 "Photo: THE REVIEW/Jordan Allen")
When William Marshall was at the university, most people didn’t sit and study in their rooms. Instead, the alumnus, who graduated in 1999, says, they walked through campus to the library, meeting people along the way. This interaction, he says, constitutes his definition of diversity.
“Now the picture is, ‘Well, what do the demographics look like on campus?’ ” Marshall says. “But the things I look at in diversity is how hospitable is the university towards diversity, and right now I can say with the president’s vision, with the leadership that’s been put in place, it’s the perfect time for a university initiative and a strategic plan and I’m very, very excited about it.”
Marshall is now the counselor of the Upward Bound program at the university, which provides academic support and weekly tutoring to 54 high school students each year. The program is working to increase diversity on campus by encouraging first generation students — those who would be the first ones in their family to go to and to graduate from college — from low-income backgrounds to pursue a college degree.
Marshall says diversity is taking place everywhere that students are coming into contact with one another, from clubs to sports to study groups. In order to make the university a more diverse campus, the administration needs to promote all of the resources it offers students, and put more money into the programs that are successful.
He says places like the Academic Enrichment Center, located on the corner of South College Avenue and Amstel Avenue, where the Upward Bound program operates, provide a home away from home for students on campus, get them involved with other students and offer the one-on-one staff member to student interaction.
The program is federally funded, and receives a grant of approximately a $1 million over a 4 to 5 year period. About 70 percent of funding goes directly toward support for program participants, while the rest is used for salaries and other operating costs, Marshall says.
The Upward Bound programs have an 89 to 94 percent college placement rate each year, sometimes higher, Marshall says. Some of the students decide to attend the University of Delaware, while other students pick Delaware Technical and Community College, Temple, Drexel or another nearby school. He says although many of their tutees have an affinity for the university, not all of them wind up settling on it as their chosen college.
“The dividing line is sometimes funding because of low income,” he says. “Other schools outperform some of the university’s packages.”
Cindy Blackston is the project coordinator for Upward Bound Math/Science, where students come to the university for five weeks during the summer for intensive tutoring and to experience life on a college campus. She says for members of both Upward Bound programs, the driving factor behind those students’ choice to attend college is finances.
“It boils down to money, especially with low income first generation students,” Blackston says. “Some of our students have to stay at home, so they might go to a community college so they can work.”
Other factors, such as their parents’ credit history, can affect the student’s choice. If parents have poor credit history or no credit history, students are unable to get a loan to pay for school when the loan requires a cosigner. Ultimately, she says, money is what drives these students to go to the colleges they choose, or to not go to college at all.
Tonya Bailey-Smiley, guidance counselor at William Penn High School, says Upward Bound is moving in the right direction to get students to college. They begin finding students to participate in the program as early as 7th and 8th grade through open houses.
The program is gearing participants towards competitive university requirements and standards through counseling and tutoring. The program also makes sure students know exactly what they need to do to prepare and to apply for post-secondary education.
“It helps us as a guidance staff, they provide us with extra support,” Bailey-Smiley says. “Sometimes if the kids hear it from us or their parents they don’t believe it, so this is another third source telling them the same information.”
She says she agrees finances play a big role in where students end up, but says parent-counselor meetings explaining financial aid, scholarships and FAFSA could help eliminate even that barrier.
“Parents aren’t knowledgeable enough to know that it is possible to finance college regardless of your income, so it’s more reaching out to parents and making sure they’re aware of how to finance college,” she says.
Marshall says the university is moving in the right direction to make the college more accessible to low-income first generation students. The Upward Bound program prepares them for the rigor of college, and makes them more competitive applicants for schools, scholarships and financial aid. The last factor, he says, is to foot the bill at the end of the process if the students are still unable to afford the school.
“What our students get to do is they get to see [the university], they get to walk around, they get to feel it. But the only problem is you get to the finish line, this is where you want to be, and then the money’s not there,” Marshall says. “The last piece of it is, and should be, making up and meeting whatever financial lack there is. There is conversation about that so definitely I think the university’s on the right track.”
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