Author: mopress

New Position to Aid Student Retention
By Bart Shirley

Multicultural

Services is seeking to fill the position of assistant director, formerly known as coordinator of

student retention, who will be in charge of student success programs.

Student success

programs are efforts by the Multicultural Services office to aid all freshmen in their pursuit of

graduation, said Megan Palsa, assistant director of Multicultural Services. They offer a year-long

program that provides transitional help to new students.

“(The new administrator will)

look at all the data to see where we’re headed, ” Palsa said. Retention has long been a concern for

Texas A&M. Though 16 percent of the student body is composed of minority students, A&M still has

trouble shedding its homogenous image in the minds of prospective students, said Mark Weichold,

associate provost for undergraduate programs and academic services.
“Historically, from retention

and graduation rates, students of color are lower,” Palsa said.

Minority students are

statistically more at risk than white students of never crossing the stage at Reed Arena, Palsa said.

Sixty-five percent of minority students entering A&M eventually graduate, compared with 77 percent of

white students.
“Clearly, there’s no one answer,” Weichold said. “Some of the answers are not

just academic. It’s going to take the collaboration of many offices on

campus.”

Weichold said his office is working to get an indication of students who are

at risk for not returning for their sophomore year. His office is using several assessment tools, such

as the CSI and the NSE, to make that determination. Many programs exist to assist in retention

alongside the Multicultural Services office, he said.

“The Multicultural Services has

been a big part of our retention efforts,” Weichold said.
The discrepancy in student retention is

also one of the reasons for the hiring of the new vice president for diversity, Dr. James A. Anderson,

Palsa said.

“Dr. Anderson will work with Multicultural Services,” said Rodney

McClendon, chief of staff. “He will (also) be working with all colleges in regard to retention.”

SGA severs ties with FCIC due to diversity
By James Twine
Published:

Friday, February 13, 2004

The Texas A&M Student Senate severed ties with the Faculty

Committed to an Inclusive Campus (FCIC), due to differences in race-based admissions

ideals.

The two organizations had scheduled a Feb. 18 diversity march before they

realized their agenda differences, said Student Services Chair John Mathews.

Although

both organizations support diversity, the FCICsupports race-based admissions and SGA opposes race being

a factor in admissions criteria, Mathews said…. The Student Senate has authorized its diversity

team to organize a march of its own to be called Aggie March for Merit, beginning at 3:15 p.m. on Feb.

18.

The SGA march supports the admissions policy instituted by Gates as well as the

progress it will represent for diversity at A&M.

Mathews said he was disturbed because

the FCIC withheld information from SGA and others.

“So many people had united for this

cause, and to now realize that FCIC was cause, and to now realize that FCIC was hiding behind this

secret agenda is upsetting,” he said.[sic]

The bill commended Gates’ admissions

policy.

“(Gates’) admissions policy will lead to greater diversity at A&M, and we

fully support his bold decision to affirm the dignity and worth of every person by making individual

merit the only criterion for admission and refusing to institutionalize discrimination on the basis of

race, legacy, sexual orientation or any other demographic characteristic unrelated to individual

merit,” according to the bill.

Chronicle Daily News, Feb. 13, 2004

“I am outraged that

opponents of affirmative action would go to these lengths to mislead people, to collect information

that they will use to attack affirmative action,” said Ms. Berry, who was appointed to the commission

by President Jimmy Carter and has led the panel since 1993. “It is illegal, immoral, and unethical, in

my view, for a special assistant to a commissioner to send a survey to colleges and universities that

will be led to believe that this is the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights undertaking the survey.”

“I hope that colleges and universities will not respond to it,” Ms. Berry said.

The survey, which was printed on commission letterhead, was sent to the colleges’

presidents by Christopher A. Jennings, a special assistant to Peter N. Kirsanow. Mr. Kirsanow, a

Republican, was appointed to the commission by President Bush and has frequently criticized race-

conscious college admissions in articles written for the National Review. In an interview Thursday, Mr.

Jennings said he was “just acting on Commissioner Kirsanow’s authority,” and “this is not an

official act of the commission as a whole.”

CNN, Feb. 15, 2004

BRISTOL, Rhode Island (AP) — A

student group at Roger Williams University is offering a new scholarship for which only white students

are eligible, a move they say is designed to protest affirmative action.