Newspaper Page Text
September 26, 1984/The Maroon Tiger/Page 5C
Students Read ‘Black Collegian’ For Jobs
Special to The Maroon Tieer J
By C.S. Farrell
Oceanography is hot. So are
robotics, genetics, and materials
science. All are “comers” —
fields that promise significant
growth in the decades to come,
but in which there is little black
representation.
The Black Collegian wants to
change that last situation.
Since its inception in 1970, the
magazine has grown into a
respected publication com
mitted to providing black
college students with the infor
mation, guidance, and assistance
necessary to pursue a career
successfully.
Preston J. Edwards, publisher
of the magazine, says black
students need that extra
assistance because they
historically have had less access
to the methods of becoming
successful, methods that are
second nature to their white
counterparts, who receive
guidance from relatives and
friends in a wide range of
professions.
As a result, Edwards says,
“there is a lot of apprehension
among black students. They ask,
‘Am I ready to deal with the
working world?’ We're ready to
give them the tools that will help.
Blacks act with a lot of stress in
white environments, and the
more prepared they are, the less
apprenhension they will have.”
The success he wishes for
others was won by Edwards in a
hard fight.
The idea for The Black
Collegian came to him in 1970,
while he was an assistant
professor of business at Southern
University in Baton Rouge. Itwas
a turbulent time for many
students in the country, but it
came “closer to home,” he said,
when a student was killed during
a demonstration at Jackson State
College, a predominantly black
institution in Mississippi that is
now a university.
“The thing was,’’Edwardssaid,
“my students didn’t know what
was going on. There was a need
for some form of communica
tion between black students.”
A friend had been successful
publishing a black-oriented
magazine, so he felt that was the
best avenue by which to reach
black students, Edwards recalls,
adding, “It never occurred to me
I didn't know anything about
publishing.”
Broken Promise Upsets Dearm
Edwards entered a tough
business when he decided to
launch a publication. Half of all
new magazines fail in the first
year, and half of those remaining
fail in the second year, according
to some estimates.
Financing was a problem, but
after months of searching he
found a foundation that was
willing to put up $250,000. Arm
ed with that pledge, and the
promise of editorial assistance
from friends, Edwards quit his
job at Southern to devote full
time to launching his dream.
Pieces of the dream dissolved
three months later when the
foundation reneged on its
pledge. “It was a big setback,”
says Edwards, “but it didn’t stop
us. We had sold enough adver
tising to publish a first issue.”
He couldn’t afford to pay the
staff, so he gave them stock in the
company in return for whatever
money they could contribute
toward expenses. A printer ex
tended credit.
In December 1970 the first
issue of The Black Collegian
came out. It had 40 pages, 5 of
which were occupied by adver
tising. The premier issue was
distributed on 100 campuses.
With the first issue off the
ground, Edwards and his small
staff worked on a shoestring
budget to produce a second,
then a third. The first few issues
were a hodgepodge of informa
tion, attempting to cover
everything that could con
ceivably be of interest to black
students.
But Edwards quickly decided
that that format was not
benefiting black students. “All of
us had been black students,” he
said, “and we knew that one of
the main reasons to get an
education is to get a good job.
We wanted to help in the job-
hunting process and help
students succeed.”
The Black Collegian became a
job information and career-
oriented magazine, and the
format has been successful.
Published four times a year, it
averages over 240 pages an issue
and is distributed free to more
than 255,000 students on over
1,400 campuses.
The magazine is testimony to
the hard work, determination,
and dedication that it tells black
college students are necessary to
succeed.
The Black Collegian provides a
steady soup-to-nuts menu for
success, ranging from when to
start preparing for a career, to
where the jobs are, to preparing
a resume, to applying to
graduate school, to interview
techniques — even to what to do
on the first day of a job.
The magazine also offers a
pocket size appointment book in
which students can keep track of
job interviews, and a free resume
service.
Tokenism Takes Its Toll
There have been several subtie
changes over the years in the way
blacks approach jobs, Edwards
says. During the 1970’s there was
an attitude that he describes at
“I'm black and I can get a job
because I’m black.” At the same
time, he says, "corporations
were not totally honest in their
programs to get blacks. They
were just looking for numbers.”
The tokenism finally took its
toll, Edwards says, with blacks
quickly growing skeptical of
corporate America. But the
recession put everybody into
financial straits, and black
students began saying, “I really
want a job.” “Today,” Edwards
says, “students will do anything
to get a job. They’re not talking
down the corporate world.
They’re thinking about sur
viving.”
He adds, “A conservatism has
surfaced, with students becom
ing more conscientious. But
black students still have special
needs and concerns. Black
students are now more concern
ed about being students, but we
hope that black students are
concerned with being black
first.”
That is why the magazine
continues to offer black role
models, says James Borders, the
managing editor. "We tend to
disguise and integrate black
professionals into the body of a
feature article to say, ‘Here is
somebody doing it, and they can
give you information from their
own experiences about the
prospects of survival in the work
world and how to excel in your
chosen field.’ ”
More and more, that field is
likely to be one of the so-called
"boom fields,” the high-
technology careers that are
rapidly expanding. “There is
much potential there,” Borders
says, “but we have to get black
people interested in those
fields.”
The way The Black Collegian
has been doing that is to describe
those fields not only in terms of
promising careers but also
“breaking it down into dollars
and cents. Liberal-arts majors
will make $10,000 less a year,”
says Borders. “If you are in
college and putting in the time,
put it in where you make more
money."
In this period of high competi
tion for jobs, blacks are having to
“move toward the finer points of
success,” he says. Etiquette has
become increasingly important,
and The Black Collegian has
produced several articles on the
subject, with a book planned.
‘Extra Mile’ to Success
“Communication skills, dress,
and grooming are natural
byproducts of increased com
petition and increased educa
tion,” Borders says. "You used to
think that lawyers and doctors
have got it made. Now there’s
the outcry that it takes
something other than a degree
to succeed. We have to alert
black students to that extra mile.
With each generation, the level
of competence increases.
The kind of career counseling
that The Black Collegian es
pouses is appreciated by
businesses seeking top recruits,
particularly from minority-group
members.
Brooks Brocksbank, manager
of college relations and college
recruiting for Mobil Oil Cor
poration, says his company has
been an advertiser in The Black
Collegian since its beginning.
"Being one of the first com
panies involved in recruiting at
historically black colleges,” he
said, "we needed a medium to
reach those blacks.”
The Black Collegian is in
creasingly going beyond “who’s
recruiting into the how-to-
succeed," Brocksband says,
“which is what I feel very strong
ly that blacks need to know
about.
“They are going into a political
environment, an environment
where their eyes need to be
open; where they have to know
how to play the game, he says.
"The Black Collegian is showing
them that, so if they help them, it
helps us.”
Other publications are now
getting into the lucrative career-
preparation market, but Borders,
the managing editor, says,
“We're a full step ahead and a
half step sharper."
Edwards adds that there is
gratification in being the first
publication to try actively to help
black students with career
choices. "We reach out to a lot of
black students and provide a lot
of information,” he says. “We
feel fortunate to be able to
impact on somebody’s life and
contribute to their success.”
Black must continue to
struggle to succeed, he says, and
The Black Collegian plans to be
around to help. "If one day we
wake up and there are no longer
matters of race, tfven we’ll
publish The Collegianhe said.
"There will be no need for The
Black Collegian or a black
anything. But that isn’t even a
dream, it is so far away.”
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ABOUT
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From Peachtree City to Roswell and from Conyers
to Douglasvillc. United Way is there helping people help
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United Way brings volunteers, gov ernment leaders
and community representatives together to help solve
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