Guests at an Ivory Tower

In a year-long qualitative study, the author explored whether college-study-skills courses taken by a group of Black students could help them academically and socially integrate in a predominantly White private university. Using in-depth, audiotaped interviews, the author analyzed the data by applying Vincent Tinto's theory of student departure. Tinto's theory illustrated three stages: separation, transition, and incorporation. This book is not only about Black students' initial academic struggles and study-skills courses that could help them survive the rigors of the academy, but also about their triumphs and successes to survive socially in an academic institution where they might find themselves feeling as 'Guests in an Ivory Tower.'