Vol. 38, No. 18

1-31-2007
By: Richard Gillette

Early start key to Bell Center success

NBA star LeBron James and Ohio State freshman phenom Greg Oden received college recruiting letters in the eighth grade.

Eric Troy, director of the Todd A. Bell National Resource Center for the African American Male, wants to use similar techniques to recruit African American males to Ohio State’s academic programs.

“The question is how do we use the same approach used in athletic recruitment to recruit and retain young, intelligent African American males. Our youth today need to know that their success in academics will take them far and allow them to achieve their dreams,” Troy said.

The Bell Resource Center’s goal is to increase the retention and graduation rate of African American male students. Troy said progress has been made in these areas, but added that more work is needed.

The first-year retention of African American students at Ohio State is 90 percent, just 2 percent below non-minority student retention. Graduation rates among African American men have increased 12.5 percent in the past two years.

Some of this success can be attributed to the Bell Resource Center director. Troy’s enthusiasm becomes apparent when he talks about recruiting African American men early in their high school careers or even at the junior high level.

“We need the number one draft picks in our classrooms. By connecting early, I believe it will set them on a path to success,” Troy said.

Once they begin at the university, it’s important to provide them with resources and help them build relationships with faculty and staff, Troy said.

Towards that goal, the Gathering of Men was started two years ago as a mentor program. It provides students an opportunity to network and learn more about how faculty and staff can help them meet their academic and career goals.

“It’s not about brown nosing. It’s about building a network of people they can bounce concerns and questions off of when they have issues,” Troy said.

At the most recent Gathering of Men, Osei Appiah, assistant professor in the School of Communication, talked to students about black stereotypes in the media.

Appiah, who received degrees from Stanford and Cornell, said he would have benefited from such a program.

“There are many universities that are in need of a program like this that focus on issues relating to black men. It’s important they have someone to speak to who has been through the same problems,” Appiah said.

Dezmon Landers, a senior majoring in family resource management, said the exposure to the Gathering of Men and the Bell Resource Center has been a benefit.

“I heavily advocate the center’s use and sponsorship among the student body and others outside of the university. I was involved in the program because I knew that I could gain a tremendous amount of knowledge from it and also contribute in discussion,” he said.

That reaction is what Troy hopes the Bell Resource Center provides to students and those who graduate and go on to successful careers.

“We hope alumni will return and say that we prepared them for the real world. We want to help students find solutions now that help them later,” he said.

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