The low numbers of African-American males seeking higher education is a problem that has been talked about, written about, and studied. Now, some colleges and universities seem willing to put their money where their mouths are.

Most institutions, according to Dr. Walter Allen, professor of sociology at the University of California Los Angeles and a leading researcher on Black students in higher education, have been resistant or ineffective in increasing minority representation. "But when there are programs, the impetus for those programs is usually individuals of color from the underrepresented groups.

Without that kind of push and pressure, the schools would not in all likelihood make adjustments and provisions for dealing with the needs of underrepresented students."

The impetus for one such program is Dr. Freeman Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and architect of the Meyerhoff Program -- a program designed to try and do something about the disparities in education among African-American males.

When created in 1988, the aim of the Meyerhoff program was to increase the number of African Americans males who earn doctorates -- and ultimately improve the number of minority college faculty in engineering, medicine and the sciences.

Because other initiatives have come under legal scrutiny for discrimination, the program was opened to African-American women in 1990 and other ethnic groups in 1996. But the primary focus is still on the issues and concerns of African Americans -- men, in particular. Hrabowski is proud of his success. "This year, I have a basketball player graduating with a 4.0 grade point average in biology -- the first in the history of the university. And a student [is] on his way to Duke University to an M.D./Ph.D. program. Another [is] on the way to Harvard and five going to Stanford in engineering. All were Meyerhoff students and about sixty percent of them are male."