The Educational Opportunities Program
In an effort to increase diversity at Muhlenberg, the Academic Policy Committee, with the support and leadership of Dean Philip Secor, proposed a pilot program designed to bring economically disadvantaged black students to the College.
Dean Secor enthusiastically described the proposed program in the Muhlenberg Weekly as one of “mutual enrichment” that would allow all Muhlenberg students the opportunity to share with and learn from students with very different experiences.
The Educational Opportunities Program (EOP) was implemented in 1968-69 and was funded by the Lutheran Church in America, several private corporations and some interested individuals. Six blacks students were enrolled under the EOP during its first year, joining several others already enrolled.
Even with the relative success of the program in its first year, a 1968 Weekly cover story addressed the work necessary to overcome the current low enrollment rate of black students, not only at Muhlenberg but at peer institutions as well. Financial considerations continued to be cited as inhibiting recruitment and enrollment of black students.
The EOP was not only continued but expanded upon the following year, with the hope of its becoming a Lehigh Valley-wide initiative, but in the midst of the 1970-71 academic year, the outside funding was lost and the program was discontinued. At its end, there were thirty-one black students at Muhlenberg, twenty-three of whom had arrived thanks to the EOP.
