Reflections on a pilot

What we set out to do:

Convert more under-represented minority students from prebusiness to business or accounting majors.

We suspected that if we introduced a cohort of URM students to complete the prebusiness curriculum together that it would catalyze the broader URM population to pull together to overcome their unique barriers to working through the prebusiness curriculum. In the short term, cohorts would allow direct observation of the unique challenges that need to be addressed for URM students studying business. In the long term, a cohort experience for URM should be the means to for UO (and LCB) to attract larger numbers of high achieving minority students.

Where we've been: 

We have brought two groups of students through the curriculum in a cohort model. The participants in these groups both  persist longer and perform better in the pre-business curriculum in comparison to their peers who are not engaged in the cohort experience.

Where we have learned:

To improve persistence and performance minority students respond to a combination of four elements:

1. Academic support- to address the unequal secondary educational experiences of the students the combination of small study groups, individual tutoring and peer learning was needed to improve overall academic performance.

2. Multi-cultural community- the students thrived by having two physical spaces where they could engage with each other as well as members of the main-stream population (their residence hall and the suite in Lillis). Many of the students lacked social capital upon entering UO and building the community that includes all experiences is vital to growth of all members of the community.

3. Professional direction- the key motivational factor for MOST of the students during their experience was to have interactions with actual business practitioners. While they appreciated ANY experience to engage with a business practitioner, engagement with minority professionals was the overwhelmingly key inspiration for students to persist.

4. Leadership development- the largest social obstacle for students of color in an environment like Oregon is learning how to "in the spotlight" that inevitably occurs when they are the only person of color in a classroom. It demands a faster development of identity and confidence of self in comparison with their mainstream peers. Early exploration of leadership traits and theory allowed for these students to act more confident in their experience as a minority.

We know we our effort is working because:

Our first step was to engage the students in a way that would to encourage them to persist.

Tracking the sophomore cohort students: 25% have converted to the major, 50% will be eligible to apply to the major in the next two terms of 2012. The remaining 25% continues to persist despite unusually high challenges.

Our second step was to discover what it would take to help improve the success rate to meeting the minimum prebusiness requirements.

In the second cohort group, an overwhelming 75% have finished their second year on track to meet the requirements. We accomplished this by utilizing smaller section math courses, small study groups and upper classmen mentoring in the prebusiness courses.

Our third step was to create a "draw" that would engage more URM students in the prebusiness population to reach critical mass within the undergraduate student population.

The attention and popularity of the emerging student group, commonly referred to as CEO Network, is attracting more and more students of color who want to "belong" in the Lundquist College of Business.

What are our next steps:

Now we know what works, it will take strategy to find the ways to institutionalize the four components that both work for LCB and make sense for the students.