With the goal of enrolling more South Carolina students from the state's historically black colleges, MUSC is hosting the presidents of those colleges today (March 20).

The university wants to attract the students into MUSC programs and, ultimately, have them remain in South Carolina to practice their professions.

“We are looking towards these college presidents for their help in channeling their students into health professional programs at MUSC,” said Thaddeus J. Bell, M.D., director of diversity for MUSC. “We want to find out why the best and brightest African American students are not coming to MUSC.” The MUSC administration hopes to find out whether students are going to other health professional schools, or are they going to health professional schools out of state.

And if they’re not going elsewhere and not coming here, why are more of the students not going into health care professions? Once the problems are identified, it is hoped that the college presidents together with MUSC administrators and deans will seek out ways to overcome whatever barriers exist to increasing the number of qualified minority applicants.

It is anticipated that this meeting will be a first step towards a variety of cooperative interchanges between MUSC and the schools. Depending on the perceptions and feedback from the presidents, further interaction will involve faculty, course directors, and guidance counselors.