegiance to eliminating racist perspectives and ideals (Torres, Howard-
Hamilton, & Cooper, 2003).

5. Institutional personnel must be willing to hire African American faculty
because each minority group identiﬁes with their own minority faculty and sees their own
capabilities for accomplishment reﬂected in the mere presence of the faculty member
(Boyd, 2004; Littleton, 2001; Zirkel, 2002).

6. Institutional personnel must encourage their non-Black university colleagues to
demonstrate their commitment to the success of the African American student by
becoming a contributor to the vision of a society that respects and sees the beneﬁt of
difference (Buck, 2001).

7. Institutional personnel must encourage their non—Black administrators to
continually offer to fund faculty enrichment and faculty development opportunities to
bring in women and other minorities who work in their discipline (Dias-Bowie, et. al.,

2004)

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Institutional Expectations

Institutional Expectations is the next critical factor that was identiﬁed as most
important to the achievement of the Aﬁican American collegian. Participants at
Midwestern University expressed expectations for the entire university community,
expectations for university personnel, and expectations for students all of which promote
the Black collegian’s academic experience. Although they sometimes spoke of these
factors as part of the university’s culture, more often the participants referred to them as
Institutional Expectations.

1. Institutional personnel must hold expectations for the entire university
community to contribute to producing outstanding leaders and to meet the highest
standard in carrying out their roles (Wimberly, 2002).

2. Institutional personnel must expect university professionals to place a high
priority on assisting the achievement of Black collegians, by being willing to go beyond
what’s been done in the past and to genuinely holding themselves accountable for this
students’ success (Psychological Barriers, 2003).

3. Institutional personnel must expect student affairs professionals to take the time
to direct students with campus ofﬁces that can assist students in resolving problems
(Constantine & Watt, 2002).

4. Institutional personnel must expect all of its students to graduate. As a result,
the university is expressing faith in the abilities of its students, which leads to a positive

impact on the entire student population (Boyd, 2004).

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Valuing Diversity through Collaboration

Valuing Diversity through Collaboration was the third critical factor that greatly
assisted the African American populace at Midwestern University. These collaborations
were found in Black and White student organizations, on-campus units with other on-
campus entities, and on-campus entities with various off-campus entities to encourage
diversity.

1. Institutional personnel must encourage collaborations between Black and non-
Black student organizations to encourage diversity and to resolve conﬂicts that may have
developed over racial and/or religious differences. These collaborations take many forms,
including discussion groups and forums (Race Relations on Campus, 2004/2005).

2. Institutional personnel must encourage collaborations between on—campus units
to come together to design purposeful multicultural experiences for students that illustrate
the injustices associated with racism and marginalization (Milem, 2003).

3. Institutional personnel must encourage collaborations between on-campus and
off-campus entities, such as with university alumni. These collaborations could lead to
increased information on the importance of diversity in the professional work
environment. Overall, these external sources could assist the institution in advancing its
diversity campaign (Wade-Golden & Matlock, 2007).

Faculty Initiatives

Faculty Initiatives proved to be one of the most important critical factors and a

powerful proponent of heightening the academic success and graduation rate for

Midwestem’s Aﬁican American students.

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1. Faculty must be willing to express their realization and appreciation for the
true beneﬁt of the perspectives that Black collegians bring to classroom. As a result,
faculty will encourage these students to participate and acknowledge their views as
important and critical to the learning environment (Cody & Manusov, 2000).

2. Faculty must be dedicated to making up for the academic deﬁciencies that
some African American students may have as a result of inadequate high school
preparation. This dedication could manifest in the form of mock exams and online
prepared notes based on course session (Hurd, 2000).

3. African American faculty must be willing to cultivate relationships with Black
collegians. This is accomplished by demonstrating interest in this students’ overall
success and happiness as they navigate an institution that was not developed with them in
mind (Ancis & Sedlacek, 1997; Tracey & Sedlacek, 1984, 1985. 1987, 1988, & 1989).

4. Faculty must be willing to take on a maternal or paternal role for African
American students. In these roles, faculty offer a safe haven for students, but require
them to meet very high standards in their coursework (Littleton, 2001).

Student Affairs and Retention/ Support Programs

Both Student Affairs and Retention/Support Programs have been combined
because those in Student Affairs are primarily responsible for carrying out the
Retention/ Support Programs. These two critical factors join together to provide a
foundation for those factors identiﬁed as most important. At Midwestern University,
Student Affairs was not mentioned by every participant as a contributor to the success of
the Black collegian, but those that did clearly illustrated that the actions of these

professionals were signiﬁcant for this student populace. The efforts of those in Student

228

Affairs were connected to increasing the African American students’ cultural capital,
increasing their retention rates, and raising their graduation percentages. In terms of
Retention/Support Programs, participants emphasized initiatives within every college and
school, programs that utilize the students’ cultural background to address student needs,
programs that incorporate mentors, and programs that target the pre-college student
population.

. 1. Student Affairs Professionals must strive to assist African American collegians
by increasing their cultural capital, improving their retention rates and heightening their
graduation percentages (Ahuna, Banning, & Hughes, 2000).

2. Student Affairs Professionals must study African American students and
examine them during their time on campus. This study can be canied out by using
surveys, conducting face to face interviews with students, and assessing students as they
enter and exit the institution to determine change over their tenure at the institution. This
examination will assist the professionals in determining how Black collegians are
impacted by institutional programming and in determining what issues contribute to this
students’ attrition and retention rates (Freeman, 1997; Graham, 1994; Hall & Allen,
1989; Hebel, 2007; Hutto & Fenwick, 2002; Stikes, 1984). This recommendation could
greatly assist those professionals in university communities, like Midwestern University,
in which racist acts are still very prevalent and where African American students are still
confronted with racial stereotypes and inaccurate assumptions from their non-Black
counterparts.

3. Student Affairs Professionals must create programming that addresses African

American students in a very speciﬁc way. This targeted approach assists the student in

229

ﬁnding a “home” on campus (F urr & Elling, 2002; Taylor & Miller, 2002). For
example, this support could be found in establishing a minority student relations ofﬁce
that offers academic support, space for students to talk with other students, and Afiican
American publications that can be checked out by students. Other examples include
implementing educational programming and activities that focus on educating minority
students, developing mentoring programs for ﬁrst-year students, and establishing a
multicultural center that provides meeting space for minority faculty, students, and staff
to gather for meetings and cultural activities (Furr & Elling, 2002).
Presidential Priorities

This critical factor offered a marginal impact on the academic success of
Midwestem’s African American’s students. As the participants indicated, the president
has consistently endorsed diversity on campus, challenged critics on this concept by
pledging to maintain a campaign of inclusivity, and fully documented the beneﬁts of
interacting with those who reﬂect difference, in both students and professionals.
Although some of those who participated highly emphasized the efforts of the president,
there were others who stated that the president did not have the full support of the campus
community in terms of diversity initiatives. The leader’s impact on the success of
Midwestem’s Black collegian was signiﬁcantly less when compared to the impact of the
other critical factors. This tells me that those I interviewed did not view the contributions
of the president as vital to the achievement of the African American collegian.

1. Although the president’s emphasis on diversity sends a direct message to the
university that makes the community aware of the president’s expectations for their

behavior regarding the notion of inclusivity, the leader’s overall impact on the academic

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success of the Black collegian can still be marginal (Bimbaum, 1989;Dias-Bowie et al.,
2004; Torres, Howard-Hamilton & Cooper, 2003). This may be especially true at
institutions like Midwestern when there is a lack of authentic support across the
university for diversity and inclusion.

When studying decentralized institutions, researchers must realize that many
participants may not be well informed on certain topics as others because of the way the
university functions. For example, Michelle, the Director of Support for the Midwestem’s
College of Mathematics lacked knowledge and awareness of institutional strategies that
effectively contributed to the academic success of the Black collegian. She was unable to
discuss Midwestem’s various committees, task forces and activities that reﬂected a more
holistic perspective of the university and its contributions to the African American
collegian, even though she could talk clearly about efforts within her individual unit. This
may be a result simply of a lack of knowledge beyond one’s unit, which is not
uncommon in large decentralized institutions. At the same time, this lack of university-
wide perspective may be a function of the extent to which initiatives are institutionally
integrated or valued. It appears that at Midwestern, some of the lack of understanding is
because of the inconsistent value placed on and attention paid to diversity initiatives by
different members of the community, even when recommended for participation in the
study.

Southern University-Hybrid Public Institution

As a hybrid public institution, Southern University’s organizational conﬁguration

reﬂects both centralized and decentralized features. All of the colleges and schools are

decentralized, which means they have complete autonomy, including budget authority.

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The institution’s centralized features include the Procurement Ofﬁce, Human Resources,
and Emergency Preparedness. Additionally, the entire campus relies on the Ofﬁce of
Black Studies to take the lead in promoting the achievement of the Aﬁican American
collegian. Overall, this institution’s hybrid organizational arrangement has greatly aided
the Black collegian. Although the academic units exercise autonomy over their areas, the
entire university has demonstrated its support and embraced the leadership of the Ofﬁce
of Black Studies in facilitating the success of this student population.

Institutional-Unit Resmrnse

At Southern University, Institutional-Unit Response played a pivotal role in the
recruitment of Black collegians and in the beginning of these students’ college careers.
Overall, once the Black collegians and their parents establish trust in the university’s
representatives and the student accept the university’s expectations, they start to heavily
rely on the services offered by the Ofﬁce of Black Studies. This continues throughout the
students’ tenure at Southern University. Thus, Institutional-Unit Responses play a key
role in the early stages of the students’ academic career at this institution.

1. Institutional personnel must be willing to provide assistance to both entering
students and their parents, leading to increased levels of conﬁdence and a greater
likelihood that the student will start to become more engaged in campus activities,
especially the Ofﬁce of Black Studies (Torres, Howard-Hamilton, & Cooper, 2003)

2. Institutional personnel must personalize their processes by being accessible to
students. This helps the institution appear smaller and Black collegians will be more

likely to establish cultural capital and exercise increased responsibility for both their

232

academic performance and their overall success at the institution (Allen, 1981; Bean,
1980; Clark & Crawford, 1992; Clewell, 1986 1982; Tinto, 1982; Wimberly, 2002).

3. Institutional personnel must be willing to develop initiatives that recruit and
support low-income students. Although some institutions have demonstrated their efforts
to expand their campus community in terms of race and ethnicity, programming directed
at low-income students will lead to diversiﬁcation in the socioeconomic status of the
student population (Boyd, 2004; Hebel, 2007; Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity
in Higher Education, 2007; Richardson & Skinner, 1991; Schmidt, 2005; Thomas, 1981;
Wade — Golden & Matlock, 2007).

4. Institutional personnel must be willing to hire African American faculty to
provide role models for students (Ancis & Sedlacek, 1997; Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987;
Lavant, Anderson, & Tiggs, 1997; Littleton, 2001; Zirkel, 2002). This can be challenging
for institutional personnel who covertly impede the hiring of African American faculty.
For example at Southern University, Andrew discussed the subtle and covert ways that
White faculty created hiring barriers by expecting the Black faculty applicants to meet
higher standards than other non-Black applicants. Equitable employment standards are
necessary to achieve the diverse faculty and staff who can serve as role models and
mentors to students.

5. Institutional personnel must be willing to create special-purpose offices which
exist to establish an institutional climate that advances and sustains the success of African

American students (Devarics & Roach, 2000; Ibarra 2001; Noel-Levitz, 2006).

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Special Purpose Ofﬁce

The Southern University participants depicted The Ofﬁce of Black Studies as
highly relevant and integral to the success of the Black collegian. This factor was the
most celebrated and overwhelmingly credited for the academic triumphs of this student
population. Thus, Special-Purpose Ofﬁce was identiﬁed as one of the most important
factors. The Peer Counseling Program was highlighted as one of the Ofﬁce’s services that
had a huge impact on the success of Southern’s Black collegian.

1. Special Purpose Ofﬁces must be committed to the retention, academic success
and college completion of African American collegians (Hammer, 2003; Noel-Levitz,
2006). This is important even in light of criticisms from other segments of the student
population. For example, at Southern University the Asian American students expressed
their dissatisfaction over the focus on the Office of Black Studies. According to the
study’s participants, the students did not think it was fair or appropriate that the Black
students received an ofﬁce that focused entirely on them and their needs. In the end, each
university is responsible for developing sufﬁcient and appropriate support services for all
its students, and not allowing competition among student groups to fester and deteriorate
the culture of the institution.

2. Special Purpose Ofﬁces must provide academic assistance, overall support and
opportunities for Aﬁican American students to cultivate and advance in the university
community. These ofﬁces assist students by providing individualized attention from
faculty and academic advisors, and presenting instruction on a wide array of strategies to
facilitate the Black collegians’ success. For example, the Dean of the Ofﬁce of Black

Studies said that his Ofﬁce was committed to doing “anything” that was needed to

234

facilitate the success of this student population (Devarics & Roach, 2000; Noel-Levitz,
2006; Smith, 2004). Additionally, implementing this recommendation can be aided by a
university community that encourages the targeted support of the African American
student population. At Southern University, the staff of the Ofﬁce of Black Studies
unashamedly and decidedly sought to improve the lives and achievements of Aﬁican
American students and those in the Southern University community appear to have fully
. embraced the Ofﬁce of Black Studies.

3. Special Purpose Ofﬁces must create opportunities for students to become
“known” very early in their college career. One strategy to accomplish this is for these
ofﬁces to pair entering African American students with peers who can act as both a
mentor and an additional resource for information and/or assistance (N oel-Levitz, 2006;
Littleton, 2001). The Peer Counseling Program used this process to heighten the success
of both students.

4. Special Purpose Ofﬁces must be committed to using intense efforts to assist
African American students in overcoming racial injustice and in successfully attaining
their baccalaureate degrees (Devarics & Roach, 2000). This may be easier to do if Ofﬁce
staff realize of the deceptive and malignant practices that have been inﬂicted upon the
African American in this country. Lance the Ofﬁce’s Dean said the effort to correct
history have to be intensive because of the harm caused to the Black collegians’ success.
Because African American students are not the only group under-served and historically
mistreated by postsecondary education, effective special purpose ofﬁces such as the
Ofﬁce of Black Studies at Southern University can serve as examples or pilots for ofﬁces

that serve additional minority groups

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Faculty Initiatives

This critical factor was identiﬁed as one of the most important in terms of its
impact on the success of the Black collegian. It was highly emphasized by the
participants.

1. Faculty must be willing to incorporate teacher immediacy into their
pedagogical strategies. These tactics include humor, referring to students by name,
talking with students before and after class sessions, and complimenting students on their
work (Gorham, 1988; Neuliep, 2002).

2. Faculty must be willing to demonstrate their recognition for the value of
diversity and the beneﬁts it brings to the learning experience, in varied student ideas and
perspectives (Dias-Bowie et al., 2004). Because not all faculty have positive assumptions
about African American students as learners, implementing this recommendation may
require faculty development to help educate instructors on diverse students, on the value
of diversity and inclusion, and on ways of teaching to meet diverse learner needs.

3. Faculty must be willing to act as role models both in and out of the classroom.
Additionally, they must be willing to challenge students to step out of their comfort zones
and to seek to impact their communities and the nation (Tatum, 2004).

4. Faculty must believe that students need to be supported throughout the entire
college experience and want to develop environments that encourage the
accomplishments of African American collegians (Torres, Howard-Hamilton, & Cooper,
2003)

5. In an attempt to offer support to African American collegians, African

American faculty must build strong relationships with these students (Ancis & Sedlacek,

236

1997; Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987; Lavant, Anderson, & Tiggs, 1997; Littleton, 2001;
Tidball, 1986; Tracey & Sedlacek, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989; Zirkel, 2002).

6. Faculty must be willing to hold students accountable for improving and
advancing our society through their contributions (Zirkel, 2002).

Institutional Expectations

Institutional Expectations was the third critical factor that I identiﬁed as most
important to the achievement of Southem’s African American student populace.

1. Institutional personnel must expect African American students to take
leadership roles on campus and to believe that the university belongs to them, translating
into an increased level of both comfort and academic achievement for this student. As a
result, the Aﬁican American students will feel empowered and have an increased
capacity to make critical decisions (Boykin, 1983; Fischer, 2007; Perry, Steele, &
Milliard, 2003; Torres, Howard-Hamilton, & Cooper, 2003).

2. Institutional personnel must view the institution as very student-focused and
see their roles as facilitating the accomplishment of African American students and as
enabling students to resolve problems that arise (Lundberg, 2004; Torres, Howard-
Hamilton, & Cooper, 2003).

3. Institutional personnel must actively seek to cultivate both ethical self-
governance and leadership in students (Tatum, 2004).

4. Institutional personnel must endorse diversity and academic excellence (Allen
1999; Carroll, 1998; Guinier, Fine, & Balin, 1997; Hurtado, 1992; Solorzano, et al. cited

in Hurtado, Milem & Clayton — Pedersen).

237

ValuiggDiversity through Collaboration

Valuing Diversity through Collaboration was the fourth critical factor identiﬁed
as most important. This factor enabled the overall academic achievement and success of
the Southern University’s Black collegian through collaborations with both on-campus
and off-campus entities.

1. The entire campus community must embrace the concept of collaboration
(Coomes, 1994; Devarics & Roach, 2000; Dias-Bowie et al., 2004; Fowler & Villanueva,
2002; Gorham, 1988; Neuliep, 2002; Johnson, 2001; Lundberg, 2004).

2. On—Campus units must work together together to promote the Black collegians’
success early in the students’ introduction to the university (Rovai, Gallien, &Wighting,
2005). For example, the Admissions and Financial Aid Ofﬁces worked together to
provide admissions offers to Black students.

3. Faculty must collaborate with the Ofﬁce of Black Studies to increase the
participation of African American students in their programming activities (Wade-
Golden & Matlock, 2007).

4. Faculty must collaborate with other faculty members to make them aware of
behaviors that might unintentionally offend or stigmatize the African American collegian
(Dias—Bowie, et al., 2004). For example, Anita and one of her colleagues developed a
videotape that depicted the negative experiences of African American students on
Southern’s campus. The tape was shared with all of Southem’s academic units to
promote diversity and increased understanding.

5. University administrators must seek to understand how they can positively

inﬂuence the success or failure of those who are not White. They should seek to

238

collaborate with one another in order to advance the impact of both ofﬁces on African
American collegians’ success (Torres, Howard-Hamilton & Cooper, 2003).
Student Affairs & Retention/Support Programs

At Southern University, the student affairs professionals drew attention to the
value and beneﬁts of diversity and assisted in the establishment of cultural capital, which
lead to increased retention rates and heightened graduation percentages for Aﬁican
American collegians. These professionals made concerted efforts to reach students early
and to try to support them throughout their academic careers at Southern University. In
terms of the Retention/Support Programs, they provided instructional and/or transitional
assistance to the Black collegian or the university community as a whole. Overall, these
students utilized the Retention/Support Programs to supplement the services offered by
the Ofﬁce of Black Studies Thus; I believe Retention/Support Programs should be
coupled with Student Affairs to provide the foundation for the four most important
critical factors.

1. Student Affairs Professionals must regard their roles as those that reﬂect and
cultivate mutual trust with the students (Constantine, 2002; Johnson, 2001; Kuh, 1996).

2. Student Affairs Professionals must believe that their relationship with students
will assist in learning more about one another and in offering increased support for
students (Fleming, 1984; Glenn, 2007; Nettles, 1988).

3. Student Affairs Professionals must believe that multicultural awareness is
important to stress overall and want their student employees to be knowledgeable about

those concepts (Constantine, 2002; Milem, 2003).

239

4. Institutional personnel must recognize the role, value, and contributions of
Aﬁican American parents in facilitating the success of Black collegians (Dennis,
Phinney, & Chuateco 2005; Hall, 1999; Hinderlie, 2002; Johnson, 2001; Rodriguez,
Mira, Myers, Morris, & Cardoza, 2003).

5. Institutional personnel must offer instructional and/or transitional assistance to
the Afiican American collegian or to the entire university student community (Dale &
Zych, I996; McCormack, 1995; Sherman, Giles & Williams — Green, 1994).
Presidential Priorities

In terms of Presidential Priorities, some participants viewed this critical factor as
highly relevant to the awareness, acceptance, implementation, and continuation of
diversity protocols at Southern University. However, it was highlighted by only a few of
the participants. Overall, I believe that many in Southem’s university community
embraced the concept of supporting the Black collegian, so the president is reiterating a
notion that has already been accepted by the majority. As a result, Presidential Priorities
at Southern University serve to support the university’s diversity agenda and to set the
tone for the expansion and improvement of the campaign to make Southern more
inclusive.

1. Even in the midst of ﬁscal challenges, both the president and senior leadership
must speciﬁcally say that diversity is important, continue to say it, and hold those on
campus accountable for creating, sustaining and evaluating their own diversity
programming. The president’s emphasis sends a direct message to the university that
makes them aware of the president’s expectations for their behavior regarding the notion

of inclusivity (Dias-Bowie et al., 2004; Torres, Howard-Hamilton & Cooper, 2003).

240

Although institutional programming efforts intended to facilitate the success of
Black collegians are rooted in assisting the entire student population, the implementation
of the aforementioned recommendations is complex. These recommendations reﬂect
institutional communities that have developed an appreciation for the educational value
of diversity. However, if the university community has not embraced the usefulness of
inclusivity, members will not recognize the importance of applying these I

recommendations. In addition, Black collegians must actively seek to facilitate their own

 

success by ﬁrlly utilizing the various forms of retention/support programming-that is l
offered by student affairs professionals. Both the Black collegian and university
personnel must take responsibility for increased retention and heightened graduation rates
of this segment of the student populace.

These same recommendations have implications for the success of underprepared
students, students from other races and/or ethnic groups, and others who may be
historically underserved by research universities as well. Despite the fact that both
institutions are identiﬁed as ‘most selective,” the data revealed that the student population
did include students with academic deﬁciencies. These students were characterized to me
as those who came from modest high schools that did not emphasize academic rigor.
Thus, these students might have had impressive high school g.p.a.s, but the level of
academic competition in their experience did not prepare them for success at a “most
selective” postsecondary institution. In effect, they may have been more like
underprepared learners in general than they were like other students accepted to these
selective institutions. All of the critical factors, with the possible exception of the Special

Purpose Ofﬁce will assist the academic success of non-Black students. In terms of

241

organizational structure, the study revealed that Black collegians can experience success
at both decentralized and hybrid institutional types. Ultimately, the organizational
structure does not play a signiﬁcant role in the Black collegians’ academic success, but
rather it is the people in that community who will negatively or positively affect the
academic success of this student populace.

Overall, the reader should understand that this was an exploratory study with the
limitation that it exclusively focused on two “most selective” public ﬂagship universities.
Additionally, the recommendations cannot stand alone; both institutional personnel and
Black collegians must accept their contributing roles and be prepared to collaborate to
improve the retention and graduation rates for this student population. In terms of
institutional personnel, a reward system based on professional development and
promotion might offer an incentive to professional staff. In terms of Aﬁican American
students, the concept of self efﬁcacy serves as a source of motivation for these students.
Speciﬁcally, if these students have conﬁdence in their capacity to experience academic
success in the academy (self efﬁcacy), they will make concerted efforts to achieve and
there is an increased likelihood of their academic success. Overall, the African American
collegian’s self efficacy combined with the institution’s all inclusive support system may
lead to an increased likelihood that the Black collegian will experience greater retention
and higher graduation rates.

Overall, the recommendations for both institutional types tell the reader that
continued diversity education and sensitivity training are still needed across all areas and
members of the university community. This point also substantiates the critical

importance of my study. If the university community believes that racial equality has

242

 

 

 

been fully realized and that everyone supports the promotion of African Americans,
there would be no need to identify those critical factors needed to positively impact
African American achievement and graduation.

Institutional Sample Comparison

In comparing those factors that contributed to the success of Black collegians at
two selective research institutions, it is important to remember that the order of
importance of the critical factors discussed is based on the dominance and emphasis
given to each factor when discussed by the study participants. The dominance and
emphasis were determined by the extent to which participants were aware of particular
strategies and believed the strategies facilitated the academic success and graduation of
Black collegians. Additionally, the ability of the participants to provide evidence of the
effectiveness of the strategy on the Black collegians’ success was also used to determine
the dominance and emphasis of the factor in my analysis and interpretation.

Institutional Points of Similarity

The institutional points of similarity indicate two connections: both institutions
established special-purpose ofﬁces to assist underserved populations and both institutions
did not view presidential priorities as signiﬁcantly integral to the academic success and
college completion of Aﬁican American collegians.

Both Midwestern University and Southern University established Special Purpose
Ofﬁces to assist those students who demonstrated a need for academic support and/or
transition assistance. At Midwestern, the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies was developed for
all students, regardless of race and ethnicity, who exhibited academic deﬁciencies.

Additionally this ofﬁce is a learning community that has its own faculty, its own advising

243

staff, and its own ﬁnancial aid staff. This Ofﬁce offers an array of academic support
services, including the Summer Transition Program, academic advising, peer advising,
tutoring, and interest groups for ﬁrst-year students. The Ofﬁce also provides course
instruction throughout the academic year in the following: math, English, Spanish,
accounting, biology, chemistry, and physics. The Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies works
closely with a cross- section of academic departments, ofﬁces and programs throughout
the university community to promote the overall achievement of the entire Midwestern
student community.

At Southern University, the Ofﬁce of Black Studies was established as an integral
part of the Student Affairs Division for the express purpose of facilitating the academic
and social advancement of the African American collegian. One of the Ofﬁce’s major
responsibilities is to assist academic and non-academic units in confronting those service
delivery challenges that may arise when working with Aﬁican—American students. Also
the Ofﬁce assumes responsibility for creating a supportive environment that will
encourage African American students to take full advantage of the university’s student
life and to sensitize the larger community to the needs and interests of the African
American student population. This similarity demonstrates that both institutions
recognize the value that the Special Purpose ofﬁce brings to large, academically
competitive research institutions. These ofﬁces represent the institutions’ attempt to give
underserved students an academic haven that allows them to get the help they need

without feeling embarrassed, unprepared or stigmatized.

244

Institutional Points of Distinction

To address the points of difference in the way each institution used the critical
factors to support the success of Black collegians, it is important to recognize that each
organization’s list of factors was different, meaning that participants from each
institutional sample placed greater value on some factors over others. After analyzing all
the data from each institution, a different critical factor emerged as most important for the
two groups of participants. For example, respondents at Midwestern University expressed
that Institutional-Unit Response was a vital contributor to the academic success and
graduation of African American students. Yet, the participants at Southern University
emphasized the Ofﬁce of Black Studies as the most important critical factor. This
distinction gives the reader a view into the institutional integration of both institution’s
Special-Purpose Ofﬁces.

As a learning community, Midwestern University’s Office of Multiethnic Studies
is basically a self-contained unit, offering its own courses, its own academic support
services and working closely with a wide variety of academic departments, and programs
throughout the institution. Additionally, the data indicate that at Midwestern everyone
does not appear to support diversity. This combination of a university community not
completely embracing diversity across the institution and an independent Special Purpose
Ofﬁce might be the reason why there is a reliance on Institutional-Unit Response.
Institutional units may have to take more initiative to demonstrate their support for
inclusiveness and their support for the Black collegian if a centralized approach is not
fully effective. Midwestem’s emphasis on Institutional-Unit Response could also be a

reﬂection of their institutional organizational structure. As a decentralized institution,

245

members of the community expect to develop and implement programming in a more
independent manner, so Institutional-Unit Response is highly reﬂective of this
arrangement.

By comparison, Southern University’s Ofﬁce of Black Studies was established
over 20 years ago as an integral part of the Student Affairs Division. Additionally part of
this Ofﬁce’s mission is to work collaboratively with the rest of the campus community to
facilitate the overall success of the Black collegian. The participants’ emphasis on the
Ofﬁce of Black Studies could be a direct reﬂection of the university community’s
acceptance of diversity. Because the majority of the campus community appears to have
embraced this concept, it is not surprising that the Ofﬁce of Black Studies would be
emphasized by the members who participated. Southern’s emphasis on the Office of
Black Studies could also be attributed to the centralized organizational features of this
institution and the accepted practice of working with a university-wide ofﬁce rather than
recreating this kind of support unit in each college or school.

Overall, Southern University’s Ofﬁce of Black Studies appears to be “fully
integrated, supported and utilized” by members of the campus community, which does
not appear to be the case for the Ofﬁce of Multiethnic Studies at Midwestern University.
Based on the fact that the African American graduation rate at Southern University is 86
percent and the rate for this student population at Midwestern University is 67 percent,
one might attribute some of this difference to the impact of having a Special Purpose
Ofﬁce that is fully integrated and accepted. The effectiveness of the Ofﬁce of Black
Studies and the community’s acceptance of diversity might also be a response to the

shame that is felt by the university community’s for the racist history of Southern

246

University. Overall, because this institution was once restricted to White males and did
not accept women or minorities, the current members of the university community may
feel compelled to make up for the institution’s discriminatory past.

Even though both universities were relatively consistent in identifying critical
factors contributing to the success of Black collegians, the factors were implemented
differently. For example, at Midwestern University the Student Affairs Professionals
emphasized researching students throughout their time on campus to assist with retention
efforts. These professionals also placed great emphasis on providing abundant
programming speciﬁc to students’ cultural backgrounds. Conversely at Southern
University, these professionals accentuated the development of mutual trust between
those in student affairs and university students. Also those Southern University Student
Affairs Professionals stressed that their student employees were very knowledgeable on
diversity and inclusivity as a result of training and staff development efforts. Although
the professionals at both institutions placed priority on different concepts, both sets of
participants acknowledged Student Affairs Professionals’ contributions to the success of
Black collegians at their respective institutions.

In a second example, at Midwestern University Valuing Diversity through
Collaboration was described as the OMS collaborating with both on-campus and off-
campus entities to promote diversity. This factor was also depicted as on-campus entities
aligning with school systems and other external organizations. At Southern University,
this critical factor reﬂected collaborations between African American students and the
Admissions Ofﬁce, alignments between the Financial Aid Ofﬁce and the Admissions

Ofﬁce, and partnerships between the university and a friend who recruited students from

247

a large metropolitan area. Like the previous example, both institutions participated in

collaborations, yet the partnerships reﬂected different priorities and varied strategies to

target speciﬁc groups for both the alignment and the promotion of diversity.
Implications

Implications for Policy

“In the decades from 19603 through the early1990s, American colleges and

 

universities were subject to political and judicial pressure to increase racial diversity on
campus (Altbach, Berdahl, and Gumport, 1999, p. 450). The demand for postsecondary
access increased as the population continued to expand, so many institutions made
committed efforts to diversify their student populations. During this time, the attrition
rate for Aﬁican American students was high. Later, institutions determined that these
students needed additional assistance to combat inadequate secondary school preparation
and to manage the unwelcoming climates of the PWIs. Although some postsecondary
institutions have experienced success with the African American collegian, the provision
of additional services for this student also plays a role in the growing number of racial
incidents on campuses across the country (Race Relations on Campus, 2004/2005).
Additionally, the services provided for underrepresented students have come under
intense scrutiny, resulting in various restrictions enacted by both state and federal
legislation such as changes in college admissions guidelines that historically broadened
access, changes in student loan programs that often negatively affect low-income
students, particularly, and the ways in which institutions can provide support and
programming for targeted minority groups. All of these increased restrictions have

created barriers for underrepresented college students. Additionally, they have led to a

248

developing schism in higher education where middle and upper income students will
attend four-year institutions and low-income students will be disproportionately found at
community colleges.

My study revealed eight critical factors that contributed to the successful
completion of Black collegians at Midwestern University and Southern University. It also
illustrated how these critical factors can be replicated at similar postsecondary {'1
institutions. University leaders must develop policies that. support the continued pursuit of

equity and access and that encourage institutional climates that support the success of

 

minority students, even in the face of external changes that inhibit access and that make
creating effective learning environments more challenging. Education has always been
viewed as a vital contributor to success (Rhodes, 2001). Now this concept has taken on
even greater importance as American citizens prepare for competition in a global
marketplace.
Implications for Administrators

This study has shown that the president and central administration can serve as
highly visible proponents of diversity; however, if the university community has not
embraced this concept, the impact on Aﬁican American student academic success and
postsecondary graduation can be marginal. Although both institutions’ respondents
acknowledged their leaders’ endorsement of inclusion for African American students,
this critical factor was not weighed heavily or signiﬁcantly highlighted by the
participants. At. the same time, the study clearly showed that administrators committed to
the success of African American students can make a difference in serving as role models

and mentors, in making sure that hiring processes are equitable, in implementing

249

diversity training for their staffs including resident assistants, and in cultivating
collaborations on- and off-campus that supports students in many different ways. The
study shows that creating successful learning environments for African American
students involves effective leadership from presidents to students, and all levels in
between, especially at complex ﬂagship institutions. At Midwestern University, the
president was very blatant, very speciﬁc and very committed to the endorsement of
diversity. Additionally, it was stated that this president expected each member of the
university to embrace this sentiment. Although the Midwestern participants
acknowledged and noted the president’s declaration to diversity, it was stated that the on-
campus units appeared to weigh this construct on the basis of their unit’s priorities and
value system. Those at Midwestern seemingly considered the advantages and
disadvantages of diversity and based their decisions on their unit’s concerns and not
solely on the president’s admonishment to comply. Similarly at Southern University, the
president explicitly included diversity in his institutional plans, yet his actions were not
signiﬁcantly highlighted by the study participants. It appears that members of Southern
University’s community had already embraced the concept of diversity and viewed the
president’s endorsement as another example that reiterated Southem’s stance on
multicultural awareness. The illustration of Presidential Priorities offered by both
Southern and Midwestern leaves the reader with an understanding of this critical factor as
a secondary contributor to an organization that has already determined that diversity is
important. However if the organization has not determined that this value is important,
the “presidential concern” serves as just another proposition in the president’s long list of

priorities.

250

Implications for Faculty

The participants in my study clearly stated that faculty play a major role in the
academic success of African American collegians. Faculty must realize that their
encouragement is needed and integral to the success of the African American student.
Students take their academic cues from their instructors; therefore, if the faculty indicates
that students are prepared and have the ability to succeed, it positively impacts and

encourages them. Conversely, if the faculty member communicates that the student is

 

poorly prepared and does not have the capacity to successfully complete their college
education; this student becomes discouraged and may end up dropping out. Many
strategies that support students emerged in this study including using early warning
systems, giving mock exams, waiving minimum GPA requirements to declaring majors,
using particular instructional strategies, and encouraging student ownership of their
education and their institution. Faculty must be willing to encourage and compliment
students on their academic performances, and serve as resources throughout the Black
collegian’s undergraduate experience.

This depiction tells the reader that faculty must be willing to do more than teach.
They must be ready to act as role models, both in and out of the classroom. They must be
prepared to learn more about their students’ cultural background, to communicate their
“high” expectations for every member of the class, to consistently support students, and
to be accountable for the success of all their students. African American faculty, in
particular, must be prepared to act as sources of support for Black collegians, thereby.
building strong relationships with these students. At the same time, taking these

responsibilities seriously may have costs for faculty in terms of their ability to also

251

successfully accomplish the responsibilities of their roles as research university faculty.
Annual evaluation criteria, tenure and promotion processes, and faculty development
programs may need to take many of these aspects into account if faculty are expected to
be successful in implementing the stated recommendations on behalf of African
American students.
Implication_s for Student Affairs Professionals

As a critical factor Student Affairs was mentioned by the study’s participants, but
it was not highly dominant in the data. However, there were lessons learned for Student
Affairs Professionals. It is important to note that both Student Affairs and
Retention/Support programs are really not distinct because the programs are typically
delivered by student affairs professionals. In order to support African American students,
student affairs professionals must have sufficient knowledge of research practices,
multicultural awareness, and interpersonal communication to better serve this population.
At Midwestern University, the student affairs professionals were actively involved in the
examination of their students, helping students locating a “home” on campus, and the
speciﬁc identiﬁcation and implementation of programming to meet the needs of the
institution’s diverse population. At Southern University, these professionals developed
programming to address and educate the parents on their role in the success of the
student, trained their student employees on issues in multicultural education, and created
relationships of mutual trust with students. This student affairs professional must
acknowledge that increased knowledge and practice must be utilized to fully address the

needs of the entire student population.

252

 

As with the implications for faculty, those in Student Affairs who take seriously
the responsibility to support Aﬁican American student success may ﬁnd their roles quite
expanded. These professionals must consistently demonstrate their value and interest in
the needs of the entire student population, and their commitment to diversity. At the same
time, institutions need to provide sufﬁcient training, staff, and support for these
professionals if they are going to be able to implement quality programming that
addresses student needs across the institution.

Implications for Future Research

This study revealed that more has to be done to facilitate the overall academic
success of the Black collegian. Both Midwestern University and Southern University
showed that public institutions can utilize their resources to address the needs of the
Black student population in a very speciﬁc way.

Future research should address this compelling issue by utilizing a sample that
includes African American students primarily or that combines this student populace with
university personnel. I believe that a similar study could be conducted on African
American collegians who attend community colleges, religious institutions, and
same -sex institutions. Additionally, because the data revealed that White collegians tend
to be unaware of the challenges that confront their Black counterparts, it might prove to
be both interesting and compelling to question White collegians on their ideas
surrounding this critical issue.

Summaﬂ
Although other institutions may feel that they do not have the ﬁnancial resources

to implement my results, ﬁve of the eight critical factors can be implemented without

253

signiﬁcant additional ﬁnancial resources, although institutional personnel would need to
invest increased time, energy and commitment. Speciﬁcally, faculty initiatives, ’
institutional expectations, presidential priorities, student affairs and valuing diversity

through collaboration could be implemented without increasing the budget.

254

APPENDICES

255

 

Appendix A
Good morning,

My name is Vanessa Holmes and I'm a doctoral candidate in the MSU.

Higher, Adult, Lifelong Education (HALE) Program. I am contacting you because I
would like to include you in my sample for my data collection. Speciﬁcally, I would like
to conduct a 45 - 60 minute interview with you. Based on your schedule, I would like to
conduct the interview within the next two weeks. I've provided an overview of my study
to give you some background and context to assist you in your decision-making process.

The title of my study is " Critical Factors Affecting African American College
Completion at Two Selective Research Institutions” The purpose of this study is to
examine the approaches utilized by selective postsecondary institutions to promote ’
Aﬁican American achievement. This inquiry will determine how those critical factors,
utilized by those institutions with high African American college completion percentages,
impact the academic success of this student population.

The focus of this study will be on identifying the pedagogical strategies, administrative
practices, and institutional policies that seem to contribute to the high performance of
Aﬁican American college students, ultimately leading to their graduation.

The premise of this study is built on the concept of examining the tactics used by each
institution, considering the similarities and differences that exist in each institution's
approach and providing information to other institutions that are similar,

The data collection methods will be primarily comprised of interviews held at each site
coupled with the collection of artifacts. Speciﬁcally, administrators, student affairs
professionals, and faculty members will be asked to share their perspectives on speciﬁc
strategies, policies, and institutional initiatives that are employed to heighten the
graduation rate of African American students. I have chosen these individuals because I
presume they may be able to provide the most pertinent and useful information on this
topic that cuts across institutional levels. I will focus more on facilitating the
interviewee's ability to reveal their own history with the challenges facing the African
American student.

During the audio tape recorded interview, each participant will be asked open-ended
questions based on a semi-structured interview protocol about their experiences as

faculty, administrators, or student affairs personnel.

I can be reached by e-mail or at (517) 43295223. I'll look forward to hearing from you at
your earliest convenience.

Thanks in advance,
Vanessa Holmes

256

 

 

 

Appendix B
Critical Factors Affecting African American College
Completion at Two Selective Research Institutions

The college enrollment rate of African American collegians has never been higher, and
most would interpret this as the lessening of some discriminatory practices. Thus, it
would appear that there are more opportunities for African Americans. Ironically, the
college completion rate for this student remains below both the national graduation rate
of all students and the rate of their White counterparts.

This study will determine what the faculty, student affairs personnel, and academic
administrators are doing to facilitate the academic success and college completion of
Aﬁican American students. Your participation in this study will increase our
understanding of the pedagogical strategies, administrative practices, and institutional
policies that seem to contribute to the high performance of Aﬁican American college
students.

This study includes a 45 — 60 minute interview. A follow-up interview may also be
conducted if the researcher believes it is needed. The analysis of data will adhere to the
qualitative tradition and will be carried out by Vanessa M. Holmes. The researcher will
select pseudonyms for the participants and any identifying information will be removed
from the transcripts prior to analysis.

Participation in this study is entirely voluntary. Subjects will not receive any monetary or
other favorable treatment in exchange for involvement in this study. You may elect to
respond to certain questions and refrain from answering other questions.

Based on your consent, the interview will be audio recorded. If at any time during the
interview, you feel that the recorder should be turned off, I will comply with your
request. Throughout the duration of the study, the recordings will be locked in a secure
location. The participant consent form and the audio tapes will not be held in the same
location. Each will be placed in a separate, secure location. Once the study has been
completed, the recordings will be erased. The participant consent form, which includes
your name, contact information, and chosen pseudonym, will be maintained by the
researcher in a secure location until the end of the study, upon which it will be destroyed.

Your identity will remain conﬁdential in all transcribing, analyzing, and reporting of
data. Due to the fact that the study includes face-to-face interviews, participants cannot
remain anonymous. However, your privacy will be protected to the greatest extent
permitted by law. A pseudonym, selected by the researcher, will be used in transcribing,
analyzing, and reporting data. '

As a reminder, if you ever become uncomfortable at any point during our interview, you
may elect not to respond to a question or to terminate the interview.

257

Please notify the researcher if you would like a copy of the ﬁndings of this study, a
bibliography of resources for further reading, or both.

If you have any questions about this study, please contact the primary investigator Dr.
Marilyn Amey, 418 Erickson Hall, Michigan State University, (517) 432-1056. If you
have questions or concerns regarding your rights as a study participant, or are dissatisﬁed
at any time with any aspect of the study, you may “anonymously” contact Peter
Vasilenko, Ph.D., Director of the Human Subject Protection Programs at Michigan State
University. Dr. Vasilenko can be reached by telephone (517) 355-2180, fax (517) 432-
4503, by e-mail irb@ores.msu.edu, or by mail 202 Olds Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824.

 

Vanessa Holmes
25434 St. James
Southﬁeld, MI 48075
(248) 356-1823
holmesv 1 @msu.edu

Your signature below indicates your voluntary agreement to participate in this study.

 

 

Signature of Participant Date

 

Name of Participant (please print)

Vanessa Holmes
25434 St. James
Southﬁeld, MI 48075

(248) 356-1823
holmesv] @msu.edu

258

 

Appendix C
1. The national graduation average for African American college students is 42 percent.
Although your institution has experienced success with this population, what are the
major issues surrounding the low national graduation rates of African American college
students?
2. Why do you think your institution has been so successful with the graduation of
Aﬁ'ican American students?
3. In terms of the African American student and the rest of your student population, what
contributes to this gap in graduation rates?

4. As the , how would you describe what you do or your primary

 

responsibility?

5. As someone with limited knowledge of both your ofﬁce and your university, how
would you describe the culture that exists in your ofﬁce/department/division?

How would you describe the culture at this university?

6. Please give me an example of how your students are impacted by the culture that exists
in your ofﬁce/department/division.

Give me an example of how students are impacted by the university’s culture.

7. Tell me about the nature of your experiences with African American students.

8. What are the different actions or services your ofﬁce/department/division utilizes to
facilitate the college completion of African American students?

9. What evidence do you have of the effectiveness of these services?

10. If someone asked you, “Why do you offer these services to African American

students?” What would be your response?

259

 

11. Who have you partnered with, on or off campus, to increase the success of Aﬁican
American students?
12. At this point in your institution’s history, what can the African American collegian
offer your institution?

13. Who do you believe are positive inﬂuences of Aﬁican American student success on
this campus?

14. In terms'of peer to peer inﬂuence, where have you seen both positive and negative
peer to peer inﬂuence?

15. In what ways have you connected with administrators and/or faculty to promote
African American student success?

16. In your tenure at this institution, what one program, activity, or ofﬁce do you think
contributes the most to the college completion of Aﬁican American students?

17. Is there anything you’d like to add regarding your institution’s community and the

African American collegian?

260

 

 

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