Atlanta — April 16, 2003

Six pilot initiatives aimed at encouraging more African-American males to attend college and increasing their participation and retention in the University System of Georgia were approved today (Wednesday) by the Board of Regents, at their meeting held at the University of Georgia.

The regents approved the awarding of $60,000 – $10,000 each to six USG institutions - for a variety of programs aimed at high-school to college-aged African-American males, including mentoring initiatives, summer bridge programs, retention efforts and facilitating information sharing regarding successful strategies throughout the University System. The funds will be used to support programs and institutional goals that will impact the enrollment of African-American males in the 2003-2004 Academic Year.

The pilot program funding emanates from the University System of Georgia’s African-American Male Initiative (AAMI), a USG Special Funding effort allocated by the Georgia General Assembly in the Fiscal Year 2003 budget. A comprehensive statewide effort, the AAMI is aimed at expanding the participation and retention of Black males in the state’s 34 public colleges and universities. Currently, the ratio of African-American females to males in the USG is 2:1. In fall 2002, Black women comprised 68 percent of the University System’s Black enrollment – 17,068 Black males, compared to 35,873 Black females.

“These six pilot initiatives will go a long way in allowing us to assess effective strategies which impact the college aspirations, participation and retention of African-American males in the University System,” said Arlethia Perry-Johnson, associate vice chancellor for Media and Publications, who chairs the AAMI for the Board of Regents. “The campuses and programs targeted to receive these funds all have extensive experience in working with African-American males. We need them to evaluate and document their success so their initiatives can be replicated and expanded with other institutions.”

These six institutions and programs were awarded $10,000 each in AAMI Pilot Initiative funding:

• Albany State University: to support the institution’s summer bridge programs for African-American students and to foster information sharing regarding their success in achieving the third-highest retention rate in the University System of Georgia.

• Atlanta Metropolitan College: to support the College’s long-running Saturday Academy/PREP initiative, which identifies and cultivates under-prepared students in the K-12 pipeline and enhances their preparation for college admissions and matriculation;

• Coastal Georgia Community College: to support President Dorothy Lord’s 10-year-old Coastal Georgia Minority Outreach Program, a community-college partnership which targets dozens of rising seventh-grade African-American males living in Brunswick and neighboring counties along the southeast Georgia coast for mentoring and tutoring activities aimed at enhancing their college preparation and reducing the rate of high-school dropouts;

• Fort Valley State University: to support the launch of FVSU’s three-week, pre-collegiate summer residential institute for a small sample of under-prepared (limited admissions) students, focusing on reading, writing, mathematics, study skills, time management, library skills and other areas in which they need additional preparation. The end goal is to develop more academically, socially and culturally competitive students who will be successful in Fall 2003 and beyond.

• Savannah State University: to provide funding for the institution’s successful PREP and TRIO programs and to help launch their new Summer Pipeline Program, aimed at developing under-prepared students for college matriculation. Special efforts will be made to transition African-American male students from these pre-college programs into the university and to continue enhancing the institution’s recent increases in the SAT scores of first-time freshmen.

• The University of Georgia: to support Deryl Bailey’s “Project: Gentlemen on the Move,” a mentoring and academic-support program which has been implemented successfully in three states. The goals of PGOTM are to develop and nurture academic and social excellence in African-American male adolescents. More specifically, the program aims to increase the number of college prep and advanced college courses successfully completed by program participants, thereby equipping them with the necessary academic and social skills they will need to be successful in institutions of higher learning.

All six of the AAMI Pilot Programs will be evaluated via reports that will reflect:

• Specific programmatic initiatives to which the funds were directed;
• How many African-American males were impacted by the funding;
• Evaluation and measurement strategies used to assess the effectiveness of the initiatives;
• How the program’s successes are being shared with other University System institutions; and
• How and at what cost the programs might be expanded/replicated to have additional impact on the institution’s and the System’s goals.

The Board of Regents will have additional recommendations put forward for their consideration next month, when they are expected to hear a final report on the University System of Georgia’s African-American Male Initiative at their May board meeting.

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