CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.
SECME Executive Director Guy Vickers knows
his board of directors raised some eyeb\rows last year when it voted to
change the name of the organization.
For twenty years, the acronym SECME had stood for “Southeastern
Council for Minorities in Engineering.” Last year, after hours of
debate, the organization’s official name became “Science, Engineering,
Communications, Mathematics Enrichment.”
So was the action a symbolic white flag in the face of the virulence
of the national debate on affirmative action? Did it signal a retreat
from the organization’s original mission – to increase the numbers of
underrepresented minorities in engineering fields?
“Absolutely not,” Vickers says, eyebrows flying together with an
almost audible snap. “If that had been the case – and I told the board
this – I would have resigned on the spot.”
Actually, a range of factors prompted the name change. First of all, there was the organization’s phenomenal growth.
“We were expanding to many new areas who just didn’t feel they were part of the family,” Vickers said.
