Increasing ties between ethnic groups at Ohio University could have a positive domino effect on the economy, a professor told students last night.
James Moore, a professor at Ohio State University, spoke last night in Baker University Center Theater about black males, the problems they face in the higher education system and the resulting effects on the economy.
Moore is the director of the Todd A. Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male at Ohio State University, which uses research and studies to increase retention and graduation rates of black men at OSU and on a national level.
OU’s Student Personnel Association invited Moore to speak about his work at the center and to encourage change at OU.
“If you want to change the world, it starts with one’s thinking,” he said.
Black males have continually showed lower retainment and graduation rates at the college level. According to The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, the graduation rate of black male students was at 36 percent as of 2007. However, the graduation rate of black women was 47 percent.
Neglect from peers and educators and the absence of father figures in many black households stands in the way of black males’ success in college, Moore said.
“This group has consistently been at the bottom,” he said.
The economy suffers from lost incomes of students who don’t graduate college, Moore said. Since minority groups make up a large portion of the population, their inability to succeed in higher education makes has a nationwide effect.
“There is no dream without education today,” he said.
Moore informed the audience about the struggles black males face as a whole but also encouraged a change on a local level.
“Each and every generation has to make a contribution to society; you must solve some great social problem,” he said. “Why not start with higher education?”
Stressing that change is a difficult process, Moore suggested developing relationships with members of other ethnic groups.
He added that black males’ attitudes toward graduation might improve if they didn't feel like a minority in higher learning.
If OU students step out of their comfort zone and develop relationships with members of other ethnic groups, the socialization process will improve, Moore said.
Sophomore Chelsey Benson said she attended the presentation because she is involved in the LINKS multicultural program. She said what stood out to her most about the presentation was the vast difference in graduation rates between black males and all other ethnic and gender groups.
Moore will speak to OU students again at a workshop about research and finding careers at 10 a.m. today in McCracken Hall 214B.
