Goals
State University of Rio de Janeiro’s Pathways program, Affirmative Spaces, provides a support network for the university’s first generation of Afro-Brazilian students who have benefited from a quota system. To achieve this mission, the University’s Pathways program is focused on improving or developing:

• Access to historically excluded populations, especially low-income Afro-Brazilians
• Support services for Afro-Brazilian students, such as counseling, mentoring and resource materials
• Funding of “Policies of Color in Brazilian Education,” a clearinghouse for the discussion and implementation of affirmative action policies throughout Brazil
• Projects that redress the institutional obstacles faced by Afro-Brazilians to complete their undergraduate studies in public universities

Target Population
Afro-Brazilians make up roughly 47% of Brazil’s population, and account for 63% of the country’s poorest people. Nearly 40% of the student body was admitted to UERJ through the quota system. Most of these students live in favelas (slums).

Outcomes
Through the Pathways program, State University of Rio de Janeiro:

• Became the first public university to introduce admission quotas for Afro-Brazilians. Considering only 2.3% of Afro-Brazilians complete a university degree, admission quotas allow for greater opportunity and access to higher education.
• Opened its doors to 150 Afro-Brazilian students in 2003, and only two have dropped out.
• Set up meeting places and computer terminals throughout the campus.
• Produced substantial literature on affirmative action, where only a few academic studies existed before.

• Justiça, Ações Afirmativas e igualdade de Direitos, seminar August 24, 2007