Cover Storv
Black Ink
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and Graduation of African-American Students at UNC
be aware of the general college requirements
because obviously some of them are not.
Problems also arise when a student has too
many courses. Half-way decent advisors should
explain to the student that eCrtain course combi
nations are detrimental both academically and
physically.
“I’m not convinced that black freshmen re
ceive the best advice as first semester students
regarding course selection and academic load,”
Dean Woodard said.
Carolyn Cannon, assistant dean of academic
services, said that sometimes the problem is not
the adviser, but the student.
“One of the most difficult problems I encoun-
terwith black students is that they have very little
flexibility about what courses they choose to
take. They read the majors’ manual and develop
a mindset about the courses they want. I find it is
very difficult to get people to listen to someone
else’s advise.”
Dean Cannon also believes that black stu
dents mistrust white advisers,
“I often find that black students don’t go to
see their advisers because they automatically
suspect that the adviser won’t help them be
cause they’re black. 1 think they ought to at least
keep their appointments with them to see
whether the adviser is going to help them or
not.”
Black students have an alternative to the
regular Universityadvisingsystem. The Office of
Student Counseling’s (OSC) primary objective is
to assist African-American and Native American
students with their academic goals. OSC is di
rected by Associate Dean, Rosalind Fuse-Hall
and Assistant Dean, Harold Woodard. The deans
counsel students on all types of programs rang
ing from preregistration to personal problems.
Minority Advisors (MA’s) in the office are up-
>erclassmen who serve as peer counselors and
tutors for incoming freshmen. Each African or
Native American student is assigned an MA.
MA’s visit freshmen at least twice a month and
report back to graduate assistants who in turn
report to the OSC Deans.
OSC also sponsors Scholastic Advancement
Sessions (SAS) to tutor freshmen in almost all
courses at the University. In addition, the office
holds Academic Skills Sessions designed to help
freshmen adjust to college by giving them tips on
notetaking and time management.
Despite all of OSCs work, it too has prob
lems.
“We marginalize our support services,” said
RosalindFuse-Hall. “We dont put enough money
into the program to provide the kinds of support
the kids need. OSC is basically staffed with three
people, yet we see probably about 1500 stu
dents. No other advisers have a workload com
pared to ours. I would like to have money and
:iiore professional staff to make the office more
efficient.”
Inadequate high school preparation
High schools traditionally have offered col
lege preparatory or advanced courses to stu
dents who want to go onto higher education.
However, almost no high school curriculum can
prepare a student for the demands of collegiate
rigor. Consequently, almost all students enter
college with some educational deficiency—-some
have more deficiencies than others. Trends indi
cate that rural counties and smaller counties with
limited resources have fewer college prepara
tory courses. As a result, students from these
high schools, black or white, may not be well-
prepared for college.
“I don’t believe African-American students
fully understand how unequally North Carolina
prepares its students for college,” Dean Woo
dard said. “If you examine the degree of diffi
culty of a student’s high school work, you’d find
a great degree of variation from student to stu
dent. The result being that students enter UNC
with impressive grades, but they haven’t all been
prepared at the same level.”
Students entering UNC may have difficulty
adjusting to large classes and taking notes effec
tively. Students many also find it hard to keep up
with the vast amount of reading that accompa
nies college courses. And writing papers in col
lege always proves to be a problem because
many high schools stressed grammar basics rather
than content in the English courses.
InsUTJctors expect students to have certain
minimum skills when they enter UNC. They look
for everyone to be basically on the same level.
Students cannot be blames for a poor educa
tional system created the deficiencies within
them. However, a problem arises when a student
does not utilize the academic support services
on campus in order to make up for the inade
quate high school preparation.
If you can’t keep up in class, then get some
help.
“Black students have to accept the responsi
bility of doing the extra work necessary to meet
an instructor’s expectations,” Dean Woodard
said. “They may fall behind if they fail to take the
initiative to work to overcome any deficiencies
they may have.”
The College of Arts and Sciences has devel
oped a wide range of academic support services
to help UNC students. Academic support serv
ices include tutorials in math and chemistry. The
Writing Center, which works under the English
Department, offers tutorial assistance to students
who want to strengthen their writing skills.
The Learning Skills Center (LSC) located in
Phillips Annex, also addresses problems that
students may have with adapting to collegiate
adacemics. LSC provides services in several ar
eas that mainly target students in General Col
lege. The center offers a number of programs in
cluding mini-courses in speed reading and com
prehension.
Although LSC provides valuable services to
the University, few black students actually use
the center. Dr. Martha Keever, assistant LSC
director, said that black students do not use the
center because they’re afraid people will think
they’re not intelligent.
“There’s a stigma attached to the learning
skills program,” Dr. Keever said. "Some people
feel that when you go there for speed reading or
other help, then there’s something wrong with
you. Black students who use the center would
be highly aiticized since people think they’re
not supposed to be at the University anyway.”
The only truly dumb are those who are fazed
by what other people say.
But We’re Gonna Make It
Statistics on the retention and graduatbn
rates of African-American students are not en
couraging—yet numbers do not tell the whole
story. The statistics are dangerous because they
might deter other intelligent black students from
attending UNC, which would only perpertuate
the problem of low minority enrollment. It is im
possible to pinpoint precise reasons for the rela
tively low number of black students who enter
the University because African-American are
indeed a diverse group of people. And despite
the discouraging statistics, there are black stu
dents all over UNC who are excelling academi
cally. There are blacks all this campus, who
graduate in four years. There are black students
all over campus, who make positive contribu
tions to the University. The number of black
UNC students is irrelevant—numbers are some
times a psychological mechanism designed to
keep people oppressed. Fourteen hundred
blacks doesn’t seem like many, but it can be
enormous if all of them can graduate. A few in a
minority can have the same voice as a majority,
if the group works together toward acquiring
common goals. Since 1938, people have con
stantly told us that we do not belong at UNC-
Chapel Hill, but no matter what they say, “We’re
gonna make it.”
Debbie Baker is a senior journalism/pre
law major from Raeford, N.C
“We’re Gonna Make It”