Hines: I started by going through computer science and business as majors, thinking I wanted to make a lot of money. Then I realized what I really wanted to do was help students develop their potential.

Hines: At Florida State University I met two of my mentors, Dr. Lee Jones, who has since passed away, and Dr. James L. Moore III. [Moore is now interim vice provost for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at The Ohio State University.]

Because of them, I was in the Brothers of the Academy, an academic organization for black men who aim to be tenure-track faculty or academic administrators. That helped me think about how we best help African-American students, and students in general who need help.

Hines: Administrators looked at the data — when we talk about advocating, again, we have to look at what the data is saying. And the data told them that the graduation rate for black males at UConn was 55 percent, where our other populations — men, women, Asian, Latinx, white, black women — they were hovering in the high 70s and low 80s. And UConn’s overall graduation rate at the time, 2012–2013, was at 83 percent. They decided that a black male learning community could be instrumental in helping black men.

Currently, at any given time, there’s between 450 and 500 black males on campus, from freshmen to seniors, and there’s 18,000 to 19,000 students on the Storrs campus. So you can imagine, the population is that small, and only half of them were graduating. Something needed to be done.

Hines: Yeah! I was focused on the academic achievement part. So I was like, “Oh, this is great!” Because it was crazy that the graduation rate was 55 percent. Nationally for black males, it’s 34 percent, so we’re actually doing better because our institution is more selective, and a lot of our black men are coming from the top of their high school classes. Still, imagine that you graduate salutatorian or valedictorian from your high school, and then you look at that rate and think, “UConn may not be a viable option for me to complete.” That’s problematic.

I was naive to the fact people would be concerned about black men living together.

Hines: Some students were hesitant; some wanted to see what it was about. Of course there was some racist propaganda, some students who were African-American who thought it was segregation. I had to combat the stereotype. What is problematic with black men living together? We have other groups living together on campus [WiMSE, or Women in Math, Science, and Engineering, is an all-female learning community, for example.]

To me, [if that’s seen as a problem], then we need to challenge our paradigm of what we think about black men. This should be something that — and I applaud the University of Connecticut — we have to jump on, be at the forefront. We have to take on some of these challenging issues that may not make everyone happy.

Hines: I’m not. I live and breathe being an African-American man every day. Sometimes I do get those looks; I have been searched unlawfully; I have been questioned about my intellect. I stick with data and I look at the bigger picture: How do we as a community,
how do I as a professor, a father, a teacher, a mentor, an African-American male, help other young men be successful, transcend some of these issues, and not get too bogged down? I’m not saying ignore it, because I’m not doing that, but sometimes you have to be the bigger person to challenge it.

I believe the University of Connecticut is on the verge of doing something very innovative and I believe we can be pioneers in improving the graduation rate of black men, and showing our fellow institutions how to do that as well.