Where Latino student enrollment is rising

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By Delece Smith-Barrow and Molly Stellino

As colleges and universities slog through a fall semester that’s mostly online because of the coronavirus pandemic, many students are opting out.

Overall undergraduate enrollment is down 4.4 percent this fall, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. At the undergraduate level, it decreased 9.6 percent for Native American students, 7.5 percent for Black students and 6.6. percent for white students.

But one student group is persevering: Latinos. Their enrollment has barely changed at four-year colleges and universities, and it’s actually increasing at a number of public institutions.

Aggressive initiatives to recruit and engage students, virtually and in-person, are helping to sustain Latino enrollment, according to some higher education experts.

For the institutions that are experiencing growth, “it’s because of their intentionality and effort,” said Deborah Santiago, cofounder and chief executive officer of Excelencia in Education, which advocates for Latino students and Hispanic-serving institutions. “They know who they’re serving.”

Between fall 2019 and fall 2020, Latinos had the second lowest decline when compared to all other races, at 5.4 percent, according to National Student Clearinghouse. But this drop came after Latinos had been the only race to show an increase – 1.4 percent – in college enrollment in the fall of 2019. In some sectors, their growth was stagnant this year, which is the closest thing to a win when so many institutions are struggling to fill seats. For example, at public four-year institutions in fall 2019, there was a 1.8 percent increase of Latino students. In fall 2020, there was a decrease of 1.8 percent.

Several colleges and universities that saw an uptick of Latino students this semester are Hispanic-serving institutions. HSIs have at least 25 percent Latino enrollment, making them eligible for federal grants. At the University of Texas at Austin, the state’s flagship university, there were 9,800 Latino students in fall 2019. This semester, with 10,448 Latino students, Latinos have become 26 percent of the student population, said Rachelle Hernandez, co-chair of the university’s HSI transition steering committee. The university anticipates it will be federally recognized as an HSI in about 18 months.

“We’ve really focused, as a campus, on inclusion in our recruitment and retention efforts,” Hernandez said. “We really embrace this idea that, by ensuring that we’re serving our Hispanic or Latinx students, we in turn are really serving well all of our students.”

Hosting mock online lectures with real professors for prospective students and their families is one way that UT Austin is encouraging Latino students to apply and enroll, she said. The university also has a new group for Latino students who come from one of the largest Latino regions in the state. The university started RGV Familia, an organization for students from the Rio Grande Valley, to provide mentoring and connections with peers from a similar background. It has about 500 students, Hernandez said.

California State University, Sacramento, is another HSI that has enrolled more Latinos this school year. Latino student enrollment increased by 4 percent, said Ed Mills, vice president of student affairs. Like UT Austin, Sacramento State has several options for Latino students to connect with each other and find support on campus, such as the Dreamer Resource Center and the College Assistance Migrant Program.

“One of the most important things from a retention standpoint and a recruitment standpoint for students visiting our campus is: Do they see themselves in the campus?” Mills said. “Do they have a home on campus? A space, an area, a support that’s visible from the university community?”

Sacramento State, where Latino enrollment has been growing for the last decade, has soared past the 25 percent-Latino enrollment threshold required for HSI status and is now at 34 percent.

“There’s very visible support for Hispanic and Latinx students on the campus,” Mills said.

While some universities are relatively thriving, many colleges and universities are struggling to maintain their Latino student population through the pandemic. Community colleges, for example, saw a 10.6 percent drop of Latino students, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research center.

Santiago encourages institutions to return to the survival mindset they had in the spring and tap into the adrenaline rush they felt when quickly adapting to a Covid-19 safe learning environment.

“The return to the kind of innovation and willingness to invest in the sustained transformation that they started in March is going to be key,” she said.

What can colleges and universities do to increase Latino student enrollment? How can institutions maintain their student populations through the pandemic? Email or tweet me your thoughts.

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Where Latino student enrollment is rising

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