The award-winning magazine Diverse Issues in Higher Education has recognized The City University of New York as a “Champion of Diversity” for the CUNY Black Male Initiative, an ongoing effort to improve enrollment, retention and graduation rates of African-American males and other underrepresented groups.
     Since 2004, the CUNY Black Male Initiative has expanded a program begun at Medgar Evers College to projects at 17 CUNY colleges and The Graduate Center. Led by Executive Director Elliott Dawes, Esq., BMI activities aim to help black males “improve academic performance in the K-12 system, boost college enrollment and reduce high rates of joblessness and incarceration,” the magazine’s editors said in the Sept. 4 issue.
     “Even though minority enrollment in college has increased over the last 20 years, the gap in participation between white and black high school graduates has widened,” said University Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, who expanded the initiative in response to the declining representation of black males at CUNY.
     Though targeted towards black males, BMI’s programs – in line with CUNY’s mission to ensure opportunity for all — are open to all academically eligible students, faculty and staff without regard to race, gender or national origin and are intended to serve as models to improve educational outcomes for all students. They include Queens College’s outreach program for high school students interested in education careers; College of Staten Island’s early-intervention project providing tutors, mentors and teachers from underrepresented groups to function as role models for students starting high school, and other mentoring programs focused on eighth-graders and students at risk of dropping out of GED programs.
     Based on 2007 data, the most recent available, some 31% of students enrolled University-wide were white, 27% were black, 26% were Hispanic and 16%, Asian/Pacific Islander.
     The magazine’s “Diversity Champions” reflects “the promise and vision committed organizations and individuals have put forth to bring about an inclusive U.S. society,” its editors said in the September citation.