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midday stroll across campusduring the spring of 2007completely crystallized forCarlton Willis, now a senior,why Morehouse has beenthe right place for him.

It was in the midst of his walk that hecame across a man who was relaxing underthe bright, Atlanta sky. Turns out he was avice president for the PepsiCo Corporation.

“I saw him sitting on a bench on cam-pus and walked right up to him and startedtalking,”recalls Willis.“He told me that helikes Dunkin Donuts, so I took him there.Wehad the opportunity to talk one-on-one and

eat donuts. He asked me to shoot him aresumé. That’s how I got an internship.”

Willis is quick to point out that hischance meeting wasn’t just a lucky break.Not only did Morehouse give him accessto influential movers and shakers, he said,but the College educated, trained andtaught him how to the make the most ofwhatever opportunity comes along—evena chance meeting with a top executivehungry for donuts.

It is one of many examples of whatallows Morehouse to continue to providea special educational value, even as thenation is going through the most severe

economic downturn since the GreatDepression. The global economic melt-down, triggered by the collapse of the U.S.housing market, buckled Wall Street as theDow Jones Industrial Average, at one point,sputtered to 6,000—less than half of the13,000 average one year ago. A standstill inthe credit markets followed as financialinstitutions became extra cautious in mak-ing new loans and tightened the qualifyingcriteria for credit applicants.

The effect of Wall Street’s woes on MainStreet has been a ballooning unemploymentrate that hovers around 8 percent, the highestit has been in 25 years. An estimated 4 mil-

By Add Seymour Jr.

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ValueMorehouseEDUCATIONMorehouseEDUCATION

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lion jobs have been lost since December 2007,according to MarketWatch.com.

American families are now in a seriousbelt-tightening mode as they keep a closerwatch on expenditures of every type,including the escalating cost of sendingtheir children to college.

With ominous economic conditionsforecasted to persist for a while yet, it is nosurprise that financially insecure parents areasking the big “A” question: affordability. Theeuphoria of receiving an acceptance letter isoften tempered by the subsequent award let-ter and the question,“How can we afford acollege education for our son?”

Tuition, room and board, fees, booksand supplies and other expenses will be$39,497 at Morehouse for the 2009-2010academic year.

But Financial Aid Director JamesStotts says his office is diligently working toassist students and parents in identifying allpossible financial resources, such as schol-arships, grants and loans, for makingMorehouse affordable.

“The College makes a number of awardsto students in recognition of their accom-plishment either in pursuit of academic excel-lence or demonstrated skills and talent,” hesays. “In addition, numerous corporations,employers, professional organizations andfoundations make scholarships available toMorehouse students.”

Morehouse offers an array of financialaid programs and invests some of theCollege’s institutional resources to assiststudents. Approximately 75 percent of stu-dents received some form of scholarship –academic, talent or athletic – support dur-ing the 2008-2009 school year.

Some of those scholarships come fromthe Oprah Winfrey Foundation, the BillGates Millennium Scholarship program,United Negro College Fund, along withother Morehouse endowed and restrictedscholarships.

The College also hired a scholarshipcoordinator to counsel and assist studentsand parents with finding additional fundsthrough a wide variety of internal andexternal sources.

Besides adhering to all deadlines, Stotts

offers one important bit of advice:“Students/parents should develop a finan-cial plan for College to make sure that theyare able to cover the appropriate costs asso-ciated with their educational expenses,” hesays. He suggests a six-step plan:1. Apply for financial aid2. Understand the cost-of-attendance

budget3. Develop your budget4. Review and secure all funding sources5. Do calculations6. Determine if additional resources are

needed

“The financial plan will help studentsunderstand the direct cost and the actualcost of attendance, allowing them to deter-mine what is needed from one year to thenext,” Stotts says.

Investing in Black Male DevelopmentColleges and universities, privateand public, large and small, are in a fierceand competitive search for talented AfricanAmerican male students.

The rough economy has parents andstudents seeking new ways to afford a col-lege education. But it also has institutionsdigging deeper and being more creative inattracting black males.

That makes the job of Terrance Dixon ’87,associate dean for Recruitment, a little tougher.

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feature

“From the moment you step

onto campus as a freshman,

you are indoctrinated into a

fraternity of brotherhood. You

immediately feel the support

system that’s 2,800-men strong.”

–Alex Akbarisenior psychology major

DESPITE THE TOUGH FINANCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES MANY FAMILIES ARE FACING,

FEW STUDENTS HAVE GIVEN UP ON ATTENDING COLLEGE. ONLY 4 PERCENT SAID

THAT THE RECESSION HAD PROMPTED THEM TO MORE SERIOUSLY CONSIDER WORKING INSTEAD

OF ATTENDING COLLEGE; 78% SAID THEY HAD NEVER CONSIDERED THAT OPTION.

–Based on findings from a student survey conducted

by the College Board and Art and Science Group

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“And it’s tough because I think morenow than ever people are shopping foreducation like they are shopping for any-thing else,” he says.

But Dixon urges parents who areworried about actual costs to calculate thevalue of intangibles, like the College’slegacy of producing leaders and its uniquefocus on black male development.

“We spend a lot of time telling parentsabout what makes Morehouse the value thatit is,” he says.“We think we do somethingdifferent for an African American man thanthey’d get from any other campus.”

What’s already well known isMorehouse’s stellar academic reputation:from 2002 to 2004, Black Enterprise maga-zine ranked the College the best in educat-ing African American students; the Collegehas produced three Rhodes Scholars,scores of local and national politicians,several college presidents, a surgeon gener-al and history’s pre-eminent civil rightsleader, Martin Luther King Jr. ’48.

Classes have a 15:1 student-to-professorratio; 100 percent of tenure-tracked andtenured faculty hold Ph.Ds in their academicarea, and students are getting placed intosome of the top graduate school programsin the country.

In 2003, The Wall Street Journal namedMorehouse one of the top 50 most successfulschools across the nation when it comes tosending students to well-known, well-respected graduate and professional schools.

But Dixon speaks not just about thehigh-level education that the College pro-vides, but of something different and intrin-

sic in the Morehouse experience: the processof building strong, knowledgeable blackmen who are full of spirit and self-worthand ready to contribute something to theircommunities, both locally and abroad.

Says Will O. Cobbs Jr. ’95, presidentof Chicago-based, federal government sta-tistical consulting firm Ahiman Consultingand Research, Inc.: “Morehouse made meredefine what it is to be a black man—and it’s belonging to a group that showswhat the epitome of what a black mancan be.”

“I don’t think that is cultivated inother institutions…It may be, but not tothe degree of Morehouse.”

The experience comes together in anenvironment completely unlike any otherhigher education institution in the worldas the student population at Morehouse isalmost totally comprised of males ofAfrican and African American descent.

“So the gender piece is removed andthat’s important for a lot of brothers,”says psychology professor Bryant T.Marks ’94. “Morehouse provides a spacewhere black men can bond and be vul-nerable, to an extent, and be accepted.”

Artist and theologian Carey Wynn ’70points to the vague, indescribable, yet very

real concept dubbed the MorehouseMystique. It is, in simple terms, whatmakes Morehouse so different, he says.

“The Morehouse Mystique is trans-lated in various mantras, manners, virtuesand visions that call to mind the salientcharacteristics of manhood that are criticalto the reformation of the African

American community, particularly theAfrican American male,” Wynn says.

“Through [the weekly, mandatorygathering for students] Crown Forum,classroom experiences and general extra-curricular activities, each student every dayis provided with an opportunity – in fact, itis demanded of him – that he serves to seehimself as a purposeful student who is ableto challenge the stereotypes that havedogged the African American community,and the African American male, since thedawn of African slavery,” he says.

The Value ofBrotherhoodFrom the first day of NewStudent Orientation, men of Morehouseare taught not only how to become schol-ars, but how to develop into moral andethical leaders – and to hold their ownMorehouse brothers to those same highstandards, day in and day out.

“From the moment you step ontocampus as a freshman, you are indoctri-nated into a fraternity of brotherhood,”says senior psychology major Alex Akbari.“You immediately feel the support systemthat’s 2,800-men strong. I know that I’mgoing to become a doctor and Morehouseis going to help me get there.”

That brotherhood becomes a uniquebond that lasts a lifetime.

For example, Marks said he was oncealone in a new city, his car adorned with aMorehouse license plate. After leaving andthen returning to his car, he saw a noteon the windshield: a fellow MorehouseMan – someone Marks had never met –saw the plate and left a number for the fel-low Maroon Tiger to call.

When Terry Mills, dean of the Divisionof Humanities and Social Sciences,went toBeijing,China,in 2008,Marketus Presswood ‘98and Shaan Price ‘98 were his interpreters andtour guides.

HALF OF STUDENTS IN A RECENT SURVEY SAID THEIR FAMILIES HAD SAVED MONEY FOR

COLLEGE, BUT ONLY HALF OF THOSE HAD SAVED MORE THAN $20,000. TEN PERCENT SAID THEY HAD

SAVED BETWEEN $40,000 AND $70,000, AND 5 PERCENT SAID THEY HAD SAVED MORE THAN $100,000.

-The College Board and Art and Science Group

Presswood is the founder of the BSAMinority Study Abroad Program, whichgives minority college students opportunitiesto study in countries around the world.Price is the program’s student adviser.

Presswood believed that students athis alma mater needed to be a part of hisprogram.

“A college is only as strong as the gradu-ates it produces, as well as the different formsof capital those graduates produce for the col-lege,”Presswood says. “It was a logical step forus to reach out to Morehouse students in con-junction with Dean Mills, who shares a similarvision of preparing students for a competitiveglobal economy.As a Morehouse alum andstudy abroad advocate who has spent 10 yearsliving abroad, I obviously would like to see themajority of Morehouse students have somekind of overseas experience.”

Adds Mills of what has now become aone-week Asian/Middle East cultural immer-sion program:“We came up with this idea ofdoing this winter break tour. It’s not only anexample of what Morehouse offers students,but more importantly, how students respondto what Morehouse has to offer.”

Marks is now director of the MorehouseMale Initiative,a program that, throughresearch,surveys and focus groups,will scientifi-cally measure for the first time the impact ofthe Morehouse experience. He says that for allof the tangible evidence of the strength of theMorehouse experience, there remains an “X-factor”that makes it different.

“There is something we will never be ableto totally identify, that makes this such a uniqueplace,”he says. “There is something specialabout this place – that’s the mystique piece.”

The spirit of helping students and fel-low Morehouse brothers was never more ondisplay than during the beginning of thespring 2009 semester.

More than 200 students who had juststarted the semester were on the verge ofhaving to pack their bags and head homebecause they couldn’t come up with theneeded 60 percent of their total bill to payfor school, even though the school extended

the deadline by three weeks.President Robert M. Franklin Jr. ’75

stepped in and wrote a letter asking alumni,fraternities and other organizations to diginto their pockets to help keep those stu-dents in school.

“To be sure, these are extraordinarytimes that call for extraordinary sacrifice,”Franklin wrote in his Feb. 4 e-mail. “…Now,I’m calling on you to help keep these studentson track to becoming Morehouse Men.”

The response: within a few days, 200gifts totaling more than $88,000 were given,keeping 188 students in class.

“These acts of generosity demon-strate the commitment to our great College

that has always been a part of theMorehouse value system,” Franklin said.

For Cobbs,who gave one of those gifts, itis only a small price to pay to be part of astrong Morehouse family.That,Cobbs says, isthe value that is gained over a lifetime.

“It is like the motivation to continuea relationship that has been an importantsource for me,” he says. “I struggledthrough Morehouse financially. But thosestruggles made me stronger. I wantedcurrent students to have the opportunityto overcome those adversities and tobecome stronger because I know what avalue Morehouse has been to me.” ■

–Chandra Thomas also reported for this article.

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IN A SURVEY OF NEARLY 40,000 HIGH SCHOOL JUNIORS AND SENIORS

AND THEIR PARENTS, ABOUT 61 PERCENT OF THE SENIORS AND 64 PERCENT OF SENIORS’

PARENTS SAID CONCERNS ABOUT THE ECONOMY “SOMEWHAT” OR “GREATLY”

AFFECTED THE COLLEGES TO WHICH STUDENTS APPLIED.

-The 2009 College Decision Impact Survey, Maguire Associates

Reputation NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED AS A TOP FEEDER SCHOOL TO THENATION’S MOST PRESTIGIOUS GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS

Selectivity COLLEGE OF CHOICE FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN

Academic Excellence ONE OF TWO HBCU TO PRODUCE THREE

RHODES SCHOLARS

Focus on Leadership Development ONE OF ONLY A FEW

LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES THAT OFFERS A LEADERSHIP STUDIES MINOR

Emphasis on Community Service NEARLY TWO-THIRDS

OF THE STUDENT BODY PARTICIPATE IN COMMUNITY SERVICE PROGRAMS

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Top 5 REASONS WHY Morehouse IS STILL A Good Value