By Stephen Magagnini | OBSERVER Editor-In-Chief
Sacramento State President Dr. Luke Wood on Aug. 8 hosted the grand opening of the University’s Black Honors College, the first of its kind outside of HBCUs. Barack Obama, HBCU graduate and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, and other dignitaries offered congratulations. Wood, who was born in Oakland in a county jail and raised in foster care in a small white community in Northern California, came to Sac State for a leadership program as a high school senior and worked very hard to find mentors and supportive faculty and advisers. He has helped create an environment for the growing number of Black students at Sac State – some 2,000 representing 6% of the university’s students and the largest number of Black students in the CSU, Wood said. Had young Wood had access to the many support systems implemented by the new Black Honors College, he might have enjoyed even greater success in fulfilling his stated goal to “be president of Sac State someday” – a goal Wood realized July 16, 2023, at age 41. In a Q&A with The OBSERVER, Wood painted a picture of the groundbreaking new college, which is open to all students with at least a 3.5 GPA.
Q: Why is your Black Honors College so critical now?
Wood: America is more politically divided and polarized than ever before, with attacks on our core values of diversity and inclusion. We’re in a university system that’s going in the opposite direction – it has the most diverse leaders in the country. We want to be the North Star of the West. Where places like Florida, Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee are treating students in ways that strip them of the opportunity to learn and appreciate your culture, we won’t view you as a number on a sheet but as a name, as a community, and a part of our future. We are intentional about making this available to students of all backgrounds. Many of California’s Black scholars are going out of state to attend HBCUs because of the unique experience. We want to offer them something perfectly tailored to their needs and give them the experience they deserve. Without that, students are at greater risk of dropping out.
Q: Why is Sac State the right university to host this new college?
Wood: We have more Black students than any other CSU, and because of things we’re already doing to highlight our community and our efforts to support it, we had 23% more applications from Black students in 2024, and 43% more Black transfer students, who are among our best students. The California Legislature recently honored us as the state’s first “Black-serving institution” based partly on three critical components: the Cooper Woodson College Enhancement Program, founded in 1990 to promote educational equity and the retention of Pan-African students based on principles of leadership, college, and service; the MLK Jr. resource center partnering with local businesses and community organizations and offering cultural programs “to foster a sense of belonging, student inclusion and cultural empowerment”; and our Black Honors College. We are starting a drumline based on the Grant High model, and we will be able to provide scholarships to drumline students.
Q: How will the new college be different from a robust Black Studies program?
Wood: Many such programs usually only have one faculty member coordinating it and maybe a couple of classes. We have eight dedicated staff members – a dean of students, a director, office staff, a therapist, academic advisors. … We have 6,000 square feet of space located in the University Library because of the message it sends, academics being the core focus of our program. There’s an office, a large seminar room, and a timeline of the Black experience at Sac State. We want our Black students, like other students, to feel at home here. My goal is to give students the support and experience I didn’t have as an entering student. I had many faculty members here who were supportive, but not all of them – we don’t want students to play roulette to figure out if they’re in the right classes.
Q: What will the curriculum be like?
Wood: “We will offer history, sociology, political science, biology, and other courses taught through an Afrocentric critical lens rooted within Black history, life, and culture. We’ve hired the absolute best coach in the country out of San Diego State, Frank Harris III, an expert in culturally relevant teaching and building authentic relationships with students.
Q: How many faculty members will be dedicated to the new college?
Wood: We’re going to need more faculty over time because our goal is to get to 1,000-2,000 students in the Honors College. We will start with 80 students this fall and 50 in the spring. Students can enter through the transfer track, which has more scholarship dollars available. Students who have already completed their general education requirements at Sac State can also apply. We are offering minor concentrations in real estate, land use development, construction management, and health sciences.
Q: What should students and families keep in mind?
Wood: We have created an entire ecosystem focused on serving them based on what we know from extensive research that Black students need to succeed in an environment of high academic rigor and success. We give students a reason to dig even deeper and look inward.”