I recently came across this article: From Cellblock to Campus... when reading a monthly publication "The Chronicle of Higher Education" that my Director regularly passes around the office. This particular article grabbed my attention for several reasons.... First because it makes reference to university admissions processes collecting background information on applicants and secondly because it's a common hot topic in higher education to create pathways to success and mentoring programs to increase college/university enrollment, retention, and graduation rates for minority males.
Over the years we've heard news programs and politicians quote statistics that indicate there are more black men in prisons across the US than in colleges. This article addresses some of those statistics which thankfully are no longer true and overviews some of the true challenges young Black and Hispanic men face today. Of course, considering it's title, the main purpose of the article is to prove that there are many young men out there who may have committed crimes but have served time and paid their debt to society and learned from these mistakes and while they may want to move on and put this crime behind them, so many barriers prohibit them from doing so and moving on. A great success story told in the article is that of Walter Fortson who was arresed on drug charges at the age of 25 but served his time and during his six years in prison he was fortunate to meet an associate professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey who tutors inmates and runs a re-entry program that helps felons go from prison to college. What an awesome program! I would love to learn more about this program and others like it that exist. Fortson is now an honor student in his senior year at Rutgers and he aspires to attain a PhD and inspire other young men.
Coming from the university admissions perspective, I understand the need to ask for background checks on people with criminal backgrounds. This office and the Office of Student Conduct is responsible for the safety of all students on campus and must monitor who we are admitting. I would certainly hope, however, that they're fully evaluating the situation to be fair and provide an opportunity for a second chance to someone who has served their time and/or has been rehabilitated. It would be wonderful if on our campus a mentorship program for incarcerated students to later enroll existed, especially considering our close proximity to a state prison.
What I found most compelling about the article reminded me of a conversation I had with Dr. Hayes a few weeks ago about the push-out of students from school. Yes, the high school drop out rates are high for minority males but it's because they're not receiving the support and the resources they need in school or oftenly not at home either. They are essentially being pushed out, not dropping out. One doctoral candidate is quoted in the article as saying that "when a suburban white boy acts out, people say 'Oh, boys will be boys...' and they are allowed to grow out of those immature behaviors like smoking weed or getting in fights but in urban areas the penalty for those infractions is quite severe. They get expelled and the expectation of being a bad child continues." The article talks about zero-tolrance (of bad behavior) schools having high-stakes testing which provides and incentive to push out lower-performing students to raise overall test scores. According to the article, the ACLU found that some schools use "selective discipline" to keep low-performing students out of school on testing days. This is absolutely appaling but I'm sure it happens! I agree that just as the article states, these youg men are criminalized before they've done anything wrong. When they don't do well in school there aren't many opportunities for them and these zero-tolerance policy schools seem to better prepare them for prison then for college because the policies just dispose of them. When students can't compete in school or for jobs, the criminal justice system absorbs them.
It's really quite an impactful article but my take-away from it is that we absolutely need to advocate for young minority men who face so much adversity. There are an increasing amount of programs to support these young men on many levels: personally, professionally, academically. I believe the programs match mentors with young men will be most influential to them. This is one organization I've heard of that seems to be amazing: 100 Black Men of America, INC: http://www.100blackmen.org/home.aspx they have 116 chapters in cities all across America and ar working to build relationships and mentor future leaders who are successful in all areas of life. Donate, be a mentor, or at least follow them on Twitter....
#100BlackMen
#Collegiate100
#100Youth
Over the years we've heard news programs and politicians quote statistics that indicate there are more black men in prisons across the US than in colleges. This article addresses some of those statistics which thankfully are no longer true and overviews some of the true challenges young Black and Hispanic men face today. Of course, considering it's title, the main purpose of the article is to prove that there are many young men out there who may have committed crimes but have served time and paid their debt to society and learned from these mistakes and while they may want to move on and put this crime behind them, so many barriers prohibit them from doing so and moving on. A great success story told in the article is that of Walter Fortson who was arresed on drug charges at the age of 25 but served his time and during his six years in prison he was fortunate to meet an associate professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey who tutors inmates and runs a re-entry program that helps felons go from prison to college. What an awesome program! I would love to learn more about this program and others like it that exist. Fortson is now an honor student in his senior year at Rutgers and he aspires to attain a PhD and inspire other young men.
Coming from the university admissions perspective, I understand the need to ask for background checks on people with criminal backgrounds. This office and the Office of Student Conduct is responsible for the safety of all students on campus and must monitor who we are admitting. I would certainly hope, however, that they're fully evaluating the situation to be fair and provide an opportunity for a second chance to someone who has served their time and/or has been rehabilitated. It would be wonderful if on our campus a mentorship program for incarcerated students to later enroll existed, especially considering our close proximity to a state prison.
What I found most compelling about the article reminded me of a conversation I had with Dr. Hayes a few weeks ago about the push-out of students from school. Yes, the high school drop out rates are high for minority males but it's because they're not receiving the support and the resources they need in school or oftenly not at home either. They are essentially being pushed out, not dropping out. One doctoral candidate is quoted in the article as saying that "when a suburban white boy acts out, people say 'Oh, boys will be boys...' and they are allowed to grow out of those immature behaviors like smoking weed or getting in fights but in urban areas the penalty for those infractions is quite severe. They get expelled and the expectation of being a bad child continues." The article talks about zero-tolrance (of bad behavior) schools having high-stakes testing which provides and incentive to push out lower-performing students to raise overall test scores. According to the article, the ACLU found that some schools use "selective discipline" to keep low-performing students out of school on testing days. This is absolutely appaling but I'm sure it happens! I agree that just as the article states, these youg men are criminalized before they've done anything wrong. When they don't do well in school there aren't many opportunities for them and these zero-tolerance policy schools seem to better prepare them for prison then for college because the policies just dispose of them. When students can't compete in school or for jobs, the criminal justice system absorbs them.
It's really quite an impactful article but my take-away from it is that we absolutely need to advocate for young minority men who face so much adversity. There are an increasing amount of programs to support these young men on many levels: personally, professionally, academically. I believe the programs match mentors with young men will be most influential to them. This is one organization I've heard of that seems to be amazing: 100 Black Men of America, INC: http://www.100blackmen.org/home.aspx they have 116 chapters in cities all across America and ar working to build relationships and mentor future leaders who are successful in all areas of life. Donate, be a mentor, or at least follow them on Twitter....
#100BlackMen
#Collegiate100
#100Youth
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