01/13/2014 "2013 A year in Review". by Hispanic Outlook on Education Magazine

JANUARY 13, 2014

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Hispanic Student Survey

VOLUME 24 • NUMBER 07

A Look Forward

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more things change, the more things stay the same. It’s a common refrain, but it is particularly true when discussing the state of higher education in America. A year ago HO talked about the aspirations of the DREAMers, speculating that this would be the year of immigration reform and passage of the DREAM Act, but 2013 has come and gone without any progress in this area. Has college become more affordable for degree-seekers? Not in the past year, it hasn’t. Are we any closer to achieving universal acceptance of Common Core standards in our schools? Again, not so much. However, progress is being made in some areas of higher education – especially for Hispanics and minority students. In this issue of HO we take a step back to evaluate 2013 and look ahead to what might happen in 2014. More Hispanics are pursuing a college education than ever before and are not letting higher tuition get in the way of that goal. In science, they say, “nature will find a way.” In this case students are choosing to attend school on their own terms. They are moving to online classes in greater numbers and becoming pragmatic about the courses they take and the careers they pursue. How will this change the higher education landscape? Stay tuned. We’ll let you know next year. Meanwhile, this year will be another banner year for HO, marking our first full year as a vibrant colorful timely digital publication. We might have changed, but our commitment to showcasing the best of Hispanics in higher education has never changed or wavered. ¡Adelante! Suzanne López-Isa Managing Editor

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MAGAZINE® JANUARY 13, 2014

CONTENTS 2013

The Face of Higher Education in 2013: MOOCs and Memes by Mary Ann Cooper

Student Loan Debt Unlikely to Be Next Subprime Crisis by Frank DiMaria Hispanic Student Enrollments Hit Historic Highs by Paul Hoogeveen Wage Gap for Women: Both Sides of the Story by Mary Ann Cooper

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Can A Two-Year Degree Be More Valuable Than A Four-Year Degree? by Michelle Adam What’s A Degree Worth? Colleges Pushed To Disclose Grad Wages by Marilyn Gilroy Excelencia Offers Promising Practices for Latino Student Success by Angela Provitera McGlynn

2013 Statistical Survey

Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Has Its Time Finally Come? by Jeff Simmons Understanding the Reverse Transfer Student by Frank DiMaria Latino Remediation Rates Remain High by Marilyn Gilroy Experts Assess Impact of the Fisher Decision by Jeff Simmons DREAMers Could Make or Break Immigration Reform in 2013 by Peggy Sands Orchowski Higher Ed Groups Submit Recommendations for Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act by Paul Hoogeveen Report Says Majority of Two-Year Transfer Students Complete Bachelor’s Degree by Angela Provitera McGlynn

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Court Rulings on Academic Freedom and Loyalty Oath Cases Offer History Lessons by Frank DiMaria

2014 – A Look Forward Page 50 4

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Hispanic Students: 2013 Statistical Survey by Marilyn Gilroy

2014:The Year Higher Ed Will Strike Back Against Its Critics by Mary Ann Cooper

Targeting Higher Education: 2013 – A Year to be Remembered by Gustavo A. Mellander

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Published by “The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Publishing Company, Inc.” Executive Editor – Marilyn Gilroy Managing Editor – Suzanne López-Isa News & Special Project Editor – Mary Ann Cooper Administrative Assistant & Subscription Coordinator – Barbara Churchill Washington DC Bureau Chief – Peggy Sands Orchowski Contributing Editors – Carlos D. Conde, Michelle Adam Contributing Writers – Gustavo A. Mellander

DEPARTMENTS

Art & Production Director – Avedis Derbalian Graphic Designer – Joanne Aluotto

Political Beat & Latino Kaleidoscope

Sr. Advertising Sales Associate – Angel M. Rodríguez

Excerpts from the Best of Conde ... by Carlos D. Conde

Editorial Policy

Ten Best of Uncensored

by Peggy Sands Orchowski

2013 Book Reviews at a glance...

The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine® is a national magazine. Dedicated to exploring issues related to Hispanics in higher education,The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine® is published for the members of the higher education community. Editorial decisions are based on the editors’ judgment of the quality of the writing, the timeliness of the article, and the potential interest to the readers of The Hispanic Outlook Magazine®. From time to time, The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine® will publish articles dealing with controversial issues. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and/or those interviewed and might not reflect the official policy of the magazine. The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine® neither agrees nor disagrees with those ideas expressed, and no endorsement of those views should be inferred unless specifically identified as officially endorsed by The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine®.

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by Carlos D. Conde

i cal Beat

one way to do it is to attract and promote the image of up-and-coming Latinos who adhere to and preach their political philosophy.

The Grand Old Party Not Too Grand with Latinos It might seem insignificant and pretentious that I hesitate to broach the matter, but in a way it’s illustrative of why Democrats bashed the Republicans in the 2012 presidential election with the help of the Latino constituency and why the GOP seems politically tone deaf on matters Hispanic. Mitt Romney got clobbered so spectacularly and decisively by the Latino voter that to recover and make amends with the Latino community means that Republicans must come up with a plausible action plan and candidates to make their politics attractive to Latinos. What’s imperative to any GOP’s re-engineering is that Latinos are not going to go away. In fact, population trends show Latinos are on their way to becoming the dominant society and to shedding their current role of a minority group dependent on the largess of the political parties that manage the election process. The Republicans need mightily to improve their image among Latinos and

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Alright You Wetbacks, Read This! Being a politician anywhere, but particularly in Washington, is a precarious business. You have handlers to help you negotiate the political minefields and the always-lurking faux pas you invariably commit. When you do make a blunder, you plea repentance and promise redemption to the offended parties. Rep. Don Young for the past 10 years has been until now, the innocuous congressman from Alaska until he appeared on a local radio show and in discussing bygone agricultural days, referred to farmworkers as “wetbacks.” He didn’t say Mexicans or Latinos but the inference is deafening. Young talked about California, where he grew up and said, “My father had a ranch. We used to have 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes.” The farmworkers might have been from other ethnic or racial groups, but in this case, as many already know, wetback is code and a derisive word for a Mexican or to be more precise, a Mexican farmworker. Congressman Young has apologized for his bigotry and insensitivity and we can forgive him for his bad characterization of Latinos and for not knowing of what he speaks.

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Excerpts from Once Upon A Time Once upon a time immigration to the U.S. was a big thing. People from all foreign territories came to this land to share with the originals, the Native Americans. In a way, it continues to this day. We’re basically still a nation of immigrants but with an American imprimatur. The inscription on the Statue of Library by poet Emma Lazarus, says “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning To Breathe Free, The Wretched Refuse Of Your Teeming Shore. Send Those Homeless, Tempest-Tossed To Me.” You might think that today something has been lost in the translation. Uncle Sam no longer seems to be in a welcoming mood. He’s now more into searching the country far and wide to determine who’s welcome and who’s not and booting out those who aren’t. The Obama administration claims the distinction of deporting more illegals –1.5 million in its first term – than any previous administrations. The biggest group of deportees is the illegal Latinos. About that noble phrase of “give me your tired, etc.” The problem now is that we don’t know what to do with so many immigrants and the issues they bring with them. Congress is now involved in producing immigration reform but as the days go by, there may be a lot of political skirmishes and posturing and distortion of the issues that is making the passage of any meaningful reform more problematical and invasive.

Hello Ted Cruz; Marco Rubio Who? Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings. It’s Superman. At first glance, Sen. Ted Cruz from Texas is a bit like that fabled pulp hero ready to confront all the elements that go against his conservative political philosophy and the constituencies he represents. Like Ronald Reagan once said, it’s a new dawn in America and Cruz points at himself. While the caped warrior Superman was happy chasing crooks, and ne’er-do- wells, Cruz is looking beyond the Senate, like running for president. Cruz is a Harvard Law School graduate where the renowned law Prof. Alan Dershowitz described him as “off the charts brilliant.” He clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist and was a legal advisor to George Bush before becoming Texas Solicitor General. Despite his impressive background, the presidency and the Senate are two different and demanding forums and it remains to be seen if Cruz can perform on the big stage like Obama who traveled a similar road.

the Best of Conde ... The Legacy of Hugo Chávez, the Redeemer History will judge whether or not Chávez was an egocentric nationalist bent on leading his country into chaos and ruin because of his prejudice against the oligarchs and society’s swells and the social and economic war he waged against them. Chávez would have preferred to be remembered – or venerated – as one who reformed his country through deliverance of the poor and disenfranchised, thus making him a selfstyled redeemer in the tradition of Simón Bolívar. The Chávez reign had its good purposes and commitments and brought some equity to a once-bifurcated nation. Accept it or not, an important transformation in Venezuela’s destiny is taking place that with its economic and social resources should serve to amalgamate all elements of a proud, productive country

sons like marriage and cost-ofliving and retirement factors Many Americans seek the foreign existence, particularly in Latin America where the Gringo can lead a charmed life of easy living despite the unpredictable political turmoil, and the anti-American sentiments that at times flare up. That’s because in many countries, the dollar still goes a long way and Americans, particularly retired seniors, find a new life almost luxurious with maids, gardeners, good health services and other accoutrements of upscale living.

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Obama’s Trip to Latin America-Snore! If ever there was a nonevent trip by a U.S. president exercising his chief executive duties, it has to be President Obama’s May 2013 visit to Latin America, his sixth – but it only went as far as Mexico and Central America, with a visit to Costa Rica. Would anyone remember or know that such an official presidential visit to the Americas even took place? There were no joint declarations or agreements of any substance, nor a memorandum of understanding. This time there was nothing, even in Mexico, not even the usual photo op of a big abrazo, which the Mexicans specialize in. To some observers, it was more of a courtesy visit than a forum by the ranking neighboring politicians for a Central American colleague, President Laura Chinchilla, who is in the midst of repairing her political image. One of Costa Rica’s 2014 presidential aspirants, Guillermo Solís, said it was “one of the most mysterious presidential visits I have witnessed in the past two decades. Nothing seemed to make sense about the objectives of Obama’s visit.”

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Making Peace with Our Identities When George Zimmerman went on trial in Florida for the killing of Trayvon Martin, he unwittingly started a debate among Latinos after some of the mainstream media began to refer to him as “white Hispanic.” He certainly didn’t look white or what we consider “white” unless they spend a lot of time working on their tans. His pigmentation looked a lot like mine. Brown. Zimmerman is an Anglo surname but he, of an Anglo father and a Hispanic mother, has what some Latinos would call “café con leche” complexion and texture. Physically, Zimmerman does look pretty much Latino but therein lies an argument. What does a Latino look like? As a whole, Argentines don’t look like Mexicans or Chileans like Salvadorians. If not physical, what else constitutes an authentic Latino or Hispanic if there is such a fitting identity? The Census Bureau offers its own way of dealing with question by considering race and ethnicity as mutually independent and respondents are asked to answer both questions. It To Be Or Not to Be –A U.S. Expatriate then categorizes them as white Hispanics and It seems a bit ironic that in today’s world there non-Hispanic whites with the former consisting are over 12 million undocumented people living in the shadows in of white Americans who cite “Hispanic ancestry.” the U.S., some desperately trying to remain here and legalize their As of 2010, 50.5 million, or 16.3 percent of Americans listed residency while concurrently there are many U.S. citizens choos- themselves as ethnically Hispanic or Latino. Of those, 26.7 miling to live abroad, some saying good riddance to American life. lion or 53 percent identified themselves and were classified as The number is growing and one of the principal reasons is oner- white. The remaining who identified themselves as “some other ous tax liabilities by the mother country. Comparatively speaking, the race” were listed as “whites” for demographic purposes. issue is miniscule but still telling as to why some Americans prefer That means that 90 percent of all Latinos were counted as life abroad to the extent of giving up their coveted U.S. citizenship. “whites” which hardly needs a distinction in Zimmerman’s case, The term for this type of U.S. citizen stature is expatriate. Some for example, and which served only to cast racial overtones. expats go abroad for business or professional reasons – military Carlos D. Conde is an award-winning journalist and commentator, personnel don’t count as expats – and others for a variety of rea- former Washington and foreign news correspondent.

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COMMENTARY

The Face of Higher Education in 2013: MOOCs and Memes L

ike a chameleon, higher education has learned to adapt and change to match its environment. As our world evolved from brick and mortar retail to online shopping, colleges and universities took note. While online courses were once viewed as a less than ideal approach to getting an education because of what was perceived as a lack of supervision and test-taking monitoring, it now is a staple of the education establishment. It was only a few years ago that an online degree was no substitute for a traditional degree. Every passing year that becomes less and less the case. This past year the shiny new object in education went by a name that sounded more like a thug’s nickname than an advance in online education. MOOCs, as they are called, are massive open online courses to meet the needs of a student population that are unable to or prefer not to be part of the on campus experience. This new and innovative method of educational delivery is remarkably similar in its structure no matter where MOOCs are being offered or what course matter they deliver. MOOC students stream and view their digital lectures, read assigned material, take part in online discussions and forums, and complete quizzes and tests on the course material in order to receive a grade in that course. Some MOOC students find ways to meet up to fulfill their online assignments – if they live near each other. Why was there a sudden surge of MOOCs in 2013? One reason is the cost of higher education, itself. Budget cutbacks have forced schools to reduce course offerings, faculty and staff. With MOOCs this would have left a sizable number of students without access to courses they needed to complete their degrees on a timely basis. Offering these courses as an online alternative was not only an economic solution for the school; it also saved the student money as well. MOOCs are also vehicles to continue remedial courses which are the first line items targeted by state legislators looking for cost savings in higher education. California, in particular, has converted much of its remediation programs to MOOCs. This has added a new element to MOOCs – the ability to use current technology to offer self-paced courses that engage students and give them the flexibility to advance when they have mastered course study and concepts, and not according to a strict calendar. The introduction of MOOCs and other online learning platforms is indicative of an explosion of digital-based learning that has become part of the strategic planning and development for higher education institutions across the country.

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According to a survey by Babson Survey Research Group and the College Board, 65 percent of institutions of higher education have made the commitment to online learning a critical part of their long-term strategy for success. In its Jan. 8, 2013 article, “Growth for Online Learning” by Doug Lederman, Inside High Ed reports that more than 6.7 million, or roughly one-third, of all students enrolled in postsecondary education took an online course for credit during the 2011-12 academic year. That represents an increase of online enrollment of about 10 percent. This is despite a slow decline in college enrollment. The other “M” term that was tossed around liberally in 2013 was “meme.” Lest you think it is the plural of memo, a meme is defined as an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. Meme is short for mimeme (Greek for "to imitate” or “mime”) and it was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976) to explain the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. A meme carries cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted through writing, speech, gestures, or social rituals. The meme in question in 2013 was the transmission of the concept that higher education is not just for graduating high school students. More and more older adults are joining the student populations of colleges and universities across America. The U.S. Department of Education reports that more than 25 percent of college students in the U.S. are over the age of 30. Institutions of higher learning have had to come up with creative solutions to accommodate these students who must juggle a job and family responsibilities with their class work. Part of the accommodation is to involve students more in the planning and execution of coursework so that they can have a more active voice and become more active participants in the whole process of higher education learning. Looking back on 2013, it is clear that with choices of learning venues and course delivery as well the autonomy that comes with being an active participant in their learning puts pressure on students to be more self-directed and disciplined. In 2013, states such as California expanded their online remediation programs to include how to learn as well as what to learn. The state has also used online instruction to increase students’ motivation by demonstrating how a course applies to their real life circumstances and goals. In 2013 the term “adult education” continued to be less about noncredit courses held in high school classrooms after hours and more about

credited and noncredit job training courses including basic skills training, apprenticeships, work-related courses, English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, and part-time college or university degree programs. In recent years, blacks and whites had higher rates of overall participation in adult education than their Hispanic peers. Among those employed in the past 12 months, the overall participation rate in adult education was higher for those in a professional or managerial occupation (70 percent) than for those employed in service, sales, or support jobs (48 percent) or those in trade occupations (34 percent). In addition, the overall participation rate in adult education for bachelor’s degree recipients or higher was greater than for those individuals who had some college or less education. Another meme worth mentioning for 2013 is the expansion of the venue where the word “meme” is frequently found. Social media has evolved from just being a place for dating and social interaction to a marketplace for the exchange of ideas, information and intellectual discussion. Universities and colleges are continuing to develop ways to create strategic community partnerships and funding partners through the use of sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to promote their institutions and raise their public profiles.

by Mary Ann Cooper

The Politics of Higher Education in 2013 Supporters of the DREAM Act, which has been stalled in Congress, took their act on the road in 2013, hoping to have individual states pass legislation as part of a grassroots push to national acceptance. It is a tactic that was previously used with success by the LGBT movement to push marriage equality. In 2013 politicians were beginning to realize that supporting the DREAM Act was good politics. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie rode a wave of support to a second term in his re-election bid capturing a majority of the Hispanic vote in his state after announcing in mid-October that he would be “open” to supporting the DREAM Act despite Republican opposition to it. The president has raised the maximum Pell Grant award to $5,635 for the 2013-14 award year – a $905 increase since 2008. Under the president’s leadership, the number of Pell Grant recipients has expanded by 50 percent over that same time, providing college access to millions of additional low-income and middle-class students across the country. The Obama administration’s landmark investment in the Pell Grant was enacted in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which ended student loan subsidies for private financial institutions and banks and shifted over $60 billion in savings back to students. President Obama established the American Opportunity Tax Credit in 2009 to assist families with the costs of college, providing up to $10,000 for four years of college tuition for families earning up to $180,000. Over 9.4 million students and families benefit from the American Opportunity Tax Credit each year. The administration’s “Pay as You Earn” plan expands income-based repayment to enable 1.6 million students to take advantage of a new option to cap repayment of student loans at 10 percent of monthly income – an option that student borrowers can begin to use at the end of this year. These changes will reduce the burden of student loans in a fiscally responsible way. Additionally, millions of borrowers are now eligible to consolidate Direct Loans and FFEL Loans and save up to half a percentage point on their interest rate. In his 2013 State of the Union address, the president called on Congress to keep interest rates low for the 7.4 million borrowers who take out subsidized federal student loans for this school year. With President Obama’s leadership, rates on new subsidized Stafford loans remained at 3.4 percent — instead of doubling to 6.8 percent – this past summer. This bold action saved students an average of $1,000 on the life of their loans, and President Obama has committed to keeping interest rates low for student loans moving forward. In August, President Obama signed a bill that takes an important step in fulfilling our nation's obligations to students. The bipartisan legislation cuts rates on all new loans this year and saves a typical undergraduate student $1,500 over the life of those loans.

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FINANCING/TUITION

Student Loan Debt Unlikely by Frank DiMaria

tudent loan debt outstanding in the United States is approaching $1 trillion. It surpassed outstanding credit card debt for the first time in 2011. In the eight years between 2003 and 2011, outstanding student loan debt increased from approximately $250 billion to more than $900 billion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It has outpaced the growth rate of outstanding debt for credit cards, auto loans and mortgages over the same time period. Tuition costs, governmental initiatives to encourage funding for higher education (e.g., the Federal Direct Student Loan Program), an increase in for-profit proprietary schools and a desire of recent graduates to seek a second degree when they are unable to find a full-time job are some of the reasons for this incredible rise. Currently, student loan debt ranks second on the list of consumer debt in the U.S. Nearly 8 percent of total debt outstanding as of year-end 2011 is made up of student loans. Although this figure looks small in comparison to mortgage debt, which is 76.9 percent of total debt outstanding, two experts in the field, Leighton Hunley and Jonathan Glowacki, wonder if student loan debt could become the next subprime crisis and cause turmoil in the market. Both gentlemen work for Milliman, one of the world’s largest providers of actuarial and related products and services. They recently published their thoughts on this topic. Hunley and Glowacki looked at the historical delinquency trends between both mortgage debt and student loan debt to see if they could provide an indication of whether student loan debt has the potential to be the next subprime crisis. The delinquency rate for seriously delinquent student loans (defined as the balance of loans 90 days or more delinquent divided by the total balance of outstanding loans), according to Hunley and Glowacki, has been steadily climbing from about 6 percent in 2003 to more than nine percent in 2011. A prolonged increasing trend in serious delinquencies, they found, is likely not sustainable for any type of credit risk, and the trend will eventually have to correct. The correction might be through write-offs on principal balances or might come from better underwriting from issuers of student loans. Indeed, in recent finan-

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cial quarters, the percent of student loans seriously delinquent has decreased to less than 9 percent. “What we have learned from the mortgage crisis is that you really need to have a good sense of who you are lending money to,” says

Leighton Hunley, financial and credit analyst, Milliman

Hunley. “What is their credit history? What is their income potential? – and other attributes. And at a more macro level, what is the current economic environment like? That’s what we mean by better underwriting. We want to truly understand who is receiving this money and how can they repay this money in the future.” Hunley wants “smarter” underwriters and “smarter” loan consumers. Borrowers, he says, should be better educated. He would like to see schools offer more personal finance classes, maybe even making them a requirement for those students who will have a high debt load when they leave school. “Coming out of undergrad, I didn’t have a good sense for how much it was going to cost me at the end of the day when I was finished with college. I got the paperwork filled out, signed away, and I was in college and happy to be there. I didn’t really give much consideration

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to what my debt might be when I was done with my schooling,” says Hunley. In today’s job market, where prospects for finding reasonable employment might seem dismal, some graduates are opting to further their education. Such decisions, although well thought out, create even more student loan debt. Hunley has a few suggestions on how underwriters can deal with this. Underwriters, he says, should take the student’s situation into consideration when determining the terms of a student loan. For example, he envisions a system in which students pay debt back in proportion to their income level once they graduate, whether with a bachelor’s or a master’s degree. He also suggests that underwriters should require students who are carrying an already high debt load at the time that their student loan is underwritten to make a down payment to secure the loan, much like those who are seeking a mortgage must do. “A system like this might be beneficial so somebody deciding whether to continue to pursue job opportunities or to go back to school can assess whether they have 20 percent to put down before they go back to school and if that’s really the right option for them,” says Hunley. Loan underwriters are well within their rights to turn away individuals seeking a mortgage if they are high-risk borrowers. This approach, however, does not work in higher education. All individuals have the right to an education. Indeed, the U.S. economy heavily relies on its higher education system to fill both the high-tech and low-tech jobs of the future. Hunley is not suggesting that underwriters prevent individuals from pursuing an education. Rather he is searching for middle ground where underwriters can “scrutinize loans more closely and take into account some of the borrower’s attributes a little bit more – but at the same time keep promoting education. “We certainly want this country to flourish in that respect,” he says. The dollar amount of seriously delinquent student loans as of December 2011 was approximately $95 billion, while the dollar amount of seriously delinquent mortgages was approximately $600 billion (down from approximately $800 billion in December of 2009). And student loan debt, unlike most other types of debt, is nondischargeable in bankruptcy. Individuals who default on student loans owe that money regard-

to Be Next Subprime Crisis less of their financial circumstances. The outstanding balance of student loan debt, though it is high, is dwarfed by that of mortgage loans. For student loan debt to cause serious damage to the U.S. economy, the default rate on student loans would have to be greater than 50 percent on all student loans outstanding. This would produce a dollar amount of seriously delinquent loans comparable to mortgages, Hunley and Glowacki write. Fortunately for the U.S. economy, a seriously delinquent rate of this magnitude is not likely and the potential credit loss experienced with student loans will likely be significantly less than the credit losses experienced with mortgage debt. A large majority of funding for student loans is supported by the government through various initiatives and programs. For the 2011 calendar year, 95 percent of all new student loans were supported by the government (this is an increase from 2007 when about 75 percent of all new student loans were supported by the government) either through direct lending (e.g., the Federal Direct Student Loan Program) or government guarantees for credit and interest losses on the loans (e.g., the Federal Perkins Loan Program). On average, from 1995 through 2011, approximately 10 percent of student loan funding has been from the private sector and 90 percent of the funding has been from government programs, according to the College Board Advocacy and Privacy Group’s Trends in Student Aid 2011. This means that the large portion of government funding for student loans limits the private sector’s exposure to student loan defaults. But it’s a different story for the mortgage market, where over the past 20 years, approximately 50 percent of mortgage risk has been assumed by the private sector. During the build-up of the subprime crisis, the percent of mortgage risk assumed by the private sector was approximately 70 percent with a significant portion of the risk being in “subprime” and second-lien mortgages. When these mortgages went south, the private sector absorbed the majority of the credit losses, resulting in capital and liquidity strain for the large banks. If defaults on student loans increase, the majority of credit losses will be absorbed by the government, not the private sector. Even with the government’s backing, Hunley is not ready to say that the U.S. economy can’t be

affected by defaults on student loans. He points out that the private sector’s exposure is directly tied to each cohort, those students whose repayment schedules begin in a given year. For example, the borrowers who enter repayment of their loans in 2007 experienced a far different eco-

be admitting students as a way to increase revenue and profit and not screening out students who might not be prepared for a higher education. “At a publicly traded company, you have investors, and you need to satisfy their needs and balance that with the needs of your students. So there is a potential, we’re not saying that this is the case, but there is a potential where certain interests may outweigh others. And that could become problematic,” says Hunley. The average debt per student at for-profit schools is generally three to four times higher than that at comparable public universities and one and a half to two times higher than comparable private nonprofit universities, Hunley and Glowacki write. At public and private nonprofit schools, 60 percent and 70 percent of the students use debt to finance their educations, respectively. At for-profits, that number is nearly 95 percent. For students who do finance their educations, according to Glowacki and Hunley, students at for-profit schools finance 99 percent of their educations while students at public and private nonprofit schools finance 70 percent and 85 percent of their educations, respectively. Default rates at for-profit schools are two to three times higher than at public and private universities. The number of individuals who are borrowing to attend for-profit schools is growing, and like those individuals who borrowed during the build up to the subprime mortgage crisis, these borrowers have both higher levels of debt and default risk compared to other borrowers. Although the student loan market is not likely to be categorized as the next subprime crisis, the full impact of ballooning student loan debt on consumers is currently unknown, and the burden might have an adverse impact on the purchasing power of borrowers and co-signers in the future. Hunley is uncertain about how all of this will play out over the next few years. “The student loan industry has a lot of tentacles. You have a lot of co-signers signing these loans, so it’s hard to gauge the impact of somebody not being able to pay off their student loan debt but then also having their parents co-signing with them not being able to pay off the debt as well,” says Hunley. He fears that the U.S. economy might experience a bit of a ripple effect if the bottom were to drop out of the student loan industry. “I can’t say we can all rest easy because there is too much uncertainty there,” says Hunley.

Jonathan Glowacki, CERA, FSA, MAAA, Milliman

nomic climate than those who entered repayment in 1992. “It’s difficult to paint with a broad brush. ... the cohorts from 2006 and 2007 are dealing with high unemployment rates and tough economic times, similar to those individuals who took out mortgages in those years and have had to deal with housing price crashes and high unemployment. You really have to look at each individual year, and to get more granular, each individual borrower” to determine the private sector’s exposure, says Hunley. Hunley and Glowacki see another similarity between student debt and the growth in subprime debt: the recent growth and amount of debt in for-profit proprietary schools. Proprietary schools are a bit of an anomaly in higher education because they are for-profit organizations and some of them are publicly traded. Hunley and Glowacki see potential for a conflict of interest because these schools might

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REPORTS

Hispanic Student Enrollments Hit Historic Highs

by Paul Hoogeveen

ollowing a 24 percent spike in Hispanic college enrollment in 2010, Hispanics achieved a number of school enrollment records in 2011. Most significantly, according to the report Hispanic Student Enrollments Reach New Highs in 2011 released by the Pew Hispanic Center in August 2012, at nearly all levels, from K-12 to four-year postsecondary institutions, Hispanic enrollment has reached historic highs. Written by Dr. Richard Fry and Dr. Mark Hugo López of the Pew Hispanic Center, the report provides a clear picture that shows Hispanics increasingly gaining new ground, particularly at the four-year college level. But while they continue to outpace other groups in college enrollment, Hispanics – the largest minority group in the United States and now the largest minority group on college campuses – still lag behind other groups relative to their percentage of the general population. And it’s not apparent that the current upward trend at the college level will be sustained in the future. Nevertheless, what is clear is that in recent years young Hispanics have been making ever greater progress in catching up educationally to their peers in other groups. Today more than 16 percent of young college students are Hispanic. Public School Enrollment: How the Pipeline to College Is Changing Among its findings, the report cites significant changes at the public school level that have contributed greatly to growth at subsequent levels of education. Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the authors found that 12.4 million Hispanics were enrolled in the nation’s public schools from pre-K through 12th-grade level in October 2011. Approximately one-quarter (24.7 percent) of all public elementary school students nationwide in 2011 were Hispanic – a trend reached at the kindergarten level in 2007 and the public nursery school level in 2006, according to the report. And across the entire public school spectrum, 23.9 percent of all pre-K through 12thgrade public school students were Hispanic – a record high for Hispanic public school enroll-

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ment. For the sake of comparison in terms of growth, Hispanic K-12 enrollment share in 2011 was about 8 percent higher than in 2000, and 18 percent higher than in 1972. The report points out that while Hispanic population growth has played a role, it does not in and of itself fully explain the growth in enrollment. Beyond growth in the share of students at the K-12 level, Hispanics have also gained more ground in terms of secondary level completion and college enrollment eligibility. In 2011, 21 percent of all public high school students were Hispanic. Also, a record 76.3 percent of all Hispanics between the ages of 18 and 24 (3-plus percent more than in 2010) had either a high school diploma or General Educational Development (GED) degree – the highest high school completion rate ever attained by Hispanics. As a result, these changes at the public school level have set the stage for growth at the postsecondary level. Among these young secondary level completers, 45.6 percent were enrolled in either two-year or four-year colleges – another record. College Enrollment: A Number of Milestones College enrollment among all students ages 18 to 24 grew by 3 percent between 2010 and 2011, reaching a record high of 12.6 million. But there was a vast difference in enrollment trends among the groups compared in the report. White non-Hispanic enrollment, for example, hit 7.9 million in 2011, up 3 percent from 2010. Meanwhile enrollment among Blacks actually fell by 3 percent to 1.6 million, while Asian-American enrollment dropped even further – down by 8 percent to about threequarters of a million students. Hispanics in the same age bracket, on the other hand, made significant gains, increasing by 15 percent to a total of 2.1 million. Hispanic enrollment growth alone accounted for about three-quarters of the overall increase in enrollment across all groups. The 15 percent surge follows an earlier spike in Hispanic enrollment of about 24 percent between 2009 and 2010, as

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reported early last year (see “Closing the Education Gap: A Surge in Hispanic College Enrollment” in the Jan. 30, 2012, issue of The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine). “Given the growing absolute numbers of young Hispanics, I would expect that the absolute levels of young Hispanic college students will continue to rise,” said Fry of the recent upsurge. “So rising numbers of young Hispanic students may continue in the future.” But what is more interesting, he noted, is that “in 2011, young Hispanics also reached new milestones in terms of rates of college attendance.” The rate of growth in Hispanic enrollment has been stunning, surging past not just other groups of young adults, but the growth rate of the overall Hispanic population as well. The share of Hispanic college students between the ages of 18 and 24 grew by nearly 50 percent between 2006 and 2011. Hispanics now comprise 16.5 percent of all 18- to 24-year-old college students in the United States, marking the first time in history that the share of Hispanics enrolled in college matched overall Hispanic population representation. “It is very clear that the growth of young Hispanic college enrollment markedly outpaces the growth of the young Hispanic population,” Fry emphasized while explaining the significance of this milestone. “For example, from 2000 to 2011, the young Hispanic population – ages 18 to 24 – grew 45 percent. But the number of Hispanic college students – ages 18 to 24 – grew by 131 percent, or more than doubled, over the same time period. So Hispanic college enrollment growth is not paralleling Hispanic population growth, but strongly outgaining it.” Changes in enrollment of 18- to 24-year-olds at two-year colleges in 2010 also showed significant growth among Hispanics. Two years ago, 835,000 young Hispanics were enrolled at twoyear colleges; in 2011, that figure grew by 20 percent to 908,000, making Hispanics a full quarter of all students between the ages of 18 and 24 (by comparison, 630,000 Black students

were enrolled at two-year colleges in 2010). Perhaps even more significantly, enrollment growth of young 18- to 24-year-old Hispanics at four-year-colleges also achieved new milestones in 2011. Their numbers increased by 20 percent between 2010 and 2011 to a historic high of 1.2 million, surpassing enrollment of young Black students (1.1 million) for the first time. Today 13.1 percent of all students enrolled at four-year colleges and universities are Hispanic, making Hispanics the largest minority group represented at four-year institutions of higher learning. Nevertheless, Fry also pointed out that despite this significant upsurge, at 16.5 percent, the Hispanic share of college students continues to lag behind their 20 percent share among all young people ages 18 to 24. Completion Rates and Degree Attainment According to the report, Hispanics have seen their rate of attainment of either an associate or a bachelor’s degree increase by a factor of seven over the last 40 years. Consequently, not only did Hispanics reach a far higher number of degree recipients by 2011, but they made up a greater portion of all college undergraduate degree recipients as well. Citing data from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, Fry and López stated that in 2010 a record number of degrees – a total of 252,000 – were conferred on Hispanic students of all ages. Of these, 112,000 were associate degrees and 140,000 were bachelor’s degrees – both new highs in and of themselves. But despite their extraordinary gains in degree attainment, the number of Hispanics awarded college degrees still fell behind that of other groups. This is evident, for example, when comparing the attainment of four-year degrees among the various groups included in the report. Of the total 1.7 million bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2010, 1.2 million were awarded to White students and 165,000 were awarded to Black students. With Hispanics trailing these groups at 140,000, clearly there is still plenty of room for progress. Meanwhile at the associate level, Hispanics (112,000) still lagged behind White students (553,000) by a significant margin of 441,000 degrees in 2010. But Hispanics came close to matching associate degree attainment of nonHispanic Black students, on whom 114,000 twoyear degrees were conferred in 2010. In terms of overall share of degree recipients at two- and four-year colleges, the Hispanic por-

tion also reached a record. In 2010, 1.7 million bachelor’s degrees were awarded in total. Of these, 8.5 percent were Hispanic – an increase from 8.1 percent in 2009. But while this is a record high, Hispanics still trailed other groups; by comparison, 71 percent of all bachelor’s degrees conferred in 2010 were awarded to non-Hispanic Whites, and 10 percent were awarded to non-Hispanic Blacks. At the associate level, 13.2 percent of all degree recipients in 2010 were Hispanic – yet another record. The Hispanic share matched that of non-Hispanic Blacks; meanwhile, 65 percent of all associate degree recipients that year were non-Hispanic White. The report did not touch upon enrollment or degree attainment trends at the advanced degree level. Asked whether similar upward trends had occurred at the master’s or doctorate level, Fry said, “I have not looked at enrollment at the graduate level recently. However, Hispanic attainment of advanced degrees (master’s, professional and doctorate degrees) was not at a record high level in 2012.” Other Driving Forces: Unanswered Questions While a rapidly growing number of collegeeligible young Hispanics might in large part account for growth in college enrollment, it is likely not the sole factor, nor does it account for a growing share of degree attainment. The Pew report did not address any other contributing factors, however. A report released by Pew Hispanic in November 2012, Latinos Express Growing Confidence in Personal Finances, Nation’s Direction, shows that Hispanics have regained a significant level of confidence in economic outlook since 2008. While this might possibly indicate a greater willingness to take on debt, this report did not explicitly establish any relationship between perceived financial conditions and college enrollment. “We have not performed extensive analysis of the causes of growing Hispanic college enrollments,” Fry commented. The Pew Hispanic Center does not know how much of a role the better financial conditions are playing.” Fry did speculate that while Pew Hispanic has not conducted an in-depth study on the relationship between the labor market and college enrollment, a dearth of employment opportunities might be a contributing factor to the recent upswing in enrollment. “Some of the growth in young Hispanic col-

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lege enrollment is likely associated with the weak job market facing young adults since 2007,” explained Fry. “Upon high school graduation, some youth would prefer to work rather than pursue college, but given that they cannot

Dr. Richard Fry, Pew Hispanic Center find suitable work, they go to college. However, I have not quantified how important a factor the weak job market is.” Of course, while the general upward trend in Hispanic enrollment growth has been fairly constant for years and the percentage of publicschool-age Hispanics is projected to reach more than 30 percent by 2036, the recent increase at the two-year and four-year college level – while encouraging – does not yet a trend at the college level make. Nor does the report provide any indication that growth in enrollment will slow or continue to increase in the future. As Fry cautioned: “I have no expectation whether growing rates of college attendance among young Hispanics have peaked or will continue in the near future.” It’s an important question with regard to higher learning trends among Hispanics. But given current Hispanic population growth projections, along with steady gains in enrollment over the past several years, it seems unlikely that the current upward trend is going to stop any time soon.

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WOMEN/RACE/GENDER ISSUES

Wage Gap for Women: Both Sides of the Story by Mary Ann Cooper

Some

arguments seem like no-brainers. Equal pay for equal work seems to be one of those arguments. How could anyone be opposed to such a democratic concept? And in a year where one political party is being accused – justly or unjustly – of waging a war on women, the equal pay for equal work battle cry is especially resonant with working women in America. But like every other debate we are having these days in our polarized nation, the issue is complicated. Here are the main arguments that support and refute the equal pay for equal work argument: The Center for American Progress (CAP) uses hard statistics to make its case. It says women who work full time year round continue to earn only about 77 percent of what men earn. The gap between the median wage for a man and that of a woman in 2010 was $10,784 per year. The gender wage gap gets larger with age and builds up over time. For young women at the beginning of their careers – between the ages of 25 to 29 – the annual wage gap is about $1,700. But for women in the final five years of their careers before retirement, the wage gap grows to a whopping $14,352. Over a 40-year career, the average woman will lose $431,000 to the gender wage gap. The Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) acknowledges that women do make less income than men, but don’t view this as discriminatory and hits back at liberals for inflating this issue. When the Paycheck Fairness Act was being debated, Sabrina Schaeffer, executive director of Independent Women’s Forum, issued this statement: “Democrats, who frame the issue as a ‘War on Women,’ should be embarrassed by this story not only because it hints at possible sexism, but also because it reveals the absurdity of the debate over the ‘wage gap’ and the Paycheck Fairness Act. These ‘raw’ salaries tell us nothing about the qualifications, educational background or work-life preferences of any of these individuals.” The IWF has its own statistics to promote its argument. They say the average full-time female worker spends 7.81 hours per day on the job, versus the 8.3 hours for the average full-time working male. Men make up 55 percent of workers averaging more than 35 hours a week. In 2007, 25 percent of men working full-time jobs worked 41 or more hours a week, compared to 14 percent of full-time women. Men were found to be more likely to work in dirty or dangerous conditions, and sustained the overwhelming majority of workplace injuries and deaths. It is reasonable that these additional risks often warrant higher salaries, concludes the IWF. CAP says that opponents to equal pay for equal work are using these statistics to confuse the issue. Arguably, people working longer hours or in dangerous or unsavory conditions should be compensated more than those working less and in safer conditions, but the Paycheck Fairness Act is about EQUAL pay for EQUAL

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work. Differences in hours logged or working conditions have nothing to do with the basic premise of equal pay for equal work. IWF’s point, however, is that differences in working conditions and hours on the job can skew the same statistics that proponents of new legislation use to make their argument. CAP also points to the fact that women are now earning the majority of college degrees, but that has done nothing to mitigate the pay gap between the sexes. The American Association of University Women found that college-educated women begin their careers earning 5 percent less than their male peers – even when they went to the same schools, had the same GPA, were hired for the same jobs and had the same marital status and family makeup in terms of the parenting of children. After 10 years on the job, the wage gap expands to 12 percent, even when women don’t miss a beat competing with their male counterparts at the same job. The IWF points out that college women tend to major in less lucrative professions and fields of study because, according to survey research conducted by Basit Zafar in 2009 for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, women often consider issues like parental approval and enjoyment of future work when choosing a major, while their male colleagues are more concerned with salaries and status. The Federal Reserve report seems to show the universality of the societal differences between men and women when it comes to education, since CAP’s crunched numbers show the gender wage gap exists for all women, regardless of race or ethnicity. White women earn 21.9 percent less than White men; Black women earn 10.2 percent less than Black men; Latinas earn 8.7 percent less than Latino men; and Asian-American women earn 20.3 percent less than Asian-American men. They say the wage gap is smaller for African-American and Hispanic women primarily because wages for people of color tend to be lower overall. The IWF explains that when women take a leave of absence for weeks, months or even years to rear their own children or care for a family member, it stunts their earnings potential because men in the same jobs are racking up more experience during their absences. Kay Hymowitz, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, wrote in the Wall Street Journal in April 2012, “One study by the American Association for University Women looked at women who graduated from college in 1992-93 and found that 23% of those who had become mothers were out of the workforce in 2003; another 17% were working part-time. Fewer than 2% of fathers fell into those categories. Another study, of M.B.A. graduates from Chicago’s Booth School, discovered that only half of women with children were working full-time 10 years after graduation, compared with 95% of men.” Hymowitz went on to cite more of the New York Federal Reserve report stating that, “‘opting-out’ by midcareer college-educated wives, especially

win their case. It explains that new measures could actually be detrimental to women. For example, proposals to create rigid compensation guidelines for women and men would lead to less flexibility and more compliance costs, which would depress job and promotion prospects for all. Proponents argue that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act – which helps women and minorities who have been discriminated against by restarting the clock on the statute of limitations with each discriminatory paycheck – was a step forward, but it fails to get to the root of the problem. The Paycheck Fairness Act, however, would empower women by outlawing workplace policies that make disclosing one’s salary to co-workers a cause for being fired and would provide negotiation training for women and girls. The Historical Perspective on Paycheck Equality The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has as its mission to empower women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy and research. Its nonpartisan, nonprofit organization has more than 150,000 members and supporters across the United States, as well as 1,000 local branches and 700 college and university partners. Since AAUW’s founding in 1881, its members have examined and taken positions on the fundamental issues of the day – educational, social, economic and political. The AAUW lists these events – going back nearly a century – that were historical milestones in the fight for paycheck equality:

Lilly Ledbetter those with wealthy husbands, has been increasing over the past 20 years.” Still, that doesn’t explain the fact that single women face an even larger, on average, gender wage gap than married women. Single women typically earn less than married women – 21.2 percent less. They also earn only 57 cents for every dollar married men earn. There is also a wage gap between mothers and women without children. This “mother’s wage penalty” reduces a mother’s pay by about 7 percent per child. Critics of the equal pay for equal work legislation say that this gap can very often be explained. Part of the reason women earn less than men is related to the fact that they are more likely to work in so-called pink-collar jobs, which offer low wages. The top 10 occupations for women include secretaries and administrative assistants, cashiers, retail salespersons and waitresses. These types of jobs tend to pay less than those in male-dominated industries and professions. But proponents say that only about a quarter of the wage gap is due to occupational differences, and about 10 percent of the gap is due to the fact that women are more likely than men to leave the paid labor force to provide family care. And while there could be a national dialogue about why women are always expected to assume the role of caregiver while men are not expected to put their career on hold to perform similar functions, it doesn’t negate the impact it has on wages and career paths. Critics of new legislation like the IWF say that pay discrimination is already illegal in the U.S. Both the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 make pay discrimination illegal, and women can and do sue their employers when they feel they have been wronged. The IWF points out that about 12 percent of job-discrimination plaintiffs

1. During World War I, women were first guaranteed pay equity in the form of regulations enforced by the War Labor Board of 1918. The board’s equal pay policy required manufacturers, who put women on the payroll while male employees were serving in the military, to pay those women the same wages that were paid to the men. 2. During World War II, a large number of American women took jobs (most for the first time) outside the home. Many of these women worked in the war industries, and in 1942 the National War Labor Board urged employers to make “adjustments which [would] equalize wage or salary rates paid to females with the rates paid to males for comparable quality and quantity of work on the same or similar operations.” 3. The first bill prohibiting pay discrimination against women was called the “Women’s Equal Pay Act of 1945” and was introduced by Sens. Pepper and Morse on June 21, 1945. The bill was not passed. Bills were introduced every year but were not passed because they called for equal pay for comparable work. “Comparable work” is the theory of providing equal compensation for different jobs in the same organization or community based on a comparison of the intrinsic worth and/or difficulty of the job. 4. Until the early 1960s, advertisements for job listings were separated by sex. Almost all of the higher-level jobs were for men, and some ads for the exact same job would offer different pay for men and women. 5. In 1963, women earned 58.9 percent of the wages men earned, according to the U.S. Women’s Bureau and the National Committee on Pay Equity. On June 10, 1963, John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act (EPA) into law to become effective on June 11, 1964. With the EPA, it became illegal to pay women lower wages than men based solely on their sex. 6. In 2009, President Obama signs into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act as the first piece of legislation in his presidency. It gave employees greater rights in challenging employer payment practices. 7. Despite the passage of the EPA over 40 years ago, women still do not earn equal wages. In 2010, women earned 77 percent of men’s wages, which is only an improvement of a penny a year since 1963 according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

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COMMUNITY COLLEGES/REPORTS

Can a Two-Year Degree Be More Valuable than a Four-Year Degree? by Michelle Adam

a nation, we have long held the belief that the more education we receive, the greater the payoff in the marketplace. But is this true? In the face of huge unpaid student debts, rising tuition rates and a struggling economy, Mark Schneider, president of College Measures – a partnership between the American Institutes for Research and Matrix Knowledge Group focused on using data to drive improvement in higher education outcomes in the United States – set out to determine exactly this. During the past year and into the present, he has worked with numerous states that are asking themselves the same question, and he has come up with preliminary answers that are now available to the general public. One consistent discovery that took Schneider by surprise was that firstyear wage earnings for those with associate degrees in technical training were often higher than those of bachelor’s degree recipients. “I never expected that. I have taught in a research university for most of my life, and all of my friends have advanced degrees, so I never got the importance of community colleges. I thought of them as junior colleges you went to because you couldn’t get into other schools, and then you transferred later,” he said. “But then all of a sudden people were talking about these programs being valuable. And when our data came out, it was consistent with what people were saying. The community colleges that are producing technical training are producing valuable skills being rewarded in the marketplace. A technical career with two-year degrees leads to good starting salaries.” This is an important message for all to hear during hard economic times but especially for Hispanics who make up a large percentage of community colleges, according to Schneider. “The two-year degree in technical fields is a lot cheaper than bachelor’s degrees, a lot faster to earn, and can produce a pretty good salary. There are plenty of adults stuck in service jobs today who are going back to community colleges to get technical training now,” he said. “The importance of getting jobs and managing debt were all around when unemployment was at 4 percent, but it wasn’t as important as it is now with students borrowing too much money and not finding jobs. The discussion of moving out of your mother’s basement is an essential one.” In order to produce reports for states on first-year wage earnings for graduates from two- and four-year programs, College Measures gathered information already available in state coffers. “States have already linked student data with unemployment insurance records, but few have made this data public. Half of the states say they have this data, but it is buried in the data warehouse. Others have published reports on it that nobody could read,” explained Schneider. “There is also a limitation in the data. There are some graduates who work out of state, in the military or in missions, and are self-employed or have gone onto a Ph.D. So we only have information on half of the students who have graduated.” The first state that asked College Measures to take its data, interpret it and make it accessible to the public was Tennessee. The resulting work, The Earning Power of Graduates from Tennessee’s Colleges and Universities, was published last fall and was made available online. The report revealed that the average first-year earnings of associate degree graduates was over $1,000 more than the average first-year earnings of bach-

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elor’s degree graduates (with variations in areas of study). In addition, the average earnings of individuals with certificates was often close to the average earnings of associate degree holders in the most popular fields of study. More specifically, community college degree recipients earned, on average, $38,948 in first-year wages while bachelor’s degree graduates earned $37,567. Of course, these numbers varied depending on the degrees obtained. For example, bachelor’s degree graduates in healthrelated programs earned $51,095 their first year out of college, compared to $46,606 for two-year students in the same career track. In business, management, marketing and related programs, bachelor’s degree recipients earned $37,688; and associate recipients, $35,026. These report discrepancies point out the importance of looking specifically at degrees to determine wage outcomes. But in general, graduates with bachelor’s degrees in health, business and engineering earned more than graduates with liberal arts degrees. Interestingly enough, though, even within these majors, first-year earnings varied depending on the school attended. For example, graduates in the health professions programs at the University of Tennessee (UT)-Martin earned nearly $60,000 in their first year in the work force while graduates from health professions programs at Tennessee State University earned $46,000. Ironically, UT-Martin graduates in history were among the lowest earners of all bachelor’s degree holders in the state, compared to Tennessee State University’s $37,000 for history graduates. Being able to explain these differences can be a challenge, since it requires further investigation of the data and of each school. For instance, one program might produce greater outcomes in wage earnings because its school is located near a better job market for that degree. Or graduates from that degree might have received higher earnings than reported but were not a part of the report because they moved out of state or were in careers that didn’t report to or partake in unemployment insurance records. Of course, it also might indicate the strength of one program over another. While Tennessee’s report provided more detailed information on each individual school and its programs, it also offered readers input on college earnings in relationship to expenditures. For example, the University of Memphis had the highest first-year earnings for bachelor’s degree recipients at $40,401 with an annual price tag of $20,574 for in-state students living on campus and $10,062 for students with financial aid. In comparison, the University of Tennessee had earnings of $36,732 and a price tag of $22,061 and $13,186, respectively. Price and earnings comparisons were clearly very different for community college students. Jackson State Community College had the highest average earnings results for all graduates at $42,995, and Nashville State University had students in construction trades graduating into an average first-year salary of $66,444. While the report did not publish institution costs, it is public knowledge that community colleges tend to cost significantly less than four-year institutions. In comparing two- to four-year institutions, students at the University of Memphis pay more than $80,000 for their education (including campus living), compared to two-year programs, which would cost far less due to

lower price tags and a shorter duration in school. one got a job and it was assumed you got a bachelor’s degree. Today peo“In harsh economic times, students need to know what is going to hap- ple need jobs and a salary and can’t assume any longer that going to colpen to them when they go to a school. Are they going to get a job after- lege is going to get them these things. It’s a whole new world.” wards, will they make money, and do they need to borrow for their While institutions have accused Schneider of “hating the liberal arts” and degree?” said Schneider. “Borrowing money is fine to pay for your higher failing to honor students’ wishes to earn degrees that prepare them for service education, but if you are going to major in a program where you expect to in their communities, he’s more concerned about students knowing the price earn a $25,000 salary the first year out, don’t borrow $40,000. All you tag they will pay for not knowing the potential wage outcomes for degrees purborrow should not exceed your first year’s earnings.” sued. “Fine, I say, if our students are committed to low-paying service jobs, but The Tennessee report was the first of a series that have and will contin- don’t let them borrow $100,000 to do this. Right now, you can’t get rid of stuue to come out of College Measures’s partnerships with states across the dent loans in bankruptcy courts, and the Parents PLUS Loan is not dischargecountry. Prior to writing this article, Virginia had also released its study able either,” he said. “We have seen stories of parents whose kids can’t find findings in a report titled The Earning Power of Recent Graduates from jobs and now the collector is telling them that they now own their house.” Virginia’s College and Universities. Although his recent state wage reports provide students with some insight That report revealed similar findinto possible earnings associated ings to the one produced by with different schools and degrees, Tennessee. They were as follows: Schneider also admits that this is Graduates of occupational/technical merely the first step in a longer jourassociate degree programs, with an ney. The reports can be misleading, average salary of just under $40,000, given the fact that some students out-earned not just nonoccupational from top-level schools might obtain associate degree graduates by about employment out of state after gradu$6,000 but even bachelor’s degree ating (the studies only show those graduates by almost $2,500 statewide. who stayed in the state in certain proAmong many of Virginia’s commufessions) or pursue higher degrees nity colleges, earnings of graduates or aren’t reported for some other with a technical associate degree reason. In addition, looking at firstcould exceed $10,000 more than year earnings limits information to those with a bachelor’s credit-orientone year right after graduation and ed associate degree; in three commudoesn’t help the public see potential nity colleges, the difference was future earnings for degrees. greater than $12,000. In addition, the “Just getting this data out was an highest-earning bachelor’s degree important first step, but now we are graduates came from two career-origoing back to the states and are ented programs at the University of working with them to look at what Richmond where graduates in inforhappens 10 years out from a mation sciences and in human degree,” explained Schneider. resources management averaged Looking with more depth at state more than $69,000 per year. And stufindings and eventually understanddents with degrees in nursing and ing the nuances that might make business-related programs (including one program or school perform betfinance, accounting and economics) ter than another in wage outcomes earned more than other graduates. will be the next steps to take as well. Since the time of the Virginia But for now, Schneider is focused study, College Measures has worked on finding effective ways to get this with Arkansas, Colorado, Texas, information out to students so they Nevada and Florida to produce simican be more educated consumers. lar reports (and possibly more states As more states require publication since then). of wage earnings for higher education “Increasingly, states are being degrees, it opens up a door to alternarequired by law to make this data pubtive funding practices for higher educaMark Schneider, president of College Measures lic. Many require middle school and tion as a whole. Currently, state educahigh school students receive this infortion budgets are based on factory meamation,” said Schneider. “On a national level, Sens. Ron Wyden, Marco Rubio sures, on how many students come in and out of a school, explained Schneider. and Mattie Hunter are trying to pass national legislation, the Student Right to It would be equivalent to determining how much money a company gets based Know Before You Go Act, that would have all states do this nationwide.” (This on how many items they produced and not whether they actually sold any of legislation might have passed by the time this article is published.) these products – whether students earned actual wages for their degrees. This seems to be merely the beginning of a nationwide trend of report“I think people are starting to think about degrees in terms of the ing earnings of college graduates. “I am passionate about this because I degree of labor success they achieve, but we’re not there yet,” said the feel students need to know this data. Right now, given the economy and College Measures president. “It is going to be an interesting process.” student debt, the need right now is to know this data. The consequences of For now, Schneider is busy flying from one state to another, helping not knowing it are so real,” said Schneider. “Ninety percent of students each unveil data on degree wage earnings to make accessible for students now say that they go to college for a good job and career advancement. But and the general public. It’s the first step in a longer journey of holding when I was in school, many decades ago, the economy was easy and every- higher education accountable to the true success of all students.

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REPORTS

What’s a Degree Worth? Colleges Pushed to Disclose Grad Wages by Marilyn Gilroy

ith so many college graduates struggling to find jobs and pay off school loans, it should come as no surprise that questions are being raised about the value of a degree. As parents and students express doubts about the return on their investment in higher education, policymakers are pushing colleges to disclose what their graduates earn. The movement has picked up so much momentum that members of Congress and advocacy groups such as College Measures have become increasingly vocal in pressuring the higher education sector to share earnings data by degree, major and institution. “Students are entitled to know the value of their education before they go out and borrow tens of thousands of dollars from the bank and the government to pay for it,” said U.S. Sen Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who has introduced legislation requiring colleges to share annual earnings and average student debt. Even President Obama jumped on the bandwagon during his State of the Union address when he announced the development of the administration’s College Scorecard website to enable consumers to analyze colleges for value and affordability. The site posts key indicators such as price, average loan debt, default rates and graduate salary information. The president said it was part of his promise “to help parents and students compare schools based on a simple criteria – where you can get the most bang for your education buck?” This information could be quite valuable to first-generation and minority students, especially Hispanics who are earning an ever-growing share of college degrees. Latinos are the largest minority on college campuses, and they also borrow an average of 32 percent of college costs. As tuition rises and related debt levels mount, critics say students and families need more data besides cost on which to base their college-going decisions. Analysts have pointed

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out that the days when students could just pursue their interests without regard for employability are probably gone by the wayside. And there is no guarantee that a college degree will lead to a job. During the recession, the unemployment rate for college grads ages 20-24 rose to its highest level since 1970, hitting 12.1 percent in June 2011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The current rate of unemployment for that same group is approximately 8 percent. When they do find work, many graduates end up in positions that don’t require a degree. A recent New York Times front-page headline, “It takes a B.S. to find a Job as a File Clerk,” suggested a college degree has become the new high school diploma, meaning it is the minimum requirement for getting even a low-level job. The article interviewed several college-educated young workers who were employed as receptionists, office assistants, car rental agents and other positions in which much of the job is rote office work. In other words, they are overqualified for their jobs, a trend labeled “up-credentialing.” According to the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, about 48 percent of employed U.S. college graduates are in jobs that require less than a four-year college education. No one is suggesting that students forego college or that college graduates won’t earn more money over the course of a lifetime. The fact is that college is still the best way to achieve financial success. However, many believe it is important for students to look at majors they are interested in and then compare them with job availability and pay levels. Dr. Mark Schneider, president of College Measures, has been working with several states that already have published earnings data. He believes this type of consumer-oriented effort will be very helpful as students and parents

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make higher education choices. “Higher education pays, but so does the student,” he said. “We have to make sure there is a balance between what the student is paying and what the payoff they get for this education is.” Schneider created College Measures with the goal of using data to drive improvement in higher education outcomes. It is a joint venture of the American Institute for Research (AIR), where Schneider also serves as vice president, and the Matrix Knowledge Group. College Measures has partnered with Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia to report earnings of recent graduates and is currently working with state-level systems in Colorado, Nevada and Texas to post similar data. Community colleges in Florida and California also are publishing graduate employment figures. Wide Disparities and Surprising Results And just where is the biggest bang for the buck when it comes to college? The answers might surprise anyone who has followed the higher education marketplace. Analysis of the data presents a challenge to traditional thinking that attending a more expensive college produces a better-paying job. In many cases, an associate degree pays more than a four-year diploma. As Schneider says, it is not as simple anymore as saying “a degree, is a degree, is a degree.” Research now shows students’ schools and majors can make a big difference in what they earn. “It is surprising how much variation there is,” said Schneider. “There could be substantial differences in the salaries earned by students with the same degree from different campuses.” For example, the Virginia data reveal graduates from University of Richmond’s business administration program earned between $2,500 and $19,000 more than graduates in the same program from other universities in the state. Even more surprising, graduates of occupational/tech-

nical associate degree programs, with an average salary of just under $40,000, out-earned not only non-occupational associate degree graduates – by about $6,000 – but also bachelor’s degree graduates by almost $2,500 statewide. Those figures are based on first-year earnings of recent graduates of public and private two-year and four-year institutions across Virginia in individual degree programs. Among the most popular bachelor’s degree programs, the average first-year wages for those who worked in the state was $36,067. Registered nursing generated the highest average wages at $48,959. The next six highest-paying programs were all business degrees: finance

degree graduates earned over $47,000 in their first year in the labor market while journalism bachelor’s degree graduates earned under $28,000. The report from Tennessee found that for all nine of the state’s four-year public campuses, the average wage for graduates with a bachelor’s degree is $37,567. For graduates of the 13 community colleges, the average wage is $38,948, more than $1,300 higher than graduates at four-year institutions. Specific comparisons yield even more surprising results. The average first-year earnings of a graduate with an associate degree from Jackson State Community College, almost $43,000, is more than $10,000 higher than the average earnings of a graduate of Pellissippi State Community College.

Average First-Year Wages of Virginia Bachelor's Degree Graduates, by Institution University of Richmond George Mason University Virginia Tech Old Dominion University College of William and Mary Lynchburg College Virginia Wesleyan College Randolph-Macon College Virginia State University Hollins University

44,920 41,153 38,957 36,571 34,571 32,003 31,036 30,621 28,820 26,185 $0

10K

20K

30K

40K

50K

60K

Source: College Measures, 2012

majors averaged $42,131; accounting, $42,110; and business administration, $38,578. In comparison, political science graduates earned $31,184; history majors, $30,230; and English majors were paid $29,222 on average. At the bachelor’s degree level, the highestearning graduates came from two career-oriented programs at the University of Richmond, where those who majored in information sciences and in human resources management averaged more than $69,000 per year. Meanwhile graduates from 16 programs – most of them liberal arts programs, such as philosophy or fine arts – earned on average less than $24,000. The data on first-year earnings of graduates from public and private two- and four-year colleges in Arkansas confirm what many know – not all majors are equal. For example, at the University of Arkansas, mechanical engineering bachelor’s

The fact that community colleges have been included in the mix is good news for Hispanic students who enroll at two-year colleges in very high numbers. Approximately 52 percent of Hispanics begin their studies at community colleges. They often are first-generation students whose families have scarce resources for higher education. “I think the data are important for all students, especially lower incomes because we know there is a relationship between race/ethnicity and income/wealth,” said Schneider. “Many affluent students who graduate with bachelor’s degrees associated with low-paying employment will eventually go back to professional school or draw on other family resources and escape the financial consequences of high debt/low wages. Lower-income students usually don’t have those opportunities or resources.” Schneider’s agenda goes beyond helping stu-

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dents and families make more informed choices. He is hoping College Measures will encourage policymakers and educators to take a closer look at performance data and use them to engage in a more productive discussion about outcomes. “Taxpayers have a lot of money invested in degree programs at public institutions because many are supported by the state,” he said. “Yet the outcomes vary considerably in terms of what a political scientist or psychology student makes across these campuses. We need to take a second look at this.” The move to assess the value of an education is an outgrowth of previous overarching goals. For many years, Schneider says, the emphasis has been on access in order to open college doors to a wider range of students. But that has brought problems in that far too many of these students do not graduate and some institutions have become “dropout factories.” For this reason, the higher education sector recently has focused on a success and completion agenda to make sure students who are admitted to the campus will graduate. The release of employment data signals a new phase. “We are now beginning to move to the next stage, which is a sort of productivity agenda, by asking: How much is this costing, and then ultimately what is society buying from these investments?” he said. “My work is beginning to show that we can actually start measuring the job market success of students from individual programs and feed it back into broader understanding and measurement of the success of campuses.” But some worry that earnings are not a good indicator of the value of a higher education, especially when looking at first jobs rather than long-term career achievement and earnings. “Equating the value of a college education with the size of a first paycheck badly distorts broader principle and commitments essential to our society and our future,” wrote Drew Gilpin Faust, president, Harvard University, in The New York Times. Schneider agrees that higher education is about more than finding a job and earning wages. “Of course we want an educated citizenry that can help keep American civil society active and strong,” he said. “However, in the United States, a fundamental condition of being a part of our society is being in the labor force. Moreover the vast majority of students and their families attend college because they associate higher education as an avenue to good jobs and higher wages. “Remember most students in the United States are attending regional state campuses and community colleges and have quite different perspectives on what they need from higher education than the minuscule proportion of the nation’s students attending Harvard.”

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REPORTS

Offers Promising Practices for Latino Student Success In

by Angela Provitera McGlynn

its quest to accelerate Hispanic student success in higher educaBeginning in 2005, Excelencia in Education has been identifying and pretion, Excelencia in Education’s Growing What Works (GWW) senting promising practices to the field. Additionally, it had monitored reacInitiative is driven by a basic tenet – find programs and strategies tions and early adopters of the practices, and noted the institutions invested that improve academic success of Latino students. Then replicate or scale in commitment to Latino students. What it has observed is the growing numup those programs and strategies to serve more students. In other words, bers of Latino students seeking to enroll in colleges and universities, reprethe initiative aims to help expand the senting vast increases. The distressreach of programs that have demoning news, however, is that the level of strated proven strategies and poliinstitutional change and commitment cies that improve Latino students’ to support Latino academic success academic achievement. has not kept pace with the increase In January 2013, Excelencia in in Latino student enrollment. Education released the issue brief With the current demographic Growing What Works: Lessons picture, colleges and universities are Learned Replicating Promising facing the critical challenge of repliPractices for Latino Student cating promising best practices and Success, which describes results of increasing the reach of these evi“best practices” that were made posdence-based strategies for Latino stusible through a host of partnerships. dent success. Recognized by much Excelencia in Education partnered research, with this report underscorwith foundations and institutions of ing the nation’s educational plight, higher education committed to achieving our nation’s educational achieve and disseminate successful goals and workforce necessities is results in accelerating Latino student impossible without significantly success in earning degrees. The iniincreasing Latino degree completion. tiative began in 2009 and was supThe U.S. Census Bureau says that ported by the Walmart Foundation Latinos are the youngest and fastestand the Kresge Foundation. growing population in the country. In Senior Director Michele Gilliard 2010, Latinos represented 22 percent and the Walmart Foundation sponof the K-12 population in the United sored the first group of small grants States. Latinos are now the secondknown as SEMILLAS grants. The largest racial/ethnic group enrolled acronym stands for Seeding in higher education in our nation. Educational Models that Impact and Deborah A. Santiago, co-founder and vice president for policy and research, Looking at the adult Latino popuExcelencia in Education Leverage Latino Academic Success. lation 25 years and older, the U.S. Carolyn Altman Smith, the Kresge Foundation program officer, expanded Census says that Latinos are less likely than other ethnic/racial groups to financial support in 2010 for an additional group of higher education insti- have earned an associate degree or higher. In fact, in 2011, only 21 percent tutions, as well as helping to create an online searchable database of pro- of Latino adults (25 years and older) had earned an AA degree or higher. gram information and an assessment of the initiative. This compares with 40 percent of all adults holding postsecondary degrees. With the support of these foundations, Excelencia in Education was In order to expand Latino student success, there is a twofold necessity: able to promote its vision including colleges and universities serving eight identify successful programs in accelerating Latino academic success and thousand Latino students all over the country. Institutional policies and degree achievement and expand the reach of what works to more Latino pedagogical strategies are improving Latino student success in higher edu- students. Both identification and expansion are necessary to meet our cation but had been serving only a small number of this growing popula- national goals of producing a more highly educated population better pretion, so this initiative was sorely needed. pared to meet the needs of a global economy.

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Excelencia sponsored two cohorts with the foundations’ grant money of SEMILLAS from 2009 to 2011. Twenty-five grants were awarded averaging about $50,000 to $75,000 per institution to help them improve Latino success. Although the grants provided financial support to implement institutional practices intentionally focused on Latino students, the practices were not limited to this demographic so that all students could benefit. However, the grant money provided colleges and universities an opportunity to overtly include Latino students in their efforts to enhance student success. According to the issue brief, SEMILLAS grants – one year of financial support – had the following results: • More than 225 grant applications were submitted for 25 grants awarded [The number of applicants and range of competing states illustrates higher education’s interest in promoting Latino student success] • More than 6,400 Latino and other students in 11 states were served to improve college preparation, access, retention and graduation • More than 600 high school students were served to improve college preparation • Over 900 parents and families participated in activities that helped them understand the need and requirements for college • Overall, 25 college campus teams – many including staff from different administrative areas as well as advisory boards – implemented programs • One year after funding was completed, 23 of the program strategies originally funded by SEMILLAS grants were leveraged to grow their financial and human resources to maintain and expand their program efforts As mentioned, the initiative funded projects in 11 states. There were five projects funded in the very large state of California with its high numbers of Latino students. This was followed by funding for four projects in Texas, four in New York state, three in Florida, two in Connecticut and two in Arizona. The initiative also funded projects in the following states: Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, New Jersey and North Carolina. “The majority of projects (22) were implemented by public institutions of higher education at the baccalaureate level (18). Further, of the 25 grantees, nine had a Latino undergraduate full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment of 25 percent or more, thus meeting the basic definition of a HispanicServing Institution (HSI). The other grantees were emerging HSIs or had growing Latino enrollments and expressed commitment to increasing Latino student success on their campuses (Growing What Works, p. 9).” It was a much greater challenge to assess the broader success of the initiative than it was to look at immediate impacts. SEMILLAS grant recipients were able to provide some measures of effectiveness of the grants by summarizing participation, enrollment, retention, grades and/or transfer rates of those served by the grants versus data they had from previous years for this demographic. Obviously, educational investments might not reap measurable benefits until quite some time has passed. For this reason, Excelencia used other forms of assessment, namely, the sustainability and leveraging efforts by institutions receiving grants – that is, were SEMILLAS grant recipients able to find ways to continue their commitment to this underserved population? The brief looked at five areas to assess the effectiveness of the initiative. Excelencia’s review of the outcomes of the grants provides a roadmap for addressing increased Latino academic success in the future. The first area Excelencia analyzed was funding. What they found is that even a modest financial investment, if it is well implemented, does affect Latino student success. These external funds, the SEMILLAS, gave institutional leaders opportunities to better serve Latino students and thus improve their chances for academic success. The second assessment Excelencia used was what they called “leveraging.”

Leveraging involves the institutions’ ability to keep projects going. Several grantees leveraged their SEMILLAS grants by obtaining additional funding to sustain the practices they had in place to improve Latino student success. Some other recipient institutions were able to leverage SEMILLAS grant funding within their own institutions to receive additional support beyond the grants. The third assessment of effectiveness involved what Excelencia called “sustainability.” One of the measures of sustainability related to grant institutions were presidents’ and provosts’ commitment to the continuation of the program activities beyond the funding. Many institutions, because of the initial grants, were able to gather in-kind institutional support and nonmonetary support so they could continue the goals of the initiative. “Intentionality” was the fourth area analyzed. The report states: “Identifying practices with evidence in increasing Latino student success for replication served as a catalyst for institutional change. Reexamining institutional procedures to serve Latino students better proved to be a critical step to increase the success of all students (Executive Summary, p. 6).” The SEMILLAS grants were modest financial investments and had a relatively short duration. Yet the preliminary results of the initiative certainly demonstrate the importance of institutional commitment to promote student success particularly for underserved students such as Latinos. Clearly, there is great potential for institutions, community-based organizations and policymakers to invest effort and resources to expand the reach of databased best practices for promoting academic success. There are many challenges to sustain the initiative’s efforts. The grants provided financial incentives, albeit modest ones, to get institutional commitment. Most of the challenges the institution recipients faced at the end of the funding were budgetary constraints. The other major factor threatening sustainability was how labor intensive the projects were, requiring dedicated staffing requirements. Despite the demonstrated effectiveness of the initiative, institutions might lose the degree of commitment required to perpetuate Latino student success because of the monetary and staffing challenges they face. Given the vast increases of Latinos in America, a lessening of commitment to their academic success would be shortsighted and damaging to the nation as a whole. In order to reach the educational and workforce needs of our nation, increasing Latino success in educational attainment is a requirement we cannot afford to ignore. Excelencia worked closely with institutions that were the recipients of SEMILLAS beyond the period of funding in order to continue studying and supporting the work of campus leaders and their commitment to Latino student success. In the words of the authors of this report, Deborah A. Santiago, cofounder and vice president for policy and research at Excelencia in Education, and Estela López, senior associate with Excelencia, “Some of the core lessons learned from this experience [the initiative and follow-up research] were that efforts to implement or replicate evidence-based practices require intentionality, resources, appropriate support, and leadership commitment from both the participating institution and the managing organization (Growing What Works, p. 19).” Interestingly, one of the lessons learned reported in the brief is that when institutions re-examined their procedures to serve students better, the re-examination process proved to be a critical step to increase graduation rates for all students. Angela Provitera McGlynn, professor emeritus of psychology, is an international consultant/presenter on teaching, learning and diversity issues and the author of several related books.

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IMMIGRATION

Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Has Its Time Finally Come? by Jeff Simmons

The

initial announcement in mid-April was muted in the wake of the tragic Boston Marathon bombings, a public display of bipartisan collaboration delayed after months of negotiations. Nevertheless, the impact was swift: the potential consequences of the massive measure polarized political camps while escalating the conversation about how to carefully navigate the path to citizenship for some 11 million people. In the days and weeks that followed, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 crafted by the so-called “Gang of Eight” Democratic and Republican senators was both praised and hazed and elicited heady debate and compromise proposals to either water down or fine-tune the measure. As Lawrence Benito, the chief executive officer of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, put it in a statement: “While it is clear there is much work to be done, now more than ever it is important to remember what immigration reform is really about: families. This past election cycle demonstrated our enormous and growing political power.” “We will harness that power – on the streets, online, through our massive door-knocking and phone banking programs, historic voter engagement and lobbying by immigrant families themselves – to improve this bill and move immigration reform forward to keep our families together,” Benito said. José Calderón, president of the Hispanic Federation based in New York, said: “We have before us a proposed bipartisan bill that would be the most complete overhaul of our immigration system in a generation. The reform framework being debated in the Senate now is a promising first step and potentially historic. “It would allow millions of Latino immigrants to be reunited with their family members and come out of the shadows. Specifically, that means increased economic output and growth for our families and communities. It will lead to more

José Calderón, president, Hispanic Federation

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a background check and demonstrating progress toward learning English. NALEO reported that the other major provisions that will have substantial affects include employment- and family-based immigration opportunities, such as: • Opportunities for DREAMers, agricultural workers and Temporary Protected Status grantees to attain permanent residence and U.S. citizenship on an expedited timeline • Changes to family reunification process that will decrease wait times for some but toughen visa qualification for others • Allocation of stepped up federal government and private resources to ensure the successful integration of new Americans • Authorization of new employment visas for both high- and low-skilled workers, precise numbers of which will depend on the available supply of qualified American workers and employer demand • Prohibition of access to federal public benefits, including Affordable Care Act-created subsidized health insurance and tax breaks, for provisional residents • Enhancement of border security, mandatory use by employers of the E-Verify employment eligibility confirmation system, and installation of an entry/exit tracking system at all sea and air entry points Sevillia said the proposed reforms would substantially Max Sevillia, director of policy and legislative affairs, NALEO Educational Fund affect immigrants currently residing in the United States and in particular in Hispanic communities. Their growth and presHispanic leaders in every sector of society – in academia, pri- ence already is shaping the electoral processes on both local vate sector, the arts, political office, the nonprofit sector. and national levels. The 2010 Census reported that of the Ultimately, it will help accelerate our community’s social, eco- 308.7 million people in the United States, 50.5 million – or 16 nomic and political development and strengthen our nation percent – were of Hispanic or Latino origin, a sizeable overall.” increase from the 35.3 million in 2000. Such growth accountWhat appeared to be a common sentiment threading ed for over half of the 27.3 million increase in the country’s through the conversation, though, was that the measure total population from 2000 to 2010. served as a starting point to enact reform. “Hispanic America is constantly evolving and is incredibly The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed diverse, from its numbers to its youth to its legal status in the Officials (NALEO) and NALEO Educational Fund, which facili- United States,” he said. “You have people who have lived in tates the participation of Latinos in the American political the United States for years while there are others who are process, characterized the proposal as “a big step forward.” newcomers. The issue of immigration has been a priority for “It is critical that everyone gets involved and communicates the community for years now, and resolving the immigration their support for this comprehensive immigration reform pro- status of over 10 million Latinos residing in the country will posal to their representatives in the Senate and in the House,” make an impact on both the Latino community and the rest of said Max Sevillia, the NALEO Educational Fund’s director of the country.” policy and legislative affairs. “It is through the engagement of The change in their status to Registered Provisional the American people that we are going to finally accomplish Immigrant (RPI) status would be part of a long process of at comprehensive immigration reform, and the time to do it is least 13 years that will give many of these immigrants an now.” opportunity to become full-fledged citizens. “That would give The 844-page bill was presented by: Democratic Sens. them an opportunity to work in the country, resident legally Charles Schumer (New York), Robert Menéndez (New and travel outside of the United States,” Sevillia said. Jersey), Michael Bennet (Colorado) and Richard Durbin “Clearly, the immigration system is broken,” he said. “This (Illinois), and Republicans Marco Rubio (Florida), John is about bad national security, it’s about bad American policy, McCain (Arizona), Jeff Flake (Arizona) and Lindsey Graham and it’s bad for our competitiveness and bad for our image to (South Carolina). have 12 million or so undocumented individuals living in the Among its chief provisions would be the creation of a United States.” process that will allow qualified, undocumented U.S. residents Under the measure, immigrants who have been present in to earn citizenship within 13 years, after paying fines, passing America since at least Dec. 31, 2011, will be eligible to apply H I S PA N I C

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for RPI status, which provides for work and travel authorization and includes spouses and children younger than 18 years of age in the United States. To qualify for that initial status, individuals would need to undergo a background check, pay all tax liabilities and provide a $500 fine plus appropriate fees established by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. To renew that RPI status after six years, they’d have to undergo another background check and prove that they have been regularly employed and have paid a second $500 fine. After 10 years, their status could be adjusted to Legal Permanent Residency (LPR) after paying a $1,000 fine, proving they know or are learning English, and having paid their taxes. The measure allows former RPIs to apply for U.S. citizenship on an expedited track after three years as permanent residents. Agricultural Workers and DREAMers – individuals who meet the general requirements of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act – additionally would be permitted to embark on expedited tracks to citizenship. “Undocumented immigrants in the country before Dec. 31, 2011, stand to receive temporary status to remain here legally, as well as work and travel while they wait in line to get a green card (permanent residency) and eventually citizenship,” Calderón said. “Clearly, this path to citizenship for our undocumented community is something we’ve fought long and hard to achieve, and we’re excited at the potential of having that finally come to fruition this year. For us, there can be no comprehensive immigration reform without this path being a cornerstone of the bill. However, Calderón said the Hispanic Federation harbors concerns about the proposed length of time to earn citizenship and other provisions within the bill, such as border security triggers, fines, income requirements and application timelines that “will create significant roadblocks” for many undocumented immigrants. “We are working with many of our national sister organizations to make the road to citizenship less cumbersome and onerous,” he said. The proposal’s immigration reforms could not be enacted until certain border security measures are implemented, ones that would maintain effective control of the border. Of crucial import is a provision that the secretary of Homeland Security first would need to develop comprehensive security and southern border strategies within six months. Additionally, a verification system would need to be established and an entryexit tracking system at all sea and air entry points in the United States. Experts noted that the establishment of a path to citizenship will likely fuel greater engagement of Hispanics in the future of the country’s political process as many come out of the shadows and exert more influence. Lenni B. Benson, law professor at New York Law School, noted the proposal’s balanced approach to strengthening border enforcement while navigating the path to citizenship. “I’ve been in the field for 30 years, and we’ve had a couple

of bills that were piecemeal, like the DREAM Act,” said Benson, who specializes in immigration law and political asylum. “This is nothing short of remarkable. 1996 was the last time we had a major overhaul, but that was mostly in law enforcement.” She predicted that the bill – if it were to largely remain intact – would prompt many new citizens to sponsor relatives to move to the United States, with substantially greater numbers coming from Mexico. “There won’t be years and years of delays for those relatives,” she said. However, she cautioned “the bill on the one hand gives the immediate family [spouse or children] a faster path to the United States but makes it much harder to try to bring your brother and sisters.” “So maybe the best thing you can do for your brother or sister is not sponsor them but look for job opportunities for them,” she said. The measure, she said, includes “generous” provisions for certain types of student visas and establishes a dynamic that inevitably could generate more ample numbers of foreign students remaining in the country, generating a ripple effect that bolsters America’s global competitiveness. “I think this is a great provision in the bill. Since Sept. 11, foreign students have been choosing other parts of the world to get an education,” she said. “We are competing with talent from around the world, and those students from abroad pay full ride.” Educational institutions will be able to better recruit foreign Hispanic students, attracted to stronger prospects of living and working in the country. Even those who return to their homelands will prove beneficial to the United States, she added. “Many will take the skills and business connections they make here and will return home, and that will strengthen our trade ties with the Hispanic world,” she said. “I see that adding to the economic power and adding to the recognition of educated Hispanics.” Benson echoed other experts, who noted the substantial changes that confronted the Affordable Care Act from inception to passage. Like that measure, they expected the path to passage would include bitter debate, compromise and the extraction of some provisions. “I do think there will be certain people who don’t like certain aspects of this bill who want to cut back on the path to legalization, or they want to increase fines, or don’t like a particular aspect of worker visas,” she said. By mid-May, the Senate held three hearings on the bill, and more were expected to be scheduled into the summer. The early hearing included testimony on issues such as the impact of illegal immigration on American workers and how the proposed measure would brighten economic opportunities. The second hearing focused more on family-based immigration issues, and the third included revisions to the E-Verify program. “Immigration reform is absolutely necessary. Everybody understands that,” said Eduardo Castell, partner at the New York City-based Mirram Group, a public affairs firm that has worked with many Hispanic candidates and on issues affecting 0 7 / 1 5 / 2 0 1 3

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Hispanics, including immigration. “It is hugely important and a universal area of consensus and interest and passion for the Latino community. Having the community show its political muscle in the last two national elections, I do believe the Latino community’s patience with a baby step approach to immigration reform is wearing thin.” The struggle to reach consensus in Washington, D.C., could inevitably produce a significantly watered down measure that offers a little to many, eliminating much of the muscular elements in the bipartisan proposal. That, he said, would escalate the frustration of the Hispanic communities.

“First and foremost, if you have real and substantive immigration reform, you will send a message that very much changes the Latino community’s feeling that we are being embraced and listened to by the United States government,” Castell said. “This is very important for a community to feel that they are no longer disenfranchised, that you are being empowered and being embraced. That is a very seismic change to how Latinos view themselves and their relations to this country.”

Scholars’ Corner My personal struggle while trying to succeed in college shaped my interest in educational equity and my passion for working with underrepresented students. As a continuation high school teacher in a low income area of Los Angeles County, I was able to understand that policies such as high school exit exams affect more than students’ graduation abilities; they also affect students’ self-esteem and their overall educational aspirations. As a doctoral student, I am able to examine how accountability policies influence access and retention of Chicana/o-Latina/o students. My goal is to become a tenured faculty member while researching issues that can create positive change for the Latino community. As a child, your career aspirations are relative to what you know and what you see the people around you doing. Growing up, my cousins and I were always told that we should aim to be lawyers or doctors. No one, however, told us how to get there or what it entailed because no one we knew were doctors or lawyers. It was part of the image of what it means to be successful in the United States. I grew up in a low income, single-parent family in Southeast Los Angeles, constantly forced to relocate due to financial strains. During my elementary and secondary school years, I sought out resources and guidance from teachers, programs and mentors. Not many people from my background continue on to higher education, and it has been a struggle to find a supportive community in these institutions. In searching for a supportive community, I learned of the Graduate Student Fellows Program as part of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education. Participating in the program was an amazing experience that allowed me to create a nationwide network, provided me with invaluable professional development, but mostly it opened my eyes to the endless possibilities that lay ahead. I had never imagined that I could one day become president of a university until I listened to the panel on perspectives of Latinas/os in higher education. Being welcomed in the home of a university president showed me that being a president is a realistic goal and is not impossible, as I had once imagined. Additionally, the inclusion of graduate students, faculty and administrators demonstrated the pipeline trajectory, and I was able to make connections and seek guidance from people in all stages. I have realized that this program is more than a fellowship – it builds a supportive family. The impact that this family has had on my academic journey inspires me to do the same for my peers, but more importantly, it reminds me of why I am here, which is to inspire and mentor the younger generation of students in the hope that they will struggle a little less. One of my favorite artists, Cambio, sings, “for the ones that told me I would never be nothing, I do it for the people, and to me it means something.” By Jessica M. Rodríguez Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Higher Education, University of Washington, 2013 Graduate Fellow

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ADMISSIONS/ENROLLMENT/RECRUITMENT

Understanding the Reverse F

inding comfort as a college student is not always easy. A school that seemed a perfect fit during a campus visit in the spring of junior year might feel quite different 18 months later. When interests and academic goals change, some students have no choice but to transfer to a different school, with a more appealing program and a different feel. The National Student Clearinghouse has been studying student transfer and has issued three Signature Reports on the

Afet Dundar, associate director of the research center at the National Student Clearinghouse

topic, with some curious statistics. In its second report, called Transfer and Mobility: A National View of Pre-Degree Student Movement in Postsecondary Institutions, it indicated that one-third of all first-time students who began at fouryear institutions transferred to or enrolled at a different institution at least once within five years after their initial enrollment. That’s not surprising. What is surprising is that more than half of those students went to a two-year institution. They did what admissions calls a “reverse transfer.” To better understand the reverse transfer student the National Student Clearinghouse studied them in more detail and published its H I S PA N I C

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third Signature Report called Reverse Transfer: A National View of Student Mobility from Four-Year to Two-Year Institutions. According to the report, within six years, 14.4 percent of the 1.2 million first-time students who started at a four-year institution in the fall of 2005 subsequently enrolled at a twoyear institution for one or more terms outside of summer months. An additional 5.4 percent enrolled at a two-year institution for summer courses only. Part-time students transferred at a rate of 16.4 percent, while full-time students had a 13.1 percent transfer rate. Students at public four-year institutions had a transfer rate of 15.8 percent. Those at private nonprofit four-year institutions transferred at a rate of 11.4 percent, and those at private for-profit four-year institutions had a rate of 10.8 percent. “When we say transfer student as researchers or policy makers, it’s more common to think about the students who transfer from two-year to four-year institutions,” says Afet Dundar, associate director of the research center at the National Student Clearinghouse. But transferring from a fouryear to a two-year is more common than she thought, and that surprised her. Researchers tracked the subsequent enrollments of reverse transfer students to determine if they returned to their original institutions. They found that over 80 percent of those who transferred for just the summer session returned to their original four-year institution. But only 16.6 percent of those who enrolled at a two-year school outside of summer months returned to their original four-year institution. Nearly twice as many (28.3 percent) returned to the four-year sector but to a different institution. And more than 55 percent of reverse transfer students did not return to any four-year institution by the end of the report’s study period. These numbers show that some students are on their second transfer. “They enrolled in a four-year school then went to a two-year school and then went to another four-year school that was not their original,” says Dundar. “This was the emphasis we wanted to make by looking at the subsequent enrollment pattern of the reverse transfer student.” To understand the role two-year institutions play in the academic trajectories of students - in particular completion rate, it is important to study the timing of a reverse transfer. To that end the report’s researchers compared completion rates at the institution of origin for students with enrollment pathways that did or did not include enrollment at a two-year institution. They found that those four-year starters who enrolled at a twoyear institution just for the summer then returned to their institution of origin had a completion rate of 77.5 percent. Those students who never enrolled at a two-year institution had a completion rate of 58.4 percent at the students’ institution of origin, almost 20 percentage points lower. In contrast,

Transfer Student the completion rate was lower among reverse transfer students who returned to their institution of origin after enrolling at a two-year institution outside of summer months, from 40 percent to as low as 33 percent, depending on the length of their stay in the two-year sector. Dundar says those students who attended a two-year school during summer months and returned to their original institution are higher performing students who have characteristics that were not observed by the clearinghouse researchers. “In the summertime they are taking extra credits and that’s why they are showing this high completion rate,” says Dundar. Transferring to a four-year institution from a two-year institution is an essential component of the community college mission and considered a successful outcome. The opposite is not. Although the report will not qualify reverse transfer as either a negative or a positive, its findings suggest, says Dundar, that a reverse transfer is an obstacle to degree attainment. Students who are the true reverse transfer students – those who severed ties with their four-year institutions to enroll at a two-year institution then went back to a four-year school – have an extended time to degree attainment and have lower rates of degree completion. On a positive note, reverse transfer students have more academic and labor market outcomes than similar students who drop out of postsecondary school altogether. The report indicates that part-time students reverse transfer at higher rates than full-time students, and full-time students tend to use two-year institutions for summer course-taking. This suggests that two-year institutions play a vital role in the postsecondary pathways of part-time students at four-year institutions, while full-time students attending four-year institutions might be using two-year institutions to supplement their progress toward a bachelor’s degree. The goal of institutions, states and college students is degree completion. Sadly the report offers discouraging news on the reverse transfer student and college completion. By the end of the study period, among all four-year starters who enrolled at a two-year institution, even for just one term, only 17.8 percent returned and completed a degree at a four-year institution, and 16.1 percent were still enrolled at a four-year institution. Twothirds of all reverse transfer students neither had a credential from nor were still enrolled at a four-year institution. However, one-third of reverse transfer students in the fall 2005 four-year beginning cohort either completed from or were still enrolled at a two-year institution at the end of the study period. While conventional retention studies would cate-

by Frank DiMaria

gorize them as non-persisters, these findings nevertheless show that they continued their postsecondary career and earned credentials in the two-year sector. Completion rates were lower among reverse transfer students who returned to their original institution after enrolling in two-year institutions outside of summer months, for both single- and multiple-term reverse transfer students. Those who enrolled at a two-year institution in non-summer months for only one term and returned to the institution of origin had a completion rate of 40.1 percent at their institution of origin. For those who stayed at a two-year institution for more than one term before returning to the institution of origin, the comparable completion rate was the lowest (33 percent). These findings point to ways in which two-year enrollment might play differing roles in four-year students’ academic trajectories. In addition, they suggest different factors that might be associated with students’ attainment of educational goals. It is important to keep in mind, nevertheless, that these outcomes do not capture the full academic trajectory of students who might take longer than six years to complete a degree or whose educational goals might change as they seek a two-year credential instead. According to the report 16.6 percent of those who enrolled at a two-year institution for one or multiple terms returned to their institution of origin. Of those, 60 percent either completed (36.8 percent) or remained enrolled (23.3 percent) at the institution of origin by the end of the study period. Moreover, an additional 10 percent subsequently left their institution of origin and completed or were still enrolled at a different four-year institution. The remaining 30 percent did not stay in the fouryear sector. In other words, out of all students who left their original four-year institution to enroll at a two-year institution, only one in 10 completed a degree or was still enrolled at the original four-year institution by the end of the study period. The phrase reverse transfer has had a negative connotation. “We tried to show to the four-year students that if your goal is bachelor degree completion this is going to have implications for time to degree. In the best case it’s going to probably add to time to degree. Or we showed that more than half never returned to earn their four-year degree. Students should be aware that this has implications for bachelor’s degree attainment, but on the other hand we wanted to emphasize how community colleges have multiple role,” says Dundar.

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CURRICULUM

Latino Remediation Rates Remain High by Marilyn Gilroy

cross the nation, vast numbers of students heading to campus this fall need to take remedial courses. Despite the efforts to improve college readiness, officials in many states are still grappling with the “remediation crisis,” so named because of its cost to students, institutions and governments. Studies show nearly half of undergraduates need remediation before beginning college-level work. Complete College America reports that last year, students and states spent at least $3 billion on remedial courses. For Latinos, the rate of remediation remains high. A College Board study showed that 45.1 percent of undergraduate Hispanics took remedial English and mathematics courses. While some say these courses are the means to advancement in college, others point to the poor retention rates for students who can be stuck in remedial courses for years. Many drop out before completing their remedial sequence, having already spent thousands of dollars on these courses which are not eligible for college credit. In some states the situation has been exacerbated by budget cuts that have forced schools to reduce the number of remedial classes. California was especially hard hit by funding cuts which left thousands of students without access to courses they needed. As a result states are beginning to experiment with new approaches, such as offering remediation through massive open online courses (MOOCs). Colleges also are using technology to offer self-paced courses that engage students and allow them to move on when they have mastered concepts. Other approaches include a program at the Community College of Baltimore County in Maryland which “mainstreams” students at the highest levels of developmental studies directly into college-level courses and provides them with supplemental instruction and academic support. A report out of Colorado provides a picture of current remediation rates in one state as well as some of the strategies being implemented to improve those rates and lessen the time students spend in remediation. Earlier this year, Colorado Lt. Gov. Joe García and the Colorado Commission on Higher Education released a report on 2012 remedial education in the state’s higher education sector. It showed that while the state has made some progress in decreasing remedial rates, 40 percent of the state’s high school graduates were assessed

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Colorado Lt. Gov. Joe García

as needing remediation last year in at least one subject, a slight decrease from 41 percent in the previous year. At the institutional level, 66 percent of students enrolled in a community college and 24 percent of students at a four-year institution needed remediation. Most students required remediation in mathematics (51 percent), followed by writing

(31percent) and then reading (18 percent). Minority students in Colorado still lag behind their white counterparts and are overrepresented in these courses. Findings show that in 2012, almost 78 percent of Hispanic students enrolled in the state’s two-year colleges needed remedial education. Hispanic students did better at four-year colleges, where 40 percent required remedial courses. By comparison, 57 percent of white students needed remediation at two-year colleges and 19 percent at four-year colleges. However AfricanAmerican rates were the highest, with 90 percent needing remedial coursework at two-year schools and 56 percent at four-year schools. “Remediation is rightly a serious concern for educators, policymakers, parents and students,” said García, who also serves as the executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education. The costs associated with remediation in Colorado are troublesome. The report estimates $58 million was spent on remediation in 2011-12, with the largest portion of that paid by student tuition of approximately $39 million. The state share was $19 million. But the report had some good news in that it showed Colorado is succeeding in retaining more students who entered college in need of remediation. For the first time since annual reporting began in 2001, there was no difference in the first year retention rates of remedial and non- remedial students at community colleges. At the four- year level, the retention rate gap still exists but now stands at 79 percent for students not assigned to remediation compared to 60 percent for those needing remediation. García says these positive signs suggest institutions throughout the Colorado postsecondary system are realizing noteworthy gains in addressing students’ academic needs. “The initial results of remedial education reform are promising and Colorado will continue its strong press forward to see that all students earn a postsecondary credential,” he said. Working with public schools and colleges, the state has taken several steps to lessen the need for remediation. The Colorado Community College System recently approved policy changes designed to shorten the amount of time students spend in remedial courses. Full implementation is set for fall 2014 but

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At the institutional level, 66 percent of students enrolled in a community college and 24 percent of students at a four-year institution needed remediation. campuses already are moving to eliminate some courses, combine others and create new support systems for students to accelerate their remedial work. For example, some students assessed as needing remediation will go straight into college-

State and then can enroll in college courses as high school sophomores. García and other officials say these new policies and programs will begin to close college preparation and performance gaps among the state’s minority populations. On a national level, the drive to reform remedial education is at the top of the agenda for several organizations which issued a joint report last December. Citing research on the causes of failure and proven successful remedial practices, Complete College America, the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, Education Commission of the States, and Jobs for the Future established the Core Principles for Transforming Remedial Education to drive large-scale change across states and higher education institutions. “Poor placement practices and multi-layered remedial course sequences very rarely Colorado Lt. Gov, Joe Garcia (back center) with 8th and 9th grade students who are currently taking remedial produce college graduates,” classes so they will be college-ready later on. said Stan Jones, president of Complete College America. level courses but also will participate in a companion lab class “Half of all America’s undergraduates and 70 percent of its to ensure they are progressing. The overall goal is to reduce community college students begin college in at least one time spent in remediation to one semester or less. remedial course, and only one in four remedial community In addition, Colorado high schools are making greater use college students ever make it to graduation day. To ensure our of concurrent enrollment to prepare students whose high country’s economic future, we must immediately replace these school exams show they are likely to need remediation. With broken programs with approaches proven to work.” this strategy, high school seniors enroll in college remedial Complete College America has called remediation a “bridge courses so they can complete those classes and go straight into to nowhere” because 30 percent of students don’t even show college-level work when they arrive on campus. In the past two up for the first remedial courses and 30 percent of those who years, concurrent enrollment in remedial courses grew by 39 complete remedial courses don’t attend gateway courses. percent, with the largest such enrollments at Community African-American, Hispanic or low- income students are more College of Denver and Community College of Aurora. likely to be headed for the remediation dead end because they An additional strategy involves GEAR UP, a federally-funded represent the majority of students assigned to remediation at grant program serving low-income students, which is piloting both two and four-year colleges. the use of “early remediation” in middle and high schools Other recommendations in the report call for a “default across Colorado. Starting in the eighth grade, students enroll placement” of many more remedial students into first-year, in self-paced online remedial classes created in partnership full-credit college courses with wraparound student supports with Adams State University and overseen by licensed teachers. such as mandatory tutoring, facilitated computer labs, or Upon completion, students receive transcripts from Adams more classroom time, among other measures.

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PERSPECTIVES

Experts Assess Impact of the Fisher Decision by Jeff Simmons

long-anticipated decision on June 24 by the Supreme Court of the United States might reshape how colleges and universities across the country amend their admissions policies, but the initial response to the decision has been consistently firm: wait and see. “From an optimistic perspective on diversity, it seemed like the court said there’s nothing wrong with the law, and you guys just didn’t execute it effectively, in terms of their program being ‘narrowly tailored’, and kicked it back,” said Peter Aranda, executive director and chief executive officer of the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. “And so I think there’s a lot of interest in seeing what happens.” The 7-1 ruling (with one justice recusing herself) in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin drew a level of uncertainty to the debate because it did not yield finality over the consideration of race as a factor in the undergraduate admissions process to increase minority enrollment. The University of Texas at Austin had adopted its program after the Supreme Court’s decisions in two 2003 cases: Grutter v. Bollinger, which upheld the use of race as one of a number of “plus factors” in an admissions program; and Gratz v. Bollinger, which found an admissions program was unconstitutional when automatically awarding points to applicants from certain racial minorities. In the Abigail Fisher case, a white student was not accepted for admission into the university’s entering class in 2008. As mandated by state law, the university guarantees undergraduate admission to all in-state applicants in the top 10 percent of their high school class; in

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In the Abigail Fisher case, a white student was not accepted for admission into the university’s entering class in 2008. As mandated by state law, the university guarantees undergraduate admission to all in-state applicants in the top 10 percent of their high school class; in fact, it accepts most of it students through this law. fact, it accepts most of it students through this law. For in-state applicants falling outside of that top tier, the university’s admissions process weighs other factors, including a personal achievement score which factors in socioeconomic status and race. The university determines such

achievement scores holistically, so it doesn’t consider any factor individually or assign separate numerical values for any one factor. Fisher charged that such a policy violated her 14th Amendment right to equal protection because she was denied admission in favor of minority appli-

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cants with lesser credentials. body is “a constitutionally permissible Some have further stressed that the case The Fifth Circuit Court previously goal.” It also noted that Fisher in fact will require higher education institutions affirmed a lower court decision uphold- had graduated from another university to be able to prove they don’t rely too ing the admissions plan, applying the in May 2012. much on race in the admissions process. standard that the plan was narrowly tai“We were pleased to see that the The Harvard Graduate School of lored to achieve its stated goal of achiev- court essentially reaffirmed what has Education’s Thomas J. Kane and James ing diversity on campus. been the law and found that the educa- E. Ryan wrote in a column this summer But in June, the Supreme Court vacat- tional benefits of diversity are continuing that: “No longer may lower courts simed the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to be a compelling interest in this coun- ply defer to the good-faith decisions of judgment that favored the university, try,” said Ada Meloy, ACE’s general coun- colleges regarding the necessity of maintaining that it was incorexplicitly considering race in rect in upholding a lower admissions decisions rather court’s summary judgment than some proxy for race. because that court failed to Colleges must instead attempt apply “strict scrutiny” to the to prove, and lower courts university’s policy. must determine, what counts The court didn’t overrule – as a ‘workable’ race-neutral thereby leaving intact – the earalternative. This is much hardlier decisions on the use of race er than it might seem. It also in admissions. And, it remandraises questions that go to the ed the case back for further heart of a college's mission proceedings. and stretch the institutional By sending the case back competence of courts.” for re-examination with the They added, “Few universidecision falling at the end of ties and colleges are prepared the academic year, experts to answer the questions that reasoned that little change has courts will soon be asking. If taken place over the summer, they fail to prepare convincing and won’t in the short-term answers, they will lose. And, until the legal saga is having been put on notice, addressed in court. responsibility for that loss will “It will take time to analyze be with our college and uniCivil rights attorney David Hinojosa, versity leaders, not our the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Fisher v. University of courts.” the Southwest Regional Counsel for Texas at Austin and its impact Aranda’s consortium is on the consideration of race committed to increasing the and ethnicity as one factor the Mexican American Legal Defense representation of Hispanic among many in the admis- and Education Fund (MALDEF), called Americans, African-Americans sions process,” said Mary and Native Americans in busiCorbett Broad, president of ness schools and corporate the court’s decision a “victory for the American Council on management. Education(ACE). “However, He predicted that longer diversity across the country.” we are deeply gratified that term, higher education instituthe court agrees with the hightions might be required to er education community – diversity on more finely delineate all of the compoour campuses offers unique educational sel. “Colleges and universities will cer- nents of the admissions process. “What I benefits to students and is a compelling tainly be interested in what the lower think will likely happen is that this is government interest.” court does. They are all attentive to what going to dig into their programs and dig In a motion filed in July with the Fifth the Supreme Court has said, which is into what is the definition of ‘narrowly Circuit Court, which is based in New that it will continue to give strict scrutiny tailored’,” said Aranda. “One of the Orleans, the university insisted the best to the use of race or ethnicity in the col- things that happened with abortion after course of action is for the case to be fur- lege admissions process.” it was legalized, was better, more finite ther remanded to the District Court to Some experts predicted the case definitions of what was legal and what reconsider the case, and maintained the leaves the door open for similar lawsuits wasn’t in terms of the first or second earlier cases found a diverse student because of the narrow court decision. trimester. I see this as potentially an

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example of what might come from this case is a better definition of what ‘narrowly tailored’ is and isn’t, and how we balance between critical mass and a quota system.” He added: “If I had a crystal ball, what one might expect to see over the long run is an organization like the consortium that creates opportunities for universities to pursue diversity recruitment and enrollment in a way that is more arm’s length from their own institution… I would think we might see programs like the consortium develop in the undergraduate space, in the medical school space, in the law school space, that would allow schools to continue the pursuit of a diverse class profile, but not necessarily with their own money, in a more arm’s-length fashion.” Paulette Caldwell, professor at New York University’s School of Law, viewed the Supreme Court’s decision as one that “tightened up the how-to part, not whether or not you could seek a diverse student body but how you go about doing that and what you need to show objectively as a university.” “For the most part, the Fisher case is a kind of wait-and-see case,” she said, explaining how the facts are largely unique because most other states don’t employ a similar 10 percent rule. “The landscape hasn’t been changed that much for those states. They are probably going to wait and see what specific guidelines come out of the Texas case.” Deborah Archer, professor of law and associate dean for academic affairs at New York Law School, who co-authored the National Black Law Students Association’s brief in the Fisher case, offered similar sentiments. “Universities and colleges should not be chilled by this decision, even if they need to be more transparent in demonstrating that they did their homework first,” said Archer, who also serves as director of the school’s Racial Justice Project. She hopes colleges and universities will continue to take steps to promote diversity and equal educational opportunity for students from all backgrounds. A number have taken the Supreme Court's opinion as an opportunity to

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review their admissions programs in light of the court’s clarification of the standard of review, she said. “The standard for implementing a race-conscious admissions program has always been rigorous, but institutions of higher education will continue to be able to meet that standard,” she said. “Universities were never insulated from searching review.” Added Archer: “As the federal courts re-evaluate the University of Texas at Austin's program, I believe that UT's program will be able to meet this rigorous test. It was very carefully crafted, and entirely consistent with the court's previous affirmative action decision in Grutter v. Bollinger.” Civil rights attorney David Hinojosa, the Southwest Regional Counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), called the court’s decision a “victory for diversity across the country.” “It sends a greater message, especially to a university like the University of Texas at Austin, which is a flagship university. It should be representative of the population of the state,” he said. While there is no exact timetable, he anticipated that the Circuit Court could resolve the issue by this fall. “In the meantime, the threat of any potential litigation by other Fisher clones is unsubstantiated and unlikely to occur because the courts have made it clear that universities can continue to use race in a holistic fashion,” said Hinojosa. “Because that ruling stands fast, universities do not seem to be rushing to change any of their current practices.” The decision, he said, “Clarified a point from the court that deference should not be owed in the ‘narrow tailoring piece’. It doesn't mean that universities cannot consider a diverse student body as part of their mission. “It does not mean that universities cannot review how their race-neutral policies are or are not succeeding in fulfilling their mission. It does not mean that universities cannot consider race in a holistic fashion. It does not mean that universities cannot pursue a diverse student body while using race in a holistic

fashion,” he said. Hinojosa said that Hispanic students are confronted by many more obstacles on the path to equal access and opportunities in higher education, often receiving subpar education in their K-12 schooling and imbalanced financial aid packages that preclude them from enjoying access. “I don't think that it has changed much in the day-to-day operations of universities,” he said. “If the decision was to have had a greater impact on individual universities and their decisions to consider race, then it might draw pause, but I don’t think this will have a great impact.” All experts agreed that issues around race-conscious admissions in higher education would continue for the longterm, particularly as colleges and universities encounter shifting population demographics. “Student diversity doesn’t just open the doors to those very students and impact their education, and help them not to feel like spokespersons for their own race when they speak in class, and to not feel isolated on campus,” said Hinojosa. “But research shows that a diverse student body impacts those around you. It will impact white students and Asian students and AfricanAmerican students. We can always learn from one another’s experiences.” MALDEF is continuing to monitor the case and might attempt to intervene again on behalf of Hispanic students if it is remanded to a lower court. This is important, he said, so the Latino experience can be appropriately portrayed. “I think that part of the story may not be told by the University of Texas at Austin,” said Hinojosa. “I think the experiences of Latino students will be a critical part, and the University of Texas might not be the party to best present those facts in the court. For example, in the first round, when we attempted to intervene, we had many affidavits from Latino students and organizations on the importance of diversity and from their own personal experiences, and that wasn’t necessary part of the record that was offered at the time.”

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IMMIGRATION

Dreamers Could Make or Break Immigration Reform in 2013 by Peggy Sands Orchowski

July and August of 2013, immigration reform suddenly became all about giving legal status to DREAMers – generally defined as “unauthorized immigrants who came in as children.” Polls show that an increasing number of Americans consider it to be “the right American thing to do.” Democrats have made legalizing DREAMers a top priority since 2010, when a stand-alone DREAMer bill died in the Senate, and Democrats lost the House majority. This June, the concept was included without question in the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed the Senate. In July, the question became, what would happen to the DREAMers when the now-Republican-dominated House took up immigration reform? Republicans leaders were adamant that they would not consider the Senate comprehensive bill. Instead they planned to discuss a number of stand-alone immigration proposals, many focusing on increasing border and internal immigration enforcement. They said they might wrap those together in a kinda-sorta comprehensive immigration reform proposal this fall or next year. Presumably, that package would not include any proposal to legalize illegal immigrants currently in the country. But in a surprise move in mid-July, GOP House leaders suddenly changed their minds. On July 23 in a hearing packed with journalists, advocates and members of both political parties, the Congressional immigration committee met to consider ideas to legalize “immigrants brought in as children” – the DREAMers, or “kids”, as Republicans might call them. “They had no input into their parents’ decision to bring the family to the U.S. illegally,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. “Many of them know no other home than the U.S. having grown up as Americans since they were toddlers.” Hearing witnesses were all outspoken advocates for DREAMers: religious leaders, immigrant rights groups, study groups, two high-achiever DREAMers and – surprise – the committee’s most passionate Democratic spokesman for the DREAM Act, Illinois Congressman Luis Gutiérrez. As usual, he argued vigorously for the legalization of all DREAMers. But then in a head-jerking finale and in no uncertain terms, Gutiérrez said he adamantly opposed any Republican proposal to legalize just the kids. He said their proposals were “unAmerican” if they did not include giving a pathway to citizenship not only to all DREAMers, but also to their parents, sibH I S P A N I C

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lings, relatives, in-laws, friends (including those who had been deported already), mentors, sympathizers – in fact, to “all of the 11 million or so undocumented immigrants in the country.” Gutiérrez’s position was supported unanimously by all the Democrats on the panel – even the DREAMers. The Democrats suddenly seemed to be going for all or nothing – a bait and switch? “Republican proposals are completely unacceptable,” said the Brookings Institute’s immigration expert Audrey Singer at an Aug. 15 panel at the liberal think tank the Center for American Progress (CAP). “They even are suggesting giving DREAMers only a permanent work and residency permit that would not lead to a pathway to citizenship.” But Singer admitted reluctantly that the Republicans’ compromise proposal might be placing Democrats in an “awkward” position. Would Democrats really kill the chance for hundreds of thousands of DREAMers to gain legalization because they wouldn’t compromise on the larger issue of blanket legalization for all illegal immigrants? It is estimated that 1.8 million unauthorized immigrants would qualify generally as DREAMers, according to the Migration Policy Institute and the Center of Immigration Studies. Some 800,000 might gain legalization under the current legislative requirements, according to The Pew Research Center. Extreme opponents of the DREAM Act say it is unfair to the millions of foreign nationals wanting, applying for and waiting years in their homelands for a green card, to give these coveted permanent work and residency visas to anyone who came into the country illegally, no matter what age. In July of 2013, Congressman Steven King, R-Iowa, countered the hype that “DREAMers were top students and valedictorians”, by hype of his own: “For every DREAMer who is a valedictorian, 10 have calves the size of melons from carrying in drugs over the (Mexican) border as drug mules.” His impolitic remarks might create more sympathy for DREAMer advocates. But King seems not to be mindful of any slight. “What? You didn’t like the fruit I chose to compare their calves?” he asked one reporter. In the end, the fight might be over how comprehensive a comprehensive immigration bill will be. “We need to pass immigration reform to be relevant,” say many Republican Party strategists. Most pundits and Democrats seem to think they are talking about the 2016 presidential race.

But most Republican pols are focusing on first winning back the Senate for Republicans in 2014. Even though none of the current six Senate battleground states (Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Dakota, Montana) have any significant Hispanic electorate, the perception of being inclusive to immigrants via legalizing DREAMers, the most sympathetic illegal immigrant community, could be a positive, some Republican leaders believe. In the meantime, the number of DREAMers applying for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) has stabilized at around 465,500, of which about 265,000 have been approved according to a recent report from the University of San Diego. DACA, President Obama’s executive order of June 2012 (said to have won him the Latino vote), grants a twoyear job permit and a waiver of deportation to unauthorized immigrants who meet the requirements of DREAMers. To date, 40 percent of the applicants are between the ages of 19 and 23; 24 percent are older; and 36 percent are15 to 18-year-old pre-applicants (must have a high school degree to qualify). Incomplete data show that 69 percent of DACA applicants were younger than 10 when they arrived. About 11 percent of all applicants entered legally and overstayed their visas, but the number of monthly DACA applications has declined significantly from the first six-month rush. Not because of discrimination against Mexicans, however, as had been feared. On the contrary. Almost 75 percent of DACA applicants are Mexican nationals. “In fact, the outreach to Mexican DREAMers and the cooperation they are getting from the Mexican government is exemplary,” said Tom Wong, assistant professor of political science at University of California, San Diego. “Mexican consulates have been expanded and the government is expediting birth documentation access online.” But the easy-to-reach, DACA potential applicants might have maxed out. DACA advocates now are eager to get the word out to other groups – especially Africans and those who have been here illegally for 10 years or more. “Documentation is the big problem for the older DREAMers, and the extreme language diversity is really going to be a problem for outreach materials to Africans [Americans] and Asians [Americans],” said Wong. But legalization for DREAMers’ parents, relatives, and friends including those already deported, is a stretch legislatively. ”While small children brought into the country illegally as toddlers do not share the same culpability of their parents,” said Goodlatte. “I do not believe that parents, who made the decision to illegally enter the U.S. while forcing their children to join them, should be afforded the same treatment as the kids.” “We will have to depend on President Obama to issue an executive order to legalize our parents and relatives just as he did for us,” said Erika Andiola, a DACA recipient who was on the CAP panel. Some immigration reform advocates believe that the president should do so for all illegal immigrants, if Congress fails to pass comprehensive immigration reform in the fall. It would seem that many Democratic advocates are just as stubborn about legalizing all illegal immigrants or nothing, as many Republicans are about legalizing none. Is there room for compromise? Can both parties step over their “red lines”? Could legalizing only a few DREAMers lead to the passage of a “kindasorta comprehensive” immigration bill in 2013 that

would be a step in the right direction? Passing immigration reform in 2013 could be a big win for Democratic congressional representatives in the House. Some say it would be President Obama’s primary legacy. But passage of any kind of immigration bill in the Republican House, especially for DREAMers, also could enable Republicans to look good on immigration. It could take “anti-immigrant” off the list of accusations leveled at them by Democrats. So maybe, politically, neither party really wants to see immigration reform passed for a while. It could be that Republicans decide that immigration reform and the Latino vote is about as important to them to get their big immediate goal – winning back the Senate in 2014 – as an apology is to Steven King for his “melon” remark. They have nothing immediate to win from it.

It also could be that Democrats decide they gain much more from bashing Republicans for being “anti-immigrant” before the 2014 elections (as they so successfully did in 2012), than they get from compromising with some Republicans to legalize only a few hundred thousand qualified DREAMers – who can stay legally in the U.S. anyway via prosecutorial discretion (DACA). Bashing Republicans over the failure of comprehensive immigration reform might even help Democrats keep the Senate in 2014 and position themselves for an all-or-nothing immigration reform battle in 2016 from defeated and deflated Republicans. In which case, immigration reform will die in the 113th Congress, done in some could say, by the success of the DREAMers. 1 0 / 2 1 / 2 0 1 3

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COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Higher Ed Groups Submit Reauthorization of the by Paul Hoogeveen

response to an invitation by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to submit comments regarding reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and the Association of

was generated within an overall congressional spirit of simplification of the HEA – a long-standing goal of committee chairman John Kline, R-Minn., and one also championed by the Workforce Committee’s counterparts in the Senate. The request targeted the following spe-

flawed completion measurements for community colleges that result from the Department of Education’s two-decadelong practice of excluding students who transfer from a community college to a four-year program from completion rates for that college. Bumphus and

J. Noah Brown, ACCT president and CEO

ACE President Molly Corbett Broad

Walter G. Bumphus, AACC president and CEO

Community College Trustees (ACCT) jointly presented the committee with letters detailing a number of concerns and recommendations – including changes to the Pell program and rising student debt burdens – this past August. The American Council on Education (ACE), representing a coalition of dozens of higher education associations ranging from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, likewise presented an extensive list of recommendations. The Workforce Committee’s request

cific areas of concern: empowering students as consumers in higher education; improving aid and loan programs; increasing college accessibility, affordability, and completion; reducing institutional costs; promoting innovation to improve accessibility; and balancing the need for accountability with the burden of federal requirements. Authored by Walter G. Bumphus, AACC president and CEO, and J. Noah Brown, ACCT president and CEO, the joint AACC/ACCT letter addressed each of the Workforce Committee’s bulleted concerns in depth, beginning with

Brown stated in their letter that “this practice is in clear violation of the Higher Education Act” and has contributed to a distorted public perception of community colleges. More significantly, Bumphus and Brown expressed particular concern about the growth in complexity of Title IV programs, which includes the Pell Grant program. They pointed out that these programs provide targeted, need-based assistance to Historically Black Colleges, Hispanic -Serving Institutions, and other minority- serving institutions, a great many of which are community colleges.

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Recommendations for Higher Education Act With regard to Pell grants, their focus was less on simplification – the program’s structure is “fundamentally sound” as they put it – and more on eligibility issues. Of particular concern to them was how new eligibility restrictions to the Pell Grant program have prevented at-risk students from securing sufficient financial resources, and how these restrictions have led to a sharp increase in borrowing and the attendant problems students are now facing in repaying excessive student loan debt. That is no small issue for community colleges and their students; according to Bumphus and Brown, more than 3.3 million community college students received Pell grants in the 20112012 award year, including nearly half of all full-time students. “Proposals to fundamentally restructure the program should be resisted,” they said. “But, eligibility changes in the program during the past few years have denied opportunities to students that should be immediately redressed; the issue of student abuse, however infrequent, needs to be grappled with head on; and a certain measure of flexibility in the award of funds should be permitted.” Consequently, among their many recommendations were reinstatement of the year-round Pell grant and revision of the semester limit, and reinstatement of Title IV ability-to-benefit eligibility. They also stated a clear belief that maintaining the current maximum Pell grant award at the expense of easing eligibility requirements creates “unacceptable tradeoffs” and should be reconsidered. Another topic Bumphus and Brown discussed was how the current method of reporting cohort default rates (CDRs, which are used to determine an institution’s eligibility for Title IV funds) can distort consumer perception of default risk. They suggested creating a new Student Default Risk Index (SDRI),

wherein a school’s three-year cohort default rate would be multiplied by the percentage of students at that school who have federal loans. This SDRI, they said, would provide a more accurate picture of default risk at a given institution and improve the public’s understanding of that institution as betterinformed consumers. The ACE coalition letter, presented by ACE President Molly Corbett Broad, in many ways echoed and even duplicated Bumphus and Brown’s recommendations – beginning with the Pell Grant program. Broad’s letter noted that cost-cutting measures due to appropriations limitations have forced eligibility restrictions, which is counter to the very purpose of the program. As with the AACC/ACCT letter, the ACE recommendations were significant and detailed key changes to the program, including an automatic inflation adjustment to the annual maximum Pell award; restoration of the eliminated year-round Pell grant; and reversal of sharp reductions in eligibility for abilityto-benefit students. ACE also suggested looking into whether the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrator’s (NASFAA) Pell Well or the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities’ Pell Flex proposal could provide persistence and completion incentives. Like Bumphus and Brown’s joint response, the ACE coalition letter cited increased debt burdens – and the attendant concerns of increased student default rates –as a direct result of a sharp decrease in Pell awards. Broad’s letter pointed out that “63 percent of Pell recipients take out federal student loans, as opposed to just 53 percent in 2000,” and urged the Workforce Committee to examine the ways the complex pieces of federal assistance programs interact in order to ensure 1 1 / 1 8 / 2 0 1 3

consistency with policy goals. The ACE recommendations also delved more deeply into issues of borrowing, such as loan repayment, debt collection, and loan servicing. Among other action steps, they called for a continuation of in-school interest exemption for all borrowers; elimination of origination fees; consolidation of income-based repayment plans into a single income-based plan open to all borrowers; establishment of policies for collection contracts that do not cost the government excessive fees or add excessive penalties to borrower debt; and development of a loan management portal to help borrowers – who often have to juggle multiple terms from multiple loan servicers – obtain loan information, manage accounts, make payments in the correct amounts and on time, apply for deferments, and the like. Both letters covered a number of additional concerns and detailed recommendations, ranging from simplification of the FAFSA application process to institutional accreditation to tuition affordability. But the areas of greatest focus – and most likely, of interest to higher education consumers – related to accessibility, grant eligibility, and loan debt management. The Higher Education Act was last rewritten in 2008, and since then the ongoing partisan divide on Capitol Hill has continued to delay its reauthorization. For minority-serving community colleges in particular, the stakes couldn’t be higher. As Bumphus and Brown put it: “No federal legislation is more important to community colleges and their students than the Higher Education Act. Community colleges would look very different, and some would not exist today, were it not for the national investments made through the HEA.”

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REPORTS/COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Report Says Majority of Two-Year Transfer Students Complete Bachelor’s Degree by Angela Provitera McGlynn very year, thousands of students enroll in community colleges hoping to transfer to a four-year college and complete a bachelor’s degree. Thus the effective functioning of the transfer system is crucial to the national goals of meeting student aspirations and increasing college completion. The National Student Clearinghouse Signature Report on Baccalaureate Attainment presents the most comprehensive description to date of the pathways of community college transfer students. So says Thomas Bailey, professor of economics and education and the director of the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. What makes community college students’ transfer and baccalaureate degree completion highly significant is the critical impact their academic success has on the national college completion agenda. The data has an important influence for both equity and institutional and policy effectiveness. As the stated in the report’s introduction: “With weighty implications for policy and practice, equity and effectiveness, and college completion overall, two- to four-year transfer success is an important area for new research. Building a more accurate and comprehensive view of these students’ enrollment patterns and completion outcomes is a necessary step toward achieving pressing policy goals and social principles. The data presented in this report is an attempt to contribute to filling this gap.” This latest National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) Signature Report, created in partnership with the Indiana University Project on Academic Success, has some good news regarding two-year college transfer students. The data show that about 62 percent of students who transferred from two-year colleges in the 2005-2006 academic year earned bachelor’s degrees at four-year colleges and universities within six years. Another 8 percent were still enrolled and making steady progress toward earning a four-year degree six years after transfer. Focusing on bachelor’s degree six-year completion of twoyear students graduating with an associate’s degree or certificate versus transferring without completing a credential, the researchers looked at completion outcomes also based on gender, enrollment intensity, transfer institution type, length of pre-transfer enrollment at a two-year institution, and time lapse between two- and four-year institution enrollments. Earlier research had already shown that gender, age, and enrollment intensity were all correlated with students’ two- to

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four-year transfer patterns in complex and interactional ways. As early as 2002, authors Jacobs and King found that part-time enrollment, often associated with older students’ greater likelihood of working full-time and having children and/or other family responsibilities, was a strong predictor of lower completion rates. The current report, Baccalaureate Attainment: A National View of Postsecondary Outcomes of Students Who Transfer from Two-Year to Four-Year Institutions is based on data made available to the clearinghouse by more than 3500 participating colleges and universities. NSCRC data can facilitate informed institutional and policy decision-making in the following ways: • Allowing researchers to follow students from institution to institution • Providing a longitudinal view of expanded student cohorts, as for example, traditional-age students vs. adult learners, and full-time vs. part-time student cohorts • Describing student pathways including transfer patterns, persistence, and certificate or degree completion in more accurate detail regardless of level and institution of first enrollment The basic finding that two-year college transfer students are likely to complete their BA degrees is encouraging news since starting at a community college appeared to be a risk factor for bachelor’s degree completion in previous studies. What this fifth signature report demonstrates is that two-year institutions can play a significant role in increasing the number of students who earn bachelor’s degrees. The report has compelling equity implications because of the strong overrepresentation of low-income and minority students in two-year institutions. The NSCRC data also showed that students who transferred with a two-year degree or certificate had a much higher probability of completing a bachelor’s than those who transferred without a credential (72 percent to 56 percent, respectively). Another interesting finding was the gap in six-year BA degree completion rates between students who transferred to a fouryear institution within one year of their most recent enrollment at a two-year college and students who transferred after a timeout that lasted more than one year. There was a 26 percent difference in BA degree completion showing how difficult it is to re-start working toward a degree after more than a one year hiatus.

Here are some additional findings from the report: The National Student Clearinghouse drew its data from the • Students transferring to a four-year public institution had a StudentTrackersm and DegreeVerifysm services which track 95 65 percent completion rate compared to a 60 percent com- percent of college enrollments across the nation and across pletion rate for those transferring to a four-year private institu- all postsecondary institutions, including all types of colleges tion from two-year and four-year institutions, public and private, • There is a negligible difference (less than 2 percent) in BA and nonprofit and for-profit institutions. completion rates after transfer between women and men Student outcomes described in this Clearinghouse • Students attending full time after transfer had a better probability of 2005–2006 Transfer Cohort: graduating than those who attended Postsecondary Outcomes Six Years After Transfer *(n=320,911) college part time or with mixed enrollment (83 percent, 24.8 percent, 100% and 62.1 percent, respectively) 90% • Comparing students who transferred from a two-year to a four-year 80% institution with those students who started their degrees at four-year insti70% tutions, the report noted that after 60% eight years, the transfer students who 61.6% started at a two-year college and sub50% sequently transferred completed the 40% BA degree at a rate of 73.5 percent, outperforming those who began at a 30% four-year institution whose rate was 26.6% 20% 63.2 percent. • The majority of two-year to four10% year transfer students in this cohort 7.8% 4.0% also went on to a master’s degree 0% Completion at Still Enrolled Completion or Not Enrolled institution (50 percent) or to a (At Any at Four-Year Still Enrolled Four-Year research/doctoral granting institution Institution) Institution in Two-Year Institution** (40 percent) Sector • Students who transferred to a research/doctoral degree institution *This figure is based on data shown in Appendix C, Table 1. had the highest completion rate (69 **This completion rate includes bachelor’s degrees and higher completed at four-year institutions. percent) followed by those who trans- About 1% of students in the cohort completed an associate’s degree at a four-year institution. ferred to BA degree institutions (60 These completions were not included in the four-year degree completions shown here. percent as mentioned), and to masSource: NSCRC Signature Report #5 ter’s level institutions (59 percent) Perhaps those students who transfer to a research/doctoral degreegranting institution tend to be better prepared academically to Signature Report are based on student-level data representdo post- BA level work. An additional explanation might also ing an unduplicated headcount of students across all institube that research institutions tend to make greater resources tions. This is a unique feature of clearinghouse data and available to students with bachelor’s degrees in the form of more accurately represents the complexity of postsecondary financial compensation, orientation programs and other sup- transfer pathways than previous research. port services. Dr. Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Angela Provitera McGlynn, Professor Emeritus of Student Clearing House Research Center, says “The results will Psychology, is an international consultant/presenter on help students, institutions and policymakers to better under- teaching, learning, and diversity issues and the author of stand the different pathways to college success.” several related books. Shapiro further states, “The majority of students who transfer from a two-year to a four-year institution are successful, but pre-transfer degrees, destination institutions, timing of transfer, and enrollment intensity are all important factors in completion.”

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LAW SCHOOL

Court Rulings on Academic Freedom and Loyalty Oath Cases Offer History Lessons by Frank DiMaria

Marjorie Heins, a civil liberties lawyer, writer and teacher and the founding director of the Free Expression Policy Project

rom the late 1940s and well into the 1960s an anti-communist fervor swept the United States. In educational institutions, the press and the courts, debates raged over whether or not the First Amendment principle of free speech protected suspected communists and whether the concept of academic freedom barred political inquisitions against teachers and professors. Not only was academic freedom challenged but so was patriotism. Many educators were forced to sign loyalty oaths before they were offered teaching positions. Marjorie Heins, a civil liberties lawyer, writer and teacher and the founding director of the Free Expression Policy Project, recently compiled the most influential Supreme Court cases on academic freedom in a book called Priests of Our Democracy: The Supreme Court, Academic Freedom and the Anti-Communist Purge. In her book Heins looks at how the Supreme Court responded to attacks on academic freedom

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through the height of the “Red Scare.” In 1949 the state of New York passed the Feinberg Law, making teachers ineligible for public employment if they were members of any organization advocating the overthrow of the government by force, violence or any unlawful means. “The Feinberg Law is very typical of the period. Many other states were passing similar laws and they were modeled in large part on Truman’s federal loyalty program,” says Heins. Demagogues on the political right, she says, had been beating the drum for a long time with exaggerated tails of communist conspiracies and accusations against the American Communist Party. Following World War II the Truman administration, eager to prove that it was tough on communism, tried to protect itself by making it impossible for anybody who was identified as or suspected of being a communist to hold a position in the federal government. “From there that notion spread to state governments, including any state university,” says Heins. Irving Adler was one of the first educators to feel the effects of Truman’s federal loyalty program. Adler was chairman of the math department at Straubenmuller Textile High School in Manhattan and had joined the Communist party at age 22. Sixteen years later, he was subpoenaed to testify before a Senate subcommittee investigating communist influence in the nation’s schools. Citing his rights under the Fifth Amendment he refused to answer questions and was dismissed from the school system. In January of 1952 Adler and a number of other New York City teachers had their case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 6-3 decision the court held that there was “no constitutional infirmity” in the Feinberg Law, as Associate Justice Sherman Minton wrote in his opinion. Associate Justices William O. Douglas, Hugo Black and Felix Frankfurter dissented, declaring that the law “turns the school system into a spying project.” Heins calls this decision “disastrous.” The court, over the dissents of Justices William O. Douglas and Hugo Black, ruled that teachers have a constitutional right to think and say anything they want but do not have any right to be teachers. “The case was lost, but there was a dissent by Douglas where he plays out the effects of a system like this in which a person’s political beliefs and associations are open to spying and reports by informers who might have greater or lesser degrees of reliability. He says in his dissent that, “A pall has been cast over the classroom and everybody is looking over their shoulders. The school system has become a spying project.” As Heins says, “He adopts the term academic freedom which has been a policy in educational institutions since the AAUP in 1915.”

The Adler decision stood until 1967. Oklahoma, like most other states at the time, required its state officers and employees, as a condition of employment, to take a loyalty oath. Oklahoma professors had to state that they were not, and have not been for the preceding five years, members of any organization listed by the attorney general of the United States as communist front or subversive. Heins says there are two different types of “loyalty oaths”; affirmative and negative. Those who take an affirmative oath state that they promise to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. But during the Cold War many public employees were forced to sign negative loyalty oaths, in which they deny any past or present involvement with the Communist Party. In 1951 seven professors at the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College refused to take the loyalty oath and a court ruled that the Oklahoma law violated the individual’s constitutional right of free association and denied jobs to people solely on the basis of organizational membership regardless of their knowledge of the organizations to which they had belonged. “This case was in many ways an anomaly,” says Heins. “It did not turn on academic freedom.” As part of the court’s decision, Justice Frankfurter writes a separate concurrence in which he coins this phrase “teachers are the priests of our democracy.” Frankfurter said in his separate concurrence that “When we’re talking about teachers and professors, the court has to be especially sensitive to the role they play. They need free inquiry and they can’t be straightjacketed by ideology if they are going to be teaching young people how to think,” says Heins. Things were pretty quiet regarding academic freedom in the courts until 1957 when Marxist scholar Paul Sweezy refused to cooperate and refused to answer some questions directed to him by the New Hampshire attorney general, “who had set himself up as a one-man investigating committee of politics and ideology in the University of New Hampshire,” says Heins. The Supreme Court heard Sweezy’s case, which resulted in a 6-2 decision in favor of Sweezy as well as a number of opinions. Chief Justice Warren wrote the majority opinion and Justice Frankfurter once again wrote a separate concurrence, both of which explore academic freedom. Frankfurter’s concurrence found the state’s vaguely framed national security justification of its questions “grossly inadequate” when “weighed against the grave harm resulting from governmental intrusion into the intellectual life of a university.” The dramatic culmination of Heins’ book is the Keyishian case, which the Supreme Court heard in 1967 but had its roots in the early 1950s. In 1952 Harry Keyishian was a junior at Queens College in New York City when the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee came to town investigating suspected communists or ex-communist teachers. Keyishian watched as the college summarily fired some of his favorite professors when they refused to cooperate with the subcommittee. A decade later Keyishian showed up at SUNY-Buffalo as an English professor, and it was his turn to buck the system.

Keyishian, along with four of his English department colleagues, refused to sign a loyalty oath. They brought their case to the Supreme Court. The court heard their case and made its most important ruling on academic freedom, says Heins. Although the Supreme Court upheld the Fienberg Law in the Adler case in 1952, it ruled that the law was unconstitutional in the Keyishian case. Heins says when the Supreme Court struck down the Fienberg Law in Keyishian “all the

other very broad anti-subversive, anti-communist witch hunt type investigations and employment programs were also now considered unconstitutional.” Heins says that the Supreme Court was slow to respond to the violations of due process and free speech in the 40s and 50s but did set some limits in those years. To conclude her book she writes, “Just as the anti-communist panic of the Cold War triggered a political, and eventually a judicial, recognition of academic freedom, so in our post-9/11 world teachers, students, universities, judges, and the whole body politic should adhere to the promise of Keyishian.”

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UNCENSORED STEM LEARNING SHOULD BE A CULTURAL DEFAULT – At a recent subcommittee hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, its chairman, Bob Goodlatte, a Republican, suggested that Americans should copy India by making the mastering of science, technology, engineering and math (the STEM fields) a cultural default. “In India and China there is a tangible line between studying and working in the STEM fields and success,” confirmed Deepak Karma, a 30-something successful Internet entrepreneur who came to the United States from India via Canada and who was a witness at the March 5 hearing. Goodlatte nodded, adding almost with resignation, “Yes. My son is a philosophy major in college who wants to work in the food industry.” Then almost to himself, he said quietly, “It about the only thing he can do with such a major in Virginia.” HISPANIC YOUTHS USE INTERNET THE MOST – AND IN ENGLISH – A recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center has found that between 2009-12, the share of Hispanic adults going online rose 14 percentage points to 78 percent, more than any other group. Even Hispanic cellphone ownership has crept up past that of whites. “Youths are the driving factor among Latino users,” according to the study. Indications are however, that Latino youth communications are mainly in English.

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THE WISE LATINA’S BOOK – ASK FOR ADVICE BUT DO IT YOURSELF – Yes, Sonia Sotomayor is the history-making first Latina Supreme Court Justice. Yes she is now famous and popularly seen as a liberal. Yes, she is known as the “Wise Latina” – a controversial–enough term to titillate some. All these make good reasons to include her book, My Beloved World, on your summer’s must-read list. But in fact you should actually READ every word of the book because it is charming, illuminating, thoroughly authentic, dramatic, touching and inspiring no matter what your background. In the telling of her life story, Sotomayor leaves no room for “yes buts.” Her successes came the hard way. She is grateful for the lessons learned, and eager to share them. Two stand out: 1) ask for advice – from teachers, bosses and ‘the best students in the class”; 2) in the end, the only one who can do what you need to be done, is yourself. That lesson was learned early when she was diagnosed with Type1 diabetes and her shocked family realized she would have to get an insulin shot every day for the rest of her life. None of her family members were physically able to do it. So at 8 years old, she realized the lesson that set her up the rest of her life – she had to be responsible for herself. No excuses. NEW GOAL FOR UNIVERSITIES: INNOVATION READY – You’ve heard of “college readiness” and “work readiness” as primary goals of education so students can “find a job” after graduation. But Tom Friedman, The New York Times and World-Is-Flat columnist and author, writes that that is all “so 20th century.” Graduates now need to INVENT a job, not find one,” he advises. High schools and colleges now must have the goal of making their students INNOVATION READY.

2012 HISPANIC VOTE SMALLER THAN PREDICTED – The official vote count of the 2012 presidential election finally was released in May by the U.S. Census Bureau, and the big surprise is that the size of the Hispanic vote was far lower than was exalted in November exit polls. The 11.2 million Hispanic voters made up only 8.4 percent of all voters, while black voters (17.8 million) made up 13.4 percent, even though Hispanics make up about 15 percent of the U.S. population and blacks about 13 percent. But the Hispanic electorate (eligible voters who are citizens over the age of 18) is less than half its population, and in 2012, less than 50 percent of the Hispanic electorate voted – only 48 percent, fewer than in 2008 when 49.9 percent voted. In contrast, 66 percent of the black electorate voted, surpassing the voting rate of all other groups including whites (64 percent) for the first time. The Current Population Survey report shows that the size and power of the black vote in the 2012 election was far greater than the Hispanic vote – just the opposite from the common narrative in the press since November. ARE WANNA–BE HSIs DRIVING THE DREAM ACT? – Increasingly when I tell a university lobbyist who has come to Capitol Hill on business that I am the congressional correspondent for the Hispanic Outlook, they grin and say “we’re 24.5 percent,” or “23 percent” or “we’re almost there.” Sometimes they even raise an open hand to do a high-five. Of course we all know what they mean. Their postsecondary educational institution almost has documented that 25 percent of their undergraduates are (self-identified) Hispanics. Meeting that threshold will qualify them to compete for the special Title V fund of some $1 billion as an HSI – a “Hispanic-Serving Institution.” In their eagerness to recruit Hispanic– heritage students, increasing numbers of these lobbyists are becoming important advocates for passage of the DREAM Act in their states and also in Washington, D.C. 42

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NAPOLITANO A STRANGE CHOICE FOR UC PRESIDENT – The selection in July of former Secretary of Homeland Security (and Arizona Governor) Janet Napolitano as the first woman president of the 10campus University of California (UC) system, came as a shock – especially to Latino activists. They demonstrated furiously against having a president who in her previous cabinet level position was responsible for enforcing immigration laws including deportation. “DREAMERs at UC will live in fear”, a Latina law student said to the Los Angeles Times. (An estimated 619 “presumed” undocumented students were studying in the UC system in the 2011-12 academic year, according to a UC system report – about 30 percent are Asian and Pacific Islanders, the other 420 or so are Latinos). Napolitano’s complete lack of experience in higher education administration and her professional support of surveillance and border patrol are “adversarial to the ethics and practices of the Academy” Mark Levine, a UC professor wrote in Al by Peggy Sands Orchowski Jazeera. In fact the only reason for Napolitano’s selection, everyone seems to agree, is her wide connections in government that supposedly will lead to more federal funds for UC. Frankly, that is the most disingenuous reason of all IMHO. Supportive California congressmen and senators on the Hill have made it quite clear that “things have changed! There never will be federal money available to universities as in the past,” two elected officials said off-the-record to a select group of UC fundraisers recently.

START SKILL PLANNING – NOT CAREER PLANNING – EARLY IN COLLEGE – It’s common knowledge now that not all college degrees are equal. Entering college students must carefully select the campus, professors and major that will lead to good future jobs. But choosing a specialty, even in STEM fields, is like “being a venture capitalist at 18,” said one education economist at the Wharton School of Business recently. “Career fields that look so great now, may not exist in a decade.” So the latest advice for students and their counselors is to “think about learning skills and functions best for you,” writes Andy Chan of Wake Forest University in North Carolina. What does he mean by skills? “Basically it’s anything humans can do better than robots!”

DREAMERS SPEAKING ENGLISH – It is a little known fact that legislative requirements for DREAMer status do not include any criteria for knowing English. To date, over 90 percent of the some 466,000 applicants for prosecutorial discretion are Latinos – Spanish heritage speak-

ers. The applications have now leveled out. One reason more potential DREAMers haven’t applied, according to a recent study from the University of California, San Diego, is that application materials have mainly been produced in Spanish and not in the multitude of languages that Asian and African DREAMer potentials speak. “We need to be as successful with other language groups as we are with Spanish-speakers,” say advocates from community groups. This despite the fact that the most appealing pitch for the DREAM Act is that DREAMers came in at so young an age that they “know no other country other than (English-speaking) America.” Should there be an English requirement for DREAMers? According to Audrey Singer, a Brookings Institute advocate for DREAMers, “They can learn English when they are studying for their citizenship exams.”

IS RANKING COLLEGES BY GRAD RATES UNFAIR TO MSIs? – A new White House higher education priority would rank U.S. colleges based on their outcome success – how many of their students actually graduate – not just their ‘access’, which measures how many students, especially minorities, are accepted. That ranking would determine their federal support. It seems common sense to shift to this assessment measure. After all, what good is it to judge a university or college as tops just because it accepts thousands of students who might struggle for several years, go into massive debt but then don’t graduate? This could be especially true for Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) which until now were rewarded for the diversity of the student body with little attention paid to if and when those individuals graduate. But the new emphasis is also a concern. If the new measurements of success are high retention and completion rates of students, then colleges that recruit only top students who are highly likely to graduate, will be advantaged. Those that recruit a large number of diverse students who are low-income and first-generation college-goers, and usually experience lower graduation rates, will be disadvantaged. “How can outcome-based evaluations be fair for public highly diverse population colleges?” asked education advocates at a recent panel discussion on higher education’s “New Caste System” at the New America Foundation in early September. Margaret (Peggy Sands) Orchowski was a reporter for AP South America and for the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. She earned a doctorate in international educational administration from the University of California-Santa Barbara. She lives in Washington, D.C., where she was an editor at Congressional Quarterly and now is a freelance journalist and columnist covering Congress and higher education. 0 1 / 1 3 / 2 0 1 4

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Working Women, Entrepreneurs, and the Mexican Revolution: The Coffee Culture of Cordoba, Veracruz (The Mexican Experience) by Heather Fowler-Salamini. 2013. 440 pp. ISBN: 978-0803243712. $45.00. Paper. University of Nebraska Press, (800) 755-1105 www.nebraskapress.unl.edu.

While Colombia has been noted for its coffee production, Spanish entrepreneurs engineered the emergence of Córdoba, Veracruz, as Mexico’s largest commercial center for coffee preparation and export to the Atlantic community beginning in the 1890s. Picking coffee then became the domain of women who found themselves to be well-suited for this seasonal work. These women quickly became the major part of the agroindustry’s labor force and dominated the industry. As they grew in numbers and influence in the first half of the 20th century, these women shaped the workplace culture and contested gender norms through labor union activism and strong leadership. They also formed a strong bond as they battled for workers’ rights, supported by the revolutionary state. This book examines the interrelationships between the region’s immigrant entrepreneurs, workforce, labor movement, gender relations, and culture on the one hand, and social revolution, modernization, and the Atlantic community over a 70- year period beginning in 1890. Reviewed by Mary Ann Cooper Latino Spin: Public Image and the Whitewashing of Race by Arlene Dávila. 2008. 224 pp. ISBN: 9780814720073. $23.00. paper. NYU Press, N.Y. (212) 9982575. information@nyupress.org. www.nypress.org

This book sets out to dispel the myth about Latinos’ supposed values, political attitudes, and impact on U.S. national identity and to ask what these misrepresentations suggest about Latinos’ shifting place in the popular and political imagery. Latino Spin was the winner of the 2010 Distinguished Book Award in Latino Studies from the Latin American Studies Association. Reviewed by Mary Ann Cooper

Don’t Stalk the Admissions Officer: How to Survive the College Admissions Process Without Losing Your Mind by Risa Lewak. ISBN: 978-1-58008-060-6. $13.99 paper. Ten Speed Press, (212) 782-9000. www.tenspeed.com. Covering all bases, the author begins the instruction guide in the high school years, advising students not to go overboard when it comes to being an overachiever in secondary school. As a preadmissions counselor, Lewak then shares her experiences and expertise to empower readers with tips to craft a killer essay, choose between the SAT and ACT, score stellar recommendations, nail the interview, handle overly involved parents, and more. Prospective students will also gain insight into how to navigate crucial post-application issues, like financial aid, rejection, and deciding whether to take a year off. Lewak goes through the mating game of matching the student to the school, showing the reader how to ace the tricky application process – while maintaining a sense of humor and sanity. Reviewed by Mary Ann Cooper

The immigration debate, which has been making headlines since the 2012 election, has placed a spotlight on the Hispanic community. Unfortunately, that spotlight is not confined to those who are undocumented. The public seems to have a tendency to lump all Hispanics together as if they are a monolithic group. In the extreme, coded words and phrases have the consequence of reinforcing stereotypes. Illegal immigrant, tax burden, job stealer, patriot, family- oriented, hard worker, model consumer – these labels all are used to describe Hispanics. Ever since Latinos became the largest minority in the U.S., they have been caught between these wildly contrasting characterizations leaving some to wonder: Are Latinos friend or foe?

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Real World Writing for Secondary Students: Teaching the College Admission Essay and Other Gate-Openers for Higher Education by Jessica Singer Early and Meredith DeCosta. 2012. 144 pp. ISBN: 978-0807753866. $28.95 paper. Teachers College Press, Williston, Vt. 1-800-575-6566. www.tcpress.org College applications are complicated, but possible to complete without much ado, until the applicant reaches the last page and sees the word “essay” on a blank canvas. Suddenly, bright and articulate students are lost for words. And writing a great college admission essay can be the difference between being accepted or rejected at

at a glance ... any given school. This book describes a writing workshop for ethnically and linguistically diverse high school students where students receive instruction on specific features of the college admission essay. The authors keep it real for students as they approach one of the most difficult tasks in securing a place in the institution of higher education of their choice. The book also lends a hand to high school English teachers who want to make sure that their students have the tools to ace the admission essay. It includes a writing workshop framework with lesson-planning materials, activities, handouts, bibliographic resources and student work samples. Reviewed by Mary Ann Cooper Color by Number: Understanding Racism Through Facts and Stats on Children by Art Munin 2012. 132 pp. ISBN: 978-1579226367. $22.50. paper. Stylus Publishing, (703) 661-1504. www.Styluspub.com Many deny that racism remains pervasive in America today. It’s at times like these that we need to step back, take a deep breath and realistically appraise what is really going on in our society. The author hopes to assist in that appraisal by posing this question to himself and others: How can we open eyes to the continuing disadvantages that keep many people of color from fulfilling their potential, and having an equal chance to achieve the American Dream? He chooses to make his point by presenting the impact of racism on the most innocent and powerless members of society– children of color – in the form of statistics. In doing so he hopes his book will change attitudes and perceptions. By relying on the cumulative effect of overwhelming statistics, the author hopes to open minds, start conversations, and even prompt readers to take action. Reviewed by Mary Ann Cooper Roots of Style by Isabel Toledo; 375 pp. Penguin Publishing, 212-366-2000, New York. 2012, ISBN 978-0451-23017-1. www.penguin.com Leave it to Isabel Toledo, the renowned seamstress/ designer, to weave her life story into the tapestry of her philosophy for living rather than weave her career as a seamstress into her life story. This book is part autobiography, part life’s lessons and all uplifting philosophy. Toledo was born in Cuba and came to the United States

with her family as a political refugee Through her eyes we see the transformation of an awkward skinny immigrant youth into sophisticated slim lady made possible at first only through the magic of attire. We also see the unwavering focus of one intrigued and captivated by unlimited possibilities of sewing. At a time when the mass production of inexpensive clothing is the norm and a generation of young girls strive to purchase the latest fashion as determined by this week’s pop star, this book is a refreshing look at how creative people see the world around them. Toledo received the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Fashion Design in 2005. Reviewed by Dr. Myrka A. González The Diversity Index: The Alarming Truth About Diversity in Corporate America...and What Can Be Done About It, by Susan E. Reed. 2011. 294 pp. ISBN: 0814416497 $27.95. cloth. Amacom Books. (800) 2505308. www.amacombooks.org Nearly 50 years after the Civil Rights Movement, the author says there is a new crisis of opportunity in corporate America. Based on the author’s study of Fortune 100 companies, this book identifies a barrier that has formed as white women have outpaced people of color and, along with white male executives, have wound up creating a persistent racial ceiling. In addition, the quest for global profits has created worldwide competition for the corporate suite, and U.S.-born minorities and whites are losing out. The book takes an in-depth look at companies that have struggled to find the perfect leadership mix. Detailing the stories of executives of General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Merck, and PepsiCo, The Diversity Index distills—into 10 clear steps—the methods that the most successful companies used to develop integration, keep it growing, and empower their employees to develop new products and markets. Reviewed by Mary Ann Cooper

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REPORTS

Hispanic Students: high school graduates are enrolled in college than whites. This milestone caps the steady increase in college enrollment rates among 18- to 24-year-old Hispanics which has been occurring in recent years. According to the Census Bureau, 49 percent of young Hispanic high school graduates are enrolled in college. By comparison, 47 percent of white non-Hispanic high school graduates are enrolled in college. The surge in Latino enrollment is occurring even as overall college enrollment in the United States is declining. The number of Hispanics attending college in 2012-13 rose to 3.4 million, up 447,000 from 2011-12. At the same time, overall college enrollment fell to 19.9 million, a decline of 2.3 percent. Hispanic students now make up 17 percent of all college students. Experts attribute the gains in Hispanic enrollment to the growth of the Hispanic population as well as the increasing share of young Latinos prepared for college.

Latinos and SAT Benchmarks In other areas, the statistical picture for Hispanic students is mixed, especially when looking at last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s SAT college entrance exam data released by the College Board. On the positive side, Hispanics have increased to 17 percent of testtakers and a growing percentage of those students met the benchmark for academic success in college, or 1,550 points out of a maximum 2,400 points. The report stated that 23.5 by Marilyn Gilroy percent of Hispanics achieved the College Board benchmark, big news from reports issued in 2013 was that up from 22.8 percent the year before. But that is significantly for the first time, Latinos surpassed whites in behind the 43 percent of students overall meeting the 1,550college enrollment rate. A study from the Pew point benchmark last year. Hispanic Center published last May, which used U.S. Census According to the 2013 SAT Report on College and Career Bureau data, showed that a greater share of Hispanic recent Readiness, approximately 23.5 percent of Latino students

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2013 Statistical Survey were deemed college ready based on their SAT scores, a slight increase over the prior year. In general, Hispanics tended to lag in being academically prepared for the SAT exam. Among Hispanics who took the SAT exam, about 70 percent took a core curriculum while 56 percent reported taking AP courses, and 36 percent reported that they had “A” average grades. (see chart for comparison).

(59,597), United States history (52,740), English literature and composition (50,028), and United States government and politics (32,410). In its annual AP Report to the Nation, College Board officials expressed concern about the opportunity gap in AP courses. Analysis of the more than 300,000 students in the previous graduating class who had been identified as having such “AP potential” yet who did not take any recommended AP course reveals striking inequities. In most subject areas, black/African-American, Hispanic/Latino and Native American /Alaska Native students who have the same AP readiness as their white and Asian/Asian -American/Pacific Islander peers are significantly less likely to experience such AP coursework. Take, for example, AP coursework in mathematics. Among 10 Asian/Asian -American/Pacific Islander students with strong likelihood of success in an AP math course, six take that course, whereas four in 10 white, three in 10 Hispanic/Latino, three in 10 black/African-American, and two in 10 Native Americans/Alaska Native students do. Analysts suggest one of the reasons there are fewer qualified Latino students taking AP courses is that these classes are less available in schools with high numbers of low-income or underserved minority students. The College Board report states: “Nowhere is the need Advanced Placement Data on Latinos to expand access to rigorous course work more important According to the College Board’s report, AP Program than among underrepresented minority students.” Participation and Performance Data 2013, Latinos made up Gains in Degree Attainment But Gaps Remain about 18 percent of AP exam-takers nationwide. Among the graduating class of 2012, there were 169,521 The share of adult Hispanics with bachelor’s degree has Latino graduates who took an AP exam during high school risen but the rate of degree attainment varies greatly on a state compared to 153,535 the previous year. About 41 percent of by state basis. And despite the gains, the share of Latino adults the exams taken by Latinos earned a three or higher, typically nationally that have a bachelor’s degree, 13.4 percent, considered passing. In comparison, about 63 percent of remains significantly below that of whites (31.8 percent), exams taken by white students resulted in scores of three or Asians (50.3 percent) and blacks (18.7 percent). higher. Many states are working to close this achievement gap According to data analyzed by the Pew Research Center, on AP tests and some have succeeded. Florida, in which nearly the District of Columbia has the highest college degree-attainone in four graduates is Hispanic, has achieved 100 percent ment rate among Hispanic adults, with 36.2 percent of those AP equity and excellence. age 25 and older holding a bachelor’s degree. Following D.C. But while Latinos’ participation and success in AP courses are the neighboring states of Virginia and Maryland, with coland exams is growing, they still are not well-represented in lege degree-attainment rates of 24.1 percent and 21.2 permath and science areas of study. For example, Latinos made cent, respectively, among their Hispanic adult populations. up about 13 percent of the students who took AP Calculus. Researchers from the Pew Hispanic Center say rates in The Spanish language exam remained the most popular AP these three states might be higher because they include the exam among Latinos. Approximately 37 percent of graduating Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, where nearly half (48.3 Latinos who took at least one AP exam had taken an AP Spanish percent) of the adult population has a college degree. That is course. Many educators argue that the course is a gateway to the highest share among large metro areas and reflects the other AP classes for Hispanic students – once they perform presence of employers like the federal government. well, they tend to go on to enroll in other classes. Students often In Florida, one in five (20.4 percent) Hispanic adults has a take the class in middle school and pass the exam. For this rea- college degree. Florida has the third-largest Hispanic populason, some educators are critical of the fact that many of the stu- tion in the country (8.4 percent) and one of the most diverse, dents already speak Spanish when they are tested. with immigrants from Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela and a The four courses behind Spanish in popularity among growing Puerto Rican population. Mark Hugo López, director of Latino students are English language and composition Hispanic research at the Pew Research Center, said that the high 0 1 / 1 3 / 2 0 1 4

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attainment rates might reflect the fact that immigrants from these areas arriving in the U.S. already have a college degree. Among the states that have the largest Hispanic populations â&#x20AC;&#x201C; California, Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois, respectively â&#x20AC;&#x201C; only Florida and New York have college degree-attainment rates above the national Hispanic average. In California, which alone has 27.7 percent of the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Latino population, only one in 10 (10.7 percent) Latino adults has a college degree. The Latino adult college degree-attainment rate for Texas, with the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second largest Latino population, is just 12 percent. LĂłpez also said that in states such as California and Texas many of the jobs outside metropolitan areas do not

require a college degree. In New York, the fourth biggest Latino state by population, 15.9 percent of Latino adults have a bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree. And in Illinois, the college degree-attainment rate is 12.2 percent. The five states with the lowest Hispanic college degree attainment rates are Nebraska at 9.4 percent, Idaho at 9.1 percent, Mississippi at 8.6 percent, Arkansas at 8.5 percent and Nevada at 8.1 percent. The data excluded Alaska, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia because the Hispanic population sample sizes were too small to provide reliable estimates.

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2014 – The Year Higher Ed Back Against its Critics In COMMENTARY

this age when false equivalencies are staples of the 24hour news networks, the value of higher education has been questioned. Studies show there is a measurable benefit in earnings and employment patterns seen in adults choosing to pursue a higher education degree. And these benefits are making the gap between those who complete different levels of education and those who don’t more pronounced. Yet, over the past few years there has been a steady and increasing drumbeat from some public figures – most notably, a former secretary of education– that pursuing a college education in the 21st century is possibly or definitely a colossal waste of time and money. Proponents of higher education have been largely silent with their heads in the sand over the past decade, believing that no one could reasonably accept this argument, but the drumbeat has gotten so loud that it has drowned out the rationale for a college education. This year all signs indicate that the tide is about to turn and those negative voices are about to be silenced. In 2013, proponents of higher education woke up and began to regroup. Now, if there is one trend to watch in 2014 it will be the way champions of higher education and its institutions will reclaim its reputation and give a full-throated argument – complete with unimpeachable statistics – encouraging students to go beyond a high school diploma for career training and/or a degree. One of the points they will make is how education or the lack of it is creating two Americas – one afforded the financial security that comes with steady, secure and lucrative employment and the other marked by economic uncertainty and limited employment and mobility opportunities. They will be countering arguments that can be found in books like Is College Worth It?: A Former United States Secretary of Education and a Liberal Arts Graduate Expose the Broken Promise of Higher Education written by Bill Bennett in 2013. The title and the author’s position in education unleashed a flurry of editorial comments taking the title of this book quite literally. The feeding frenzy against the concept of higher education actually began with the Great Recession. Venture capitalist and finance writer James Altucher was quoted in New York Magazine as saying at the time, "When [my daughters are] 18 years old, just hand them $200,000 to go off and have a fun time for four years? Why would I want to do that?" Altucher makes no secret of the fact that he thinks higher education is an institutionalized scam. “The cost of college in the past 30 years has gone up tenfold. Health care has only gone up sixfold, and inflation has only gone up threefold. Not only is it a scam, but the college presidents know it. That’s why they keep raising tuition.” Statements like these have gone relatively 50

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unchallenged, but times are changing. The College Board’s annual report Education Pays 2013: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society by Sandy Baum, Jennifer Ma, and Kathleen Payea, documents differences in the earnings and employment patterns of U.S. adults with different levels of education. It also compares health-related behaviors, reliance on public assistance programs, civic participation, and indicators of the well-being of the next generation. Financial benefits are easier to document and put on a spreadsheet, but the intangibles of public welfare and personal satisfaction might be even more important even if they can’t be quantified. It has always stood to reason that individuals with higher levels of education earn more and are more likely than others to be employed, but Education Pays 2013 has provided the statistics to back up that assertion. The report states: “Median earnings of bachelor’s degree recipients with no advanced degree working full time in 2011 were $56,500, which is $21,100 more than median earnings of high school graduates. Individuals with some college but no degree earned 14 percent more than high school graduates working full time. Their median after-tax earnings were 13 percent higher.” As tuition increases, however, there has been speculation that being out of the workforce for four years as well as the cost of higher education is the great leveler. It is argued by some that when costs and lost years are factored in, college graduates don’t enjoy the financial advantage they once had. This new report has statistics that undermine that argument. “Compared to a high school graduate, the median four-year college graduate who enrolls at age 18 and graduates in four years can expect to earn enough by age 36 to compensate for being out of the labor force for four years, as well as for borrowing the full amount required to pay tuition and fees without any grant assistance. Although 16 percent of male high school graduates earned as much as or more than the median earnings of male four-year college graduates in 2011 ($66,200), 84 percent earned less. As workers age, earnings rise more rapidly for those with higher levels of education. For example, the gap between the earnings of full-time workers whose highest degree is a bachelor’s degree and those of high school graduates grows from 54 percent ($15,200) for 25- to 29-year-olds to 86 percent ($32,000) for 45- to 49-year-olds.” The head start high school graduates have over their college graduate peers does not give them an advantage in the employment market. Even students who don’t have college degrees, but have attended college at some time have a decided advantage over those who have no college credits at all. “The 2012 unemployment rate for four-year college graduates

Will Strike ages 25 to 34 was 7.1 percentage points below that for high school graduates. The unemployment rates for those with associate degrees and with some college but no degree were 4.0 and 1.6 percentage points below that for high school graduates, respectively.” Despite the 10 years of increasing negativity by the chattering classes, the public has not entirely bought into the argument. According to Education Pays 2013 the gaps between the college enrollment rates of black and Hispanic high school graduates and white high school graduates have dramatically closed between 2001 and 2011. In 2011, 70 percent of white, 66 percent of black, and 62 percent of Hispanic high school graduates enrolled in college within a year of completing high school. One of the factors influencing them to ignore “conventional wisdom” is the anecdotal evidence provided by their family and associates. The difference between the median earnings for females ages 25 to 34 with bachelor’s degrees or graduate degrees and employed fulltime in a 12-month job and females ages 25 to 34 employed full-time in a 12-month job with only high school diplomas grew from 43 percent in 1971 to 56 percent in 1991 and to 70 percent in 2011. Similarly, when the gap between these women’s male counterparts is compared, the difference rose from 25 percent in 1971 to 56 percent and in 1991 and to 69 percent in 2011. Those who easily dismiss the value of higher education because of a tough job market and rising tuition fail to take into account how a lack of job training and education affects the social welfare of the individual. According to the College Board’s Education Pays 2013 report, 12 percent of high school graduates ages 25 and older lived in households that relied on SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) benefits in 2011, compared to just 2 percent of those with at least a bachelor’s degree. These numbers are comparable to those for the National School Lunch Program. And the perks don’t end there. College-educated adults are more likely than those without a college education to receive health insurance and pension benefits from their employers. In 2011, 52 percent of full-time workers with high school diplomas were given pension plans as compared to 65 percent of those with bachelor’s degrees, and 73 percent of those with advanced degrees. During that same time period, employers provided health insurance to 55 percent of fulltime workers with high school diplomas, 69 percent of those with bachelor’s degrees, and 73 percent of those with advanced degrees.

by Mary Ann Cooper A few short years ago, college and university officials – to paraphrase the movie “Wall Street’s” Gordon Gekko-- could have never imagined having to defend the basic proposition that higher education, for lack of a better word, is good. It’s right, it works. In 2014, spurred on by sluggish economic times, rising costs, and a hostile political dialogue, these same officials show every sign that they are determined to set the record straight.

More than Just Dollars and Cents The social implications of having a college education go beyond just simple dollars and cents. A college education improves health, parenting, a person’s place on the socioeconomic ladder, and economic mobility. Here are some additional rewards of participating in some form of higher education: •

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Within each age group, college-educated adults are less likely than others to be obese. In addition, children living in households with more educated parents are less likely than other children to be obese. College-educated mothers spend more time with children and alter the composition of that time to suit children’s developmental needs more than less educated mothers. Among both those who are employed and those who are not, the amount of time mothers spend on their children’s activities increases with levels of education. College education increases the chances that adults will move up the socioeconomic ladder. Of adults who grew up in the middle family income quintile, 31 percent of those with a four-year college degree moved up to the top income quintile between 2000 and 2008, compared with just 12 percent of those without a four-year college degree.

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TARGETING HIGHER EDUCATION

Charles Dickens so dramatically wrote about the 1789 French Revolution era, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” The year 2013 had its great moments and its disappointments. Hispanic Outlook chronicled many of them for us. It is good to reflect where we have been the better to understand the foundations of our future. In January 2013 this column addressed the issue of who actually makes up our Hispanic/Latino population. It verified what many of us had seen. The group is far more diverse than it was a just a few decades ago. In those days the majority of Spanish-origin people living here hailed from Mexico. They resided mostly in the western part of the nation. After being conquered in 1898, Puerto Ricans began to filter in with the biggest influx being in the 1950s. Those two groups dominated the Hispanic presence for years. That changed during the last 25 years of the 20th century when Hispanics from every Latin country came to America. Who are they? Where did they come from, where did they settle, and what are their educational achievements?

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Political scientists have noted this has meant that many have not fully integrated into the mainland society. Many do not vote and dream of the day when they will return to the island, buy a little farm and live the good life their parents dreamed of. Very few actually do. But the dream persists and keeps them from fully embracing their new home. But that’s changing – especially among the generations born stateside. Hispanics by Country of Origin The 10 largest Hispanic groups comprise 92 percent of the The 10 largest Hispanic origin groups are Mexicans, Puerto U.S. Hispanic population. Six of them have populations Ricans, Salvadorans, Cubans, Dominicans, Guatemalans, greater than 1 million. Colombians, Hondurans, Ecuadorians and Peruvians. All 10 have specific characteristics which differentiate them The United States has approximately 50.7 million in significant ways. For instance, Hispanics of Mexican origin Hispanics. (This excludes 3.7 million living in Puerto Rico.) have the lowest median age (25 years) while CubanHispanics came from every Latin American country. Some Americans have the highest median age (40 years). were here long before Anglo-Saxons arrived. The histories of Colombians are the most likely to have a college degree Western states attest to that. (32 percent). Salvadorans are the least likely at 7 percent. Many came planning to work for a while and return home. Ecuadorians enjoy the highest annual household income Some did but a large number stayed. Others fled political dis- ($50,000) while Dominicans have the lowest ($34,000). Half turbances and hoped to return home, but didn’t. Most came of Hondurans do not have health insurance, the highest share seeking a better life for themselves and their children. among all Hispanics. Two-thirds, or 33 million, self-identify as of Mexican origin Geographic Distributions and comprise the nation’s largest immigrant group. In stark contrast, Puerto Ricans, the nation’s second largest Hispanic group, comprise only 9 percent of the nation’s Hispanics have settled everywhere following employment Hispanic population. opportunities. Like other immigrants they tended to cluster Puerto Ricans are different from other resident Hispanics together. There was comfort, security and assistance in such in a number of ways. They were born American citizens, most enclaves. have some knowledge of English, many are bilingual, and they Mexicans, Salvadorans and Guatemalans are largely condid not flee political persecution and can travel back and forth centrated in Western states. Cubans, Colombians, Hondurans whenever they desire. Given air travel many visit their island and Peruvians are concentrated in Southern states. The largest several times a year. numbers of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Ecuadorians

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reside in the Northeast. Nearly half, 48 percent, of Cubans live in a single county Miami-Dade County in Florida. Miami-Dade is also home to the nation’s largest Colombian, Honduran and Peruvian communities. Los Angeles County contains 9 percent of the nation’s entire Hispanic population: Mexicans of course but Salvadorans and Guatemalans as well. L.A. actually hosts each group’s largest community in the country. The Bronx in New York contains the largest Puerto Rican and Dominican populations and Queens contains the largest Ecuadorian population. Since so many Hispanics attend community colleges, Hispanic Outlook devotes an issue to that segment of higher education every year. In March of 2013 we noted that a community college innovation – widely criticized by four- year colleges years ago now has been adopted by many of them. In 1901 William Rainey Harper, president of the University of Chicago, felt and publicly stated that his faculty members were wasting their time teaching and dealing with freshmen and sophomore students. If he could only get them off campus he could fashion his university to provide upper level courses and graduate education. Let others teach the unwashed and undisciplined hoi polloi. Thus the influential Harper became, quite unwittingly, the father of our present community college system. Initially junior colleges offered the first two years of college work with the intention that their graduates would transfer to universities. The experiment worked. Today there are 1200 community colleges nationwide, although their mission has expanded dramatically. They have been the most utilized pathway for Hispanics to enter higher education.

birth were permitted to enter good professions. Then there was the matter of gender. For females, no amount of wealth or family preeminence could afford the same opportunities enjoyed by males. That was the reality for hundreds of years. If that were true of undergraduate education, it was even more pronounced for graduate education. Hispanic enrollment in graduate schools continues to increase every year. That’s the good news. On the other hand, those advances have not kept up with the increase in the college-age population.

High school and Undergraduate Realities To attend college, students have to graduate from high school. Many Hispanics never do. But there is good news, high school graduation rates have risen to their highest level in 40 years! The increase was driven by “a surge in the percentage of Hispanic students earning diplomas.” According to a government report, some 78.2 percent of high school students earned a diploma within four years in the 2009-10 class. Those were the best graduation rates since 1974. Hispanic student rates surged 10 percent to 71.4 percent between 2006 and 2010. Now the continuing bad news, too few Hispanic students graduate from college. It’s not surprising since in some Hispanics districts only 50 percent finish high school. The pool is therefore small. For the few who attend a four-year college, half do not graduate in six years. Fifty-one percent of Hispanics earn bachelor’s degrees in six years or less, in contrast with 59 percent of Caucasian students. Many Hispanics go directly to universities but most start their academic careers at a local community college. There their dropout rates are far too high. There are many reasons Certificate Programs why: poor educational preparation having attended substanThe story is well-known. Community colleges were criticized dard high schools, family pressures including the need to and scorned by many for their innovations. Among them are work to help them, some societal pressure that marginalizes certificate programs. At first ridiculed by many, even by those their desire to study. But many believe that finances are the working in community colleges, they are now emulated. . major hurdle Hispanics face and thus have to work, at times What are certificates and what postsecondary needs do they full time, while attending college. meet? That was addressed by a Georgetown University study headed by Anthony P. Carnevale, who published Certificates: Three Factors Will Impact Graduate Education in the Gateway To Gainful Employment and College Degrees. Future They undertook this report to help advance the discussion It is quite possible that in the future we will see a populaand understanding of certificates and their value. The authors tion less educated than that of today. Scholars predict a conbelieve that certificates will continue to grow in our nation’s tinuation of large numbers with low math and low reading higher education system in the coming years. Many are now skill levels. being offered by universities. Because of the controversy surAs a result, the government suggests, we will see more of rounding certificates and the institutions that award them, efforts our student population ineligible to pursue higher education. to contribute to transparency about their effects are essential. According to U. S. Census Bureau, international migration In April HO discussed “Hispanics and Graduate will account for more than half of the nation’s population Education.” Higher education was once the domain of privi- growth by the year 2015. So even more first-generation college leged males. They came from financially influential families students will arrive. Many if not most, will require additional and were virtually guaranteed to be accepted by the college of educational preparation to succeed in our technological age. their choice. Many quite ordinary boys given the luck of their The immense Hispanic immigrant inflow has slowed down

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but that is a short- term consequence of government policy and a poor economy. That will change as surely as daylight bursts forth every day. The number of “non-traditional” graduate students we see today at our universities will continue to grow. They are a new group of diverse students different from previous generations of graduate students. Many are working, some full time, they are older, and don’t pursue graduate education as a means of securing their first job. Instead they desire to change professions or improve their employability in their present field.

Drop-out Rate at Record Low” and further “Hispanic High School Graduates Pass Whites in Rate of College Enrollment.” Although 28 percent of Hispanics did not complete high school in 2000, that completion rate has improved dramatically. In 2011 that percentage dropped precipitously to 14 percent. To reiterate, 14 percent of Hispanics still failed to graduate from high school. But that is an all-time record low! Clearly the message of having to graduate from high school has gotten through. Teachers, parents and a multitude of others succeeded in their efforts to get young Hispanics off on the right foot by graduating from high school. The U.S. Census Bureau reveals more good news: a record seven in 10 Hispanic 2012 high school graduates enrolled in college that same fall. Furthermore, it is two percentage points higher than the rate (67 percent) of their white counterparts. Those milestones are the result of long-term Hispanic activism and persistence. Today the goal of finishing high school is well-embedded. These are but a few topics explored in 2013 and present us a window into our future. It will be the best of times and the worst of times.

Hispanic Successes We have long bemoaned the fact that a high percent of Hispanics don’t finish high school and, ergo, don’t go to college. Therefore, we have witnessed an unending procession of youngsters condemned to dreary unfulfilled lifetimes. They are doomed to live below what their natural talents and abilities could provide because they were never developed. A desire to change that dismal scenario motivated the founders of Hispanic Outlook to create this publication some 25 years ago. The results unfortunately remained turgid and dismal for decades. Now, there is finally some good news. A report by the Pew Dr. Mellander was a university dean for 15 years and a Foundation reflects what we have seen on our campuses. Pew college president for 20. proclaims in large headlines that “Hispanic High School

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The Best Candidate for you

IS OUT THERE. VICE PROVOST AND DEAN OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING AND THE VICE PROVOST AND DEAN OF ARTS, SCIENCES AND BUSINESS

Advertise your adjunct, full-time, temporary, visiting faculty, and replacement positions in

The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Digital Magazine

Rolla, Missouri Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) seeks a Vice Provost and Dean of the new College of Engineering and Computing and a Vice Provost and Dean of the new College of Arts, Sciences and Business. Missouri S&T is at a pivotal moment in its 143-year history, with an inspiring new chancellor, an ambitious strategic plan strongly supported by the University of Missouri System, and a decade of growth in its enrollments, research expenditures, scholarly activity, and overall academic quality. As the leaders of two newly created colleges, the deans will join a dynamic leadership team including a new Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs coming on board in 2014. Located in the Ozark Highlands, Missouri S&T was founded in 1870 as one of the first technological schools west of the Mississippi River. Today, Missouri S&T is among the nation's top research universities. A campus of the University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T enrolls more than 8,100 students from 50 states and 55 foreign countries with 55 degree programs in engineering, science, computing and technology, business, management systems, education, the humanities, and the liberal arts.

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The university has recently embarked on a strategic restructuring, organizing its 21 academic departments, currently reporting to the provost, into two new colleges: the College of Engineering and Computing comprising nine departments and the College of Arts, Sciences, and Business comprising 12 departments. Both deans will work with the provost and chancellor to define and implement the new college structures, to oversee and manage a shift in administrative responsibilities, and to develop Missouri S&T as a leading public technological research university dedicated to discovery, creativity and innovation. The deans will forge strong interconnected relationships between the colleges while the university grows the faculty by 2020 with 100 additional hires in select areas. Missouri S&T has retained the services of Isaacson, Miller to assist with these searches. Confidential inquiries, nominations, referrals, and resumes with cover letters should be directed in confidence to: Vivian Brocard, Vice President and Director, or Liz Vago, Managing Associate, for the Vice Provost and Dean of Engineering and Computing search at 5003@imsearch.com, and to Vivian Brocard, Vice President and Director, or Allison Davis, Associate, for the Vice Provost and Dean of Arts, Sciences and Business search at 5004@imsearch.com. Electronic submission of materials is strongly encouraged. To learn more about Missouri S&T, visit http://www.mst.edu. Equal opportunity shall be provided for all applicants on the basis of their demonstrated ability and competence without discrimination on the basis of their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, and status as Vietnam era veteran.

01/13/2014

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ASSOCIATION ASSOCIA TION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

Spring 2014 Working Conferences General Educationn and nd Assessment: Disruptions, Innovations, ns, an and d Oppor O tunities

Diversityy, y, Learning, ng, and nd Student S Success: P li y, Pr Policy PPractice, ractice, i P i il Privilege

February February 27–March 27–March 1, 2014 Portland, P Oregon

March March 27–29, 2014 Chicago, Illinois Il

From Disruption to Design: A General Education for 2030?

The Wind Beneath Their Wings — JULIANNE MALLV VEAUX, ECONOMIST, AUTHOR, R, COMMENTTA ATOR T

— RANDALL BASS, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY; AND SYBRIL BENNETT, BELMONT UNIVERSITY

Examining Leadership Paradoxes: New Students and Faculty on Campus — ADRIANNA KEZAR, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA; AND ROBERT TT.. TERANISHI, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA–LOS C ANGELES

Improving and Measuring Student Success: Perspectives on Policy HA COOPER, INSTITUTE FOR HIGHER EDUCA ATION TTION POLICY; and Practice — MICHELLE ASHA STEVE GUNDERSON, ASSOCIA ATION TION N OF PRIV VA ATTE SECTOR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES; DEBRA HUMPHREYS, AAC&U; JOSÉ SÉ MORENO, CALIFORNIA STTA ATE UNIVERSITY Y, LONG BEACH; AND CHRISTI PEDRA, CARDINAL RDINAL HEALLTH

Leading Innovation and Institutional Transformation — ELLEN JUNN, SAN JOSE STTA ATE UNIVERSITY UNIVE ; AND ANNY MORROBEL-SOSA, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK HERBERT H. LEHMAN COLLEGE

Evolving Identities of E-Portfolios — BRET EYNON, LA GUARDIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE/CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK The Degree Qualifications Profile: Framing Learning Outcomes for General Education — HOLIDAAY HART MCKIERNAN, LUMINA FOUNDA ATION; TION; AND PAUL GASTON, TON, KENT STTA ATE UNIVERSITY

Technology-Enabled Education: Opportunities and Pitfalls — CANDACE THILLE, ST TANFORD ANFORD UNIVERSITY UNIV ; AND SYLLVIA VIA MANNING, HIGHER LEARNING COMMISSION

Assuring Diversity in the Post-Fisher Era: Insights, Implications, Actions — LESTER P. MONTS, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN A New Era for Making Excellence Inclusive: Difficult Dialogues, RED GARCÍA, CALIFORNIA STTA ATE UNIVERSITY, FULLERTON Critical Decisions — MILDRED

For more inf information ormation or to register: www www.aacu.org .aacu.org 202.387.3760 netw network@aacu.org ork@aacu.org

Director of Intercultural Training, Learning and Development

Grand Valley State University (www.gvsu.edu) invites applications for the position of Director of Intercultural Training, Learning, and Development to begin as soon as possible. Grand Valley is a comprehensive, public university that provides a wide array of fully accredited academic programs, each building on a longstanding commitment to education in the liberal tradition. Grand Valley attracts more than 24,000 students with its high quality programs and state-of-the-art facilities.

The Director for Intercultural Training, Learning, and Development will do the following: provide leadership to develop and implement diversity and intercultural competency learning programs, events and activities; develop and coordinate curriculum for diversity courses, workshops, conferences, and seminars in collaboration with colleges and departments; as well as serve as a resource to other employees working in the area of AA/EEO, diversity, and intercultural competency.

The successful candidate must have knowledge of curriculum development, instruction design and delivery methods, principles and strategies of adult learning theory and organization development. The candidate must also have experience in public speaking, training and facilitation methodologies, human relations theories/ concepts, trends and issues related to AA/EEO and diversity. An understanding of the intersectionality of all types of diversity is essential. Experience working with the Latino community is a plus. Ability to work with diverse populations, assess and provide appropriate interventions based on individual/group intercultural competency level, assess competency training and development needs, write facilitation/training aids, manuals and materials, and establish cooperative working relations in the course of performing assigned duties is also required. Reports to the Vice President for Inclusion and Equity.

Bachelor’s degree with specialization in Education/Training or related field is required. Master’s degree and experience in higher education is preferred. Must have excellent written, oral communication and interpersonal skills. Travel between campuses is required. Salary is commensurate with experience with excellent benefits.

The Hispanic Outlook Magazine®

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For a full description and to apply online, go to www.gvsujobs.org. Include a cover letter, resume, and the names and electronic mail contact information of three references. The online system will allow you to electronically attach these documents. Review will begin immediately and continue until the position in filled. Grand Valley State University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution...See our website at www.gvsu.edu

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m tlook.co panicou lian@his o.derba av il: a E-m

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Bowling Green State University Dean College of Arts and Sciences

Bowling Green State University seeks applications and nominations for the position of Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The largest and most complex of nine academic colleges, the College of Arts and Sciences is comprised of 4 schools, 21 departments, and 9 interdisciplinary programs, and offers degrees at the baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral levels. For more information, visit our web site at: www.bgsu.edu.

Major responsibilities: The Dean is the chief academic officer of the College and reports directly to the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. The new Dean is expected to bring this strong college to heightened national prominence and lead it in developing innovative curricula, new programs, and providing outstanding service to the region and State of Ohio. The successful candidate will be expected to: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

provide leadership in strengthening and expanding important academic programs; assume a leadership role in fundraising from public and private sources; oversee the College budget; sustain the vitality, growth and rigor of established and new research, scholarship and creative endeavors; provide focus and direction to current and future initiatives in teaching, curricular development and general education; stimulate cooperative partnerships with colleges, community organizations and industry; understand and support the importance of international and global education; create and enhance opportunities for interdisciplinary pursuits within the College and across the University; value the college’s traditions of shared governance incorporating consultation with a wide range of constituencies; implement and oversee comprehensive recruitment and retention plans for faculty, staff and students commensurate with the College and University strategic goals; be committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse student body and faculty; oversee the effective management of day-to-day operations; and advocate for the needs and promote the contributions of the College to the Office of the Provost and the University community at large.

Minimum qualifications: The candidate’s curriculum vitae must clearly evidence: • • •

an earned doctorate or terminal degree; distinguished credentials in teaching, scholarly research/creative activity, and service meriting appointment with tenure at the rank of professor; and a minimum of five years in progressive leadership roles in higher education.

Application process: Review of materials will begin immediately and continue until the appointment is made. It is preferred, however, that all nominations and applications be submitted prior to January 31. References will be treated in a confidential manner and will not be contacted until advanced stages of screening. Interested individuals should send: 1) a cover letter addressing the stated responsibilities and qualifications; 2) a current curriculum vitae; and 3) the names, addresses and telephone numbers of five references to: Mailing Address: OR Ms. Lori Ritchie Office of the Provost Bowling Green State University 220 McFall Center Bowling Green, OH 43403

Electronic Address: lritchi@bgsu.edu

Further information is available at: Bowling Green State University: Dean, College of Arts and Sciences

BGSU is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from women, minorities, veterans, and persons with disabilities.

Asst Prof CLF Positions 2013

The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences invites applications for full-time, tenure-track positions at the assistant professor level, in the areas of food sustainability, food production and public health. Successful candidates will have positions in the Center for a Livable Future (CLF), which focuses on the interactions among diet, food production, the environment and public health. The successful candidate in the area of “FOOD PRODUCTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH” will direct the CLF’s program in “Food System Sustainability and Public Health” and engage in interdisciplinary public health research, policy and practice focused on food system sustainability themes. There is particular interest in identifying candidates with expertise in food waste, food and climate change, the U.S. Farm Bill, and public communications about food system environmental issues. Candidates should have at least five years of direct work experience in policy and practice, including generating and providing evidence to support policy and practice efforts, working with coalitions, public speaking and advocacy. Experience in program management is highly desirable.

The successful candidate in the program area of “FOOD SYSTEMS AND PUBLIC HEALTH” will lead the CLF’s program “Food Production and Public Health”. This individual will engage in interdisciplinary public health research, policy development, practice, and advocacy focused on food system themes, with a particular focus on the environmental public health and food safety concerns stemming from the industrial production of food. There is particular interest in identifying candidates with expertise in topics including industrial food animal production, the risk sciences, chemical and microbial food safety, veterinary drugs and antibiotic resistance, disproportionate exposures and vulnerable populations, chemical assessment policy, and regulatory decision-making. The successful candidates will demonstrate a commitment to and experience with synthesizing and translating scientific evidence into practice and policy initiatives that effectively minimize the burden of food production on human populations and environmental quality. A demonstrated record of effectively communicating with legislative and regulatory decision-makers, and the public, is preferred. Candidates should have doctoral degrees in public health or a related academic discipline, and have experience and/or training in a variety of policy and applied environmental risk research methodologies, both qualitative and quantitative. Successful candidates in both program areas will be active contributors to the CLF’s educational and communication missions, and should demonstrate a potential for high-quality teaching, and have experience teaching and mentoring at the graduate level, ideally in a school of public health or public health related field. For more detailed job descriptions go to: http://faculty.jhsph.edu/openings.cfm

The Johns Hopkins University actively encourages interest from women and minorities and is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. James D. Yager, PhD, Chair, Search Committee

Applicants should submit: 1) a current CV; 2) a letter of interest stating which position is being applied for; and 3) the names of three professional referees. These should be sent electronically, with the subject line CLF Faculty Search to: CLFSEARCHCOMMITTEE at CLFSEARC@JHSPH.EDU Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences

Application review will begin in January 2014 and continue until the positions are filled.

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Dean Extended University

California State University, Bakersfield seeks a knowledgeable and entrepreneurial leader to serve as Dean of the Extended University. The Dean is a member of the Provost’s Council and reports to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. The purpose of CSUB’s Extended University is to further the CSU mission by providing self-supported programs to people with unmet educational needs. In practice, it offers a wide variety of professional development and degree programs to help students achieve their educational goals, increase skills and improve opportunities for career advancement. CSUB opened in 1970 and is one of the 23 campuses in the California State University system. It is growing rapidly in both size and reputation with its 8,000 students expected to grow to over 10,000 in the next several years while it’s academic, athletic, and extracurricular programs continue to excel. See www.csub.edu.

Bakersfield is the county seat for the County of Kern and lies at the southern terminus of the famous San Joaquin Valley. The city has a metropolitan population of approximately 400,000. The city boasts nearly 300 sun-filled days per year and is noted for offering some of the most affordable housing in all of California. Bakersfield offers plentiful cultural and recreational opportunities within its boundaries and is also within easy driving distance from San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas as well as great beaches, mountains, and deserts. For complete advertisement, application instructions, and detailed job description for this position, please visit our webpage at http://www.csub.edu/provost/MPPSearches.shtml CSUB is an EO/AA/Title IX employer.

Faculty Positions Anoka-Ramsey Community College, with campuses in both Cambridge and Coon Rapids, Minnesota, has been a leading provider of higher education and training in East Central Minnesota since 1978 and the north suburban area of Minneapolis/St. Paul since 1965. AnokaRamsey aligned with Anoka Technical College, Anoka, Minnesota, in 2011. Annually, the two colleges (three campuses) serve more than 16,000 learners of all ages as they pursue associate’s degrees that transfer as the first two years of a bachelor's degree or technical and certificate programs. The following full-time faculty positions will begin August 2014. The application deadline is January 31, 2014.

Business English The following full-time and part-time faculty positions will begin August 2014. The application deadline is February 7, 2014.

Nursing For more information about the positions and the application process, please visit the Anoka-Ramsey Community College website at: http://agency.governmentjobs.com/anokaramseycc/default.cfm Anoka-Ramsey Community College is an equal opportunity institution and employer and a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System.

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ASSISTANT VICE CHANCELLOR OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON

The Office of Academic Affairs at Washington State University Vancouver invites applications for a twelve-month, full-time, position as Assistant Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs (AVCAA) to begin May 15, 2014.

Responsibilities: The AVCAA supports the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs (VCAA) in the achievement of the academic mission and vision of WSU Vancouver. The AVCAA has essential job duties and responsibilities within four major areas: assessment and accreditation, institutional research and strategic planning, academic planning, and student success. Required Qualifications: Terminal degree in any discipline while being tenurable at associate or full professor, and having had higher education leadership experience. Be qualified and show evidence of ability to lead collaborative efforts across disciplines and organizational units; advance diversity; and utilize data-driven approaches to developing policy recommendations (e.g., undergraduate and graduate curriculum development, or assessment, evaluation, and etc.). Preferred Qualifications: Evidence of significant leadership experience with curriculum and program assessment and evaluation; experience in linking Academic Affairs and Student Affairs; experience with accreditation. Application, Screening Procedures, and Deadline: Review of applications will begin February 1, 2014, and will continue until the position is filled. For application requirements and to apply, visit https://www.wsujobs.com/applicants/jsp/shared/ position/JobDetails_css.jsp. Direct inquiries to Dr. Susan Finley, Search Committee Chair (finley@vancouver.wsu.edu). Washington State University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action educator and employer. Members of ethnic minorities, women, special disabled veterans, veterans of the Vietnam-era, recently separated veterans, and other protected veterans, persons of disability and/or persons age 40 and over are encouraged to apply.

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DEAN RUTGERS SCHOOL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

R . W I LLI A M F U N K & A S S O C I AT ES

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, invites applications and nominations for the position of Dean of its nationally renowned School of Criminal Justice. Reporting to Chancellor Nancy Cantor, the Dean serves as chief academic officer and chief administrative officer of the School of Criminal Justice, and bears responsibility for academic leadership, fundraising, strategic planning, budgeting, faculty recruitment and development, student/alumni relations, and day-to-day operations. The next Dean will be a visionary leader who is studentcentered and who has a deep appreciation for the role of an excellent public urban university in the 21st century. Located minutes from Manhattan, the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice has long enjoyed a reputation for academic excellence and path-breaking applied research. The School offers undergraduate, Master’s, and doctoral degrees. Currently, the School has over 600 undergraduate majors and approximately 120 students in its doctoral and Master’s programs.

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Faculty and students alike are driven by a passionate concern about problems of crime, public security, and social justice. Their specific interests are diverse, bringing a wide array of rigorous methods and sharply honed theoretical perspectives to tackle important problems that affect people’s lives. This leads to a deep engagement with people and communities, policy-making, and professional and lay groups, both here and abroad. The overarching aim of the School is to have impact - to change the way people think about crime and justice, as well as the manner by which the work of justice is conducted. The Dean should be a well-regarded scholar in criminology or criminal justice with academic credentials appropriate for appointment to a senior faculty position and significant administrative experience. The best candidate for this post will have exemplary interpersonal and communications skills and will be a consummate fund-raiser and friend-raiser for the School. Desired characteristics include an appreciation for an excellent faculty, a team-orientation and a consensus-building style of decision-making, and a passion for preparing students for productive and successful lives. While applications and nominations will be accepted until a new Dean is selected, interested parties are encouraged to submit their materials to our consultant at the address below by February 28 to assure optimal consideration. Candidate materials should include an updated resume and a letter of interest. All correspondence regarding the search should be sent electronically and addressed to: Rutgers Newark Dean of Criminal Justice Search R. William Funk & Associates 100 Highland Park Village, Suite 200 Dallas, Texas 75205 Email: krisha.creal@rwilliamfunk.com Fax: 214/295-3312 ~Rutgers University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer~

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POSITIONS ARIZONA

California State University, Bakersfield University of California, Santa Barbara

58 58

MARYLAND

Johns Hopkins University

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01/13/2014

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Bowling Green State University

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Centralia College Washington State University, Vancouver CONFERENCES

Association of American Colleges & Universities

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