Yesterday we invited every two and four year college and university in the state to a conference featuring Dr. Shaun Harper, assistant professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania. Shaun was on the cover of Diverse Issues in Higher Education last fall for his work on Black men. I invited him because in Arkansas, one out of four Black men who start college finish in 6 years- that's it. We are actually a little above the state average, but way too low. So we invited Shaun to offer some ideas, and we thought we'd share with the state.

The event was very educational. He provided some tangible steps we can take in order to improve Black male student success. I think one of the key points was finding ways to engage the unengaged, and that will mean working differently with this group. He also favored unstructured mentoring programs so that students can find persons whose interests match their. We currently have a structured program, but have not been successful with finding enough mentors, so some of us have multiple students.

We also had great news coverage. Below is a story that was aired on the local Fox affiliate.

http://www.fox16.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=c784463f-f0c9-4747-945c-0a7c9f70e0fc

The Prez