EOP 40th Anniversary Conference: Bridging Past to Present Challenges and Opportunities

1. Bridging EOP’s Past to the Present and Future:Challenges, Opportunities, Responsibilities40th Anniversary EOP ConferenceTom Browntom@tbrownassociates.comwww.tbrownassociates.com

2. 1968 February—three South Carolina State College students killed and 28 injured trying to integrate a bowling alley in Orangeburg, SC. March San Francisco State students, faculty, and staff strike to protest racial discrimination, the Vietnam war, the draft, and an “irrelevant curriculum.” April—Dr. Martin Luther King assassinated

3. 1968 Spring—Senator Robert Kennedy joins Cesar Chavez and 8000 UFW members and calls Chavez, “one of the heroic figures of our time.” June—Bobbie Kennedy is assassinated in LA after winning the California presidential primary. June 17—Associated Students at Cal State LA provides $40,000 to the Black Student Association (BSA) and United Mexican American Students (UMAS) to fund a “Minority Student Program.”

4. 1968 October 2—300 Mexican students massacred by security forces at Tlatelolco ten days before opening of Mexico City Olympics. October 1968—San Jose State students, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, raise gloved fists after winning gold and bronze in 200 meter race.

5. 1969 April—California Legislature passed Bill 1072 which establishes EOP at California State Universities. June—Stonewall Inn, Greenwich Village, NY—gays and lesbians fight back against government sponsored system of persecution. The rebellion marks the beginning of the gay rights movement in the US and around the world. November—500,000 people gather in DC for the largest Vietnam War protest to date.

6. Despite entering with academic and economic disadvantages, CSU data indicated that EOP students persists to graduation on par with system-wide averages… CSU website

7. In the struggle for freedom and justice, we must remember how far we have come.We must also remember how far we have to go.Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (D-NY)

8. It can’t be over as long as we have young African American boys and girls who are not able to get the quality education they need, or are still being held back because people are looking down on them. Colin Powell August 23, 2008

9. Forty percent of new students are the first in their families to attend college.(National Center for Education Statistics, 1996, 1998, 2001)Often, they are not as academically or socially prepared as others and are prone to drop out. Watson Scott Swail, President Educational Policy InstituteChronicle of Higher Education, 1/19/04

10. 77% of high income students 54% of low income students graduate in six years. The Education Trust, January 2005

11. Disparities in race and income persist in who enrolls in college and racial gaps remain in who completes degrees….National Center for Public Policy, December 2008

12. Institutions are far more likely to attribute attrition to student characteristics than to institutional characteristics.What Works In Student Retention, 2004

13. What happens to students after they enroll frequently has a more powerful impact on whether they stay and achieve their goals or leave.Tinto 1987, 1993

14. Mexican-American high school students and their white peers desire equally to go to college, but the former see more obstacles in their path. McWhirter, Torres, Salgado, & Valdez Oregon State study, 2007

15. Most of the Latino achievement gap is the result of what happens after they begin postsecondary studies. Latinos in Higher Education: Many Enroll, Too Few Graduate PEW Charitable Trust, 2002

16. African American students are more likely to find faculty members remote, discouraging, and unsympathetic.Exploring Distinctions in Types of Faculty Interactions Among Black, Latino/a, and White College Students. Cole and Anaya, 2001

17. Even the most non-traditional students can be transformed into powerful learners through in- and out-of-class academic or interpersonal validation.Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

18. EOP provided me with an environment of support and what I now know to be “validation” that could I could be whatever I wanted to be….Dr. Mario Rivas, CSUH EOP Alumnus

19. More than anything, EOP provided me with a sense of belonging and belief in my own ability to succeed. I don’t think I would have been successful without the competent caring personnel in EOP at Cal State San MarcosSusana Gonzalez, 1997 EOP Alumna Cal State San Marcos

20. Conservative elites, challenged by the postwar rise of a college educated majority, have put that majority back in it’s place… Christopher Newfield, UCSBUnmaking the Public University, 2008

21. Conservative Disposed to maintain existing views, habits, conditions; Resistant to change; Opposed to change; Reluctant to accept change or new ideas. Webster’s Third International Dictionary

22. Their weapon has been the “culture wars” on both higher education and the progressive trends it fosters…and has led to the abandonment of egalitarian and democratic impulses… Christopher Newfield, 2008

23. As more students of color and the poor have prepared themselves for the opportunities of state universities, those universities have become richer whiter and richer. Chronicle of Higher Education October 2008

24. The average institutional grant to high income students is larger than the support offered to their low income peers. Gene Nichols Chronicle of Higher Education October 2008

25. La lucha continua, siempre!

26. When first admitted to EOP I had mixed feelings and didn’t know if I should be embarrassed.After experiencing a few days I not only felt proud to be admitted to EOP, I felt it was a blessing….Tirhas Yohannes, CSUN EOP

27. I never cared about going to college until I realized how hard the “real world” would be without an education. The EOP 4 Bridge Values—respect, responsibility, attitude, maturity—helped me succeed. Professor Omatsu helped me realize my potential.Solomon Miranda, CSUN EOP

28. The Ramirez Family CSU Chico EOP Carmen—Civil Engineering Jesus—Mechanical Engineering Francisco—Mechanical Engineering Ignacio—Construction Management Teresa—Talent Search at UC Berkeley Lorena—completing a Master’s in Psych Augustin—”the baby” graduated in May

29. As long as education is viewed as a contest between competing groups…we will have problems. Cookie Newsom Director of Diversity Education & Research University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Chronicle of Higher Education, January 2004

30. Not a “zero sum” game, with winners and losers…. Compete Com = together Petire = to seek

31. Create Unum from the PluribusOne from the Many Educate ducare—to lead

32. The majority of new students entering are underprepared for college-level academics. But students are not alone; colleges, too, are underprepared…

33. Most faculty have no particular training to teach underprepared students.Strengthening Pre-Collegiate Education Carnegie Foundation, 2008

34. We build beautiful campuses, • We hire distinguished faculty,  We develop a challenging curriculum… then the “wrong” students show up! Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President Kennesaw State University

35. Redefining “excellence…”

36. The New American University measures its academic quality by the education its graduates received rather than by the academic credentials of the incoming freshman class….ASU: A New American University

37. Many non-traditional students want their doubts erased about their being capable of learning….This is especially true for first generation students, Hispanic and African American students…. Laura Rendon, 1994

38. Hope a better predictor of first semester college grades than SAT scores. CL Snyder University of Kansas HOPE… believing you have the will and the way to accomplish your goals, whatever they may be.

39. My first day, I looked around this beautiful, lush, rich campus and thought, “What the hell am I doing here?” It’s only a matter of time before they realize that I’m not one of them. I am not rich. I don’t have a loving family to go home to on holidays. [Only] foster parents who don’t want me, a stepdad in prison, and a dead mother...

40. And, I am not smart. I scored 580 on my SATs….” Professor Tammy Ramos BA and BS, St. Mary’s College of California JD, Notre Dame Law School

41. Optimism a better predictor of first-year college grades than SAT scores or high school grades. Martin Seligman University of Pennsylvania OPTIMISM… Having a strong expectation that things will turn out all right, despite setbacks and frustrations.

42. The next time you tell Tammy’s story, tell mine:I scored 700 on my SATs and I have a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, Davis…. Dr. Robert Urtecho, Dean Reedley Community College (CA)

43. EOP Success Stories Eric Guerra, Legislative Director, EOP Cal State Sacramento Dr. Jamillah Moor, President, Los Angeles City College, EOP Cal State Sacramento

44. What you need to know about someone is whether s/he will keep going when things get frustrating. Achievement is not just a function of talent, but also of the capacity to stand defeat. Emotional Intelligence Goleman, 1995

45. There are within us seeds of who we might become. Thich Nhat Hanh

46. The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate "apparently ordinary" people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners: it is in making winners out of ordinary people. K. Patricia Cross, Professor of Higher Education EmeritaUniversity of California, Berkeley

47. There comes that mysterious meeting in life when someone acknowledges who we are and what we can be, igniting the circuits of our highest potential. Rusty Berkus

48. For all those whose cares have been our concern…the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, the dream shall never die…. Senator Ted Kennedy