UB's Educational Opportunity Program: Placing Achievers On The Road to Success

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- If the University at Buffalo's Educational Opportunity Program didn't exist, Barbara Abad might not have accepted the Dean's Award for the Faculty of Arts and Letters on Sunday at the university's 151st general commencement ceremony on May 18.

Similarly, Fernando Maisonett might not be at the helm of the UB undergraduate Student Association for a second year, and UB's Simon A. Johnson might not have represented the student voice at the table when the SUNY Board of Trustees held its meetings during the past year.

And the UB community might have missed out on the opportunity that was afforded it on April 17 when graduating senior Botumroath Keo Lebun -- as a poignant farewell and "thank you" to the university -- arranged for a performance by a troupe of classical dancers from her native Cambodia, from which she was forced to flee at age 5.

The four are among the some 850 students with disadvantaged backgrounds enrolled this past year in UB's Educational Opportunity Program.

Despite the fact that EOP attracts talented students to the university and provides them with the support they need to succeed, it remains a program "that is often misunderstood and misrepresented," said Mary H. Gresham, associate vice president in the Division of Public Service and Urban Affairs, which administers the program.

As Henry J. Durand, UB's EOP director and head of the statewide Council of Educational Opportunity Program Directors, pointed out, despite the success of students in EOP programs on SUNY campuses across the state, "there are still those who don't want to understand, even in the face of evidence to the contrary."

Gov. Pataki, for example, proposed in 1995 that the EOP programs on SUNY campuses be eliminated. While 75 percent of their funding was restored, Durand says the cut that occurred beginning in the 1996-97 academic year means 1,000 fewer students a year are being given the opportunity to attend a SUNY college or university.

The 13,000 students enrolled in EOP programs statewide are from academically or economically disadvantaged backgrounds; most come from families with an annual income below $11,000. While EOP programs provide them with direct aid averaging about $500 per semester, the major assistance it gives them is the help they need to strengthen their skills and obtain a degree. Durand notes that not only do many EOP students work their way through college -- some at two jobs -- but they contribute more proportionately to their education than other students.

"The perception is that EOP is about undeserving students who can't do college work and are virtually given a free ride and are here because of things like affirmative action," Durand said.

"The truth of the matter is almost the exact opposite. The truth is they are very talented students who happened to have been handicapped by disadvantaged circumstances in which they grew up and over which they had no control."

Gresham noted, "I think EOP really embodies the best of public education in that when we talk about public universities providing access to the larger society, EOP does so in no uncertain terms. It accepts the responsibility that that wider access entails, takes these students and works with them, supports them in concrete ways to achieve the best they can. When presented with a challenge and the means to help them negotiate it, these students rise to the occasion."

Durand agrees. "EOP is probably one of the best programs that New York has in terms of maximizing the potential of its human resources," he said. "We have been making the argument over a number of years that it was the ethical and moral thing to do to give these students a chance to achieve. But the truth is, it is also the most cost-effective thing to do. You are taking students with potential and giving them an opportunity to put that potential to work for the state as a contributing, productive citizen."

Since becoming part of SUNY 30 years ago, EOP has helped more than 30,000 individuals earn a college degree. Durand says the Council of Educational Opportunity Program Directors has documented that at least 80 percent of EOP graduates remain in New York State, working and paying taxes and contributing to their home communities.

Barbara Abad, who graduated with a B+ average from a high school in Queens, came to UB through EOP and subsequently earned a place in the University Honors Program. She graduated summa cum laude on May 18 as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Golden Key National Honor Society. She has interned in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, tutored financially disadvantaged students and served as a resident advisor.

Life was not easy for Abad and her brother, Thomas. Although their mother received a college education in her native Ecuador, it didn't translate immediately into work opportunities in the U.S. Abad's brother was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, but thanks to treatment, has done well and graduated last weekend from Fordham University, where he was in the Higher Education Opportunity Program, the private-sector equivalent to EOP. Their mother, initially employed as a sales clerk, today works as a paraprofessional with mentally and physically challenged children.

Abad this fall will enter the University of Michigan as a graduate student.

Fernando Maisonett says his interest in engineering dates back to the second grade when he subscribed to a scientific magazine. Maisonett, who this spring became the first student in more than 10 years to be elected to a second term as SA president, plans to obtain a doctorate in electrical engineering and work with high-performance computer systems. Also on his agenda is developing a center in his hometown in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn to encourage others to get involved in scientific and technical fields.

Although UB's engineering program seemed appealing, Maisonett said he was "truly convinced UB was the place for me" when an EOP counselor spoke to him in his native Spanish about the program. EOP counselors and staff members and faculty made him feel part of a "family" and the summer preparatory program prior to his freshman year "sparked my desire to get involved and give something back to my community."

Prior to heading the SA, Maisonett was president of the EOP Student Association and PODER: Latinos Unidos. He has organized efforts statewide to recruit more students of color to UB, as well as student protests of cuts in state funding for UB and SUNY. The tutoring he received through EOP led him to spearhead SA funding of expanded tutoring for all undergraduates that is being initiated through the University Learning Center.

Simon A. Johnson earned an associate's degree from the SUNY College of Agriculture and Technology at Morrisville and was attending SUNY at Albany when Durand encouraged him to come to UB.

As president of the New York State Student Association, Johnson served this past year as student representative on the SUNY Board of Trustees, setting an example for "how people can become more involved and give back to their community."

Johnson, who served in the U.S. Army in counter intelligence, worked in the public safety department at Hofstra University and was a counselor for the Keep Encouraging Youth program in Amityville before attending college at Morrisville. He credits his mother, a single parent and immigrant from Guyana, for instilling in her four children the importance of an education. A nurse practitioner, she recently earned a

master's degree from SUNY at Stony Brook. "Through hard work and education," Johnson notes, "you can accomplish anything."

Botumroath Keo Lebun hasn't seen her Cambodian homeland since she was 5 years old and forced to flee to Thailand with her mother and older brother during the Khmer Rouge regime. They were interned in the Phanat Nikhom refugee camp for 3 1/2 years until being released for emigration to the U.S.

Lebun also enrolled at UB through the EOP. Claude Welch, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science who has served as Lebun's mentor, described her as a young woman with joie de vivre, "who grows with every single experience that comes her way."

In 1994, Lebun traveled to Thailand under the World Learning Summer Abroad Program and, to her surprise, was assigned to teach English to refugees in the Phanat Nikhom refugee camp. Last summer, she served an internship with the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University. At Yale, she translated transcripts of interviews with survivors of the genocide and catalogued the cases of execution at the Khmer Rouge extermination center at Tuol Sleng in Phnom Penh. "I emerged from this experience deeply shaken," she said, "and convinced that promotion of cross-cultural understanding and universal human rights is the answer to atrocities such as this one."

Lebun decided to honor the Cambodian dead and her homeland's living culture by introducing the Cambodian American Heritage Dancers to the UB community. She helped raise the funds that brought a performance by the troupe to the Center for the Arts in April. Lebun, who received a bachelor of arts degree last weekend, described the performance as her "legacy and gift" to the university that has provided her with educational tools for a lifetime and a career in international diplomacy.