Photo by John Cross
C. Maxille Moultrie is a recruiter for Minnesota State University's Department of Institutional Diversity. Since November he's had an office at Minneapolis Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. He's met with more than 50 students, and at least a dozen have committed to MSU.
MINNEAPOLIS — C. Maxille Moultrie knows he's being watched.
"I never show up here in anything less than a coat and tie," says Moultrie, sitting in an office at Minneapolis Roosevelt High School.
Moultrie is a recruiter for Minnesota State University. He focuses on southern Minneapolis and African-American students, although he'll recruit any student of any ethnicity to come to MSU.
"I'll work with any student," he said. "In fact, I recruit more white students than anything."
He's waiting for students to come see him, seniors he's been working with for several months. That's not unusual. What's unusual is the setting.
Even though this is a Minneapolis high school, this is his office. And he knows the students here look up to him, they respect him.
This is the first year MSU has extended its recruiting reach all the way into a metropolitan-area school, and so far it's getting results. Between November and April, Moultrie estimates he met with about 50 students. Of those, at least a dozen are committed to MSU.
Moultrie says that, initially, Roosevelt pursued a partnership with MSU. After touring MSU, a Roosevelt administrator recommended MSU come to Roosevelt. MSU obliged.
MSU also is ready to begin similar partnerships with North High School in Minneapolis as well as a school in St. Paul.
As the students file in, it's obvious Moultrie has established a rapport with them. He knows them all on a first-name basis.
"I probably wouldn't even be going to Mankato if (Moultrie) didn't come down here," senior Terrence Meanchop says. "And my family's ready for me to get up outta here."
Sifarah Williams, also a senior, says her family moved to Minneapolis from Chicago three years ago. Her family is wary of her going away to college.
"My grandma said I shouldn't go that far from home," Williams said. "We came here for a better life."
And James Bynum says his family prefers he leave town for college.
"Everybody says I'm going to be the first one to go to college," he says. He said that when his dad learned he was going to MSU in the fall, he "cried a tear ... He didn't think I could get this far."
The students visit with Moultrie as often as Moultrie comes to their school, which is at least once or twice per month.
They ask him tons of questions — How do I get on the football team? What's the food like? What about financial aid? What kind of paperwork do I need to fill out?
Mankato's and MSU's diversity also comes up. Moultrie says he tries to be honest.
"I tell them MSU is not a place that will always reject them, and it's not a place that will always accept them," he said.
Moultrie says that what really impressed Roosevelt was something called the College Access Program. CAP is one of the innovative ways MSU is reaching out to students of color and first-generation students.
They come to campus and spend four weeks of the summer there living in the residence halls, taking classes and living much as college students live.
Doing this gives them a chance to experience it firsthand. When the real thing commences, the shock of so many new things is blunted, leaving them freer to concentrate on academic success.
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