President Barack Obama said, “If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.”
This quote was one of many written behind photos picturing students arm in arm smiling and laughing eagerly into the camera. The photos were placed as a center piece on a round table, where parents sat with their teenagers waiting to start the workshops.
This marked the fifth annual Harmabee High School Conference held at CSUN by Harambee Student Association (HSA), an organization dedicated to recruiting African-American high school seniors to accept CSUN as their choice of college.
HSA is the only organization on campus that is solely dedicated to promoting higher education within the African-American community, said Niki Dixon director of Educational Talent Search and co-founder of the HSA.
These families come from different parts of Los Angeles, many strangers to each other. The pictures were there to provide a sense of belonging, a feeling that the HSA works actively to provide to their African-American organization members.
The idea of a family is what they use to target students who are thinking about attendingCSUN and to retain the students already enrolled.
“The conference is community based, in order to make the parents and children more comfortable,” said Dixon.
“We want to build that family type of environment, it allows us to have a support system,” said Ryan Mason, president of HSA. A support system that Mason believes helps keep students in college.
This year marks the student association’s second year on campus and is comprised of about 40 CSUN students.
“We needed a student group on campus where our students could feed into. We wanted to provide them a place where these students feel like family while providing them crucial leadership skills,” said Dixon.
“Some of my colleagues and I noticed that there was no effort on behalf of the campus being made to bring more black students,” said Gigi McGuire, assistant director of Student Outreach and Recruitment Services.
“How could we do this with out being in violation of Proposition 209? We had to be very creative, the efforts that we are doing now are more out of a creative way that would not get us in trouble, and we don’t want to break the law,” said McGuire.
The passage of Proposition 209 in 1996, an amendment to the California constitution, made it illegal to have affirmative action on college campuses.
While the election of the country’s first African-American president has signified one of the greatest accomplishments within the African-American community, as the country celebrates Black History Month, it also takes place in a bittersweet context.
With President Obama’s newly signed $787 billion economic stimulus package, some hope of alleviation to the problems facing the country exist, although the tangible effects of the stimulus package will take time to be seen.
Incorporated into the economic stimulus package is a $500 increase in the maximum Pell Grant for eligible low-income college students who are making $5,350 in 2009.
The consequences of the nation’s economic crisis have resonated with students and faculty at CSUN.
“The lack of education and resources is an issue facing the black community,” said Eboni Blanche president of the Black Student Union. “Many of us come from environments where things are really scarce or it’s just that there is no one there to inform us about what is actually available. This has always been a problem and is one that continues to exist.”
At CSUN in the fall of 2007 out of about 4,100 students that were admitted, about 600 of them were black students. Out of those students about 200 did not make it past the first year according to the Office of Institutional Research at CSUN.
“Resources are a big problem, even before the economy took a downturn it has always been a challenge for our students to get higher education,” said Dr. Tom Spencer-Walters, chair of the Pan African Studies department at CSUN.
“With out money our students can’t come to school. There is a fear among African-American educators that a good proportion of those students who will be rejected from the California State University will be minority students,” said Walters.
On a larger scale, events such as the “CSU Super Sunday” that began in 2006 by the CSU as an effort to recruit more African-American students onto the 23 campuses and to provide more information about resources available to them.
During this event presidents of every CSU campus attend a predominantly black mega-church and speak for a few minutes to family members and students.
Regardless of all the issues affecting the black community John Wilson, Education Enrichment Director of the West Angeles Church of God and Christ, thinks that despite the economic downturn and because there is so much effort being put on educating the black community that more students will eventually attend college.
“It is one thing to be accepted, but you got to learn how to stay here,” said Michael Odom a junior psychology major and member of HSA.
Retention is the second and possibly the most important issue facing the community, said Mason.
Currently the graduation rate for a black student within six years of entering college is 30 percent as opposed to whites with 45 percent according to a CSU report.
“Don’t give up, it pays off in the end. Keep going, don’t stop. Out of seven of my friends I came here from high school I am the only one left,” said Mercedes Robertson a sophomore CTVA major and a HSA member.
“It can’t be said enough. You got to keep on fighting,” said another HSA member Arielle Osei, a junior kinesiology major.
For the HSA members, being involved in working to teach students about higher education helps them stay motivated.
“Unity is what keeps us together,” said Moranda Glasper, a sophomore communication major.
One method that HSA members use to stay focused is holding study sessions to keep each other on track, said Odom.
“For now we are trying to build a family type of environment, create a support system, study groups and working with other organizations,” said Mason. “That is all we can afford to do, since we do not have the funds to do more.”
Other efforts have been taken place to continue the recruitment and retention for African-American students, said Dixon.
With efforts such as the African-American Outreach Initiative being implemented by the CSU system, Super Sunday, and organizations such as the Black Student Union, and the HSA there has been an increase in black student enrollment.
Between the fall of 2004 and 2007 black student enrollment increased to 3,650 students on CSU campuses according to the CSU Analytic Studies report.
“You make your life. Because at the end of the day there is no one else but me and no one else is going to pay your bills. Who cares how long you take just as long as you finish,” said Jarred Causley, a music major who also works for outreach and recruitment.
