Empowerment
&
Expansion
1980's
From Challenge to Fruition
The seeds of change planted in the 1960s and nourished in the 1970s started to bear fruit in this decade. This was a hopeful time. By the early 1980s, EOP was an established Student Affairs department. Growing numbers of EOP students were being admitted into SDSU. EOP became a comprehensive admissions and retention program with expanded services that included pre-collegiate recruiting and pre-admission advising, academic orientation, tutoring, skills development and test preparation, summer bridge programs for freshmen and transfer students, career counseling, and EOP grants.
One of the singular distinctions of EOP services became the personal growth and development component through which professional counselors developed nurturing and empowering relationships with their student clientele. EOP students often maintain that these relationships, which begin in pre-collegiate advising and develop through graduation, are one of the primary factors in their continuing motivation, maturation, retention and graduation.
A Strong Foundation
In the ‘80s, societal changes were taking hold and EOP alumni were affecting the quality of life throughout the state of California. EOP programs contributed significantly to the emergence of a growing middle class, especially within communities of color. This growing population brought increased representation and newly empowered voices to bear on old, formerly non-inclusive conversations on issues of public policy, economic development, educational equity, legislative agendas, and communications networks. During these years, a large number of EOP students were graduating and joining the professional ranks as attorneys, physicians, corporate executives, leaders in private industry and law enforcement support and management personnel in city and county governments, and key staff members in nonprofit social service agencies. By far, the earliest and greatest impact was felt in the fields of education and counseling; in fact many of today’s leading teachers, counselors, and administrators have deep roots in EOP, which they credit for launching their careers.
1980
EOP is now an established department within the Division of Student Affairs with growing numbers of EOP students being admitted to SDSU. EOP becomes a comprehensive admissions and retention program with expanded services that include pre-collegiate recruiting and pre-admission advising, academic orientation, tutoring, skills development and test preparation, summer bridge programs for freshmen and transfer students, career counseling, and EOP grants.
1980
EOP led in the development of freshman seminar classes designed to facilitate the transition from high school to college. Pictured are EOP Counselor Beth Crawford and her class of students from the fall 2007 cohort.
Diversity
and
Leadership
EOP / SOS Collaboration
Program innovation and retention initiatives became the hallmarks of EOP in the 1980s. In 1980, EOP proposed the notion of creating a centralized recruitment department. The accepted proposal combined EOP recruitment with the School Relations office, leading to the creation of the Student Outreach Services (SOS) office. EOP continued to be heavily invested both programmatically and financially in promoting its message to low-income students. Permanent funding for EOP early outreach had increased SOS’s capacity to reach low-income students in middle schools and high schools.
Hallmark Programs
In 1983, EOP began the “Intensive Learning Experience,” constructing an integrated curriculum for freshmen, and coordinating general education classes in the humanities and social sciences with developmental classes in reading and writing. Even in its first year, the ILE had a dramatic impact on freshman retention, reducing the rates of academic probation by two-thirds, and contributing to significant increases in retention of sophomores and juniors.
Building on the success of the ILE, in 1984, EOP pioneered the summer “bridge” program later called BEST (Building Educational Skills and Talents) to help students negotiate the difficult transitions from high school and community college to San Diego State University. In 1985, EOP led in the development of the freshman seminar classes designed to facilitate the transition from high school to college.
In 1986, The ILE and Summer Bridge were listed in the National Directory of Exemplary Developmental Programs, and officials from more than a dozen of the nation’s largest universities invited EOP to help them construct bridge programs of their own. By the end of the 1980s, EOP had laid the foundation for the programs and services that were later known as the Thomas B. Day Freshman Success Programs.
1984
EOP pioneered the Summer “Bridge” program for its incoming freshmen, a program later called BEST (Building Educational Skills and Talents), to help
students negotiate the difficult transition from high school to San Diego State University.
1986
In recognition of statewide demographic shifts and increased cultural understanding, the Office of Educational Opportunity and “Minority” Affairs takes a new name: the Office of Educational Opportunity Programs and Ethnic Affairs.
1988
Under the direction of EOP Director Gus Chavez, EOP began the Transfer Bridge Program in 1988 which was first coordinated by EOP Counselor Paul Delys. The commuter program started with 40 students and ran for four weeks in which students took an introductory Chicano Studies class taught by Rene Nunez
A New Name
In 1985, in recognition of the statewide demographic shifts and increased cultural understanding, the Office of Educational Opportunity and “Minority” Affairs took a new name more befitting its role and respectful of the communities to which it is so closely connected. Since then, we have been known as The Office of Educational Opportunity Programs and Ethnic Affairs.