• E.R.I.S Reading Room and Reference Library A partnership with the Center for Diversity and Multicultural Studies will provide space for both the administration and the formal and informal activities of the program. Scheduled for completion by September 2007, the Reading Room will provide a place for mentors, mentees, and their friends to meet, study, work, and have access to computer resources. Research indicates that students who are clustered into cohorts tend to support each other, which increases the chance of completing a college course of study (Altbach & Lomotey, 1991; Light, 2001; Smith and Mather, 2001). The E.R.I.S. Reading Room and Reference Library is modeled on the success of Brooklyn College’s Honors Academy in creating a community dedicated to academic excellence and reflects an understanding that informal and casual relationships are crucial to building and reinforcing values and habits of success at a commuter college.
• Peer Mentorship Program: Piloted in 2006 and refined in 2007, the Peer Mentorship Program remains the centerpiece of the E.R.I.S. retention activities. Our peer mentorship model partners students from underrepresented groups with successful students of similar backgrounds and with similar educational aspirations. In partnership with members of the Black Faculty and Staff Association mentorship dyads are augmented and supported by faculty and staff mentors who serve as role models and bring extensive experience in negotiating the academic as well as the institutional landscape of the College.
• In the spring of 2007 the E.R.I.S. Profile for Success was piloted. (see: Appendix B) It is designed to shape and give direction to mentorship relationships and guide students toward self-conscious planning, discussions, and reflections on each aspect of their College career. The Profile also informs E.R.I.S scholars, student mentors and faculty mentors of a range of opportunities and strategies for collegiate success.
• Field Writing Tutor: Effective writing is one of the keys to academic success. Under the direction of Brooklyn College’s Learning Center’s Field Writing Tutor Program a Writing Tutor will be assigned to the E.R.I.S. program for the academic year 2007–2008. The tutor will work in the Reading Room for 15 hours a week, assisting members of the E.R.I.S. target populations with their writing assignments.
• E.R.I.S. Lending Library Program: Piloted in the spring of 2007, the program buys and lends E.R.I.S. Scholars the books for one of their most expensive classes. In addition, faculty members will be solicited to donate their reading copies from their classes.
• Opportunities for Academic and Career Success: E.R.I.S. supports opportunities identified in the Profile for Success (internships, study abroad, and attendance at conferences), activities that build resumes, confidence, and enhance student attractiveness to employers as well as graduate and professional schools. We will offer these opportunities on a competitive basis to both E.R.I.S. Scholars and student mentors.
• Research Internships: Beginning in the fall of 2007 E.R.I.S. will solicit faculty members to submit proposals for contained projects that further their own research. We will then circulate the proposals among E.R.I.S. Scholars who can then become research assistants on those projects. We already have proposals and the interest of Gena Ray McNeil, the Belle Zeller Professor, in participating in the program.
• Summer Study Abroad: Brooklyn College has a number of Summer Study Abroad Programs. E.R.I.S. wishes to encourage its scholars and mentors to participate in these programs. In the summer of 2007 we awarded an E.R.I.S. mentor a $1,000 stipend to partially support his participation in the Africana Studies Department’s Summer Seminar to Ghana. With Alumni support we anticipate offering six such stipends during the 2007–2008 academic year.
• Pipeline articulation: E.R.I.S. will seek to develop relationships with pipeline and graduate programs at CUNY and beyond. Brooklyn College is proud of the number of students admitted to the CUNY Pipeline program. Since 1999, 57 BC students were accepted into the program; 12 were men from underrepresented groups. Out of the 88 students who have participated in the Mellon Program, 12 were men from underrepresented groups. The Honors Academy Liaison is already tasked with using E.R.I.S. activities to recruit into the various programs of the Honors Academy. In addition Brooklyn College’s Graduate Center for Worker Education, offering Masters in Urban policy/Political Science, and Public health, will be a graduate pipeline program option for E.R.I.S. graduates. The GCWE has links to doctoral and law programs around the nation. Other graduate relationships and programs will also be cultivated, including the field of teacher education. We will provide GRE preparatory courses for members of E.R.I.S who are applying for graduate school.
• E.R.I.S. Speakers Series: In partnerships with the Center for Diversity and Multicultural Studies, the Office of Affirmative, Compliance and Diversity, Africana Studies, the Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities, and Women’s Studies, E.R.I.S. will continue to arrange approximately one public presentation a month to the E.R.I.S., Brooklyn College, and CUNY communities to expose them to the national academic discussions on race and gender in American societies.