Lanita C. Jacobs ’93, M.A. ’96, Ph.D. ’99

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One of twelve or thirteen among the 20,000 students in the College of Letters and Science who have designed their own major, and the first African American student in Honors’ history to do so, Lanita Jacobs graduates in a major entitled “Issues in Urban Poverty and Public Policy: Education, Intergroup Relations and Conflict Resolution.”

Lanita’s commitment to a career in public service is reflected in her research. In the 1991-1992 Urban Poverty Honors Program she examined, “The L.A. Crime Story: Analyzing the Myths and Realities about Black Men and Crime.” She won a UCLA Honors’ research Award for her study of social and educational factors influencing minority attrition in high school and an AAP Research Award in socio-linguistics for, “Taking Dat Talk – It Don’t Matter If your Black or White...Or Does It?” Lanita believes that the diversity of our communities will lead to competition for housing, jobs and other scarce resources; her goal is to help resolve related problems.

Among Lanita’s public service involvements have been her contributions to UCLA’s communications community; as a newscaster and reporter, she sought to inform faculty and students about issues such as UC’s new admissions policies. Her own program on KLA Bruin radio, originally proposing a program on Black issues, was expanded to create Voices, a forum which included a variety of minority issues which would not have been otherwise brought to the forefront of campus discussions.