BI What’s New

Pennsylvania State University’s College of Health and Human Development has opened a new  Center for Human Development and Family Research in Diverse Contexts to train scholars to look at what impacts families in the context of culture, race and socioeconomic status. The center’s mission is to enhance the lives of families by developing partnerships between local, national and international researchers, policy makers and program managers.
With input from the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute of The United Negro College Fund, the center  will examine the education status and attainment of African Americans from preschool through adulthood.
“The goal of the collaboration is to merge efforts for development of community-based projects and nationally recognized, multi-institutional collaborative research programs involving young faculty members and post-doctoral researchers at [historically Black colleges and universities] and other minority-serving institutions,” says Dr. Linda Burton, the center’s director.
Those goals will be achieved through a combination of summer programs, short courses and workshops for faulty and postdoctoral researchers.
For more information, contact Burton at (814) 863-7108; or visit the center’s Web site at http://www.hhdev.psu.
edu/centers/divcont/
divcontexts.htm.

Bowie State University has established a Center for Success program designed to identify qualified student applicants who would be excluded by the university’s traditional admissions processing.
According to the program’s director, Dr. Abdul K. Bangura, there are three primary exceptions in the traditional admissions process that the program seeks to address: students who have earned good grades but require help with standardized testing; those who demonstrate excellent test-taking skills but lack the corresponding grade-point averages; and students who achieve good grades but present skewed test scores, such as high quantitative but limited verbal scores.
 “Test scores and grades are very valuable predictors of success in college, but they don’t always come in neat formula combinations,” says Dr. Wendell Holloway, Bowie State’s president. “We have an obligation to take a closer look and wherever we should, we will allow for unique combinations of skills.”
The university may, by law, admit up to 15 percent of its entering class outside the traditional admissions process. For this new program, however, admission will be granted by invitation only. This year, 10 students were admitted to Bowie State through the program.
For details, contact Loretta Hardge in the university’s public relations and marketing office at (301) 464-6511.

Austin Peay State University’s Office of Multi-Ethnic Services has instituted a new Recruiting Excellent African American College Hopefuls, or REACH, program in an attempt to lure more Blacks to its campus.
According to Eleanor Graves, the director of the office, the program has a three-step process. First, recruiters go to places like churches and barbershops, in search of students who might be interested in attending the school. Then, current students make personal phone calls to those recruited students who express an interest in the university. Finally, the recruited students and their families are invited to the campus for a visit.
“If they connect with us at all those levels, they’ll feel more comfortable,” Graves says. For more information, contact the Office of Multi-Ethnic Services at (931) 221-7004.