Program at UAFS fosters connections
University has high hopes for ‘Men of Excellence’
FORT SMITH — Glenn Brewer said he was thinking about transferring from the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith had it not been for a new program the school started offering.
Brewer, 20, is a Black sophomore born and raised in Fort Smith who’s studying business administration with a concentration in finance and investments. He said he’s “quite sure” he wants to either get a master’s degree in business administration after graduation or a chartered financial analyst certification and become a financial adviser with his own firm and minorities as his target audience.
Brewer is also the president of the university’s Men of Excellence program, which he said has helped him develop professionally just over the past few months.
“In that time, I’ve sharpened my edges around in public speaking and networking and reaching out to people and planning events and things of that nature,” Brewer said. “When it comes to that helping me later on in my professional career, I’ll be able to hit the ground running. I won’t feel like I’m doing this for the first time.”
John Blue, the university’s executive director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, began the Men of Excellence program last year. He said recruitment for the program began in the spring before its first meeting took place the following fall. It’s still in the recruitment stage with eight members.
Blue said the program was created to counter a nationwide, downward trend in undergraduate enrollment among men, particularly Black men, between 2020 and 2021 in terms of both recruitment and retention. The basis of the organization is to help foster a sense of belonging and connection among men at the university.
“We know if an individual or a student has a sense of belonging or a connection to a campus, they’re more likely to be retained at the institution,” Blue said. “So we definitely try to help develop our students professionally, academically, socially here at the institution.”
Blue said he believes the program has been “quite successful” so far, citing Brewer as an example.
A Sept. 27 article from Inside Higher Ed, a Washington-based news website dedicated to higher education, cited data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center in stating the total undergraduate enrollment for men in the United States fell 8.9% in spring 2021 compared to spring 2020. Women enrollment dropped 4% during the same time.
Enrollment for Black men dropped 14.3% between spring 2020 and spring 2021, according to the article. Enrollment for Black women fell 6.9% within this period.
“Men of color enrolled at particularly low rates amid a pandemic in which Black students and their families disproportionately suffered from infections, job loss and financial strains,” the article states.
Brewer said he became president of the Men of Excellence program last fall. He was approached to join in the spring, a time that saw Brewer looking for ways through
which he could get more involved on campus while feeling like he fit in.
Brewer said the Men of Excellence program not only fit that criteria, but has also helped him in his ongoing journey of self-betterment by facilitating a support system for him and the other members.
“The other guys in the organization, I’ve noticed that they’re really serious,” Brewer said. “We handle business. We hold each other accountable. We even study together. We make sure that we’re prioritizing things that need to be prioritized and we take care of business when it’s time to take care of business.”
Money for the Men of Excellence program comes from a month-long crowdfunding campaign last year in which $10,340 was raised, according to a December news release from the university. This money, which exceeded the $10,000 goal for the campaign, will go to campus programming, conferences, professional development, travel, recruiting, marketing and business attire for members.
Terisa Riley, chancellor for the university, told the institution’s Board of Visitors at its Oct. 13 meeting the program doesn’t qualify for some of the money student organizations receive because not all students qualify for it.
Blue said in addition to providing book scholarships, the program’s activities include bringing in guest speakers on a variety of topics. This can include resources available on campus, as well as more broad concepts such as leadership and success.
One of the guest speakers was Jay Richardson, state representative for District 78, which includes parts of Sebastian County. Richardson said he spoke late last year about such things as how the members can get involved with local politics and what the political process looks like at different levels, as well as what it is to be young men on college campuses.
“I think the organization that has been created will definitely have some lasting power and continue to empower young men at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith,” Richardson said.
Blue said he also wanted to ensure the program wasn’t entirely focused on academics. He sought to provide its members with opportunities to socialize and bond with one another.
Blue said he sees membership in the program, as well as the demographics of the members, growing in the future.
The Men of Excellence Program will host an event at 5 p.m. Wednesday in Math Science Room 100 on campus that will be open to the public as part of the university’s Black History Month celebrations, according to a news release. Blue said the event, Barbershop Talk, will entail local barbers talking
about entrepreneurship.