Students gathered Thursday to discuss diversity at GW. The university chapter of The National Council of Negro Women, the Black Women’s Forum, and the Black Men’s Initiative met with students in a panel discussion. In “Late Registration: The Black Presence in Higher Education,” participants spoke about tackling problems facing the Black community at GW, and steps to ensure progress for students of racial minorities at the institution.
Special guests on the panel included Dean of Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Ben Vinson III, Senior Assistant Director of GW Undergraduate Admissions Kimberly Gordy, Senior Academic Advisor Shonda Goward, former Trustee Omar Woodard, Director of the GW Medical Center Upperbound Program Ivy DeShield.
The panel wasted no time delving into questions asked by the moderator, Assistant Director of the Multicultural Student Services Center George Rice III, beginning with statements on GW Achievement gap, and mistruths and solutions to closing it.
According to DeShield, the majority of African American students enrolled in four year accredited programs have not had the proper formative training in elementary school.
“When I enroll my students into the Upperbound Program, 9th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade, I really feel that that’s when it’s too late. That’s when that gap is felt. I work with underrepresented secondary school students and that gap is so wide, they cannot see universities from where they sit,” he said.
Statistics show that African American students have the lowest graduation rate at G.W. With only a 6.8 percent African American population, the 6-year graduation rate for African Americans at GW is 68.9 percent in comparison to the 81.5 percent for white students. This offers sharp contrast to the universities in the GW “market basket,” such as Georgetown University which holds an 86.8 percent graduation rate for its African American students.
Asked how GW has worked toward diversity and inclusion, Woodard praised the institution for good leadership at the Multicultural Student Services Center and support for each other in difficult times. However, according to him, GW continues to struggle in using data and information to support its minority students.
“I think what G.W. hasn’t done well is used the data around completion and around retention for students and apathy of color. Recruiting African American senior managers and leaders. That was always a blind spot for G.W. until fairly recent,” he said. “If G.W. doesn’t fix its completion issue for students of color, they won’t be able to fix their completion issue for anyone.”
Goward emphasized the role of budget and finance in helping African American students succeed.
“Most students of color are not coming back, not because they can’t handle it in the classroom but because they run out of money. And so the issue is not always the classroom, it’s really putting our money where our mouths are,” she said. “If students don’t have enough money to not just afford tuition but to actually live somewhere, and eat somewhere… budget and finance is a real real issue.”
According to Goward, if GW can afford a gallery, then the university can afford to put more money behind financial aid, and eliminate the barriers behind it.
“What is comes down to,” she said, “is having the money to really free students up to really focus on their studies.”
Discussing minority women in the workplace, Gordy advised to “under report and over perform,” adding the importance of both setting lofty goals and understanding reality.
“Give yourself time to get informed, do the information gathering, make realistic assessments and set yourself up for success which will help you move up the chain and collect more resources,” she said.
Vinson joked that statements from the panel were almost poetic, conveying the deeper sense of connection the panelists had with the audience, but ending with an advice of equal resonance to all our students.
“This time goes by so fast. It may go slow for you day by day but these days are precious. You have to seize the day, you have to, because you’ll never get these college years again.”