Cal State Seeks to Boost Its 5.8% African American Enrollment

Campus presidents of the California State University system held a forum with African American community leaders in Los Angeles on Thursday to find ways to boost black students’ enrollment at the 23 campuses.

In 2004, only about 5.8% of the nearly 320,000 undergraduate students enrolled in the Cal State system were African American, the university reported. In contrast, 8.1% of all K-12 public school students in the state are African American, according to the state Department of Education.

“We’ve got to do a better job in the black community,” said Matthew Jenkins, a member of the California State University Foundation, a university organization that provides scholarships. “We can’t blame anybody but ourselves, and it’s got to begin at home.”

The meeting was prompted by university concerns that too many minority students, particularly African Americans, weren’t meeting the academic standards required for entry into Cal State schools. Potential students are not completing the so-called A-G sequence of high school courses needed for admission, and others need higher grade point averages, said Clara Poles-Fellows, a spokeswoman for the university.

Of the nearly 8,000 black students who applied for freshman admission for the 2003-04 school year, 4,576 were admitted and nearly 2,800 enrolled.

Many high school teachers and counselors do not tell students about entry requirements, said Horace Mitchell, president of Cal State Bakersfield.

“A lack of awareness is a big part of what’s going on,” Mitchell said. “Kids don’t know what they’re not exposed to.”

Audience members and campus presidents agreed that more black males in particular should be encouraged to pursue college. Of the roughly 22,500 African American students enrolled in Cal State’s undergraduate and graduate programs, just under 8,000 are males, Cal State system Chancellor Charles Reed said.

Nearly 100 community members attended the discussion at the West Angeles Cathedral in South Los Angeles. Eight campus presidents attended, as did Reed.

The meeting also focused on a new study by Harvard University that found that only 57% of African American high school students graduated with their class in 2002, compared with 78% of whites and 84% of Asians. According to the report, released Wednesday, just 47% of African American students in the Los Angeles Unified School District graduated with their high school class.

“We can’t let that continue,” Reed said. “We can’t have the next generation of community leaders drop out, drop out of our community, our economy, drop out of America.”

John Wilson, who is in charge of the Education and Enrichment Ministry at West Angeles Church of God in Christ, said his church offers a positive example of community involvement, with a mentoring program that gets 97% of its participants to enroll at colleges.

Thursday’s meeting is to be followed by sessions that focus on other minority groups.

Latinos account for 26.5% of Cal State undergraduates, compared with their statewide K-12 enrollment of 46%. Whites make up 43.6% of undergraduates and 32.5% of K-12 schools. Asians constitute 15.7% of Cal State undergraduates and 8% of K-12 students.