journal_vol49no2 - 75

A Bridge Over Troubled Water
an institution of higher education. The senior administrator asked a tenure track faculty
member-a Black male with a research agenda centered on Black male academic,
college, and career outcomes-to be the faculty director of this LLC. The director has
a background in education and school counseling, with experience in helping prepare
college students of color and first-generation students to matriculate as well as prepare
them for graduate school. The preparation for this initiative took one academic year
of designing and planning in order to successfully implement the LLC. Jamii House
started out as a two-year living-learning community for first- and second-year students.
Designing Vision and Mission Statements
Given the charge to oversee Jamii House, the faculty director started the process by
creating the vision and mission statements. The vision statement provides direction
for the initiative and what the faculty director would like to accomplish; in the case of
Jamii House, the vision statement focused on developing these brilliant Black men in
their majors and in various career fields through academic achievement and moving
beyond attaining a bachelor's degree to pursue further education such as a law degree,
graduate school, or medical school. The mission statement details the purpose of the
Jamii House initiative: to improve the graduation rates of Black males at Jamii University.
The vision and mission statements were researched based on the underrepresentation
of Black males in many careers and their having the lowest graduation rate at
4-year higher education institutions (Harper, 2012). Finally, the faculty director created
a logo and name to create the narrative that Black men at this institution pursue academic
and scholarly endeavors as well as excellence.
Planning and Collaboration
As previously stated, the faculty director had one academic year to design and plan the
Jamii House. After doing extensive research on living-learning communities, high impact
practices, and Black male college students, he brought in an expert on Black male
academic and career outcomes as a consultant to meet with the university community,
as there was some concern about having a Black male LLC at this institution. Currently,
the consultant is the executive director of a center for Black males at a predominantly
White institution (PWI) in the Midwest and has had positive results in improving the
graduation rates at this particular university. An entire day was dedicated to the consultant
to meet with students, vice presidents of various units, professors, and cultural
center directors, and the evening ended with an open forum as well as a dinner with
Black male alumni and students.
Beyond having a consultant come in to raise awareness of the national academic
and collegiate status of Black males, the faculty director started meeting with departments
on campus to forge partnerships of collaboration that were critical to the success
of Black males. Specifically, meetings were scheduled with the department of public
safety (university police), student affairs, the math tutoring center, the English/writing
tutoring center, the African American studies department, the Black cultural center,
the career center, the office of residence life, and several Black tenured faculty across
72 The Journal of College and University Student Housing
journal_vol49no2

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