Chancellor to address participants in Hawk Link, stEp programs

LAWRENCE -- University of Kansas Chancellor Robert Hemenway will address students who have completed the university's Hawk Link and stEp programs during an end-of-the-year ceremony at 7 p.m. today in the Malott Room of the Kansas Union.

Hawk Link is a program for first-year students, designed to help recruit and retain students of color. All students in Hawk Link are linked with the Students Together Excelling in Education as Peers, or stEp, program, through which they receive academic tutoring and mentoring.

The Hawk Link program, now in its fifth year at KU, was named one of the most successful programs of its kind last summer by Noel Levitz, an operating division of Sallie Mae. The program was one of three in the nation to receive the Retention Excellence Award at the National Conference on Student Retention in Washington, D.C.

Last fall, minority student enrollment at KU increased 12 percent, the largest percentage increase on school record. In addition, 80 percent of the minority students in KU's fall 2001 entering freshman class returned to KU in 2002.

The programs are provided by the KU Office of Multicultural Affairs.