By Michelle Locke

Leaders of the nation’s largest four-year public university took to the pulpit Sunday to preach the importance of going to college.

    The recruitment effort, dubbed “Super Sunday,” sent administrators of the California State University to 18 predominantly black churches in Northern California in an effort to boost enrollment.
   “We all share a dream that more of our young people will get a chance to go to college,” said CSU Chancellor Charles Reed, who spoke at the Acts Full Gospel of God and Christ Church in Oakland.
    Super Sunday, in its second year, drew a number of campus presidents as participants as well as Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a member of CSU’s Board of Trustees, who spoke at a church in nearby Hayward. A sweep of Southern California churches also is planned.
    Officials credit last year’s effort with helping push black applications up by 12 percent.
   “We want all our children to get this chance,” Reed said, drawing choruses of “Amen” from the audience.
    About 6 percent of CSU’s students — 400,000-plus — are black, compared to a state population that is about 7 percent black.
    Reed said he’s proud of CSU’s diversity, “but I know that we all have more to do.”
    As is true at colleges across the country, there is a gender gap with black women outnumbering men. Black men represent about 3.5 percent of recent high school students but only 2.5 percent of new CSU freshmen.
    Super Sunday is one of a number of initiatives aimed at increasing minority enrollment. In another program, CSU offers classes targeted at Hispanic parents to explain the mechanics of preparing their children for college and dispel any cultural resistance there may be to applying for financial aid.
    The idea of visiting black churches grew out of meetings with community leaders.
   “We are inspired and we’re impressed with his direct approach to reach African Americans,” Doris Limbrick, a senior associate pastor at Acts Full Gospel, said as she introduced Reed.
    Nationally, it’s not unusual for colleges to work with various community organizations, including churches, for recruitment efforts. But the CSU campaign stands out in its reach and depth, said Melanie Corrigan, associate director of national initiatives at the American Council on Education.
   “It really is a remarkable effort,” she said. “It’s about talking to young people and their families where they live and not expecting them to come to us.”
    On Sunday, Reed kept his message simple.
    Read to your kids, he told parents and grandparents in the congregation, give them a quiet place to do their homework, and make sure they’re doing it. He urged students to make sure they take the courses required for admission to the CSU and UC systems and pointed them to a “How to Get to College” poster produced by CSU that spells out the steps involved and available at an information table in the lobby.
    After Reed spoke, a number of parents, students and some grandparents approached the information table to pick up handouts and talk to CSU staff.
    Among those handing out information was CSU East Bay senior Chantel Johnson, who was pleased to see that “People are definitely interested. The response is really great.” Johnson knows firsthand the importance of outreach; her path to a degree in social work from CSU began with a recruitment program aimed at foster youth.
   “I see the great need for a program like this,” she said.