CSU
chancellor reaches out to black community
Joseph Serna
Online Forty-Niner
Assistant City Editor
Only 7 percent of students enrolled in the California State University system
as of Fall 2005 are black, according to CSU Web site statistics.
With a visit to the predominately black church, West Angeles Church, in Los Angeles,
CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed hoped to spread the word to increase that number.
“
I truly believe that education is the cornerstone of a healthy society,” Reed
told the congregation. “That’s why I want to make sure that
we are getting all of our future students on track as soon as possible.”
While there are many avenues to spread that message, Reed’s goal was to
get to the parents, who in turn can educate their children on the necessary steps
to be admitted into a CSU.
“
The parents need to know what the student needs to do to go to college,” said
Clara Potes-Fellow, the CSU spokeswoman. “The best way to reach
out to the African-American community is the churches.”
More than 23,000 black students are enrolled in the CSU system at some level
only a fraction of the minority community enrolled in the CSUs. Potes-Fellow
said a number of high schools in Los Angeles do not offer the proper classes
to fulfill CSU enrollment requirements. She said Reed is also making steps to
amend that problem.
“
We…have a commitment to student success, which means we’re
interested in more than just opening the doors,” Reed said.
“We
will have succeeded not simply when we
admit more African-American students,
but when we can help them all the way
through to the degree.”
The congregation was very supportive of Reed’s message, Potes-Fellow
said. Representation of underserved communities in the state’s universities
has been a problem for some time she said.
“ We don’t need to focus on the problems anymore, we need to focus
on the solutions. We’re not going to solve it in three to five years, but
we need to start at some point,” she said.
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