The Chronicle of Higher Education December 15, 2010 Spelman Looks to Help Would-Be Dropouts With a Co-op Program By Sara Lipka Cooperative education brings to mind large universities with pre-professional programs, but at least one elite liberal-arts college is pursuing that link between classroom learning and work. Motivated by students' increasing financial need, Spelman College is trying a co-op program for them to earn money and gain educational experience while preparing for careers. Thirty percent of students at Spelman, a historically black women's college in Atlanta, qualified for federal Pell Grants eight years ago; almost 50 percent do today, said Beverly Daniel Tatum, the college's president. Demographic data project that trend will continue, as the population of college-going black women grows and includes a higher proportion of low-income students. Spelman's graduation rate, about 82 percent, far exceeds the national average, but Ms. Tatum thinks it should be higher. "When students don't finish," she said, "it is almost always related to their financial situation." The college is in the midst of a $150-million fund-raising campaign, one of the primary goals of which is to reinforce need-based scholarships. But that isn't enough, Ms. Tatum said. Last year she began seeking alternative resources. Many students at Spelman work up to 40 hours a week to pay tuition, Ms. Tatum said. "It seemed that maybe we should tap into that pattern," she said. Her goal is to redirect students to jobs that could help advance their careers-and perhaps pay more than cashier positions at 7-Eleven, McDonald's, or Whole Foods, too, she said. In January Ms. Tatum presented the idea of a cooperative-education program to a group of business leaders in Atlanta; they were interested. So was the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This summer it gave Spelman a $150,000 grant to create a pilot program. Juniors and seniors shouldn't have to drop out of college for financial reasons, said Philip E. Lewis, vice president of the foundation: "To see them go is tragic." This fall Spelman assembled a faculty committee but sought a dedicated advocate. "It was clear that we needed someone who would wake up every day thinking about co-op education," Ms. Tatum said. In October the college hired Keith A. Webb, who had spent 28 years with Merrill Lynch in financial services and human resources. As an executive in residence at Spelman about three years ago, he provided career counseling to students. Mr. Webb has spent the past two months consulting with faculty members and students about the scope of a co-op program, which would begin in the fall of 2011. "The momentum has largely been very positive," he said. Still, many questions remain. Will the program offer a semester of full-time employment or a more-integrated schedule of classes and work? How will the college award credit for students' experience? How many students will participate, and what will the selection process be? Mr. Webb plans to visit other institutions' co-op programs in pursuit of models. He will find plenty of innovative examples, said Paul J. Stonely, chief executive of the National Commission for Cooperative Education, which is based at Northeastern University and recently merged with the World Association for Cooperative Education. Mr. Stonely estimated that 300 colleges in the United States now offer co-op programs, and that number is growing, he said. "Many educators and industrialists around the world believe this is the best way to prepare for your future profession," Mr. Stonely wrote in an e-mail. Parents tend to be attracted to the programs, too, he said. But small liberal-arts colleges have been more likely to expand internship programs, for example, or require a "professional experience" for graduation than to embrace cooperative education, Mr. Stonely said. Spelman officials are eager to move in that direction. "We fully expect that, assuming the pilot is successful," Ms. Tatum said, "we'll be able to build on it." SANDRA M. PHOENIX Program Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org www.hbculibraries.org 404.592.4820 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org Honor the ancestors, honor the children.