25 years ago I wrote a book, Effective Ways to Recruit and Retain Minority Students, to help colleges and universities meet their equal educational opportunity goals as expressed in their mission statements. Many of the colleges in the U.S. bought my book and many invited me to their campus to share my ideas.
I argued then and now that a holistic approach is required and created a model to help campuses improve their retention rates. I reminded each academic body that I spoke before, that the real focus must be to recruit with the goal of graduating students of color.
I recommended that the entire campus be involved in recruitment and retention efforts and emphasized the vital role that faculty must play if retention initiatives are to be successful.
Back then students were able to get more grants than loans and most left college with manageable loan debts. Colleges were able to attract students of color with adequate financial aid packages that allowed them to enroll in record numbers. The major challenge was retention, which Dr. Rodolfo Cortina (author of the Cortina Report that studied Wisconsin’s record of recruiting and retaining Minority students), called a “revolving door.” The Cortina Report confirmed a shift from access to the ability of students of color to persist.
Then and now the national Minority student retention rate was, and is, less than that of white students. I argued that a minimal goal would be to have the retention rates for students of color the same as for white students.
Most of the research back then identified three major factors related to minority student attrition: 1) their academic preparation; 2) their socio-cultural adjustment to campus life; and 3) their limited financial resources.
Back then the literature painted a very pessimistic picture of achieving equity and thus closing the achievement gap unless the educational and economic system undertook a massive shift in the distribution of power, resources and cultural practices of the society. Needless to say that has not happened and in 2013 the achievement gap has not closed. America’s schools are still failing its poor and Minority students. Black and Latino high school graduation rates still lag behind those of their white counterparts.
Given this bleak assessment of the educational system and the probability that many students of color will continue to arrive on college campuses underprepared, it becomes critical for higher educational institutions to respond in ways that give students a reasonable chance to succeed in college. The general response by campuses has been to establish remedial programs.
There are those who argue that it is not the role of higher education to provide remedial education. They say if students can’t “cut the mustard” they shouldn’t be there. This view though popular, is short sighted in my opinion. Furthermore it ignores the reason why remedial education is needed in the first place. To deny additional academic help to students, who need it, is to punish them twice, to limit their life choices and to exonerate the mostly public schools that were supposed to prepare them for college.
Although the level of students’ academic preparation plays a central role in determining their persistence, those who work in remedial education can show you example after example of students who went on to graduate because of the extra help they received.
Our society pays for its poorly educated citizens through higher welfare costs, an unsustainable prison system, generational poverty and other ways that are devastating to the American economy. It makes better sense to intervene early on. While it is certainly preferred that this intervention occur in elementary and middle school, it’s irresponsible for colleges to wipe their hands of this crisis, having contributed to its existence.
Now is not the time to retreat given the changing demographics and the new emphasis on diversity and inclusion. We need the best talent we can find, from every group in our society, and we can no longer afford to under educate a significant segment of it.
Today it’s accepted by most educators that the social environment of the campus affects the academic performances of students. For any retention program to be successful it must address the socio-cultural problems students of color encounter on predominantly white campuses. I’ve identified ten long-term problems that students of color face on mostly white campuses. Unfortunately the same speech I gave over two decades ago about these problems is still relevant today. I’ve delivered this speech several times in the past six months and each audience told me that I just described their campus.
To create a “culture of inclusion,” educational leaders must consider how their campus environments can adapt to meet the needs of today’s highly diverse entering students, rather than beginning with the assumption that it’s only diverse students and staff that must change and are expected to assimilate into the existing environment.
Campus leaders need to take this notion of socio-cultural adjustment seriously because it causes some students to relinquish their dreams of earning a higher educational degree. When the institution treats you unfairly it crushes your spirit. When schools fail to provide the cultural support that students of color need, the result is usually cultural conflict, resulting in minority students finding themselves outside the mainstream of college life.
To be culturally different doesn’t mean that one is culturally deprived. We shouldn’t let cultural ethnocentrism cloud how we view cultures that are different from ours. When we do, we are confusing differences with deficiencies. They are not the same.
That’s why we must work hard to make sure our campuses provide the type of support ALANA (African, Latino, Asian and Native American) students need to really feel accepted. And this means more than just promoting tolerance. Besides, nobody wants to be just tolerated-we all deserve to be celebrated! Red, black, brown, yellow or white we’re all precious in God’s sight. As former Senator Carolyn Mosley Braun said, “when all of the cream is allowed to rise to the top, the butter is bound to be better.”
The research shows that students who get involved in campus activities generally do better in classes and increase their chances for graduation. This is true mainly because involved students feel like they belong on campus.
When I work with Student Services personnel I always share tips for working with students of color that I’ve used over the years. The more campuses can get ALANA students engaged, the smoother their transition to campus life becomes.
While I think it’s important for minority students to develop their own clubs and organizations, I believe it’s a mistake for them not to participate in every aspect of college life. If students of color are going to stay on these campuses, then they must have something to say about how these campuses should function. The only way to do that is to become involved.
The challenge is for college leaders to leverage Minority student organizations and use them as bridges to help transition ALANA students into the mainstream. One way to do this is to invest in Minority Student Leadership Training and in Minority student organization development. When campuses do those things they help make students of color feel welcome and in return ALANA students take pride in being a student at their university.
The literature is clear: Financial Aid is the most significant factor when recruiting students of color, especially African American and Latino. When I wrote my first retention book I noted that the years 1964 to 1974 were called the “golden age” of educational opportunities for black students. Record numbers of black students enrolled in college each year during that period. Financial aid played a key role in making that phenomenon possible.
Most students of color, just like most working class white students, need some form of financial assistance to attend college. Every credible study that I’ve seen shows how the proper mix of grants and loans leads to increased enrollment.
I started my professional college career by working in the financial aids office at UW-Madison. There was actually a time when we could award low income students more grants than loans. This nation put dollars behind its commitment and minority student enrollment patterns spiraled upward. That all changed during the 80’s during the Reagan Administration when financial aid not only decreased; loans became the primary source of funding for students. As a result many students left college burdened with tremendous loan debt. That trend continues today.
This country has been in a deep economic recession for the past several years that we have not yet recovered from. The wealth gap has widened dramatically between white households and black and Latino households while the cost of attending college continues to sky rocket.
If there was ever a time that this country needed to renew its commitment to making college affordable for all students that time is now. However, we’re in a political climate that no longer considers an investment in education a national priority. It took a civil rights movement to make equal educational opportunities possible. It may take a similar movement to ensure that our children will have the option of an affordable education.
Like many of you reading this, I want the doors of higher education to remain open and accessible to all of our children. Our colleges and universities play a critical role in making a better life possible for many. If we are to preserve equal opportunities for future generations, we must muster the political will and the economic resources to address these challenges. When that is done – we all win!
