In the first of many Coppin State conversations in our 14th year of Baltimore Positive partnership as the WNST flagship of Eagles sports, President Dr. Anthony Jenkins returns to get Nestor for another semester of learning and life in West Baltimore, where the campus and spirit grows at The Nest.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
campus, students, baltimore, maryland, people, year, west baltimore, towson, basketball games, state, state university, nest, game, partner, school, friends, number, baltimore city, nursing program, commuter
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Dr. Anthony Jenkins
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 tasks in Baltimore and Baltimore, positive. We’re positively getting the Maryland crab cake tour out on the road this week. We are also eating an oyster day every day for 26 days to celebrate our 26th anniversary. I have my new logo coming for the 25th cupcake. Our friends at the Maryland lottery put us out on the road. We’re gonna be a cost us on Friday, we’re gonna be celebrating my birthday and Luke’s birthday right before the American League Championship Series. It keeps it John’s in Essex on our friends at Liberty, pure solutions got us out on the road. They keep my water clean, they keep the bay clean. The oysters do, and we’re talking about the oyster recovery partnership. On Thursday night, we’re going to be downtown at the bno Railroad Museum, talking to a half a dozen oyster farmers. I have a wide swath of people that we talk to around here, and we’ve done sports for a long, long time, and I’m really excited about an upcoming segment and a series of segments that we are partnering with our longtime partner at Coppin State University. We’ve been with the Eagles for I think this is our 14th season of doing Coppin State sports. And we don’t just do men’s basketball, women’s basketball. Sometimes you hear a volleyball game, sometimes sherms doing baseball, and they’re in the MEAC up playoffs in the spring and whatnot. And I’ve talked to Dr Anthony Jenkins, many times on the show. We’ve had him at State Fair. We’ve had him down to faith. He’s even brought the mascot and the basketball coach and the pep squad and everybody rough and Bell everybody came down. Um, Doctor, I appreciate you and the partnership that we have here at Baltimore, positive with with copper, we’re going to be highlighting not just you, you’re going to be a, you know, a recurring character here, but some of your best people, your best professors, your best leaders, your best student athletes. Um, some folks who are alums that have gone to the Olympics and performed as well as my man. Stu is getting ready for basketball season. Doctor. Kids are back at school, which I can’t believe you got 20 minutes to talk to me. What’s going on at Coppin.
Dr. Anthony Jenkins 01:57
Hey. You know, first of all, let me say hello. It is great to be back with you. Hope all is going well, hope that your summer went well. And you know, things here at Coppin are going great. And I can go on and on about some of the great things going on, but you’re right. Look, students are back, and the energy on campus is just unbound. Our incoming freshman class was a very large class this year. In fact, our overall enrollment is up again. This year has been up for the last three
Nestor Aparicio 02:29
how many students at COP and because I don’t know the number, and where did it come from? Where is it? Where would you like to take it? Because I don’t think people, unless you’ve been to the campus, and I’ve been to the campus many, many times, you would not have a true appreciation people. Bag on Baltimore all the time in West Baltimore, and I come over to your campus all the time, and I’ve never had a bad day on your campus cross. Listen,
Dr. Anthony Jenkins 02:50
I tell you, we have one of the most beautiful campuses in the state of Maryland, hands down. Very proud of our beautiful campus. Our facilities team, they do an incredible job. Our students, our faculty and staff, they help elevate this campus, not only from an actual beautification standpoint, but just from a higher education standpoint, from an intellectual standpoint. So I’m always excited about that. But we we are over 2200 students. We have grown 10% over the last three years, 5% each of the last two years, that exceeds the national average, which is a which is about 2.5% per year. And so we are seeing more students who want that cop and experience. And those students are coming to us from across Baltimore, the great state of Maryland, 40 states, including the District of Columbia, and 32 countries. And so we have a very diverse, very multicultural, multi generational student population, and we’re excited about that, because we know that that type of multicultural environment is what we need to develop the type of students who are going to lead the world. And so we have seen growth, mainly across Maryland, in every county, with Baltimore City being our number one market share. And then we go out to Howard County and Baltimore County. And so we are very excited to see students who are coming to us from those locations. And then, as I, as I noted, beyond that, 40 states, 32 countries, and of course, my hometown, Washington, DC. But those are, we have been very intentional about how we reach out and how we are targeting students who find Coppin to be a good fit for them, and they are a good fit for Coppin. And our staff and our faculty have played an incredible role in helping us continue to grow every year over the last. Three years. So
Nestor Aparicio 05:01
I went to UB and I went to, then Dundalk Community College. Now, Dr Curtin itis would say Community College, Baltimore County. We have to call it by the right name, but I’ll still call it DCC forever. And you for me. I was a commuter kid, right? I mean, I had, I was a young parent. I was working at the newspaper in the early 90s. I just did a big segment this week about my newspaper history from 40 years ago at the news American and at the Baltimore Sun. And you know, I was night school, Day School in out. I and my son just turned 40 this week, Doc Jenkins, and I remember taking him when he was a little boy. I remember He’s eight years old. I had a communications teacher that allowed me to bring him into class at night because I didn’t have a sitter, and he was a good kid. A good kid. Sat in class, and it was a little bit of a mascot. I had a special circumstance. 2200 students at your school, commuters versus people. To your point, if you’re recruiting kids from other places, they’re going to live on campus or real close to campus. But the Baltimore part of this, and I think of the Towson experience for someone like me that I could have gone to Towson and driven every day, but I picked UB because I wasn’t going to live on a campus after but, but for you all 22 the percentage you have on campus versus one on campus versus commuters, because if you live in Baltimore, getting in and out of topics, not all that difficult. If you live within 1015, miles, you can commute.
Dr. Anthony Jenkins 06:20
Yeah, so we have a part of my plan is to increase our residential density to 1500 students. Right now we have about 650 beds on campus. We break ground on a new residence hall in January of 2025, that’ll bring us an additional 350 beds to campus this year. Because of our growth, we have nearly 300 students who are living off campus because we ran out of on campus housing. So we had to build partnerships with sister institutions and a couple of hotels for us to house these students for the upcoming academic semesters
Nestor Aparicio 06:59
growing bigger than your housing situation, which is, and that’s kind of healthy in some ways, right? It is.
Dr. Anthony Jenkins 07:04
That is a wonderful problem to have if you can manage it well. Now, if you can’t manage it well, it can become a nightmare for the student, most importantly, for their parents, and ultimately, for the university. But we have done it well here at Coppin, and so those nearly 300 students who are living off campus. They are in off campus housing, and we have provided around the clock transportation to get them back and forth to their respective classes, and that has all worked out well. Now we still have the majority of our students who are commuting back and forth to the institution, whether they live two minutes away, 10 minutes away, or 30 minutes away. But again, a part of the goal is to create more of a residential feel to the campus, because when you have students who live on campus, they have higher GPAs, higher retention rates, higher graduation rates, a overall better college experience. And I talk about the multi generational piece, because you hit on something that is very important to the success of our students here at Coppin, and falls in line with our sent our student centered philosophy. When I arrived, we noticed that more students were needing childcare, and because we were in the midst of covid. They were trying to finish school when their son or daughter’s daycare was closed. So I opened a daycare on campus. So we have a daycare on campus now, which with a capacity of about 50 young ones. And so it is exciting to go over and see them doing all the great things that wear
Nestor Aparicio 08:41
me out over there. Oh my so I go over
Dr. Anthony Jenkins 08:45
I actually read to him, and you know, all of these things, but it is a great opportunity for our teacher education program, which is one of the best in the entire nation, as well as our nursing students. And everyone knows about Coppins nursing program. We have the number one nursing program amongst Maryland’s HBCUs, and fifth in the state overall. So it is not only an opportunity to provide support for our students, but also experiential learning opportunities for our, you know, college students, and so we are always thinking here at Coppin about how we can do better to meet the needs of our students and help them get to the end goal. I always enjoy
Nestor Aparicio 09:24
my visits with Dr Anthony Jenkins, so much so that we’re gonna be doing a little more often. Our friends at Coppin have been our partners for 14 years. We’re stepping it up here as part of what we’re doing with Baltimore positive. I don’t know. 15 years ago we were doing just sports, and we’re just putting the games on. I think everybody knows my journey. If you haven’t, you go to Baltimore positive and figure that out. You know, doctrix, I was going to ask you about this, because when I was young, like the journalism school was at Maryland. Still is right, if you want to be a journalist, you went to the Philip Merrill school. One of my former colleagues from the news American, Mark Hyman, is the is the dean of the Merrill school down there. And they do all sorts of things in journals, and that’s. Were my space. It’s always been what I’ve done or whatever. But had I wanted to be a teacher back in those days, I would have considered Towson, because it was considered a teaching the teacher school at that point, right? And schools get these reputations for as an example, the nursing program at Essex Community College, stellar, I knew tons of young ladies at that time who went on to become nurses, and that was their pathway to know what you are and what you can be. And I think teaching and nursing, so I would say, from the cop and spotlight, if people still know anything about you, other than Fang Mitchell, Larry Stewart, Juan Dixon, follow the basketball program, maybe they came and saw the bayou Barbie dribble last year before she went into the WNBA, as I did Christmas week. That was a great night on your campus. It was. But knowing what you are, you lead with, we’re an HBCU, but we put out teachers and we put out nurses, and if you come here, we’re going to send you out into the workforce, prepared to get a job.
Dr. Anthony Jenkins 10:54
Well, you know, look, you’re absolutely correct. And so Coppin. You know, when people ask me, what is cop and strongholds. You know, we are the institution who’s committed to developing scholars who are going to improve the human condition. Alright, so that’s
Nestor Aparicio 11:10
a mission statement. I like that. Listen.
Dr. Anthony Jenkins 11:12
Forbes ranked our psychology program one of the best in the country. Our Business Management program is in the top 40 nationally. Our social work program is nationally ranked. Our criminal justice program is nationally ranked. Our nursing program is nationally ranked, our teacher education program, again, those are all disciplines outside of the great work that that we do in STEM our our biology program, chemistry, right? All of these important areas our cyber security engineering, but when you talk about those factors that are going to be important to improving the human condition for perpetuity, those are the things that Coppin does better than most anybody else, and that’s why more students are coming to us, because they see the actual runway, and I can come to the most affordable four year college or university in the state of Maryland. I can leave with little to no debt, and if I have debt, it’s going to be lower than the national average and most anybody else in the estate. And they prepare me for a career that’s going to help me change my life and the life of my children and so forth. And that’s why grad report, when they looked at a study recently and looked at where college students are one year after they graduated, what they are making and how much loan debt they have in our in are they working in their field? Out of the 55 colleges and universities in the state of Maryland, Coppin was ranked seventh. And so you know, that says a lot about our our value and how we prepare our scholars and where they go after they leave here, because we tell them, no matter where you go, what you want to do, you can get there from Coppin State University. Dr
Nestor Aparicio 12:56
Anthony Jenkins, he is the president over copied State University. They’ve been our partner for a long time. You’ll hear the games around here is normal. You’ll probably hear Larry Stewart come by and have some fun with me one day. But you’re going to be hearing from all of these disciplines, the professors of criminal justice and stem and cyber. We’re going to have great conversations with your folks. But this is the introductory for all of this. But I must say, I was on a bar stool in Highland town eating oyster on Tuesday night watching the Orioles clinched the vision with my buddy Brian eater, who’s an East Side guy, and it was a fell at the table from Jacksonville who knew a friend of mine, Hall of Fame voter, longtime journalist, Jackson. So I sent him a note. I said, Hey, I’m in Highland town eating oysters with your friends. Kid. He’s like, Oh, it’s great. It’s great. He said, Be careful there. And I’m like, like, it’s always be careful because I’m in Highland town. I’m like, or West Baltimore, where the perception outside of the community eats it all of us. And that perception can be in in, you know, outside the city, in Owings wells or Bel Air or Towson to say, I’m not going to West Baltimore, East Baltimore, downtown island town, Fells Point, whatever, based on what they see on Fox News, I would just say for parents saying I’m going to send my child to Coppin and they’re going to get on a plane, a train, an automobile, whatever it is, if they’re not from here, if they’re not a commuter, if you’re trying to recruit them from other places, what do You hear and what do you do to combat it in the same way that I combat it, I get angry. I get I burr up about how people are going to feel about copper, West Baltimore, or my town, East Baltimore. I and there’s this perception versus the reality of the lovely life 1000s of students have on your campus and have had for 50 years in West Baltimore, but the stigma and the perceptions, and it’s just not the reality of the risk or the reality, really, of what’s happening in West Baltimore, certainly not on
Dr. Anthony Jenkins 14:53
your campus. No, it is, and you’re absolutely correct. And so, yes, you know when, when I’m out around the you know, state or. In the region or the nation, and we’re talking, and folks know I’m from Coppin State, or they learn I’m from Coppin State, you know, they get very excited because they’ve heard about all the great things going on at COP and historic research and fundraising and enrollment growth and, you know, winning championships and conference championships and all of these things and so forth. And then they asked me to say, Well, how is life in Baltimore, you know, how are, how are your How are your students, and so forth. And I always lead with facts, right? I tell them, first of all, and this is why I pinned the the Op Ed last year, that reality, that you know perception is not always reality, right? When you look at the facts, Coppin State University has the number one safest residential campus in Baltimore City, that’s safer than Morgan, that’s safer than Hopkins, that’s safer than UMB, that’s safer than every other four year or two year college in the state that has residential facilities. And when you look at the data, we’re atop the safest campuses in the entire USM system, alright? And so that’s where I always draw them to, is I draw them to the facts, no matter where you go, whether it’s Baltimore City, whether it’s Los Angeles, whether it’s or Orlando, Florida, whether it’s Houston, Texas, where I’ve all lived in those in those places crime occurs. And what we help our students understand is that anything that we do regards to safety on this campus, they have to be a partner in that with us when they are out and about in Baltimore, as they would be in those other places, right? I want you to be smart. I want you to be smart about where you are and what you’re, you know, doing, and those type of things. So there’s an educational aspect to it. But I always push back on this notion that Baltimore is this somehow crime ridden, you know, you know, city, and that West Baltimore is, you know, even, even worse. And so that’s why I tell people, put our numbers, put our Clery Act data numbers up against anybody in Baltimore County, Howard County, any other institution, and watch what you what you see. And so that’s where I always reassure students. And you know parents that listen, we can never guarantee your complete safety in anything we do in life, your parents can’t even do that right, but what we can do is that we can help you understand the the very intentional efforts that we have taken and will continue to take to make sure our campus and surrounding our campus is safe. And then I will end with this Nestor, you know, the City West Baltimore has a tremendous amount of respect for Coppin State University, and they value this institution as a jewel, as an anchor that it is in West Baltimore. And so that adds to the layer of safety that we can provide our students and our visitors on our campus. But that’s what I always tell folks. I tell them to look at the facts. Don’t, you know, don’t buy into the, you know, false narrative and perceptions. Look at the data. Put us up against anybody you want to in Maryland, four year college or university, and watch the numbers fall in our favor.
Nestor Aparicio 18:24
I think for people in our audience. Dr Jenkins, you know they’re not they might not be students. They might not have a student that comes to your place. They might just hear about Coppin from the Buy and buy. And we’re going to have great conversations with, I call them wise conversations with intelligent people and people that are educating your your students, and maybe a few of your students as well through the course of all of this. But I think the entry point for me as I’m not really an old white guy, I’m an old Hispanic guy. Don’t tell anybody, but I’m fit. You know, all the years I’ve been coming your campus, I’ve never taken a class. I’ve never thought about taking a class. I’m over there as a journalist, a citizen, a sports fan, you know, a sports guy, a partner owning a radio station that’s broadcast your games for now, going on 14 seasons. But what I come I’m there for basketball game usually, right? So like, from the off campus experience of, why would one of my listeners go to cop and you’re gonna go down and go to a basketball game, probably, and I’m gonna just say this, and I’ll say this in every segment, if you pick a game, and I picked the angel Reese game, and I went down. It was Hullabaloo, and it was, you know, the band’s playing, the media even showed up that night. It’s all real media people that I would just say, if you go to any of those experiences, go to a cop and Morgan game, not on the Morgan kid, go to coffins campus, but you will have a beautiful sports experience. You’re going to have that experience. If you’ve been to a Towson game, you’ve been a lawyer, been to any of the other campuses for Maryland, even better than Maryland, because it’s parking and this and that, and it’s a DC no offense to DC doc. I know you take offense to that, but, but if you want to go to a game on a Tuesday night and go support school and go support you know. And and preach to the legend of Fang and see this beautiful gym you have there. That’s a quick entry point for my audience. I think to come and visit you, it is
Dr. Anthony Jenkins 20:10
and listen, Nestor, you just said it yourself. We’ve had a partnership now spanning nearly 20 years with Coppin. You’ve been here for basketball games. Those basketball games don’t happen at 11am in the morning. They don’t happen at 2am in the afternoon. Those basketball games are when the sun goes down. You’ve never had any issues on Coppins campus. You have come, you have gone. Fans have come and gone, and so forth. So getting back to the actual safety piece again, that’s where I want people to understand. People move in and out of this campus daily, coming from around the world and so forth. So we feel really good about what our students are telling us, and we are always in conversations with them about what more can we do? Right? Because if they don’t feel comfortable, it’s going to have an adverse impact on their studies and things of that nature. I would encourage all of your listeners to come down and see the beautiful campus of Coppin State University, if you, if you want to come down for a athletic event and help us fill the nest. Listen, we have the most beautiful what’s
Nestor Aparicio 21:18
the name of your gym? The what the nest dirty? Name the gym and after me
Dr. Anthony Jenkins 21:26
Listen, because I knew it would lift the value of the arena. I had to name it at the right. But I want them to come down help us fill the nest and joy. You know, you know college basketball. It is a wonderful time. As I was going to say, we have the most beautiful basketball arena in the entire MEAC, hands down. And if basketball is not your thing, or if you want basketball and a plus one, you gotta come watch our women’s volleyball program. They are the current MEAC champions. They are dynamic. They are something to watch. And so I invite everybody to come on down. Have some popcorn and hot dogs with us in the nest. Fill the
Nestor Aparicio 22:10
nest. That should be hard for me to promote filling the nest. Here’s the thing that everybody doesn’t get the same experience I get because I’m kind of special to COP, because you’ve been doing this for a while. I get to sit next to Gary digital Williams, you know courtside when he’s doing all of his announcing there so and Gary that we go way back as boxing fans and and old school sports fans. Dr Anthony Jenkins, the good doctor, joining us here from Coppe State University. It is our first of many visits. A lot of folks going to be coming on from the campus, professors as well as some sports people, because we do that around here. And if you do hear some play by play from time to time, on am 1570 I assure you, it’s not Morgan, it’s not loyal, it’s not Towson. It’s none of that. It’s our friends at Copen state, from the nest Doctor Anthony Jenkins, first, first trip in, but not last trip in. And we don’t have to have, you know, Angel recent to get people to get people to basketball games this year. We’re going to talk to coaches over there as well. Listen.
Dr. Anthony Jenkins 23:04
Just let me say this real quick. I’m so excited about the, you know, upcoming season, men and women, the non conference schedules and the conference schedules. It’s going to be electrifying this year. Get your season tickets. Come join us. I am very excited by what I’m seeing and what the coaches are telling me, I can
Nestor Aparicio 23:22
hear the pep band from here. We are going to have a huge, huge week here with a lot of baseball, football, Luke’s running back and forth from Camden Yards, the Owings, Mills, all that powered up by Jiffy Lube, as well as our friends at Royal farms, and we call them wise conversations around here, and our partners at Coppin are going to be a part of that. You’re going to hear the games, and you’re gonna see it out on the website, and hear us talking some more intelligent conversations with some good folks over in West Baltimore, our friends, the Maryland lottery, powering up the Maryland crab cake tour to my homeland of Dundalk being Costas. On Friday, I will have the Oysters Rockefeller, because it’s just so tasty. I’m looking forward to that. I’m on oyster number 21 as we speak of 26 they’re going to be featured all next month out of the front of Baltimore. Positive, all of that brought to you by our friends at Liberty. Pure I’m wearing the shirt one 800 clean water. They keep my well water clean. They can keep your well water clean as well. I am Nestor, on behalf of our partners at Coppin State to nest I love that we are. Wnst am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive. You.
