Editor’s Introduction:Black Men and Non-cognitive
Factors Influencing their Success in College
A driel A. H ilton-W estern C arolina U niversity
It has been over 170 years since the first academies
to educate America’s Black population were opened,
offering only basic subjects like reading, writing, arith­
metic, and limited agricultural training. Any Black male
having the privilege of education was grateful for the
opportunity back then because, like freedom, education
was something the Black man had been denied since
the institution of slavery. As such, one can only imagine
the mental and physical struggles these students faced
when finally given the opportunity to go to college.
Factors such as the pressure of being a first-generation
student; the ability to overcome the prevalent stereotype
that Blacks were intellectually inferior; dealing with
extreme poverty while trying to learn, and the sacrifices
that were made just to be able to stay in school.
This special issue of the Western Journal o f Black
Studies is about today’s Black males and the noncognitive factors influencing their success in college.
The authors define non-cognitive factors
as the
non-intellectual aspects of the student’s development
experiences, such as self-concept and motivation, of a
student’s personality that influence learning and devel­
opment” (as cited in Flowers, 2015, p. 7). Similar to
their predecessors of over a century and a half ago, the
non-cognitive factors influencing Black males’ success
in college today also include family influence, racism,
college preparation, and self-efficacy, only on a more
advanced and complicated level than in the 1800s.
Today’s college experience for Black men has come
a long way from just studying basic curriculum. Ter­
rell L. Strayhorn writes about the factors that influence
preparation of Black men for college, along with the
factors and circumstances that enable success in STEM
fields. He discovered that pre-college self-efficacy and
an early interest in math, science or other STEM topics
played a huge role in Black males’ preparation and suc­
cess in STEM. These two factors, along with a sense of
belonging, influenced success for Black male students
in STEM fields. Strayhorn’s work is titled “Factors
Influencing Black Males’ Preparation for College and
Success in STEM Majors: A Mixed Methods Study.”
Self-efficacy is also the basis for J. Luke Wood, Chris­
topher B. Newman, and Frank Harris III, who write
about Black male students’ experiences during their first
year of college and, specifically, that math self-efficacy
significantly predicted the outcome of several academic
integration measures. The outcome is outlined in their
article, “Self-Efficacy as a Determinant of Academic
Integration: An Examination of First-Year Black Males
in the Community College.”
Alonzo M. Flowers III writes about the importance
of family influence on the academic success of Black
male engineering students in “The Family Factor: The
Establishment of Positive Academic Identity for Black
Males Engineering Majors.” His study establishes
that “[Black] parents have the capability to positively
influence their children... [and]... instill in their Afri­
can American son, at an early age, the importance of
education...” (Moore, 2006, p. 262).
“Black Male Student Leaders in Predominantly
Dr. Adriel A. Hilton is an Assistant Professor and Director o f the College Student Personnel program at Western Carolina University.
He previously served as Assistant Vice Presidentfo r Inclusion Initiatives at Grand Valley State University (GVSU). His responsibilities
included consulting, advising, andproviding support and informational resources on the subjects o f diversity and inclusion to all levels
o f administration, faculty and staff. Additionally, he acted as a liaison to GVSU's Office o f Multicultural Affairs, Women’s Center,
and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center. Dr. Hilton honed his expertise in higher education administration
and teaching in his previous position at Upper Iowa University (UIU), where he served as Executive Assistant to the President and
C hief Diversity Officer, & Assistant Secretary to the Board o f Trustees. He was also an adjunct faculty member at both UIU and the
University o f Northern Iowa during this period.
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The Western Journal o f Black Studies, Vol. 39, No. 1, 2015
1
White Universities: Stories of Power, Preservation,
and Persistence” is written by Bryan K. Hotchkins and
T. Elon Dancy. This article focuses on the experiences
of Black male student leaders and the many challenges
they faced in predominantly White universities, such
as racial microaggressions, racism-related stress expe­
riences, and racial battle fatigue stress reactions. The
work divulges the coping skills these Black students
used to be successful in unfamiliar territory. In sharp
contrast, C. Rob Shorette II and Robert T. Palmer
analyze the successes Black males have when they
choose a HBCU to acquire higher education in their
article, “Historically Black colleges and universities
(HBCUs): Critical facilitators of non-cognitive skills
for Black males.”
One particularly interesting fact about the group
of men writing for this special issue of the Western
Journal o f Black Studies is their individual educational
backgrounds, which gives each of them diverse and
well-rounded perspectives about the college experience.
One author is a White male, who attended a HBCU
and pledged a Black fraternity. Six are Black men who
earned all of their degrees from predominantly White
institutions (PWIs), while the editor of this special
issue received all of his higher education at HBCUs.
One Black writer attended a Black college for his un­
dergraduate degree and PWIs for his graduate degrees,
while another Black scholar did the reverse—attended
PWIs for his bachelor and master’s degrees and then
earned his PhD from a HBCU.
The Western Journal o f Black Studies is pleased to
have these distinguished scholars write for this special
issue. Their commitment to mentoring and helping
others succeed is evident in their life’s work. Their
compassion and dedication to the advancement of Black
males in education is apparent in their commitment to
higher education, their personal involvement in com­
munity and social causes, as well as the other research
they have written and published on the advancement of
the Black male in today’s society. All are accomplished
scholars, colleagues of distinguished institutions of
higher education, and have worked hard to get where
they are today. Each one of these men is a fine example
of academic success in his own right.
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The Western Journal o f Black Studies, Vol. 39, No. 1, 2015
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