of the recruitment we do. more importantly in terms of people understanding the value of a xavier education regardless of where they are and understand as well that our real goal is to make sure that students are able to graduate and to move into careers that they have selected and they really are well grounded and well rooted in their respective disciplines. >> host: let's let's try ernest and rom new york. go ahead. >> caller: yes i'm retired air force and i have two sons at tennessee air force academy. historic colleges one of the first black colleges in united states of america. i didn't attend there. i was a little kid 13 or 14 years of age but i really enjoyed going up there. i lived about a mile and a half

away and they were very nice people. i attended fayetteville college teachers college in north carolina and that i wanted to the air force but i want to say i think you are doing a wonderful job and i respect you and i would like to ask you -- you could like to ask a question about the college please feel free to do so and god bless you. >> guest: thank you. >> host: gladys is up next and oxen hill maryland. gladys go ahead. >> caller: good morning good morning dr. blanchard i believe. i am so proud of your school that i attended. >> guest: thank you. >> caller: i have always heard of it as a child. i'm 79 years old now but i think i missed hampton university. my grandfather was a -- for general armstrong and he

went to that school at the age of 11. at that time it was a high school and you should see the letters that my grandfather wrote or at one letter at least when he was 11 years old and how proud he was of hampton. i will never ever be able to repay general armstrong. my mother attended a school and one of my sisters. i just wanted to say that but it's really about xavier university today. >> host: thank you caller. dr. blanchard from your academic point of view turning to politics when you hear president bob obama talking about community college when you think about it as a policy idea and how do you think it would affect universities like yours? >> guest: well i'm not opposed to the idea. i certainly think with a lot of

the financial hardships that families have been experiencing especially since the recession it would certainly serve as an opportunity for students to be able to get the kind of foundation that they need in order to serve as a natural springboard into the four four-year university to complete their education. i think that they could post to be somewhat of a challenge to historically black colleges and universities. what i mean by that what we have done over the years is in many instances we have taken of students who typically may not have been accepted by other universities because of the under preparation that they have with respect to their disciplines and we really work to build a support system around the students and really give them a kind of guidance that they need so that by the time they graduate they are equally

competitive as any other student who would graduate from yale or harvard or any other university. and so with that i think you will probably see more minority students who will elect first to go to a community college with the hope that they would complete and matriculate into the fourth year. part of the anxiety and certainly my anxiety is if you are looking at those transition rates meaning the students who now transition from a two-year to a four-year so the numbers are so slim. it just worries me to thank that we would definitely have to be working more closely as we do now but working even more closely with those community colleges to create those bridges so that those students will just naturally transition into the

four-year to xavier so they can complete their education and go on with a four-year degree. so i think on one end it's going to be good in terms of the economic side and how it will certainly help families but on the other side we really have more work to do throughout the nation nation and making sure we have more students who are going from community colleges directly into four-year and being successful in their transition and graduating with a four-year degree. >> host: are guests in the university located in new orleans today. lobree now also lives in new orleans. you are the last call. go ahead. >> caller: good morning dr. blanchard. i was calling in reference to commending you on being such a great mentor to so many, so many young students in the city of new orleans.

you have not only started in higher education but also i've remember you as a student at xavier university where you worked with so many young students not only in eighth grade but -- groups and also were spiritual adviser. i want to tell you you are such a wonderful wonderful person. you took a parent who went back into education and you worked with her as a mentor. she graduated with honors from a public university and she also became a teacher of kindergarten for 22 years. >> host: thank you caller. >> guest: you have never seen a black man blush before here i

am. i thank you for that. it's a whole community approach of knowing that you have got to reach back and it takes one to pull up another and if everybody really believes an understanding that it really takes a village in order to work for students and get them where they need to be as well as develop them and get them where they need to be that as the gold of what david xavier education empowers you to do. >> host: if i understand it correctly you are leaving the college university system. >> guest: i am. i have accepted her role with the california state university system where we'll be serving serving as executive vice chancellor for student affairs. it will give me the opportunity obviously to scale up. some of the work that we have already been doing at xavier and

it will also provide me as an opportunity to provide as a resource to many other students and faculty members across 23 universities enabling them to reach their academic and research goals. so it's bittersweet at this point. there is a true passion and love i have for this university and as i indicated is also my alma mater but it's also an opportunity to take what we have done at xavier and more partly the work that has been done throughout louisiana and transition all of that into the work that has been ongoing in california in that particular system. i'm excited but yet it's not going to be easy to make that transition recognizing the love and passion that i have the for this university. >> host: our guest is the provost of xavier university and president of academic affairs.

he is loren blanchard the final in her interviews with the heads of colleges and universities. dr. blanchard thanks for joining us. guess the thank you very much for this opportunity and for the spotlight you have placed on xavier and the other hbcus.