California universities struggle to graduate Black students. Cultural centers aim to help

BY BRIANA MENDEZ-PADILLA | CALMATTERS (CALMATTERS) – Leila Cormier’s breath quickened and her mind raced as she prepared to lead her first workshop at Sacramento State’s resource center for Black students. Surrounded by 25 students, paint and dirt, she wanted to overcome her fear of public speaking and develop skills for her post-graduation goal of changing public policy. Cormier is a fourth-year political science major and Africana studies minor who has been heavily involved in Sac State’s Martin Luther King Jr. Center. The workshop combined two of her passions: mental health and plants. Students wrote affirmations like “I get good grades” or “I am enough” on compostable seed paper which they planted inside the tiny pots they painted for their affirmations to take root.& Black college students in California say resource centers like the one at Sacramento State can combat a sense of alienation that comes from low enrollment rates. Eighteen of the 23 Cal State campuses and nine out of 10 UC campuses have a Black resource center.& These spaces vary in size, services offered and amount of personnel. The campuses that don’t have a center specifically for Black students instead have a center for all cultural groups —...