File #: Res 0242-2004    Version: * Name: Oversight hearing regarding the lack of black male enrollment in higher education.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Higher Education
On agenda: 3/24/2004
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution calling upon the appropriate committee of the Council of the City of New York to conduct an oversight hearing regarding the lack of black male enrollment in higher education.
Sponsors: Bill Perkins, Charles Barron, Tracy L. Boyland, Lewis A. Fidler, Helen D. Foster, Alan J. Gerson, Miguel Martinez, Larry B. Seabrook, Albert Vann
Council Member Sponsors: 9
Attachments: 1. Committee Report, 2. Hearing Transcript

Res. No. 242

 

Resolution calling upon the appropriate committee of the Council of the City of New York to conduct an oversight hearing regarding the lack of black male enrollment in higher education.

 

By Council Members Perkins, Barron, Boyland, Fidler, Foster, Gerson, Martinez, Seabrook and Vann

 

                     Whereas, According to the United States Census Bureau (“Census Bureau”), there are an estimated 36 million black people living in the United States; and

Whereas, The Census Bureau also reports that there are approximately 2.1 million black people living in New York City; and

Whereas, The Census Bureau also reports that as of March 2002, only 17% of the total black population in the United States 25 years of age and over had attained a bachelor’s degree or higher; and

Whereas, The Census Bureau also reports that only 16.4% of black males 25 years of age or over in the United States had attained a bachelor’s degree, as opposed to 31.7% of their white male counterparts; and

Whereas, According to the American Council on Education’s most recent report on minorities in higher education, barely a quarter of the 1.9 million black men between the ages of 18 and 24 nationwide were enrolled in college in the year 2000; and

Whereas, According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”), only 35% of the black men who entered NCAA Division I colleges in 1996 graduated within six years, as compared to 59% of their white male counterparts and 46% of Hispanic males; and

Whereas, Historically, individual educational advancement has been one of the key steps towards upward economic mobility; and

Whereas, The Census Bureau reports that an estimated 27% of the total black population in the United States lived below the poverty level in 2002; and

Whereas, Recent statistics reveal that only half of the City’s black male population were gainfully employed in 2003; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the appropriate committee of the Council of the City of New York conduct an oversight hearing regarding the lack of black male enrollment in higher education.

 

 

 

LS# 140

RA

3/18/2004

H:/word/resolutions/perkins/ls#140