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Dear Southern Alumni, As you know, Southern Connecticut State University has a long and proud tradition of providing access to higher education for students who might otherwise never have the opportunity to earn a college degree. One Southern graduate who exemplifies this tradition is profiled in this month’s Southern Alumni Magazine: Jack Perry, ’96, who has founded Prestige Academy, an all-boys college preparatory school in Wilmington, Del. This urban school opened last September with 103 fifth-graders and is expected to grow to 400 boys in grades five through eight by 2012 — all with their sights set on attending college. This is a noble aspiration for a school that serves a largely at-risk population. And it responds to concerns about college entry and college graduation rates that are echoed across the nation. Here in Connecticut, recent reports have warned that a continuing decline in the percentage of residents holding college degrees will erode the state’s economic vitality. At Southern, we are committed to working to reverse this trend. In recent years, the university has expanded its advocacy and support for programs that encourage academic aspirations, and ultimately, successful transition into the state’s workforce. These initiatives focus on utilizing the summer before entry into college to improve college readiness skills and provide social and academic advisement for at-risk students. The programs include SEOP (Summer Educational Opportunity Program), ConnCas and ConnCap (both funded by the state Department of Higher Education), and GEAR UP (a federally funded program). One of our most recent initiatives is the Galileo Project, another state-funded initiative designed to provide students from Hillhouse High School in New Haven, Hamden High School, and Maloney High School of Meriden with better preparation for college-level math and composition classes. Faculty members from Southern’s mathematics, English, and education departments have teamed up with math and English teachers from those schools to share curriculum information, visit each others’ classes, and develop strategies to improve instruction. As a result of these efforts, Southern has consistently led its peers in the percentage of enrolled undergraduate minorities during recent years. In 2008, almost 22 percent of our undergraduates were members of minority groups. Retention rates for first-time, full-time minority students have also improved, and among its peer institutions, Southern has the highest six-year graduation rate for minorities and the highest percentage of minorities employed after graduation. Despite the current economic challenges, we will continue to seek innovative and effective ways to increase access to, and promote success in, higher education. Your support for our scholarship programs is crucial, particularly at a time when more students than ever are seeking the benefits of a Southern education. This spring, applications closed in March and, for the first time in our history, we established a waiting list, as we experienced unprecedented interest in our affordable, high-quality educational offerings. I thank you for your past contributions and look forward to your continued involvement as we further Southern’s mission as a university of opportunity and a university of choice for students in Connecticut and beyond. Dr. Cheryl J. Norton |
