Attitudes of Black and of White College Students Toward Student Personnel Services

Abstract

The black American college student of the sixties may be regarded as one of the most militant in the history of higher education. Lyons1 points out that this militancy has led to change in the nature of the institutions of higher learning. He noted increases in the development of Afro-American cultural centers and black student organizations on predominantly white student populated campuses. Jones2 found that black students who attended predominantly white institutions are less happy socially and feel more alienated than their black counterparts on predominantly black student populated campuses. However, he found that these black students had more self-esteem. In support of Jones's findings, Willie and Levy3 also found that the majority of the black students attending predominantly white institutions live in self enforced segregation. These opinions have definite implications for student personnel administrators in that the felt alienation of black students could be related to the extent to which the personnel services meet their needs and to their attitudes toward these services when they comprise a minority of the student body. In other words, are the student personnel services more responsive to the majority of the student body and do these services neglect the feelings of the minor-