How CSULB professor Joseph White and the Educational Opportunity Program transformed higher ed
A flash of insight can have far-reaching effects. When psychology professor Joseph White walked across campus on a late 1960s day, he had an idea that made college a reality for tens of thousands of Californians.
White came to Cal State Long Beach in 1962 as the campus’ second Black professor. Known as “the father of Black psychology,” he also founded the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) in 1967. His determination to admit students from underrepresented groups to The Beach influenced the entire California State University.
“EOP, I think, systemwide has been at the forefront of having an equity lens,” said Eduardo Leyva, EOP’s director.
And it all started with an insight.
“One day, I walked down the upper campus where we were, and I counted every Black student,” the late White said in a May 2018 video. “And out of approximately 10,000 students, there were about 46 Blacks and 35 of them were athletes.
“There was a dean at that time ... George Demos, the admissions office reported to him,” White continued. “So, I went and talked to him and said, ‘You know, this is ridiculous. We need more than 10 or 11 students who aren’t athletes up in this particular college.’”
The early years
That meeting led to The Beach designating admissions slots for underserved students. EOP’s first cohort included Fernando Hernandez ‘69, who previously attended Banning High School in Wilmington and Los Angeles Harbor College.
Hernandez’s parents encouraged college, but teachers and guidance counselors of his youth tended to direct young people of color straight into the workforce. His own friends laughed at him for choosing university instead of a full-time job.
And Hernandez could go weeks on campus without seeing another Latine student. When looking for a meeting of Mexican American students at the EOP offices – then an on-campus Quonset hut – he had a pivotal encounter with the program’s founder and inaugural director.
White hired Hernandez as his associate EOP director, working as a liaison to Mexican American youth.
“The main idea was that he would send students of color to their old high schools, and high schools like them, to talk about coming to college,” Hernandez said.
EOP also offered services, such as math tutoring, and students of color could also join cultural organizations and activities like the American Indian Movement, Asian-American Movement, Black Student Union and United Mexican American Students, Hernandez said.
Hernandez went on to serve as a professor of education at Cal State Los Angeles, where he now holds emeritus status. EOP transformed how young people of color perceived their own futures, helping youth to see themselves as doctors, engineers, lawyers or professors.
“This began to get us to think differently and look at our possibilities on a grander scale, and begin to think big,” Hernandez said.
EOP started when White secured 75 admissions slots. As fall 2022, more than 28,000 CSU students were in the program.
Opening doors
EOP no longer relies on admissions slots. Today, EOP at The Beach is open to any low-income, first-generation student having California residency or A.B. 540 status.
Opting in to EOP leads to Summer Bridge, a preview of college life that for some, includes bunking in the dorms. Summer Bridge experiences range from leadership training to bowling nights and help incoming students feel comfortable on campus.
“When they come here on their first day, they feel more confident, they feel like they belong and ultimately, they’re more ready,” said Annabelle Cariaga, EOP's senior associate director.
First-year EOP students receive mandatory advising and take a course to strengthen life skills. Throughout enrollment, they can join the EOP Student Organization and avail themselves of financial aid counseling, tutoring, technology loans and meetings with advisors who take a holistic view of their lives, not just the college-focused parts.
“We don’t just look at advising students on majors and graduation requirements,” Cariaga said. “We look at the whole student.”
EOP has influenced additional programs for underserved groups offered at CSULB, Leyva said. These include Guardian Scholars, for foster youth, services for AB 540 students, and Project Rebound, assisting the formerly incarcerated.
Lasting influence
EOP is important to the entire CSU. In 1969, two years after White founded the program, the California Legislature passed a bipartisan bill funding EOP throughout the system.
Over the decades, EOP has influenced several best practices, then- Chancellor Timothy White said during a 2019 celebration of EOP. These include cultural sensitivity, holistic advising and easing transitions from high school or community college to university.
“To be honest, we’ve stolen all the good ideas from EOP,” White said.
EOP has also served as a springboard for careers in student services. Leyva was an EOP student and so was Brett Waterfield ‘90, ‘15, a former CSULB administrator and now executive director of educational and community partnerships at Cal State Dominguez Hills.
Waterfield remembers EOP as central to his college life. Counselors would shout in his direction to make sure he was going to class, and one peer advisor remained a lifelong best friend who is godfather to his son. EOP potlucks helped students share time with each other and, beyond the program itself, Black Studies electives delivered culturally relevant learning that was not available at the private school he attended in the Bay Area.
“It really created a smaller community, so Long Beach never felt overwhelming to us,” he said.
Waterfield joined EOP after being encouraged to do so by a family member with very close ties to the program.
“It was classic Uncle Joe, because his work was never really about him,” Waterfield said.
“Uncle Joe” was Joseph White, who, as Waterfield's actual uncle, advised him to sign up for EOP. Although White didn’t often discuss his work with relatives, higher education has become a family tradition. Lori S. White and Lisa White (Waterfield’s cousins and Joseph White’s daughters) are respectively the president of DePauw University in Indiana and assistant director of the UC Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley.
Waterfield served at The Beach for 22 years, rising to the post of student life and development director before going to the Dominguez Hills campus. In his professional life, he’s become more aware of White’s continuing influence, a “Freedom Train” of people called to service after benefiting from White’s work.
“It’s morphed into this philosophy of support and giveback,” Waterfield said. “It’s important that we embrace all that they are, build them up and help them be successful.”
