HispanicBusiness

With the makeup of today's college undergraduate population "very different than it was a generation ago," including soaring Hispanic enrollment, the success of a future American workforce will depend on the ability of higher education institutions to adapt to and meet the needs of those "nontraditional students."

That's one of the conclusions of "Leading in a Changing America: Presidential Perspectives from Hispanic-Serving Institutions," a report by Excelencia in Education with support from the Lumina Foundation for Education.

The report, the fourth in a series of five on Hispanic-serving institutions, focused on interviews with the leaders of 12 Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in three states: California, Texas and New York. The institutions surveyed enroll large numbers of nontraditional students and are at the forefront of a changing higher education landscape.

The study defined nontraditional students as those who are low income, first generation, part-timers, commuters, ethnically diverse and older. It classified most Hispanic students as nontraditional. Traditional students, the survey said, are predominantly white, financially dependent on their parents and enroll in college immediately after high school graduation.

The institutions chosen for the study comprised public four-year universities and community colleges, some of which feed into those universities. The institutions included California State University, Dominguez Hills; East Los Angeles College; the University of Texas at El Paso; and City University of New York, Borough of Manhattan Community College.

"One thing these institutions all share is a culture where Latino students are welcomed as an asset and not considered a liability because they have different needs and circumstances than traditional college students," said Deborah Santiago, vice president for policy and research at Excelencia and the author of the report. "This kind of supportive environment is ultimately critical to promoting Latino student success."

Santiago told HispanicBusiness.com she found that the college leaders place a high level of importance on serving the community they're in. "They were also focused on balancing quality with access."

According to Digest of Education Statistics, 34 percent of college undergraduates were minorities in 2007, up from 17 percent in 1980, an increase of 194 percent. The percentage of Latino students rose from 4 percent in 1980 to 12 percent in 2007, a 342 percent change. By contrast, white representation dropped, from 81 percent in 1980 to 64 percent in 2007, an 18 percent plunge.

The college presidents noted the challenges of first-generation college students. Said one: "Families worry about the lost income, separation from family, and the possibility that the students will leave when they go to college. We invite parents and family members to our school orientations so that they can understand what is required to get a university education. ... By engaging the family, the institutions can succeed in getting students to enter and stay in college."

The faculty -- by assuming research, teaching and service roles -- are the "institutional representatives with the most student contact," the report stated. Because of this, they play an influential role in the retention and success of their students.

Said one president: "Our most important asset for student success is the commitment and buy-in of our faculty to our educational enterprise. Our faculty show that they are committed to student success. If faculty don't have high expectations and are not willing to work to ensure success, then Latino student success won't take place as needed."

Said another: "Because the faculty are the people who interact with the students, our institution conducts orientation sessions with new faculty each year to set the vision and tone of the institution and provide student profiles. We integrate this information into other institutional activities."

Hispanic-serving institutions are well aware that an increasing number of students are entering postsecondary education underprepared for college-level work. To address this, they work on alliances with kindergarten through 12th grade schools to better prepare potential students. They also have focused their efforts on offering remedial and developmental courses.

"We know 87 percent of students first enrolling on our campus are not college-ready," one president said. "If they are to complete, our students have to be continuously enrolled when they are in developmental education. ... We have also created retention specialists to follow up with students and monitor their progress."

Santiago told HispanicBusiness.com that the series of reports on Hispanic-serving institutions is "intended to try to do ignorance abatement. They're not a panacea, not a silver bullet" for Hispanic students.

"If we understand the good and bad of these institutions," she said, "we can make better policy and know how to serve Latinos better."

The "Leading in a Changing America" report and others can be found here.