Greetings Facebook Family: I wish everyone a wonderful Labor Day weekend! In addition, I want to provide you with a reminder notice of the Options Without Walls LLC’s Spring 2014 Symposium and Black College Tour General Interest Meetings. The Meetings are September 14 and 28, 2013 at 9a.m. at the Northwest Regional Center of the Community College of Philadelphia. See the link. Just as an additional reminder as to why we offer our programs, some data is provided below. The 6 year graduation rate (years 2003 – 2009) for full time students seeking a Bachelor Degree in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania was 65.7 percent (The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, 2013). This means that over 1/3 of all full-time students, regardless of race, did not obtain the credential they seek after 6 years. The national college graduation rates for black students remain worrisome. The completion rates were either stagnant or dipped slightly over a recent six-year period. For instance, 40.6 percent of blacks in 2010 completed an undergraduate degree within six years, compared with 41.2 percent in 2004 (National Journal, 2013). This means that far more than half of Black students are not receiving their college degree six years after they begin pursuit of it. According to The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (2013), in 2007, just over 5 percent of all full-time faculty members at colleges and universities in the United States were Black. Empirical evidence suggests that this statistic has not changed much in the last 6 years. Financing an education is a tremendous barrier. A household with $53,000 in outstanding student debt -- which is the average college loan balance for a family headed by two people with 4-year degrees -- will be about $208,000 poorer over a lifetime than a similar household with no debt, according the public policy research organization Demos (as cited by the Huffington Post, 2013). While Demos argues that rising student loan debt is due in part to state funding cuts, one might argue that escalating tuition rates are prodded by federal and state grants and loans, in turn leading to additional student loan debt (Ramirez, 2013). According USA Today (2012) student loan defaults rose for the sixth straight year. If you sift through the data above, you may agree with my contention that seeking a college education without a strategic plan may work out but the probability of it happening is ominous. In my view, it is more likely that without strategic planning and supports most students will not graduate from college and that their educational experience will culminate in an accumulation of significant student debt. In addition, African American students may not have one Black faculty member in their four years in college (really 6 year college experience) unless they attend a HBCU (go to the school of your choice – I am not pushing one type of school over another), which could potentially speak to a cultural disconnect at some point in the classroom. Our group has identified at least 15 college access and persistence barriers. Some barriers we identified that impede African American students from reaching their academic goal are not included in the related literature. Therefore our symposium and tour seeks to educate and inform students about these systemic impediments and help them (and their family) begin to start the process of developing a strategic plan and support system for college access and persistence. Passivity and ignoring these realities are ingredients for disaster. The mindset of “oh things will just workout” is highly discouraged. Strategically planning for the cognitive and non-cognitive realities of what at times can be a hostile industry for traditionally underserved students are strongly recommended. I did not address the data regarding Black Males. Much work is needed there as well. So, I offer this information and an invite you to our interest meeting to hear about our programs and strategic approaches for academic success and college persistence. The program consists of meaningful workshops and culminates in a Black College tour that includes some of the premiere HBCU’s in the country (see link). I hope that after reading this document that you will not choose passivity as a response. I ask you if you are not interested to pass this to others who may benefit. We believe we can help. Thank you for reading this communication, and again, enjoy your holiday. Sincerely, Anthony Driggers, Ed.D. REFERENCE Black Faculty in Higher Education: Still Only a Drop in the Bucket, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Retrieved from jbhe/features/55_blackfaculty.html August 30, 2013 (2013, August 4) Average Student Loan Debt Could Cost A Household $208,000 Over A Lifetime: Study,Huffington, Retrieved August 30, 2013 from huffingtonpost/2013/08/04/student-loan-debt-lost-wealth_n_3701087.html August 30, 2013 Ramirez. R, (2013, May 29), How Some Colleges Are Improving Black College Graudation Rates. National Review, How Demography Shapes National Agenda, Retreived from nationaljournal/thenextamerica/education/how-some-colleges-are-improving-black-graduation-rates-20120924 August 15, 2013 Student Loans Cost Borrowers Four Times Their Principal Value in Lost Wealth Review, Independent Journal Report: Retrieved from ijreview/2013/08/69917-report-student-loans-four-times-their-cost-in-lost-wealth/ August 30, 2013 Marklein M.B, Upton, J and Kambhampati .S, College Default Rates Higher than Grad Rates, USA Today, , Retrieved from usatoday/story/news/nation/2013/07/02/college-default-rates-higher-than-grad-rates/2480295/ August 30, 2015
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 21:11:34 +0000
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