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New Cal State San Marcos initiative will dig deeper to recruit Black students

Student Dre Biddle, right, speaks during a panel discussion at the Black Student Center at Cal State San Marcos on Thursday.
Student Dre Biddle, right, speaks during a panel discussion called “In My Own Words” at the Black Student Center at Cal State San Marcos on Thursday. Biddle is working with faculty and community leaders to recruit more Black students to the university.
(Eduardo Contreras/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

University is collaborating with region’s African-American leaders to offer guaranteed admission to qualified Black students

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When Dre Biddle first arrived on campus at Cal State San Marcos three years ago, he admits he felt uncomfortable as one of the only Black students in his classes.

But he quickly found a community in the university’s Black Student Center, where he is a peer coordinator and has founded his own group, the Black Psychology Student Association. Today, the 20-year-old Biddle is so proud of how the CSUSM faculty and staff have supported and encouraged him, he has gone back several times to his alma mater, Da Vinci Design charter high school in El Segundo, to recruit more Black students to the university.

“I’m happy I came here,” Biddle said. “There are so many opportunities for Black students. I’ve talked to friends at other universities and while they have larger populations of Black students, our student experience here is so unique that it made me appreciate my decision to come here. I don’t regret it at all.”

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Third-year psychology student Dre Biddle, 20, outside the Black Student Center at Cal State San Marcos.
Third-year psychology student Dre Biddle, 20, outside the Black Student Center at Cal State San Marcos on Thursday. Biddle is helping to increase Black enrollment at the campus.
(Eduardo Contreras/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Unfortunately, not enough Black high school students in Southern California are aware of the programs, staff support and leadership opportunities available to them at Cal State San Marcos. Despite an intentional effort to recruit Black students to CSUSM over the past five years, the percentage of Black students on campus has not changed.

Since 2016, the Black student population at CSUSM has hovered virtually unchanged around 3.2 percent. By comparison, Black people make up 6.4 percent of the San Diego County population, according to 2021 U.S. Census figures.

University officials acknowledged this disparity when it opened the Black Student Center in 2017. But when Black enrollment numbers refused to budge in the years that followed, the university and a coalition of Black community, faith, business and education leaders decided to take a deeper look into why Black high school students in San Diego and Southwest Riverside counties are not applying at CSUSM.

The result of that research is an event taking place on campus Saturday morning in the University Student Union Ballroom. CSUSM President Ellen Neufeldt will sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with members of the 1-year-old Coalition on Black and African American Education.

The five-year agreement, which kicks off next fall at CSUSM, will guarantee admission to incoming first-time freshmen and community college transfers who are coalition members who have met the minimum entrance requirements of California State University and other criteria. And once these students are enrolled, they will be supported by programs such as the Personalized Academic Success Services (PASS), Career Center counselors and the Black Student Center, which will also celebrate its fifth anniversary on Saturday.

CSUSM faculty member and Coalition member Betina Wofford-Gilmore said she’s grateful that Neufeldt recognized that the university’s previous efforts to attract Black students were failing and fresh ideas were needed.

“When I looked at the data, not only had the 3 percent enrollment been ongoing for five years, but San Marcos has been growing during that time, too. So how are we not engaging this community?” said Wofford-Gilmore, a five-year CSUSM employee who is a social work lecturer and heads the FACES faculty program. “I’ve been around a long time and I appreciate that the president was willing to sit down and hear about these difficulties and concerns. The beauty of putting something in writing is it holds us all accountable. That goes leaps and bounds. There are other universities not willing to take this step.”

Cal State San Marcos (shown in April 2019) has been among the fastest growing universities in California in recent years.
Cal State San Marcos (shown in April 2019) has been among the fastest growing universities in California in recent years.
(Howard Lipin /The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A mission to serve

Since its founding 32 years ago, CSUSM’s mission has been to improve access to education for students in the diversely populated regions of North San Diego County and Southwest Riverside County. A huge point of emphasis has been to open more doors to students who might not otherwise be on the college track. This has been achieved, in part, through MOU agreements like the one being signed Saturday.

“We don’t have specific enrollment targets for the Black student population, but we are working toward building stronger community-engaged partnerships that advance student diversity and inclusion across demographics, and this MOU is a great example of that,” said Margaret Chantung, chief communications officer at CSUSM. “As an anchor educational institution of our region, we want our student demographics to reflect the region we serve. This is particularly important given that higher education is a key pathway for social mobility for students of all backgrounds.”

In 2013, the Alliance was founded to guarantee admission to students from partner school districts who achieve certain minimum standards. CSUSM was also the first CSU to create an MOU for American Indian students and the first to have a tribal liaison and a campus center that serves American Indian students. The university has also been a Hispanic Serving Institution since 2010.

The university also has committed itself to student retention, since first-generation, minority and low-income college students are more likely to drop out without support services on campus. These programs include EOP, CAMP, ACE Scholars Services and student life identity centers.

CSUSM also has the highest number of student veterans per capita in all of the CSU system. That’s due, in part, to the high number of veterans who live in the area, but also because the campus has a robust veterans center and other programs to help veterans succeed.

Forming the coalition

Wofford-Gilmore said that even if CSUSM has all the tools on campus to help Black students succeed, the message has not been making it out to the Black community, so new avenues of communication are needed.

For more than a decade, CSUSM has partnered with faith leaders in the Black community to host “Super Sunday” events during the month of February to encourage churches to spread the message on the importance of preparing for college. But Wofford-Gilmore said churches are not the only way to reach the Black community so the coalition was formed to create more channels for connection.

The Coalition on Black and African American Education includes representatives from churches, K-12 school districts, chambers of commerce, the NAACP, Black men’s and student leadership organizations and members of the Divine Nine, a council of historically Black fraternities and sororities.

Through a series of quarterly meetings, coalition members have uncovered some of the reasons for the low Black enrollment at CSUSM: Student counselors at regional high schools with larger Black populations aren’t aware of CSUSM’s targeted programs; working Black parents don’t have the ability to attend college-related meetings or tours during working hours or on weekdays; and parents of first-generation college students don’t know how to apply for financial aid or help their children with college applications.

To solve these challenges, Wofford-Gilmore said coalition members are going out into the community to inform families. Workshops for financial aid and college applications will be conducted on evenings and weekends over Zoom. And more efforts will be made to encourage Black parents to begin speaking with their children as early as grade school about the importance of a college education.

“Our claim to fame is serving first-generation students, but only doing it the traditional way, we’re missing an entire population of people,” Wofford-Gilmore said. “We had a work group with parents to teach them about the importance of exposing children in grades K through 6 to college. Exposure is huge. We know that it’s important to not just talk about it. It’s important to see that it’s possible. If I can’t see it, I can’t dream it and know it’s for me.”

Student Dre Biddle, second from right, speaks with others at the Black Student Center at Cal State San Marcos.
Student Dre Biddle, second from right, 20, speaks during a panel discussion at the Black Student Center at Cal State San Marcos on Thursday.
(Eduardo Contreras/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Black life on campus

Biddle said the 5-year-old Black Student Center has become his “home away from home.” Every day from 50 to 100 students will visit the center on the fourth floor of the University Student Union building.

Now in his third year of working at the center, Biddle said he feels a deep passion for helping fellow students feel at home on a campus where they’re underrepresented.

“I want to give back and help Black students find their way and feel more welcome,” he said.

The center is home to 10 student groups and it hosts one or two events each week. Biddle said many CSUSM students live off-campus so the center has become a waystation for Black students to check in with friends between classes and before driving home.

“There’s always a good mix of students with different energies and great conversations,” Biddle said. “It feels like home, everyone is friends with one another and there’s always good vibes. Even though there’s a low percentage of Black student and staff here, you never feel like an outcast or or unsupported. As a Black student you’re usually scared about engaging with professors and administrative staff, but once you break that initial ice, it’s really easy.”

Biddle and Wofford-Gilmore encourage high school students considering college to attend the free Black Student Center anniversary celebration on Saturday. A free continental breakfast will be held at 9:30 a.m. and a free lunch will follow at noon. Events include the MOU signing, workshops by campus administrators and faculty, the unveiling of the Black Student Center Oral History Project and a Black alumni panel for current students and campus tours for guests. Parking is available on campus. Advance registration and proof of vaccine or negative COVID-19 PCR test is required along with face masks when not drinking or eating. Details at csusm.edu/bsc/5thanniversary.html.

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