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

Black Achievement Equals State Economic Success

President Dr. Beheruz Sethna, a Columbia-trained specialist in business education, heads the University of West Georgia, an institution of approximately 10,000 students. Sethna signals in his biography on the campus Web site his sensitivity to the issues of minorities. His profile describes him as, "the first person from any ethnic minority to become president of a predominantly White or racially-integrated university or college in Georgia. Also, the first known person of Indian origin ever to become president of a university anywhere in the United States." The implication is there is much catching up to do if Georgia expects to have an educational system that looks like the state's population.

Moreover, as a business specialist, Sethna ties together Black achievement and the prospects for state economic success. In his written introduction to the program, he says:

"While the University of West Georgia is committed to the success of each one of its students ... we focus on a critical statewide and nationwide need, and that is the success of African-American males. We are in pursuit of a strategy and methods that increase significantly the retention and graduation rates of African-American males because that group is so under-represented in the set of college graduates, and because the economic and social success of our state and country depends upon their success."

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Enrollment Rates

Comparing college
participation for
18-to-24-year-old
African-American
males and females

       MALE   FEMALE

1992    21%     29%
2002    26%     36%

SOURCE: AMERICAN COUNCIL
ON EDUCATION, MINORITIES IN
HIGHER EDUCATION ANNUAL
STATUS REPORT, 21ST EDITION

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Educational Attainment

Degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions for
Black students by gender: 2001-02

Associate Degrees             67,337 (M: 34%; F: 67%)
Bachelor's Degrees           116,624 (M: 34%; F: 67%)
Master's Degrees              40,373 (M: 29%; F: 71%)
Doctoral Degrees               2,397 (M: 29%; F: 71%)
First-Professional Degrees     2,397 (M: 38%; F: 62%)

* Calculated by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education sing data from
the National Center for Education Statistics.

Note: Reported racial/ethnic distributions of students by level of
degree, field of degree and sex were used to estimate race/ethnicity
for students whose race/ethnicity was not reported. Detail may not
sum to totals due to rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION
STATISTICS, DIGEST OF EDUCATION, STATISTICS, 2003.

Note: Table made from bar graph.