Imbalance improving
Numerous initiatives at various universities have been addressing the problem. At Tennessee State, Dr. William Latham, a former honors professor, co-founded The D.R.E.A.M. Project in 2008. “One of my students and I just looked around one day and said, ‘We’ve got to do something about the situation,”’ says Latham, who is now a senior advisor with the Gallup Education consultancy practice. Latham and his assistant took 20 to 25 male freshmen each year and provided mentoring, tutoring, leadership training and co-curricular activities throughout the students’ matriculation.
“It can’t just be pedagogy and rote theory,” Latham says. “The program has to be holistic and experiential in order to keep them engaged, so we had a very dynamic format combined with co-curricular experiences.”
Latham says the retention rate when he left in 2012 “was 100 percent — I don’t think we lost any of our students.” The D.R.E.A.M. Project is funded by private donations and the Tennessee State University Foundation.