I will never forget my first faculty adviser experiences as a science professor at a secular private university. These included:
(1) All faculty were assigned on registration day to being available to their advisees for last minute course changes. I remember a freshman African-American student coming to me wanting to replace an Art Appreciation course with Introduction to Sociology. There were no prerequisites required for the Soc101 course so I signed his registration card without hesitation and he returned to the queue. In less than ten minutes I was confronted by a very angry Director of Minority Affairs with the bewildered looking student in tow. “Where do you come off putting John in Dr. Smith’s Intro to Sociology? That’s a killer-course!” I replied, “Firstly, I’ve not met Dr. Smith and I’m not familiar with the reputation of his courses. Secondly, John is free to select any course he wishes for which he qualifies. My job is merely to double-check and make sure that he meets all prerequisites.” The director retorted, “You’re just trying to flunk him out!” I looked at John and said, “It’s not my job to tell you what course to take. The choice is yours. If you wish to change your mind, I hope it will be based on your interests and what is best for you, not just pressures from others.” The director made another angry and dismissive remark in my direction and they walked away. I saw nothing more of that student and I always wondered if he survived the high washout rate for minority students at that university. What did he learn from that experience? Did it convince him that he was destined for failure if he took anything but easy courses?
(2) I remember a very promising African-American student who was getting A’s in all of his courses, including mine. He was a very talented and hard-working young man from a poorly funded high school in the inner city of one of the major suburbs of that metropolitan area. Unfortunately, as I soon discovered was not rare on that campus, he received increasing social pressures from his peer community. He was accused of “acting white” because of his diligent study habits and high grades.
I brought up these situations with my faculty peers. I was hoping for ideas and advice on how we could help these students. Unfortunately, they seemed to find it all too easy to blame problems like these solely on African-American administrators and the black community itself. There seemed to be very little willingness to grapple with why these types of problems had developed. Indeed, some used such incidents as excuses for fighting against Affirmative Action in general and the funding of special programs bringing minority students from disadvantaged communities into the university. Many of those biases were even expressed outright in faculty meetings in very dogmatic ways. (I wonder if they would be far more reluctant today—although I’ve been retired from the classroom far too long to judge that likelihood.)
I don’t claim to have the answers. I do wonder what ever happened to those students of long ago.