Black male enrollment down
By Jason Kosareff
Daily Forty-Niner
A new task force has been commissioned
by the Educational Opportunity Program office to reverse the decline of
black male student enrollment to Cal State Long Beach, said Naomi Uyeda,
coordinator for EOP admissions.
"The institutional racism that exists impacts
their interest in higher education," said Errol Parker, a community activist
and chairman of the task force.
Out of 30,011 students at CSULB, black
male students number 553, or 1.8 percent, according to Institutional Research
department statistics.
In fall 1997, 613 black male students enrolled
at CSULB, in fall 1998, the number fell to 594.
The task force is "a very important development,"
said Maulana Karenga, chairman of the black studies department and head
of the President's Task Force on Multicultural Education and Diversity.
In all, self-identified black undergraduate
students number 1,735, or 5.8 percent of CSULB undergraduates, according
to Institutional Research.
The total enrollment of declared nonwhite
undergraduates at CSULB is 12,654, the largest portions being Latino and
Asian Americans.
Undergraduate students who declared white
and unknown/other as their ethnicity number 10,295, according to Institutional
Research.
This year is the first year the task force
has been called into action, said Yvette Moss, an EOP recruiter.
"We are informing the African-American
community of the opportunities here at [Cal State] Long Beach."
"We need to give more time, money and personnel
to locating men within the black community with varied intellectual interests,"
Karenga said.
Too much emphasis is put on recruiting
black males for their athletic abilities and not their academic abilities,
Karenga said.
Recruiters need to build "a camaraderie
and community for learning" to interest black males in coming to CSULB,
he said.
Because of Proposition 209, a California
anti-affirmative action law passed in 1996, "the institution cannot now
specifically recruit a certain group," Parker said.
"But a task force can do a lot."
The immediate goal of the task force is
to recruit as many black males as possible, Parker said.
The task force is aiming for 150 more black
male college students over the next year, Parker said.
The task force committee will make recommendations
to the university, Long Beach Unified School District, Long Beach City
College and parents of black male high school seniors, Parker said.
"We need to diversify our outreach programs,"
Karenga said.
The task force is made up of local ministers,
Boys' and Girls' Clubs, Job Core and community activists, Moss said.
"We don't know what is affecting [black]
student's decisions to attend college or not," Uyeda said.
"I don't think there is any one reason."
Among distractions such as drugs, violence,
broken families and athletics, which deter some black males from applying
to CSULB, is the "long and cumbersome application process," Parker said.
Sometimes students get discouraged with
the process, he said.
"Problematic grade schools" and inefficient
instruction and counseling make it difficult for black males to be eligible
or have an interest in college, Karenga said.
A majority of students are at an advantage
and have educational resources, which eases their transition into college,
Moss said.
"A lot of students [at CSULB] come from
economically advantaged homes."
However, black students "can't always get
the information they need at their high school," Uyeda said.
If black students are from historically
low-income families and are first-generation college students, then "often
parents can't assist them with getting information" about applying to college,
she said.
"There is a socioeconomic problem in black
communities due to government policies that certainly effect the available
population for going to college," Karenga said. |
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