Raleigh, North Carolina
The Pen
of St. Augustine’s College
“Small Enough To Know You, Large Enough To Inform You”
OCTOBER, 1985
Noted pycholo^t
Author lectures at St. Aug’s
By Monique R. Robinson
September 18,1985 was not just
another assembly for students
and faculty here at Saint
Augustine’s. Instead, it was a day
that most of us will remember as
motivating, inspiring, educa
tional and immensely positive. It
was the day that noted
psychologist and professor, Dr.
JaqueUne Fleming imcovered the
myth and revealed what she
refers to as “facts” concerning
the existence and the effec
tiveness of the 105 historically
Black Colleges and Universities
in the United States.
Dr. Fleming is a graduate of
Harvard Univ^ity where she
majored in psychology and
minored in anthropology. She has
spent time studying the role of
women in Kenya; she is a consul
tant psychologist with the United
Negro College Fund; and she has
spent a considerable amount of
time studying standardized test
scores. She had also done studies
in the area of motivation.
In 1976, after years of delibera
tion and pondering on the subject
of blacks in black colleges. Dr.
Fleming took a “break” from her
job as adjunct professor of
psychology at Barnard College to
research and later become
author of the book, “Blacks in
Colleges.” In this book, Dr. Flem
ing provided data that clearly
demonstrated, beyond a
reasonable doubt, proving
several myths to be not only
false, but she found these conclu
sions were based only on the
materialistic point of view.
For example. White Colleges
are better qualified to produce
competent students because the
library in which they study is
adequately equipped as oppo^
to predominantly Black institu
tions which are considerably
smaller and understaffed.
Dr. Fleming proved that this
was certainly no basis to judge
Black Colleges as “wastelands
that served no profound or real
purpose and should be disregard
ed”.
What Dr. Fleming describes as
“fact” is:
• Black colleges produce 40 per
cent of the Nation’s graduates.
• Graduates of Black colleges
are more intellectually developed
than white-coMege graduates.
based upon different measures
such as verbal skills, grade point
and the ability to argue.
With these facts, Dr. Fleming
proceded to answer the question
of how can black colleges pro
duce these people.
Simply, Dr. Fleming stated,
“White institutions place more
faith in buildings instead of the
essentials, whereas black institu
tions are concerned with learn
ing.”
In addition to her study. Dr.
By Terrance Milo
The Career Development
Center strongly believes that
students must be taught the pro
cess of career decision-maUng
and appropriate job search
strategies, therefore, a wide ar
ray of eductional service pro
grams are offered to students and
alumni.
The Career Development
Center has many service areas;
the first area is;
1. Career Counseling: Students
will be encouraged to obtain
career counseling in their
Freshman year and continue
throughout their tenure at the col
lege. The goal of career counsel
ing is to help students learn about
themselves, their interests,
values, skills, personal assets,
career goals, as well as, how to
plan and initiate effective job
search strategies.
2. Cooperative Education:
Cooperative Education is an
educational concept which incor
porates academic work with on-
the-job training to provide a more
meaningful and valuable total ex
perience for the college student.
Cooperative Education is a three-
way partnership between the stu
dent, his employer and the col
lege.
3. Job Development: Housed in
the Career Development Center
is a Job Development Program
funded by the Department of
Education, Special Needs Pro
gram, Title III. This program is
designed to assist stu^nts in ob
taining part-time, temporary and
summer employment^
Fleming also shared her “secret
for tenture” which stated in
essence, is what a person needs to
possess to become a success, Dr.
Fleming incorporated the
“tenture” into five basic fin
dings:
1. You have to test your
assumption of the world by col
lecting data on yourself. This can
be done institutionally or in
dividually to determine the way
you interact, find out if this is cor
rect and/or functional; or if you
4. Career Planning Course: A
more formalized effort has been
taken to career development by
the establishment of a career
planning course for the Saint
Augustine’s student. The purpose
of this course is to teach students
to become creative, competitive
and knowledgeable career plan
ners.
5. Employer Contacts for
Graduating ^niors and Alumni:
encounter trouble, your percep
tions are inaccurate.
Dr. Fleming offered examples
for each tenure for the purpose of
clarity; for instance, Black Col
leges were unsuccessful because
they duplicated white schools
with less money. Solution: The
Carnegie Corporation gave three-
quarters of a million dollars to be
allocated to study physical beings
(libraries, cafeterias, dor-
matories), what Dr. Fleming
found was that white students
Each year various of companies,
government and private agen
cies, school systems and other
organizations are scheduled on
campus to interview graduating
seniors and alumni.
It is the responsibility of the
Center to close the gap between
“Academic preparation” and the
“world of work.”
Saint Augustine’s College is
fortunate to. have a Career
were intellectually stagnated,
while Blacks continued to pro
gress, looking beyond physical in
adequacies.
2. People are more important
than things; friends are impor
tant assets, especially in time of
stress; mentors and/or teachers
to encourage you; participate
with other people in activities
outside the classroom, practice
coping with different per-
Contlnued on Page 13
Development Advisory Board
which is composed of Division
Representatives, the Alumni Af
fairs Director, the Marketing and
Public Affairs Director, three
local business representatives
and the Director of the Career
Development Center. The pur
pose of this committee is to form
a tripartite linage between the
College, the business community
and the student.
CareerCenter