AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS EXPLORE CAREERS IN POLITICAL
SCIENCE:  BUNCHE INSTITUTE COMES TO U.VA. FOR THE FIRST TIME

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., June 5 -- Litigating.  Negotiating.
Wheeling.  Dealing.  A life of glitz and glamour where success is
measured in ingenuity, income and influence.  That's what a law
degree promises.
	Reading.  Writing.  Researching.  Teaching.  A life of
questions and quiet where success is measured in proteges,
publications and prestige.  That's what a doctorate in political
science promises.
	The American Political Science Association seeks to persuade
promising African-American undergraduates to choose the
less-traveled road to a career in political science through the
Ralph Bunche Summer Institute, to be held at the University of
Virginia for three years, beginning this summer.
	When top African-American students have a world of options
open to them, it's tough to persuade them to pursue academic careers
in political science, says Paula McClain, chair of U.Va.'s Woodrow
Wilson Department of Government and Foreign Affairs.
	"Bright black students, when they think of grad school, tend
to think of professional programs," McClain says.  "They're in for
three years and then they're done.  They can get out and make money.
They don't tend to think of political science as a profession."
	Law school, in particular, attracts a lot of talented
students who majored in political science as undergraduates, McClain
says.
	So, the Ralph Bunche Institute was launched in 1986 by
Southern University, a traditionally black institution, and
Louisiana State University, a predominantly white institution, to
acquaint a small number of promising black students with the life of
a professional political scientist in the hope that some would
choose a career in the field.  The institute moves from one
university to another every three years.  Most recently, it was
hosted by Emory University in Atlanta and co-sponsored by Spelman
College, Morehouse College and Georgia State University.
	Over the past decade, more than 200 students have attended
the institute, which honors Ralph Bunche, the first black American
to earn a doctorate in political science.  Students from the first
group are now completing their dissertations and entering the
professorate.
	"What the Bunche Institute does is to tell students,
'There's a career here,' " McClain says.  " 'It takes a little
longer and you have to write more, but look at all the rewards.
Your time is your own.  You can structure it the way you like.  You
read.  You write.  You teach.  Who could want more?' "
	The five-week institute, which will run from June 9 through
July 12, will bring 10 rising college seniors, all political science
majors, to Charlottesville from around the country.
	Among the students will be a woman from Prairie View A&M, in
Prairie View, Texas, where Jewel L. Prestage, the first black woman
to earn her doctorate in political science (in 1954) still teaches.
Prestage served as the first director of the Bunche Institute and
has been a mentor to a generation of black, female political
scientists, including herself, McClain says.
	The students will take two, three-credit, graduate-level
courses, one in research methods and analysis, and the second in
race and American politics.  Steven Finkel, a professor of
government and foreign affairs at U.Va., will teach the methods
course, while Avon Drake, an associate professor of political
science at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, will teach
the race and politics course.
	Drake is one of several black political scientists at
various area colleges and universities who will participate in the
program.  Hampton University, a historically black school in
Hampton, also will send a professor.
	The program will be filled out with cultural events at area
attractions and speakers on a range of related topics, including a
talk on race relations by Lucius Barker, chairman of the political
science department at Stanford University and a former president of
the American Political Science Association.
	Sponsors of this summer's program are the U.Va. President's
Office, the Woodrow Wilson Department of Government and Foreign
Affairs, the American Political Science Association, the William S.
Paley Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
###
June 4, 1996

	For more information, call Paula McClain, professor and
chair of the Woodrow Wilson Department of Government and Foreign
Affairs, (804) 924-3614; Steven Finkel, government professor and
director of the institute, (804) 924-6994; or Veronica Jarek-Prinz,
assistant director, (804) 924-3500.  Television reporters should
contact our TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.