Bridge to Learning

I have the privilege of directing San Diego State University’s summer “bridge” program--an academically rigorous program that is guiding 205 freshmen over the bridge from high school to college by introducing them to the requirements of university study.

Because our program serves African-American, Latino, Filipino and Southeast Asian students, the right side of the political spectrum mocks our “political correctness,” and accuses us of being “thought police.” Meanwhile, the left side assures us that we are doing the right thing, but questions our effectiveness. It’s a season of vigorous debate, strong advocacy and scrupulous evaluation.

Despite the skeptics, I think it’s our best season yet.

Every morning I walk past the murals on SDSU’s “wall” and am proud to know that summer bridge alumni painted some of those powerful images. These painters felt they were engaged in an affirmative action.

Last year, the program donated a California sycamore to landscape the new Student Services Building. At the tree-planting ceremony, a student said, “Someday, I will come here with my own son. I will point to this tree, and I will say, ‘ Mi hijo , because of my family’s hard work, I came here. I promise that you can too.”’ That’s an affirmative action.

For all the fury on the right and the hand-wringing on the left, we in the summer bridge program are not really concerned about “correctness”--no matter which adjective precedes it and we’re certainly not in the business of policing people’s thoughts. Our concern is encouraging students to think deeply and originally. We help students clarify who they are and what they will become.

Every time we challenge, reassure, coach, encourage and empower our students, we commit an affirmative action. And we uphold a venerable SDSU tradition.

BRUCE KEITEL, Academic Services Coordinator, Educational Opportunity/Ethnic Affairs, San Diego State University