Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010 marked the first State of the Black Union in seven years held on Michigan Tech’s campus. Twenty-five students, along with Gloria Melton, Dean of Students, Chris Anderson, Special Assistant to the President for Institutional Diversity, Susan Liebau, Interim Co-Director of Multicultural Affairs, Director of ExSEL, Associate Director of COMPASS, Kevin J. Walker, outgoing Coordinator of African American Student Support, and Dr. Melvin Norwood, incoming Coordinator of African American Student Support, were all in attendance for the address. Nicole White, President of the Black Student Association gave the opening remarks. Kevin J. Walker delivered the address, which highlighted the academic state of African American students on Michigan Tech’s campus. Kevin began the address by stating, “We are not doing that great.” He announced that after the fall 2009 term, 27 percent of African American undergraduate students were on academic probation. He further announced that the fall 2009 GPA for African American undergraduate students was a 2.43, with a cumulative GPA of a 2.48. Walker did acknowledge that the African American graduate student fall term GPA was a 3.1, with a cumulative GPA of 3.7. Walker also mentioed the decline of African American students enrollment from the fall of 2009 until spring 2010. The graph to the right of this column highlighs the African American student enrollment from fall of 1999 thru fall of 2009. For more enrollment stats, visit www.admin.mtu.edu.