Black men few in college

For Student Government Association President J.R. Robinson, attending college was never a question.

"During the final semester of my senior year, I was between a few different colleges and did some visiting to help with my decision," Robinson said. "After visiting this university, I decided that this was the place for me."

As a black man, Robinson's enrollment made him part of an even smaller minority: black men enrolled in college.

Recent data indicates more blacks are attending post-secondary institutions than ever before, but that a long-standing gap between the number of black males and black females attending those institutions is growing.

U.S. Department of Education statistics show a 38 percent increase in total black students in higher education from 2000-2007. Further statistics demonstrate a 8.6 percent decrease in black males enrolled in all higher education from 1980-2007.

Last year, the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning founded a special task force to research the gender gap issue and suggest possible solutions. According to the group's findings, junior and community colleges in Mississippi reported in 2008 a total of 34,322 black students, of which only 32 percent were male; senior colleges and universities recorded the same percentage, with black males making up 8,452 of a total 26,049 students. According to this report, recruitment and retention of black male students is "one of the greatest challenges" handled by college administrators nationally.

Robinson has his own solutions to the problems of staying in school experienced by many black males. "I definitely think that my student involvement on campus has been one of the

most important factors of me remaining enrolled here," he said. "I would also say some of the people I have met along the way have helped mentor and groom me – faculty, staff, and older students."      

This parallels something presented in the IHL's report: a recommendation to "Expand African- American male student's involvement in student organizations and campus activities."

The rise of black female attendance as compared to males has been a trend for about three and a half decades, according to "Black Undergraduates From Bakke to Grutter," a 2006 study by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. The study indicates that women outnumbered men by 14 percent at predominately white schools and by 12 percent in historically black schools in 2004, as compared to 3 percent and 6 percent respectively in 1917. The study found black males who do attend college are usually from more affluent backgrounds than their female counterparts, and also maintain higher levels of intellectual self-confidence.

The findings confirm a gender gap that widens with each passing year. The gap "continues to widen in many areas of access, achievement, and important college ... behaviors. This portends even lower attainment rates for black males in the future," said Walter R. Allen at the time of the study's publishing. Allen is a professor of education and sociology at UCLA.

The study also shows an increase in college preparedness for both males and females. Between 1971 and 2003, African-American freshman who required remedial coursework in English, reading, mathematics, science. and foreign language studies decreased by an average of 9 percent. USM Dean of Students Eddie Holloway says that being prepared for post-secondary level coursework is one of the primary factors in keeping students enrolled and graduating them.

"There is certainly a direct correlation between preparation and graduation," Holloway said.

USM ranks first in African-American students enrolled among in-state predominately white institutions, and 39th nationwide in the annual Diverse Magazine Top 100. According to cappex.com, in 2007, 29 percent of Southern Miss students were African-American, as compared to 21 percent at Mississippi State and 14 percent at the University of Mississippi.

"We're located in a fairly urban area," Holloway said, "well-positioned between Jackson, Meridian, Gulfport, Biloxi, and New Orleans." Southern Miss also ranks 13th in black history students and 18th in black psychology students.          
J.R. Robinson is aware of the declining black male enrollment at his university. "I am using my position to keep not only just black men, but everybody enrolled," he said. Robinson has worked with the provost's office to implement the Early Alert system,  which is a retention system designed to alert faculty and staff of a student's progress (or lack thereof) early in the semester.