[Posted Dec. 26, 2007]

California Initiative Aims To Increase Success Rates Of Black Students

 By Gene C. Johnson Jr.
Special to the NNPA from the Los Angeles Wave

LOS ANGELES (NNPA)—African-American faculty and staff at West Los Angeles College are in the process of creating a networking and support system at the campus, in an effort to retain and increase the dwindling number of Black students at the school.
    Called the Umoja Black Student Movement, taking its name from the Swahili word for unity, the nascent organization’s advisory council recently held its organizational meeting.
   “In order for [African-American students] to be successful, they have to know where they’re coming from in order to know where they are going,” said Patricia Banday, director of matriculation services at the college. “Part of the problem has been our students did not know where they were coming from.”

   With that, a group consisting of mainly African-American professors and educators are in the process of formulating an academic support system under which African-Americans will be taught basic skills such as math and English—along with courses in African-American culture and history.
    According to Marty Turner, who also works in matriculation services, significant academic disparities exist between African-American students and their white counterparts. “In California, the percentage of adults who have a college diploma is lower for Blacks at 11 percent than for Whites at 21 percent,” he said.
    To make the initiative more well-rounded, Banday said it will also include counseling, tutoring and peer advisement as well as a mentoring program involving “all facets of the community,” including business and political leaders.

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