Lincoln University is modifying its summer class schedule for a special program aimed at helping students get more involved in their education.
The Blue Tiger Academy succeeds the Jump-Start program, Marcus Chanay, LU's vice president for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, told curators Thursday morning.
"The Blue Tiger Academy is an eight-week program for incoming freshmen (who) have a 17 ACT score or lower and less than a 2.5 GPA on their high school transcript," Chanay said. "Students will take 12 (credit) hours during the summer - an English class, mathematics class and a leadership class."
He said more than 500 students have been identified as qualifying for the classes, but only 125 will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Only students who have agreed to continue their education at Lincoln are eligible, and they'll get a break on normal summer school costs.
Students attending the academy will pay about $167 per credit hour - about 80 percent of the normal, $209 per credit hour.
Also, Chanay said, they won't be charged activity fees for the summer.
In his memo to the board, Chanay also noted the students will have supplemental instruction, tutoring and a peer mentor.
"The LU Blue Tiger Academy also gives students a first-hand experience to college life, exposing them to various teaching styles and strategies from our faculty," he wrote.
And, he told the board during Thursday's meeting, their academic progress "will be tracked all the way to graduation," to help determine how the academy helped improve the students' abilities to succeed in college.
Lincoln's curators also discussed - but took no action on - the school's extension efforts in St. Louis, Kansas City and Southeast Missouri.
As a federal land grant school under an 1890 law, Lincoln gets access to federal dollars - with a state match - for agriculture-related research programs as well as community outreach through extension programs.
The University of Missouri-Columbia has a similar mission as a land grant school under an 1862 federal law.
However, the two statewide universities' extension efforts don't overlap much.
Physics professor Majed El-Dweik has been part of Lincoln's faculty for 11 years, but last month was named interim dean of LU's College of Agriculture.
One of his immediate challenges is filling vacancies created as "several employees" left the extension program in the last two years.
After Curators Frank Logan and Don Cook worried extension programs aren't serving the public as well as they should, El-Dweik reported he's starting to meet with extension officials "to see exactly what is happening and what is going on, and to meet with the entire staff that we have there."
With each visit to the extension offices, he hopes to learn "what is the dynamic in that office," so Lincoln officials can plan ways to increase its service.
El-Dweik also will be overseeing the application of a new, $2 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant that will provide $500,000 in scholarship money for each of the next four years, "to attract students to our agriculture programs," he said.
He also reported another federal grant with $10 million the first year, and $30 million the second year, to build six "centers of excellence distributed among the 1890 schools."
Interested schools will have to compete for the money.
"We have already identified what exactly we want to do here, at Lincoln University, to compete for one of those centers of excellence to bring here to the campus," he said.
Curators didn't discuss any specifics of those plans, nor did they discuss the state budget proposal that contains only $4 million in state match money for the $7 million in land grant funds Lincoln is eligible to receive.
Curators elected new officers for the coming year, who will be sworn-in during the board's April meeting.
The new leaders will be:
Frank Logan Jr., of St. Louis, president.
Winston Rutledge, of Jefferson City, vice president.
Greg Gaffke, of Jefferson City, secretary.
Marvin Teer, of St. Louis, treasurer.
Curators also approved a new academic calendar covering class schedules, enrollment information and special events from fall 2019 through summer school 2021.
Lincoln is closed today for its observance of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, which state government will observe Tuesday.