"The only problem -- if there is a problem -- is that we're competing with these huge salaries," he says.
Brown's program is one of many that have been developed over the past decade that, in the words of Deborah Carter, head of the Office for Minorities at the American Council on Education, "are beginning to bear fruit" in terms of the degree attainment among people of color.
"[No] single program is important, but a whole flock of folks [running programs] are getting two or three people in each year. That demonstrates what can be done," Brown says.
The anti-affirmative action atmosphere, which is beginning to creep into New Jersey, worries Brown. The major state program under which he operates, the Equal Opportunity Fund (EOF), has had level funding for the last few years. About 60 of the school of engineering's 580 incoming students are from the EOF program.
Sensing the shifting political mood, Brown changed the name of the program to Engineers of the Future. He has been amused to notice that the new EOF program has had calls from professors who had never before shown any interest in it and who are now proposing joint projects with his Students.
"We're going to have to market [our programs] a little differently," Brown says. "I think programs nationally have to do that."
COPYRIGHT 1998 Cox, Matthews & Associates
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
