SACRAMENTO, Calif — Sacramento State University alum and now university president Dr. Luke Wood is launching what he says will be the nation's first Black Honors college at his alma mater.
"You know coming in as the new president, I'm proud that we are an Hispanic Serving Institution, which means we have a high population of students who are Latinx," said Wood. "We have a high population of students who are Asian and Pacific Islander. In fact, we have a federal designation that says we are an Asian American, Native American Pacific Islander serving institution, an AANAPISI. But as we were looking at our data, we realized that not only are we HSI and an AANAPISI, we have the largest population of Black and African American students in the entire Cal State System. Out of all 23 campuses we serve the most Black students."
Sacramento State indeed has the most Black students at more than 1,900 with California State University, Northridge not far behind.
"The fact that we occupy this unique space as the Black-serving institution in the state of California, why shouldn't we start an honors college?" said Wood.
However, he admits the university has room for improvement. The four-year graduation rate for Black students at Sacramento State is 17.4% and well below the system-wide average of 23%.
"We're creating an institution within the institution, because our 75 year history has shown that, as a campus, we have not been as effective as we should be in serving our Black and African American students," said Wood. "So we create this set alone experience that provides them with the dignity they deserve. Now, I should say this. It is very important. This is designed for Black students. It's designed for people who are interested in Black history, life and culture, but there may be someone from a different background or different community who wants to apply and it's certainly open for them to be able to do so as long as they're interested in Black history, life and culture and they have a 3.5 GPA or above. It's an elite specialized academic program."
"What does it say though that we're in 2024, and we're still having these types of conversations?"
Another big question is about possible financial assistance.
"We have scholarship dollars that we've been able to identify that we're setting aside," said Wood. "I'll say this. When you put everything together plus space, this is a multi-million dollar investment."
He said the space is over 6,000 square feet with a seminar room for their lectures and classes, office spaces and a student center.
The enrollment process has already started.
"We're enrolling right now for fall of 2024. We're not talking about, 'we're doing this five years from now' or '7 years from now.' We're doing this now," said Wood.
They plan to launch with 70 students this fall with hopes of growing the program to at least 1,000 students.
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