My brothers' keeper: University of West Georgia program focuses on creating a brotherhood of successful Black male students

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Oct 20, 2005 by Ernest Holsendolph

CARROLLTON, GA.

Dressed in crisp white shirts and ties, a group of African-American men are in a deep discussion about Black manhood. The discussion is led by Dr. Said L. Sewell III, an assistant professor of political science at the University of West Georgia. The students, all freshmen, live together, counsel together and reinforce one another in the effort to learn, achieve--and graduate.

Called the West Georgia Learning Community, the students under Sewell's tutelage are learning to trust one another, almost as brothers, and then are learning to care about one another's success. These are the rudiments of cooperation that so many other students take for granted.

Sewell, a Texas native who also happens to be a Baptist preacher, is clear on his objectives.

"This program is about the mentorship of brothers supporting one another. We have high expectations of them, and we are telling them not to lower their expectations," he says.

Sound principles. But aren't they part of the perspective of all students?

Not necessarily for Black males, according to scholars. For too many Black men, setting foot on a college campus is like emerging from the airport as a stranger in a foreign land. As educators have learned in opportunity programs for the disadvantaged, some students, especially young Black men, need help adjusting to several factors in college life, specifically the admissions process, dealing with peers, interacting with teachers and authority figures and organizational skills.

Compounding the problem, says Dr. Michael J. Cuyjet, a specialist in counseling at the University of Louisville, is that research suggests that males are less likely to seek help when they run into trouble.

"We find that women are more likely to collaborate than men," Cuyjet says. "Women are more likely to get help from others. Men are conditioned to go it alone."

The hands-on cooperation of this particular group of young men is evident in many ways. One of the students, for example, has a tendency to be late. Other students "adopted" him and call him well before hand to make sure he is out of bed and underway in time to make his appointments.

What makes these young men unique is that they represent a cross section of the school's Black population. They were not selected by grades or academic records. They are 25 volunteers out of the 174 African-American men admitted in the class of 2009.

The group's activities include a class with Sewell on Black male issues and another with a different instructor on critical thinking. Along with these self-contained studies, the students take courses in American history, English and communications with the rest of the general student population.

The West Georgia Learning Community comprises one of the latest attempts in an anti-affirmative action environment to bridge a problem that has concerned educators not only in Georgia but across the country over the past two decades--how to help Black men get in step with other students when it comes to college attendance and college graduation.

The problem of lagging Black male achievement is a national one. But Georgia has become a leader in trying to redress it, mainly through the resourceful efforts of the state's board of regents and its African-American Male Initiative (see Black Issues In Higher Education, July 15, 2004). The initiative began five years ago when Dr. Stephen R. Portch, then chancellor, obtained funds from the Legislature to address lagging achievement in the 34-college system. Dr. Thomas C. Meredith, his successor as chancellor, followed through with additional funds and programs in the various colleges.

It costs approximately $25,000 to run the program, which operates out of the EXCEL Center for African-American Male Research, Success & Leadership.. The center has received funding from outside sponsors such as the UPS Foundation, Georgia-Pacific Foundation and Wal-Mart just to name a few. Sewell says they are attempting to link the program with the Board of Regent's funding this year.

There are many such programs, large and small, on other campuses in other states. Clemson University has the Call Me Mister program to train Black male teachers. The Pacesetters Scholars Program is run from Okaloosa-Walton Community College in the Florida panhandle. And the University of Nebraska is home to the Melvin W. Jones Scholars Community.

Like any bold effort, the West Georgia program has drawn its critics, who mainly ask why such a narrow population group should be singled out for special favors when there are problems of lagging students throughout the educational system.

The university's response is that the state has examined the figures and found that Black men specifically have had special problems in the education process. Follow-up studies show that in Georgia, Black male students trail other groups from elementary through high school. And in a state where Black males comprise approximately 16 percent of the general population, they are only 7.2 percent of the college population. Black women, on the other hand, make up 15 percent of Georgia's college population. Moreover, college graduation rates showed dramatic differences: Forty-seven percent for White females, 42 percent for White males, 35 percent for Black women and just 21 percent for Black men.