UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 4, Page 1
September 26, 1991
College of B&E to focus on increasing minority students

     A program designed to increase the number of minority students
who graduate from the University's College of Business and
Economics began Saturday with a general meeting for the college's
undergraduate minority students.
     About 25 African-American undergraduate students, as well as
many faculty members, administrators and guests, attended the
two-hour meeting held in Purnell Hall.
     Terry M. Whittaker, program coordinator who was recently
appointed assistant dean of student special services in the
college, said the Comprehensive Minority Student Business Program
aims to increase the number of minority business students who
obtain grade point averages of 2.6 and above each semester.
     Minorities, under the program's definition, include
African-American, Hispanic and American Indian people. Currently,
81 (or 4.4 percent) of the college's 1,850 undergraduate students
are minorities, according to Whittaker.
     To improve grade point averages, Whittaker said, the program
will provide minorities enrolled in the college with academic and
career-related assistance, as well as psychosocial motivational
activities.
     He said psychosocial support will involve regularly scheduled,
one-on-one meetings. Corporate visits and workshops on such issues
as dressing for success, resume writing and effective oral
presentation skills will be used to provide academic and
career-related assistance.
     Whittaker, who is also director of undergraduate advisement in
the College of Engineering, said the business program's ultimate
objectives are to increase the number of minority business
graduates who pursue graduate studies in business and raise the
numer of minority graduates who obtain managerial positions in
industry.
     Part of the new program will ensure minority students'
awareness of exisiting campus programs, he added. These include the
College of Business and Economics' academic advisement services and
cooperative education program, Whittaker said.
     University Provost R. Byron Pipes said the final measure of
the new program's success will be the number of outstanding
minority graduates. He said the administration is committed to the
Comprehensive Minority Student Business Program.
     William Markell, chairperson of the Department of Accounting,
said the College of Engineering's Resources to Insure Successful
Engineers (RISE) program became very successful under Whittaker's
leadership, which augurs well for the Comprehensive Minority
Student Business Program.
     Pipes said RISE was responsible for tripling the number of
undergraduate minorities enrolled in the College of Engineering
over a 10-year period. Currently, about 13 percent of the college's
undergraduate students are minorities, he said.
     Last year, about two-thirds of the minority students who
graduated from Delaware's College of Engineering went on to
graduate school, Pipes said. Overall, approximately one-third of
the college's graduates went on to graduate school, he said.
     "The dominant opinion of minority engineering graduates here
at the University is that the RISE program was the single most
important part of their undergraduate education," Pipes said.
      Kenneth R. Biederman, dean of the College of Business and
Economics, said the new program is "long overdue in the College of
Business and Economics."
     He said the program will increase undergraduate minority
enrollment and aid in the retention of current minority
undergraduates.
     Whittaker said the program includes a pre-college business
component, which will seek to recruit minority students for the
college, and a "summer bridge" program, which will work to ease the
transition of minority students entering the University from high
school. Next year, Whittaker said, he hopes to bring 35 new
minority students into the college. Last year, 18 new minority
students enrolled.
     The Comprehensive Minority Student Business Program is
partially funded by a $10,000 appropriation from the State of
Delaware's House of Representatives' Budget Committee. Whittaker,
who is working toward obtaining a doctorate of education, said he
is looking for an additional $300,000, which he hopes corporations
will provide.
     A lack of funding will delay the start of the pre-college
business program and the summer bridge program, but it will not
slow the retention and graduation efforts aimed at current minority
students in the College of Business and Economics, he said.
     The RISE program received support from Du Pont, ICI Americas,
Hercules, Mobil and Delmarva Power & Light, among others, but
Whittaker said the economy appears to be slowing corporate
sponsorship programs.
     Of funding concerns for the minority business program, Pipes
said, "I'm optimistic that the resources necessary for the program
will be made available by both the corporate environment and the
University."
                                        - Stephen Steenkamer