Name change doesn't alter mission, just makes it more inclusive - Science, Engineering, Communications, Mathematics Enrichment teacher training program

Black Issues in Higher Education, July 10, 1997 by Kendra Hamilton

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - SECME Executive Director Guy Vickers knows his board of directors raised some eyeb\rows last year when it voted to change the name of the organization.

For twenty years, the acronym SECME had stood for "Southeastern Council for Minorities in Engineering." Last year, after hours of debate, the organization's official name became "Science, Engineering, Communications, Mathematics Enrichment."

So was the action a symbolic white flag in the face of the virulence of the national debate on affirmative action? Did it signal a retreat from the organization's original mission - to increase the numbers of underrepresented minorities in engineering fields?

"Absolutely not," Vickers says, eyebrows flying together with an almost audible snap. "If that had been the case - and I told the board this - I would have resigned on the spot."

Actually, a range of factors prompted the name change. First of all, there was the organization's phenomenal growth.

"We were expanding to many new areas who just didn't feel they were part of the family," Vickers said.

The District of Columbia and Maryland weren't much of a stretch. But once SECME crossed the Sabine River into Texas - well, that was another matter entirely.

"The superintendent at Houston Independent School District asked about that very directly. He let us know they were not a part of the Southeast," said Vickers.

In addition, with SECME's expansion across K-12 programs, the group had begun to outgrow the "minority" part of the name.

"We had begun impacting entire school populations - Blacks, whites, Asians, everyone," Vickers explained, as he took a break from his duties overseeing the student mousetrap car competition at the University of Virginia.

"Our mission is still targeting underrepresented minorities and that's our primary mission," he continued. "Our school systems have to have at least 30 percent underrepresented minority children. Now, SECME kids work in teams, and if there's a SECME team that does not include any under-represented minorities on it, then we do have a problem with that. But most importantly, we haven't been afraid to become inclusive."

Lastly, Vickers said he was becoming more and more concerned about the fund-raising issue.

"As I said to the board, when we started, most of our funding was for minorities in engineering. Well, that's shifting now. The emphasis is less toward engineering specifically and more toward science, mathematics, engineering and technology fields," he noted.

By way of an example, Vickers cited designer Tommy Hilfiger, a "homeboy" from Vickers's old upstate New York neighborhood. Hilfiger's donation of $10,000 to the organization this year, according to Vickers, represented both a way of giving back to his market as well as a long-range investment in technological training for people who might eventually come to work for him.

"Of course," Vickers added, "I would be less than candid with you if I said the debate over affirmative action played no role. Particularly with federal grants, there's lots of changes going on."

But Vickers does not consider the vote a retreat, but rather a pre-emptive strike. And he firmly maintains change has its positive side.

"Maybe I'm sticking my neck out by saying this, but when I first came on board in 1989, I had a few teachers come to me and express their concerns about having Asians involved in the program, Hispanics involved in the program. And I was very clear about my position," he explained. "I'd say, 'I hope you're not telling me that you're telling our youngsters that the only way for them to succeed is to shut out competition, because that's not the real world.'

"We have to teach our children that they can win regardless of who's in the ring," he continued. "That they can learn to work together, communicate and win."

Vickers doesn't like the word "multiculturalism." He prefers "diversity."

"My view is that we have to teach our kids to value themselves, but also to value and appreciate diversity. Just look at where technology and the global society are taking us. Sixty percent of Exxon's jobs are going to be overseas," he noted.

The SECME model, which stresses rendering difference irrelevant through teamwork, is a model that can turn today's tuned-out kids into winners.

Then, in another of his characteristic lightning-quick shifts, Vickers pointed suddenly at two children walking past his perch on the steps of University of Virginia's Memorial Gym.

"See that?" he said, indicating two boys, approximately age 10, one Asian, one African American, heads close together, deep in conversation. "That's what SECME's all about."