University of Arkansas - Fort Smith issued the following announcement on Dec. 7.
Concluding a month-long crowdfunding campaign, the new University of Arkansas – Fort Smith program UAFS Men of Excellence (MOX) is ahead more than $10,000.
The Men of Excellence program aims to cultivate a new generation of River Valley leaders through mentorship, empowerment, and community building. Funds will enable the organization and its leaders to pay for campus programming, conferences, professional development, travel, recruiting, marketing, and business attire to help students be successful citizens on campus and beyond.
"Men of Excellence is much more than a typical mentorship program," said John Blue, Executive Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion at UAFS. “This program helps, at its core, to increase our students’ sense of belonging and connection to UAFS. On difficult days, they can always look to their fellow brothers in the organization, their advisors, advocates, and mentors, and know they have a place on this campus, and people who will assist them in all their future endeavors.”
Blue noted that men experienced a higher education enrollment decline twice as steep as women during the pandemic, and total male undergraduate enrollment fell by 8.9 percent in spring 2021 compared to the previous spring.
According to Inside Higher Ed, men of color have enrolled in higher education institutions at particularly low rates amid a pandemic in which Black students and their families disproportionately suffered from COVID-19 infection, job loss, and financial strains. Enrollment for Black men dropped 14.3 percent in spring 2021 compared to the previous spring.
Original source can be found here.
Source: University of Arkansas - Fort Smith
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