NIU has increased financial support for the Educational Services and Programs office by $388,133 to allow the office to expand its services to academically underprivileged students.

The additional revenue pushes the office’s total general revenue to $934,576. The office has doubled the amount of counselors available to 10, and services such as tutoring, career counseling, supplemental instruction and the mentoring program have all been expanded.

Instead of providing these services only during a student’s freshman year, they also will be available to qualified students throughout their stay at NIU.

Director Tendaji Ganges said the long-term goal of the office is to “increase the ultimate graduation rate of the students that participate in it by 15 percent each year.”

“Ultimately, we would want to at least match the general population’s graduation rate (presently 57 percent),” Ganges said.

One of the programs, CHANCE (Counseling Help and Assistance Necessary for a College Education), recruits students who would not be admitted to NIU under normal academic standards. The majority of students admitted through CHANCE, between 85 and 90 percent, are minority students.

Currently, there are 457 students admitted to NIU through the CHANCE program.

According to a study released by the Board of Regents, 17 percent of black students admitted to NIU through the CHANCE program finished a four-year degree. Twenty-nine percent of the black students admitted by regular standards graduated. Fifty-seven percent of the white student population enrolled at NIU completed a four-year degree.

Ganges noted that the CHANCE program has a stigma attached to it that he found “resentful.”

“There are some individuals, however few, who have made assumptions that the students in CHANCE really are being given something; when actually what’s happening is the students are being challenged to take advantage of the opportunities here just as all students are,” Ganges said. “Some students that come in have further to go than others.”

Other assumptions about students in the program that Ganges noticed and refuted were that these students “are not as bright as other students” and “that all black students are CHANCE students.” He also noted “that any student that fell into the category of a minority” is associated with the CHANCE program.

“The high visibility thing that I think distinguished CHANCE and gave it notoriety was the fact that it was involved in recruitment, and also that they were very visible people because they were people of color,” said Ganges.

“We think that there should be no stigma attached to recognizing that you have a need and meeting that need,” said Ganges.

The Educational Services and Programs office is divided into three parts. There is CHANCE, which is responsible for counseling, mentoring and academic advising, and ACCESS (Access to Courses and Careers through Educational Support Services), which is responsible for developmental workshops, supplemental services, tutoring, support services and leadership development. Both of these areas include a sub-group called Shared Functions, which include recruitment, assessment and placement, career planning and placement, student follow-up and alumni relations.