Gettysburg College's move toward centralizing genealogical records -- designed to help promote self-awareness among black students and improve the school's recruitment and retention figures -- is a welcome addition to the increasingly-available wealth of family history material.

By enabling students to place themselves in the historical framework of American culture, Gettysburg is teaching college-age men and women a valuable lesson: they must know their roots before they can develop their futures.

Once considered a hobby for the elderly or the idle, genealogy in the 1980s has enjoyed a mass revival, due in part to the availability of abundant amounts of church, civil and legal records being compiled by organizations nationwide.

Led at the national level by the research of the Church of Latter-Day Saints -- commonly known as the Mormons -- those seeking their ancestry can enjoy discovering a relative's past in a dusty book on a back library shelf, or finding the name of a great-uncle among tilting tombstones in an old, abandoned cemetery.

Gettysburg appropriately geared this experience toward black people, who have received little attention in public records largely because of the neglect shown by public officials in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

The Lutheran-affiliated liberal arts school, where only 40 of 1,850 students are black, attempts to breaks down the sense of isolation black students often feel on their campus and offers them an opportunity to become a part of a national puzzle spanning 200 years and infinitely more emotions. The school ultimately aims for the students to use their self-awareness to strive for leadership roles.

Gettysburg officials demonstrated extra sensitivity by structuring the center to include other ethnic and racial groups, including Europeans, Asians and Native Americans. By calling the center an "intercultural resource," Gettysburg gears the program toward a celebration of diversity and advocates not only a sense of purpose but also a sense of unity.

At a time when racial tension and a lack of understanding between ethnic and racial groups festers on college campuses, colleges and universities across the state can take learn from Gettysburg's celebration of all cultures.

Genealogy is an effective balance between the community and the individual. Both are necessary, but neither can take precedence. Regardless of race or creed, everyone has a history. Sharing this history can serve only to improve relations between people in the present.