Meeting the Challenge: - The Council of Independent Colleges

Serving Students Well: Independent Colleges Today
To help
students in
its College
Assistance
Migrant
Program
(CAMP)
get off to a
solid start,
St. Edward’s
University in
Texas brings
them to campus
early and
provides group
counseling and
tutoring.
and one of them told Levao that “when my grandchildren
see me bring books home, they look at books as something
special.” Levao himself is a nontraditional president. He was a
partner in a Philadelphia-based law firm and chairman of the
board at his alma mater, Rutgers University. Then he decided
to take on a new and socially important challenge as head of
Bloomfield.
Another institution that has made the education of
the under-represented a priority is St. Edward’s University in
Texas, which was founded in 1885 by the Congregation of
the Holy Cross. For more than three decades, the institution
has recruited, enrolled, and graduated the children of
migrant workers through the College Assistance Migrant
Program (CAMP). About 40 to 50 students per year, mostly
from Texas and California, are admitted to the university
through this program. St. Edward’s works closely with high
school counselors to recruit students for CAMP. The students
receive free tuition, room, and board in their freshman year.
Because federal support for the program
has declined, the university puts more than
$1 million from other sources into CAMP
annually.
More than half of the 2,300 CAMP
students who enrolled in the program
since it began have graduated from St.
Edward’s, while another 10 percent have
earned a degree from another college or
university. “Despite cultural problems,
their motivation is extremely high,” says
President George E. Martin, who has been
at the helm of St. Edward’s since 1999. To
help the students get off to a solid start, the
university brings them to campus early and
provides group counseling and tutoring.
54