The expo will run from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Oakland Convention Center at the downtown Marriott. Admission is $3.

"Some schools like Southern University, Norfolk State and Alabama State will be enrolling students here. You just need your transcripts," said Theresa Price, founder of the expo.

There are some 109 historically black colleges and universities in the South, Midwest and East. The Oakland expo will feature black fraternity and sorority step shows -- fast-paced dance routines that help attract students to join the campus clubs -- other entertainment, seminars on black colleges, panels on hot careers and vendors from corporations.

The expo also will be giving away scholarships sponsored by FedEx and Wells Fargo.

"Students on the West Coast don't have as much information about these schools as others around the country," said Price, who started the expo in response to the passage of Proposition 209 in 1999, which eliminated affirmative action outreach programs at University of California campuses.

A similar rollback in affirmative ac- tion programs also occurred in Texas.

Although a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year favored affirmative action at the University of Michigan law school, many African-American students have turned to black colleges because they feel more welcome, tuitions are lower and there are more tutors.

"Graduation rates are higher, blacks feel less isolated than on larger universities where there's a dearth of minority students, and the social life is better," according to a spokesperson from the United Negro College Fund, which works with private schools.

The problem is many high school counselors or parents never discuss black colleges as an option for young people, college administrators say. Movies such as "Drumline," the story of a competitive marching band at a black college, have done a lot to increase the visibility of black schools.

When the expo started in Los Angeles in 2000, less than 3 percent of the enrollment at black colleges came from California.

Nationwide, only 17 percent of African Americans have earned college degrees.

"This is great, I'm glad they're doing this," said Maude Wilson of Oakland, who was given a flier near the downtown Marriott as volunteers worked the streets. "More of our children need to start thinking about colleges as part of their future. And black colleges are a big part of that. My uncle went to Morehouse in Atlanta."

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Leanne McLaughlin, Managing Editor
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