Clemson Best Practices Conference
Focuses on Black Student Achievement
By Kimberly Davis

Clemson, S.C.
In an academic climate where affirmative action continues to come under attack, creating a campus environment to help African-American students succeed was on the minds of educators and administrators at the fourth National Conference on Best Practices in Black Student Achievement at Clemson University.

Nearly 200 participants from every region of the country — all concerned and challenged with the preparation, recruitment, admission, retention and graduation of African-American students — spent three days on Clemson’s upstate South Carolina campus last month participating in workshops, listening to speakers and watching presentations designed to aid them in their task.

According to Clemson University President James F. Barker, the intention of the conference was to share tactics and strategies not only to boost Black student enrollment, but also to graduate those Black students who do enroll. Barker says Clemson, a land-grant institution with roughly a 7 percent Black student population, hosts the conference because their administrators are also looking for ideas. The university, which integrated in 1963, does not have all the answers, he says.
“Those of us who had the privilege to go to college now have a responsibility,” Barker said during the conference banquet. “Our work has never been more needed.”

Also discussed at the conference was the issue of creating a full and enriching experience for African-American students. Dr. Charlie Potts, vice president of student affairs at Indiana State University, says “student affairs is about going where they are when they’re not in class.”

And although the university, located in Terre Haute, Ind., has a Black student enrollment of more than 10 percent, Potts says there are still many challenges. 

“We know that we’ve got to create community, we’ve got to foster and be real about it,” Potts says, “or those [minority] students won’t feel at home.”