04/04/2011 Graduate Schools Make Hispanics a Priority

APRIL 04, 2011

•

$3.75

TOP 25 Graduate Schools for Hispanics

www.HispanicOutlook.com

VOLUME 21 • NUMBER 13

Diversifying Graduate Schools for Hispanics

/ 6 & 4 5 3 " 4

% * 4 $ * 1 * / " 4 5 6

' 6 5 6 3 0

(S BEVBU F

4 U VEJ F T

2

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

® Editorial Board Ricardo Fernández, President

Publisher – José López-Isa

Lehman College

Vice President & Chief

Mildred García, President

Operating Officer – Orlando López-Isa

California State University-Domínguez Hills Editor – Adalyn Hixson

Juán González,VP Student Affairs

Executive & Managing Editor –

University of Texas at Austin

Suzanne López-Isa Carlos Hernández, President

News Desk & Copy Editor – Jason Paneque

New Jersey City University

Special Project Editor – Mary Ann Cooper

Lydia Ledesma-Reese, Educ. Consultant Administrative Assistant & Subscription

Ventura County Community College District

Coordinator – Barbara Churchill

Gustavo A. Mellander, Dean Emeritus George Mason University

DC Congressional Correspondent –

Loui Olivas,Assistant VP Academic Affairs

Peggy Sands Orchowski

Arizona State University Contributing Editors –

Eduardo Padrón, President

Carlos D. Conde

Miami Dade College

Michelle Adam

Antonio Pérez, President

Online Contributing Writers –

Borough of Manhattan Community College

Gustavo A. Mellander

María Vallejo, Provost Palm Beach State College

Art & Production Director – Avedis Derbalian

Editorial Policy

Graphic Designer – Joanne Aluotto

The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine® is a national magazine published 25 times a year. 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®.

Sr.Advertising Sales Associate – Angel M. Rodríguez Advertising Sales Associate – Judah Moskowitz

Article Contributors Frank DiMaria, Marilyn Gilroy, Paul Hoogeveen, Clay Latimer, Miquela Rivera, Jeff Simmons, Gary M. Stern

Advertising Sales TEL (201) 587-8800 ext. 102/106 FAX (201) 587-9105 email: Outlook@sprintmail.com The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine® is a member of

Editorial Office 80 Route 4 East, Suite 203, Paramus, N.J. 07652 TEL (201) 587-8800 or (800) 549-8280 FAX (201) 587-9105

and a sponsor of

“‘The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education’ and ‘Hispanic Outlook’ are registered trademarks of The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Publishing Company, Inc.”

Want a Subscription?

Visit: www.HispanicOutlook.com or call toll free 1 (800) 549-8280 ext. 108

Article Reprints: Available through “The Reprint Dept.” Tel: 800-259-0470

Letters to the Editor The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine ®

Postmaster: Please send all changes of address to: The Hispanic Outlook, P.O. Box 68, Paramus, N.J. 07652

80 Route 4 East, Suite 203, Paramus, N.J. 07652 email: sloutlook@aol.com 0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

3

Esquina E ditorial

W

elcome to our annual Graduate School Issue. And bravo to Florida International University and Nova Southeastern University on leading the lists of schools with the most Hispanics earning advanced business degrees and graduate schools enrolling Hispanics. Seeing these numbers increase from handfuls to thousands has been a great pleasure – but the U.S. needs even more to remain competitive.

Meanwhile, Nobel award-winning economist Paul Krugman, in his New York Times column of March 2 citing the work of economists David Autor, Frank Levy and Richard Murnane, challenges the conventional wisdom that “education is the key to economic success.” The chief point seems to be that “much of the white-collar work currently carried out by well-educated, relatively well-paid workers may soon be computerized.”

Current examples are legal research and computer-aided medical diagnosis. Krugman also cites the suggestion of fellow Princetonians Alan Blinder and Alan Krueger that “high wage jobs performed by highly educated workers are more ‘offshorable’ than jobs done by low-paid, lesseducated workers.” But the message for today’s and tomorrow’s students seems to be to select a career that is durable and flexible.

Congratulations to Miami Dade College’s Dr. Eduardo Padrón on the latest of his many honors – his election as chair of the Board of Directors of ACE, the American Council on Education. In making the announcement, ACE noted that Padrón’s work at Miami Dade “has been hailed as a model of innovation in higher education.”

And congratulations to MIT for candid reporting of its flawed performance in seeking diversity, which Jeff Simmons writes about in this issue. We hope its renewed commitment is fruitful. ¡Adelante!

Suzanne López-Isa Managing Editor

S U B S C R I B E TO : $19.95

Pass this on to a colleague...

Take advantage of our 2011 rates

(25 issues)

1 Year (25 issues) $29.95 $19.95

Payment enclosed Make check payable to: The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education

PLEASE ALLOW 2 TO 3 WEEKS FOR DELIVERY OF YOUR FIRST ISSUE AFTER PAYMENT IS RECEIVED

NAME

TITLE/INSTITUTION

ADDRESS

CITY/STATE/ZIP CODE

CREDIT CARD #

SIGNATURE/EXP. DATE

BILLING ADDRESS

CITY/STATE/ZIP CODE

P. O . B o x 6 8 , P a r a m u s , N J 0 7 6 5 2 - 0 0 6 8

4

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

Te l . # 1 . 8 0 0 . 5 4 9 . 8 2 8 0 e x t . 1 0 8

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

w w w. h i s p a n i c o u t l o o k . c o m

Po lit

i cal Beat

The Teaching Profession Under Siege

by Carlos D. Conde

O

ther than my parents, the greatest influences in my life have been teachers or people related to teaching. It dates to a declaration early in my life about the values of an education and about learning.

My parents told my brother and me they would do whatever it took and make whatever sacrifices to push us to get a formal learning because, as they explained, you can lose all your material possessions but no one can ever take away an education.

It was simplistic philosophy, perhaps, but we took heed and we both graduated from the University of Texas – my brother as an educator and I as a journalist in a longago era when an advanced education was certainly not a priority for most and a privilege for only a few.

The situation was further aggravated by the fact that we were a Mexican-American family and, in the environment of those days, members of my minority group felt more comfortable in a cotton field than in an academic hall.

We were not expected to go beyond high school, if even that, but some, like my parents, challenged us, and we persisted, ignoring whatever the socioeconomic barriers.

For learning, you need good, committed teachers. I credit a large part of that path to the wonderfully

inspiring instructors like “la Maestra Carmen” who introduced us to the ABCs under a sprawling mesquite tree and the Catholic nuns who taught the multiplication tables interspersed with religious training.

There was Miss Lillian Hare, who taught that “I comes before E, except after C,” and my high school English teacher, Mrs. Ruth McAnally, who developed our writing prose, and on to college where a crusty Bill Hinkle lectured on the who, where and whys of journalism.

Whatever we are and whatever my brother and I became, we owe largely to our parents but also to those unsung teachers whose sometimes intrusive and challenging academic demands we did not yet fully comprehend.

That was then. Today the teaching profession seems much more complicated, tormented and, to some, overcompensated. You could also say the profession – or should we call it an industry – is under siege in many parts of the country.

Politicians like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are leading the assault.

He thinks teachers earn too much and are too mollycoddled, with way too many perks that distort the mission and, more seriously, are overwhelming government coffers.

He wants to restructure or eliminate some key elements like the teachers’ bargaining rights, saying the compensation and some of the gained privileges are out of whack.

Walker is not just singling out teachers. He includes all unionized state workers, whom he claims together are wrecking the state finances. The unions threaten to wreck him first, and if the past is prologue, they can do it.

Governors in Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, California and Indiana are feeling the same way. And they are just as vulnerable to the politi-

cal might of the unions and their ability to coalesce public sentiment, particularly when it’s about curtailing the educational programs of the little darlings.

The budget fights are not just about teachers but also involve government workers who are unionized, such as the sacrosanct police and firemen unions, who have always managed to beat down any attempts by elected leaders to curb some of their cushy benefits or at least to bring them under control.

Fort Lauderdale’s Sun-Sentinel recently reported that in a coastal town in South Florida, a police officer below a chief’s rank retired with a lump sum of $700,000 plus an annual pension of $120,000, at the age of 46.

You can tell how coveted these jobs are when 76 prospects apply for one firefighter’s position and work on a force that has received a 3 percent raise each of the preceding five years.

However, it’s the teachers that politicians and a growing number of taxpayers are picking on, arguing that the education system is getting close to the mark where the financing becomes unsustainable, and the entire education system needs a revamping.

There are about 6.5 million teachers in the U.S., with about 2.3 million working in the elementary grades. There are an estimated 76 million students in all categories.

The average salary in academia is $35,000 to $40,000, which doesn’t seem all that excessive and can be misleading because it lumps teachers with all the other jobs in the education industry, from administrators to janitors.

Connecticut pays the most with an average $57,760 annually, followed by California with $57,604, New Jersey with $56,635 and South

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

Dakota with the lowest at $34,039.

Chicago pays its teachers an average $53,713; and Miami, $34,501.

Critics of the teaching profession and its compensation contend there are many inequities that distort the value of the job. In some states, teachers retire, start collecting their pension and return to the classroom, double-dipping or getting paid twice for the same job.

Whatever it’s worth, you don’t want to taunt the teaching profession too much over its state of affairs and how to fix the system, for it is a powerful element that in the end has been able to beat down most critics.

Besides the local and state organizations, it has the National Education Association, which has been around since 1857 and now has 3.2 million members. There is also the 1.4 million American Federation of Teachers, and together they have been able to successfully advocate for their constituents’ interests and welfare.

With that kind of armory, not to the mention the legions of supportive parents, say what they say and try what they might, governors and other reformists have found it a formidable challenge to revamp the system – even when they plead poverty and expose inadequacies.

Teaching and teachers have been around since the earth’s early dawn. Structured or unstructured, for better or for worse, teaching will continue as one of society’s fundamentals.

Carlos D. Conde, award-winning journalist and commentator, former Washington and foreign news correspondent, was an aide in the Nixon White House and worked on the political campaigns of George Bush Sr. To reply to this column, contact Cdconde@aol.com.

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

5

MAGAZINE® APRIL 04, 2011

CONTENTS University of Chicago Booth School of Business Makes Diversity a Priority by Paul Hoogeveen

8

Two Florida Schools Lead the Way for Hispanic Graduate Students by Mary Ann Cooper

11

Universities Make Progress in Diversifying Graduate 14 Schools, but Obstacles Remain by Marilyn Gilroy

f Page 11

Fostering a Culture of Inclusion: MIT Takes a Hard Look at Itself by Jeff Simmons

17

GAO Finds Fraud, Deception and Questionable Marketing Tactics at For-Profits by Frank DiMaria

20

Boosting Minority Acceptance into Business School: 24 One Nonprofit Paves the Way by Gary M. Stern

Online Articles Arizona-Bred Kris Gutiérrez New President of Research Association by Clay Latimer First Lady Promotes Study Abroad, and Gilman Scholars Program Funds It by Peggy Sands Orchowski To view these and other select articles online, go to our website: www.HispanicOutlook.com.

Page 14

6

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

DEPARTMENTS Political Beat

5

by Carlos D. Conde

The Teaching Profession Under Siege

Uncensored

by Peggy Sands Orchowski

Interesting Reads and Media...

Book Review

by Mary Ann Cooper

23

27

27

How to Hire the Perfect Employer: Finding the Job and Career that Fit You Through a Powerful Personal Infomercial

Hi gh Sc ho ol For um

Page 20

28

More High School Seniors Opt for College as Job Market Shrinks by Mary Ann Cooper

FYI...FYI...FYI...

Hispanics on the Move

30

32

Targeting Higher Education: Graduate School Realities

by Gustavo A. Mellander (Online only)

Priming the Pump...

by Miquela Rivera

Teaching Latino Students How to Adapt to Communication and Work Styles

Back Cover

HO is also available in digital format; go to our website: www.HispanicOutlook.com.

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

Page 24 Cover photo courtesy of University of Chicago Booth School of Business

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

7

GRADUATE SCHOOLS/PROGRAMS

University of Chicago Booth Diversity a Priority

by Paul Hoogeveen

When

it comes to fostering diversity, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business is no stranger to being a frontrunner. Established at the end of the 19th century, the institution scored a number of firsts in promoting higher education for women and minorities. It was the first business school to grant a Ph.D. in business to a woman, the first to award a Master of Business Administration to an African-American student and the first to establish minority relations and scholarship programs. It was also one of the first to create a dedicated office of diversity affairs, and today boasts a number of partnerships with minority business organizations, as well as a handful of prestigious minority fellowships.

University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2008, when alumnus David Booth (M.B.A., 1971) made a historic endowment to the school of $300 million – the single largest donation ever given to a U.S. business school.

“My gift is largely unrestricted,” Booth said of his endowment. “I wanted to do that to enable them to have the most flexibility – to make them as competitive as possible. What I really want to do is create an environment that the university can do special things with. Take some risks. Do some research that might not get funded otherwise. ... If you look at business schools around the country, I don’t think any of them have the influence that Chicago has had.”

Historic Firsts and Singular Achievements With campuses in Chicago, London and Singapore, the Booth School of Business, second oldest school of its kind in the world and the first business school to boast six Nobel prizewinners, has a history stretching back to 1898, when the College of Commerce and Politics was chartered at the University of Chicago by renowned economist James Laurence Laughlin (who also contributed to the founding of the Federal Reserve System). Its founding principles were “scientific guidance and investigation of great economic and social matters of everyday importance.”

It established its doctorate program in business in 1920 and nine years later became the first graduate school to award a Ph.D. in business to a woman – Ursula Batchelder Stone, who became a prominent researcher and member of Chicago’s Hyde Park community and was also a faculty member of George Williams College.

The school offered its first M.B.A. degree program in 1935; shortly afterward, the school decided to focus solely on graduate programs, and the undergraduate program was rapidly phased out.

In 1942, Lionel Wallace became its first African-American student to be awarded an M.B.A. In 1959, it changed its name again, to the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. By this time, the Nobel prizewinning economist Milton Friedman had joined the ranks of its faculty, and the school became an influential contributor in the development of the Chicago School of economic thought (which favors a free-market, minimal-regulation approach).

Soon thereafter, in 1964, then-dean George P. Schultz established the nation’s first minority scholarship program at a business school. Six years later, students of the school founded the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA, incorporated in 1974).

In 2004, the school relocated from four aging traditional buildings to its new 415,000-square-foot facility: the Charles M. Harper Center, named after the retired CEO of ConAgra Foods. It finally became known as the

Graduate Programs Centered on Flexibility In keeping with the University of Chicago’s greater philosophy of diversity in thought, student-interest-driven studies, and flexibility, the Booth School provides a number of programs tailored to suit the needs of the widest possible variety of students. Along with its first-in-the-nation Executive M.B.A. program, the school’s flagship program is its full-time M.B.A. program, which consists of 21 classes, only one of which is required. Its curriculum is built on a handful of components, including foundational courses for developing analytical tools; courses on business environment, practices and management; and several electives spread over 14 different areas of concentration, giving students a wide variety of subjects to explore and in which to develop specialties. The one required course, Leadership Effectiveness and Development (LEAD), is geared specifically toward helping students develop business leadership skills.

To cater to the needs of students who are already working or have significant family responsibilities, the Booth School also has part-time and evening M.B.A. programs, both of which offer the same courses and have the same requirements. More flexible programs such as these help make the Booth School attractive to underrepresented groups, particularly women and Hispanics, who tend to show a greater need to juggle family and job responsibilities.

The Booth School also enjoys an international reputation as a financeindustry-focused institution nearly on par with Wharton (University of Pennsylvania). Said Alberto Abbo, a Booth student from Venezuela with a background in chemical engineering and strategic planning: “I wanted formal education to hone my managerial skills, and I wanted to transition into a financial background. Chicago was the best school for me because of access to opportunities from leading faculty to research.”

8

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

Underrepresented Enrollment: How Does Booth Compare?

The school has been ranked consistently among the top business schools in the nation by a number of notable business news sources. Most

School of Business Makes recently, it was ranked first by Business Week and The Economist, third

by Poets & Quants, fourth by Forbes, fifth by U.S. News & World Report and ninth by Financial Times. (Other top-rated schools include such institutions as Northwestern University’s Kellogg School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School, Harvard Business School and Stanford School of Business.)

The Booth School’s M.B.A. student enrollment figures for underrepresented groups show that, by and large, it is neck and neck with many of its peers. The most recent participation rate data show that women make up 35 percent of the Booth School’s current full-time enrollment, while minorities comprise 37 percent (with Asian-Americans at 21 percent, African-Americans at 7 percent and Hispanics at 9 percent). In comparison, with regard to women, the Booth School is on par with Harvard’s and Stanford’s business schools – which have female enrollment rates of 36 percent and 39 percent, respectively. However, these schools show markedly lower minority enrollment rates than Booth, with both showing minorities as only 23 percent of their total current enrollments.

Interestingly, the Booth School’s Hispanic M.B.A. enrollment rate of 9 percent is nearly double the rate of all master’s degrees earned by Hispanics in the 2004-05 academic year (4.9 percent), as reported in the American Council on Education’s Minorities in Higher Education Twenty-Second Annual Status Report: 2007 Supplement. Similarly, an earlier global M.B.A. survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council showed that Hispanics made up 4.5 percent of total M.B.A. program graduates while African-Americans made up 4.1 percent.

In short: with specific regard to Hispanics, enrollment rates of the Booth School appear to surpass not only nationwide M.B.A. figures, but those of other highly ranked business schools.

Diversity: Programs, Organizations and Initiatives While being first to the party might have given the Booth School an advantage in garnering more exposure to aspiring graduate students in underrepresented groups, it by no means relies on its pioneering reputation. There has been a longstanding commitment in the school’s culture to reach out to women, minorities and other underrepresented groups. At the center of this drive for diversity is the school’s philosophy that great ideas come from a wide variety of backgrounds.

The primary minority student organizations at Booth are the jointly run African American MBA Association and Hispanic American Business Students Association (AAMBAA/HABSA). Together, they provide an atmosphere for students to network, build student community within Chicago Booth, facilitate diversity recruiting and engage in service projects within the local community. In addition, AAMBAA/HABSA organizes informative events, including lectures given by such business figures as Derryl L.

David Booth

The Booth School’s Hispanic M.B.A. enrollment rate of 9

percent is nearly double the rate of all master’s degrees earned by Hispanics in the 2004-05 academic year – 4.9 percent.

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

9

Reed, president and CEO of Smokin’ Joe Products (and an alumnus of the Booth School).

Of course, minority student groups are but part of the picture. As expressed on the Booth School website (www.chicagobooth.edu): “It is necessary to have students with diverse backgrounds and multiple perspectives in order to arrive at the best ideas. It is this philosophy that has facilitated our longstanding commitment to diversity.”

The stated goals of its Office of Diversity affairs, launched in the mid-

With specific regard to

Hispanics, enrollment rates of the Booth School appear to surpass not only nationwide M.B.A. figures, but those of other highly ranked business schools.

1980s, are “to increase recruitment, enrollment and retention of minority students at the Booth School of Business; educate the Booth community about the importance and value of diversity through educational, personal and cross-cultural activities for all students; serve as a resource for indi-

10

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

vidual students, student groups and administrative departments in their efforts to accomplish a diverse set of opportunities and experiences for all members of the Booth community; cultivate relationships with corporations to attract and secure additional funding and career opportunities for underrepresented students; and build a network of alumni, corporate partners and other friends of the school to assist in the support, employment, financial assistance and overall success of underrepresented students at Booth.” These goals are directly descended from the school’s longstanding operating philosophy.

Much like its student organization counterparts, the Office of Diversity Affairs organizes events aimed at improving and opening recruitment paths for underrepresented minorities, women, and gays and lesbians. Toward that end, it leverages alumnae organizations and partnerships with an impressive number of entities that represent the educational interests of racial/ethnic minorities and other underrepresented groups. The following organizations are a few examples: Chicago Women in Business Alumnae Network (CWIBAN): founded in 2002, a worldwide Chicago Booth School organization for women graduates of Booth. The school and CWIBAN co-host annual, informal “Women’s Week” receptions around the world. These are designed to familiarize prospective students with the Booth School of Business from a woman’s perspective.

Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT): a national nonprofit and the premier source of minority students for the top-10 M.B.A. programs. Its primary focus is to increase minority enrollment in institutions (including both business schools and businesses) that develop management talent.

National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA): boasts 7,000 members in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Its goal is to help build Hispanic leadership through both management education and professional development. As stated on its website (www.nshmba.org), the group “works to prepare Hispanics for leadership positions ... so that they can provide the cultural awareness and sensitivity vital in the management of the nation’s diverse work force.”

National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA): dedicated to the advancement of African-American leadership in the country’s business community; toward that end, it has partnered with more than 400 leading business organizations. An organization whose membership consists of AfricanAmerican graduates with M.B.A.s/advanced degrees and entrepreneurs, it exists to provide members with programs geared toward facilitating intellectual growth while also fostering relationships and connections within the business industry.

By themselves, any one of these organizations, working in tandem with Booth’s Diversity Affairs office, offers a powerful means of improving the school’s exposure to minorities and other underrepresented groups, and creating growth in minority participation rates in graduate business programs.

Taken together, they are far-reaching vehicles proved invaluable in making the Booth School one of the top business schools for the underrepresented, and in generating the school’s impressive post-completion placement rate (91 percent within three months of graduating, according to recent figures cited by the Booth School).

It’s a powerhouse networking model for minority M.B.A. students that befits a world-class business school.

RANKINGS/GRADUATE SCHOOLS/PROGRAMS

Two Florida Schools Lead the Way for Hispanic Graduate Students E

by Mary Ann Cooper

very year, The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine publishes lists of graduate schools with the highest Hispanic enrollment and most degrees conferred on Hispanics. And while we analyze trends and dissect the numbers relating to gender, geography and percentage of Hispanics represented at groups of institutions, it is equally important to pause and point out outstanding and consistent individual performance by single schools. This year, on our lists of many exemplary schools, there are two Florida schools that stand out for special attention – Nova Southeastern University (NSU) and Florida International University (FIU).

Both finished first or second on our lists of Top 25 schools for Business/Management/ Marketing M.A. and Ph.D. Degrees Combined for Hispanics as well as total Graduate School Enrollment of Hispanics. It would be easy to assume that location has everything to do with these schools’ success. Both are located where there are Hispanic-rich populations, but that is not the whole story.

FIU, for example, touts its proximity to an international business center. It has a 12-month International M.B.A. (I.M.B.A.) program catering to students who want to fast track their way into the opportunities available today in international business. The setting for the school, Miami, is a large hub of international business, regional headquarters for more than 1,200 multinational corporations, trade organizations and banks, providing a practical laboratory for learning and networking. U.S. News & World Report has placed it in the top 25 of all international M.B.A. programs.

In terms of its M.B.A./Ph.D. programs, NSU promotes its student-friendly scheduling and the comprehensive nature of its business programs.

The university provides its graduate classes at times and places convenient to its students. Many

of its graduate programs offer classes scheduled at night and on weekends on their main campus, at Student Educational Centers throughout Florida, and online. It offers a variety of business degree programs at the H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship, including accounting, finance, human resource management and public administration. The Huizenga School is home to the largest M.B.A. and Master of Accounting degree programs in Florida. Its main campus is located in Fort Lauderdale, but their programs are also available at multiple locations and online.

Viewing the list of Top 25 schools for total enrollment of Hispanics, with NSU first and FIU second, California has the most schools thereon – eight. Five are part of the California State University group. Texas has five schools on that list, and Florida has four. Other states represented on the enrollment list are Minnesota (two), New Mexico (two), New York (two), Arizona (one) and Missouri (one). Hispanic women outnumbered Hispanic men at all 25 schools.

The University of Texas-El Paso had the largest percentage of Hispanic students at 60 percent.

In terms of engineering master’s and doctoral degrees conferred on Hispanics, the University of Southern California edged out FIU by one student (47-46). Last year, the University of Florida ranked first, also edging out FIU by one student (53-52). Engineering is one of the few areas in which Hispanic men outnumbered Hispanic women – in all 25 schools. Texas had the most schools represented on this list, six.

Other states on the list included California (five), Florida (four), New Mexico (two), Colorado (one), Georgia (one), Illinois (one), Massachusetts (one), Michigan (one), New Jersey (one), New York (one), and Washington (one). The University of Texas-El Paso had the highest percentage of Hispanic engineering con-

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

ferees, 30 percent.

FIU ranked first for most master’s and doctoral degrees conferred on Hispanics in the area of business/management/marketing for 2010 with 426. NSU ranked second with 358. In 2009, NSU topped FIU by one student, 321-320. Texas schools dominated this same list with eight schools. California and Florida each had five.

Seven states had one school represented: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, New Mexico and New York. On this Top 25 list, Hispanic male degree earners outnumbered females in 14 schools, and Hispanic female degree earners outnumbered men in the remaining 11.

In the area of education, Lamar University in Texas led the pack, awarding the most master’s and doctoral degrees to Hispanics. Lamar was one of seven Texas schools on this list. California had the most schools, eight; New York had four; Arizona and Florida, two each. Illinois and Massachusetts had one each. Education graduate programs continue to be dominated by females – Hispanic females outnumbered Hispanic males in all 25 schools listed.

Data are derived from various lists compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and its Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Last year, NCES established a timeline of releasing degree completion data every two years instead of annually.

However this year as The Hispanic Outlook went to press on this issue, the previously unreleased 2010 degree completion data became available on the NCES-IPEDS system.

NCES also has created a new data-gathering system. Because of the new system, not all schools are on every data list. Schools have been given two years to comply with the new NCES data-gathering system. HO has combined all available data from all NCES lists to give fair representation to all institutions during this transition.

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

11

Top 25 – 2009 Graduate Schools Enrolling Hispanics Institution Name 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

Nova Southeastern University, FL Florida International University, FL The University of Texas at El Paso, TX The University of Texas-Pan American, TX National University, CA University of Southern California, CA California State University-Los Angeles, CA The University of Texas at San Antonio, TX University of Florida, FL California State University-Long Beach, CA Walden University, MN University of New Mexico-Main Campus, NM The University of Texas at Austin, TX Arizona State University, AZ New Mexico State Univers-Main Campus, NM California State University-Northridge, CA New York University, NY Webster University, MO Capella University, MN University of California-Los Angeles, CA California State University-Fullerton, CA University of Miami, FL CUNY Hunter College, NY Texas State University-San Marcos, TX California State University-Dominguez Hills, CA

Grand Total 23,286 7,881 3,806 2,390 10,403 18,073 4,611 3,949 17,063 6,233 35,117 5,909 12,827 13,787 3,834 5,622 21,766 15,461 26,379 11,863 5,525 5,259 6,284 4,802 3,321

All Men

7,035 3,102 1,701 933 3,497 9,605 1,700 1,740 8,360 2,295 7,704 2,554 6,627 6,534 1,658 1,982 9,365 6,264 6,527 6,301 2,046 2,626 1,426 1,781 802

All Women 16,251 4,779 2,105 1,457 6,906 8,468 2,911 2,209 8,703 3,938 27,413 3,355 6,200 7,253 2,176 3,640 12,401 9,197 19,852 5,562 3,479 2,633 4,858 3,021 2,519

Hispanic Totals All

4,114 3,255 2,272 1,839 1,792 1,628 1,429 1,416 1,309 1,289 1,275 1,264 1,213 1,190 1,098 1,076 1,067 1,006 1,005 991 953 930 930 918 911

Men

1,281 1,235 875 657 586 652 422 539 561 415 342 493 526 469 367 314 370 466 287 408 286 368 171 338 239

Hispanic Women Percentage 2,833 2,020 1,397 1,182 1,206 976 1,007 877 748 874 933 771 687 721 731 762 697 540 718 583 667 562 759 580 672

18% 41% 60% 77% 17% 9% 31% 36% 8% 21% 4% 21% 9% 9% 29% 19% 5% 7% 4% 8% 17% 18% 15% 19% 27%

Source: NCES-IPEDS

Top 25 – 2010 Degrees Granted First Major All Master’s and Ph.D. Degrees in Business/Management/Marketing Institution Name 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

Florida International University, FL Nova Southeastern University, FL Webster University, MO University of Florida, FL University of the Incarnate Word, TX Texas A & M University-Commerce, TX University of Miami, FL University of Maryland-University College, MD The University of Texas at El Paso, TX University of Redlands, CA University of La Verne, CA Arizona State University, AZ Ashford University, IA New York University, NY University of Houston, TX Our Lady of the Lake University-San Antonio, TX National University, CA The University of Texas-Pan American, TX The University of Texas at Dallas, TX Regis University, CO The University of Texas at Austin, TX Pepperdine University, CA Saint Thomas University, FL University of New Mexico-Main Campus, NM University of Southern California, CA

Grand Total 949 1,210 3,483 986 209 362 253 2,217 134 355 426 1,030 1,209 1,711 676 119 472 83 861 889 954 800 146 185 881

Source: NCES-IPEDS

12

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

All Men

445 481 1,754 656 85 201 154 950 77 195 222 692 479 1,064 415 47 233 42 517 423 631 482 60 99 607

All Women 504 729 1,729 330 124 161 99 1,267 57 160 204 338 730 647 261 72 239 41 344 466 323 318 86 86 274

Hispanic Totals All

426 358 206 103 99 98 79 79 79 78 72 66 65 65 63 62 61 60 58 57 56 55 55 53 51

Men 198 149 109 66 32 52 48 43 45 47 24 35 21 29 41 27 28 28 35 28 35 34 20 29 36

Hispanic Women Percentage 228 209 97 37 67 46 31 36 34 31 48 31 44 36 22 35 33 32 23 29 21 21 35 24 15

45% 30% 6% 10% 47% 27% 31% 4% 59% 22% 17% 6% 5% 4% 9% 52% 13% 72% 7% 6% 6% 7% 38% 29% 6%

Top 25 – 2010 Degrees Granted First Major all Master’s and Ph.D. Degrees in Engineering Institution Name 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

University of Southern California, CA Florida International University, FL The University of Texas at El Paso, TX University of Florida, FL Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus, GA The University of Texas at Austin, TX Stanford University, CA University of California-Los Angeles, CA University of Central Florida, FL Cornell University, NY University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, MI University of California-Berkeley, CA University of South Florida-Main Campus,FL Texas A & M University, TX Naval Postgraduate School, CA Southern Methodist University, TX University of New Mexico-Main Campus, NM University of Washington-Seattle Campus, WA University of Colorado at Boulder, CO The University of Texas at San Antonio, TX The University of Texas at Arlington, TX University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL New Mexico State University-Main Campus, NM New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJ

Grand Total 1,104 187 133 1,110 927 1,109 624 826 472 279 625 1,007 495 231 633 349 247 116 370 422 102 448 609 108 412

All Men 899 145 94 860 682 893 485 610 377 225 470 803 366 168 575 312 174 91 276 318 75 352 489 80 307

Hispanic Totals

All Women

All

205 42 39 250 245 216 139 216 95 54 155 204 129 63 158 37 73 25 94 104 27 96 120 28 105

47 46 40 38 33 30 28 27 25 25 24 23 23 21 21 20 20 20 19 18 17 17 17 16 16

Hispanic Women Percentage

Men 38 34 23 28 26 22 22 21 22 16 22 20 16 14 17 19 15 19 15 10 12 13 11 12 9

9 12 17 11 7 4 9 6 3 9 2 3 7 7 4 1 5 1 4 8 5 4 6 4 7

4% 25% 30% 3% 4% 3% 4% 3% 5% 9% 4% 2% 5% 9% 3% 6% 8% 17% 5% 4% 17% 4% 3% 15% 4%

Source: NCES-IPEDS

Top 25 – 2010 Degrees Granted First Major all Master’s and Ph.D. Degrees in Education Institution Name 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

Lamar University, TX National University, CA Nova Southeastern University, FL The University of Texas at El Paso, TX Touro College, NY Azusa Pacific University, CA California State University-Los Angeles, CA The University of Texas-Pan American, TX Northern Arizona University, AZ California State University-Northridge, CA Arizona State University, AZ University of La Verne, CA The University of Texas at San Antonio, TX Texas A & M University-Kingsville, TX Mercy College, NY Florida International University, FL Concordia University, IL CUNY Lehman College, NY Loyola Marymount University, CA California State University-San Bernardino, CA CUNY City College, NY Cambridge College, MA Texas A & M International University, TX The University of Texas at Brownsville, TX California State University-Dominguez Hills, CA

Grand Total 2,662 1,978 2,212 309 2,325 799 469 210 1,250 584 1,187 460 294 208 834 274 1,378 625 379 340 599 912 107 126 297

All Men 645 529 414 67 387 224 132 40 296 134 290 99 53 43 153 47 261 158 84 91 188 188 21 30 81

Hispanic Totals

All Women

All

2,017 1,449 1,798 242 1,938 575 337 170 954 450 897 361 241 165 681 227 1,117 467 295 249 411 724 86 96 216

342 313 284 250 242 203 186 185 169 163 152 152 147 140 134 133 121 119 117 109 108 104 103 100 99

Men 81 91 52 55 38 52 53 38 33 42 31 27 30 31 20 16 22 36 26 28 28 18 19 20 23

Hispanic Women Percentage 261 222 232 195 204 151 133 147 136 121 121 125 117 109 114 117 99 83 91 81 80 86 84 80 76

13% 16% 13% 81% 10% 25% 40% 88% 14% 28% 13% 33% 50% 67% 16% 49% 9% 19% 31% 32% 18% 11% 96% 79% 33%

Source: NCES-IPEDS 0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

13

Universities Make Progress in Diversifying INNOVATIONS/PROGRAMS

Graduate Schools, but Obstacles Remain

M

by Marilyn Gilroy

any graduate schools have stepped up recruitment and retention efforts to diversify enrollment, and their initiatives have paid off. The most current statistics from the Council of Graduate Schools show that representation of minority groups, including American Indians, Asian-Americans, African-Americans

hovering around 4 percent. These schools face unique challenges as they try to attract minorities to campuses with small communities of color. Public universities also face obstacles because they must adhere to court decisions that have limited or barred public institutions from considering race or ethnicity in evaluating applicants.

have floundered? Moreover, what are some of the elements of successful programs and can they be replicated at other institutions?

Dr. Daryl Chubin, director of the Capacity Center at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, who has given workshops on strategies for diversifying graduate

Dr. Janet Rutledge, Vice Provost, Dean of the Graduate School, University of Maryland-Baltimore County

Professor Rick Cherwitz, Director, IE Consortium, University of Texas-Austin

Dr. Karen Jackson-Weaver, a Princeton Alumna, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Diversity at the Graduate School’s Office of Diversity

and Hispanics, has risen to 29.1 percent of firsttime graduate students. Hispanics, who represent 16 percent of the population, comprised 9.1 percent of enrollment.

But at some institutions, the goal of increasing the racial mix of graduate students has fallen short, especially at elite colleges, which often have rates

As Hispanics and other minorities become an increasing segment of the population and move through the educational pipeline, the need to diversify graduate education remains critical.

Two questions that dominate the discussion are: how have some institutions managed to succeed in increasing minority participation while others

schools, defines several elements of the most effective programs.

At the top of his list is the importance of creating a climate of community. This can be done by integrating students into research teams and creating support groups as a means of combating the feeling of isolation and separateness

14

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

often felt by minority graduate students. He also believes faculty members play an important role in recruitment and are key players in helping students persist toward their master’s and doctoral degrees. When Chubin conducted research among minority Ph.D. candidates about barriers to diversity, the responses highlighted the importance of faculty intervention to keep minority students in graduate programs.

“Gender and racial bias is a reality,” said one student. “To get over it, faculty mentoring helps.”

Achieving racial diversity usually requires a multifaceted approach with many variables, including faculty, administrators and institutional policies and programs, all of which can affect outcomes. Here is a look at how three universities are increasing minority enrollment in graduate schools.

University of Texas-Austin The strategy to diversify at graduate studies at the University of Texas-Austin has been enhanced by the Intellectual Entrepreneurship (IE) PreGraduate School Internship Program. IE enables undergraduate students to work closely with a graduate student mentor or faculty supervisor to create an internship experience aimed at exploring postbaccalaureate opportunities in their field of study. The program is one initiative of the university’s Intellectual Entrepreneurship Consortium, a collaboration of 11 colleges and schools with the objective of educating “citizen-scholars.” Latino students make up the largest group of interns in the program, with more than half of them subsequently enrolling in graduate school.

The IE Consortium is part of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement and is directed by Professor Rick Cherwitz of the department of communication studies.

“The internship is a course that undergraduate students take, but it is not like physics 301,” said Cherwitz. “It focuses on the student and what their passions and interests are and what challenges they face as they navigate the university. It is an entrepreneurial incubator.”

Cherwitz says that each student enrolled in the program begins by finding a faculty or graduate student mentor. Then, they write up a contract describing the kinds of activities they will engage in as part of the course. For example, an IE student might shadow the graduate mentor by going to classes and attending departmental colloquia and professional conferences. IE student enrollment is drawn from many different disciplines, including science, mathematics, art,

humanities, and medical and law school.

“We are literally showing them in a very explicit and safe way, through their mentors and their shared experiences, the good, the bad and the ugly of graduate school,” said Cherwitz.

“They get to see the politics of the academy.

“This is extremely important for first generations and underrepresented minority students.

We know these students are smart enough, and they know they are smart enough to succeed.

But they don’t know the rules of game, so we are leveling the playing field.”

Abraham Pena, who is now pursuing a doctorate in sociology at Florida State, did an IE internship in 2008 that, he said, helped him learn the fundamental components of a graduate school education. Although he began the internship as an education major, he switched to sociology when he discovered it was his true interest. In addition, he gained many practical skills that were invaluable as he considered applying to grad school.

“Had I not had the opportunity to participate in IE, I would be completely oblivious to the graduate school application process,” he said.

“The whole process is one that takes time and dedication to understand. For minority students, it becomes a battlefield where they must learn the rules to acculturate and be successful.”

The IE program has been called one of the best models of diversity in the country, although it is designed to serve all students. Since 2003, nearly 1,000 undergraduates have participated, and approximately 50 percent of those students have gone on to graduate studies at schools such as Princeton, Illinois, Penn, Duke, Brandeis and Louisiana State University. In 2010, there were 250 students enrolled.

Three years ago, the IE program was selected as the top Example of Excelencia (excellence) at the graduate level by Excelencia in Education, an organization that works to accelerate success in higher education for Latino students.

But is IE transportable to other colleges? Can it be duplicated in some form that might help diversify other graduate schools?

“Yes,” said Cherwitz. “IE is not a one-sizefits-all program. It is more of a philosophy of education that helps us increase diversity. We collaborate with other colleges for a way to take IE to them and make it work for their students.”

Princeton University Princeton’s efforts to diversify its graduate schools could best be described as “a work in

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

progress.” The university has mounted aggressive programs to increase the number of underrepresented and socioeconomically disadvantaged students and has made some progress; however, Hispanics, African-Americans and Native Americans account for only 5 percent of the first-time graduate school enrollment.

Princeton’s history and location have presented more challenges to diversifying than those of other universities. It was founded as an all-male private school and is located in a relatively small town, compared to larger, urban universities which often can attract students from surrounding diverse neighborhoods. Once enrolled in Princeton, minority students can feel a sense of isolation because the campus and town demographics still are predominately White.

Dr. Karen Jackson-Weaver, a Princeton alumna, was hired in 2007 as associate dean for academic affairs and diversity at the graduate school’s Office of Diversity. She has implemented several new initiatives, such as Preview Day, which gives prospective minority graduate students a chance to visit campus and meet faculty and current students. Other programs include the Princeton Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (PSURE), which is an opportunity for 20 undergraduates who are interested in pursuing a Ph.D. to prepare applications to doctoral programs.

Students work with a Princeton faculty member as a research assistant or an advisee in editing and writing research papers. There are weekly sessions about applying to graduate schools and for financial aid as well as general discussions about academic life and the graduate level.

Jessica Brown, program manager in the diversity office, says outreach to minorities includes an extensive recruiting schedule with visits to Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

“We also hold a number of open houses and campus visits where prospective students meet with faculty and learn about graduate student life at Princeton,” she said.

The presence of high-visibility minority faculty such as Cornell West, Toni Morrison, Marta Tienda and Patricia Fernández-Kelly has helped boost Princeton’s image as a welcoming community. Overall, the university faculty is 9 percent African-American and 8 percent Hispanic. In addition, graduate students have formed support groups such as the Asian Pacific Islander Caucus and the Graduate Women of Color Caucus.

Daniel Polk is the current co-president of the Latino Graduate Student Association and is typi-

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

15

cal of those who come to Princeton from very different environments. He was raised in Southern California and graduated summa cum laude from the University of California-Riverside.

He is currently a third-year doctoral student in anthropology at Princeton.

“Daniel often helps us in our recruiting efforts,” said Brown. “He is a good ambassador for the university.”

Princeton’s efforts have resulted in a greater number of minority applicants. In 2010, the uni-

advanced study in STEM doctoral programs.

Nationally, dropout rates run as high as 50 percent for minorities and women in STEM fields.

Dr. Janet Rutledge, vice provost and dean of the graduate school at UMBC, says the program has been successful because it promotes the values of academic success, self-confidence, life balance and professional development for students.

“We say that the Meyerhoff program produces super students,” said Rutledge. “This means they are so well prepared that they can go

Students from the Intellectual Entrepreneurship Citizen Scholars group at the University of Texas versity received 371 applications to graduate school from Hispanics, up from 256 in 2006.

However, the number of Hispanic applicants actually accepted declined from 16 percent to 11 percent during that same time period.

University of Maryland-Baltimore County The pride of the University of MarylandBaltimore County’s (UMBC) initiatives to promote graduate school inclusiveness is the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, which has been at the forefront to increase diversity among those who study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). It has centered on giving students tools for academic and personal success that will prepare them for the rigors of

16

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

into any graduate program and succeed.”

The success rate is enviable. Since 1993, the program has graduated 600 students. More than 150 alumni have earned a Ph.D. or M.D., and an additional 85 have earned graduate degrees in engineering. There are nearly 300 alumni currently attending graduate or professional degree programs. In the 2010-11 academic year, there are 230 students enrolled as Meyerhoff scholars, of which 56 percent are African-American and/or Hispanic.

The program has been described as one that changes the perception about minority achievement because it increases the expectations of students who participate and the faculty who teach them. By all accounts, these students are exceptional, with many earning 4.0 grade point aver-

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

ages and becoming members of Phi Beta Kappa.

Meyerhoff scholar Carla Valenzuela studied biological science at UMBC before going on to a graduate program in neuroscience at Vanderbilt University. She hopes to conduct research on the potential of stem cells to serve as therapeutic tools for neurodegenerative disorders. She credits the Meyerhoff program and an additional Goldwater scholarship as “motivators” that pushed her to work harder and to envision being a leader in her field.

One important aspect of the Meyerhoff scholar program is that it does not function in isolation; instead, it has been integrated into the fabric of university academics. It uses the most productive research faculty as mentors, retains an advisory board from various departments and reports directly to the provost’s office.

“The university as a whole serves as a mentor to shepherd each student,” said Rutledge.

When Rutledge describes the Meyerhoff program at conferences and workshops, she speaks of “lessons learned” that other universities might want to be mindful of in diversifying graduate programs. One of those lessons is the recognition that underrepresented minorities and women students are especially vulnerable.

Rutledge encourages leaders at graduate schools who want to increase minority participation to put into place programs and services that foster engagement and minimize marginalization.

“Minorities and women need to develop confidence to face academic adversity,” she said.

“The literature shows that when they get to graduate school and face a setback, they often blame themselves for not being good enough or smart enough to be there. We fortify them to be more sure of themselves.”

Meyerhoff scholars also develop a strong sense of community, one that stays with them even when they move on to different graduate schools.

“Our students retain their Meyerhoff network, even when they go to other places to study,” said Rutledge. “They keep in touch with their cohort, and it helps prevent a feeling of isolation if they find themselves in a graduate program with less support and few minorities.”

It is no surprise to find that UMBC has replicated its success at the graduate level. The university boasts a Meyerhoff Graduate Fellows Program with an equally impressive track record of achievement. Approximately 79 percent of students who have participated as fellows have been retained in or completed the Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. program with an average time to degree of five to six years.

Fostering a Culture of Inclusion: MIT Takes a Hard Look at Itself DIVERSITY/GRADUATE SCHOOLS/PROGRAMS

by Jeff Simmons

“I

Dr. Paula T. Hammond, Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering

get the impression that the majority of people here see that having a diverse environment is important to being a place that is excellent. Most people would argue that those two things are reasonably, strongly connected.”

“Diversity is not incompatible with excellence, and homogeneity is not synonymous with excellence. ... the way I see it, diversity and excellence go together.”

“Whenever we talk about diversity, the conversation immediately goes to ‘we have to maintain excellence.’ ... people see a tension ... can’t say ‘diversity’ and assume excellence is included.”

These comments – contained deep within a report issued last year by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – speak to the heart of a debate over achieving excellence while seeking inclusion in the ranks for underrepresented minority faculty ranks.

“We really focused on trying to give an even picture of what MIT looks like right now,” said Dr. Paula T. Hammond, who led the report’s ninemember research team, “and that this is the reality, this is the climate, and this is what can we do about it.”

Nearly all American universities are trying to boost the presence of minority faculty and students on campuses to not only improve their environments but also reflect the country’s changing ethnic landscape. While MIT has endeavored for some time to increase diversity involving Hispanics, African-Americans and Native Americans, the institute didn’t

necessarily reap success. And last year’s much-anticipated report exposed a number of fundamental causes and mapped out strategies to achieve solutions that heretofore had eluded the institution.

After two and a half years of research and analysis, the Initiative on Faculty Race and Diversity report described how race has affected the recruitment, retention, professional opportunities and collegial experiences of underrepresented minority (URM) faculty at MIT. The report urged MIT to bolster efforts to recruit and retain such underrepresented faculty and strongly encouraged MIT to work with similar higher education institutions to generate a pipeline of URM talent.

“It is actually key for MIT, which wants to maintain its leadership position in engineering and science, to be able to take the lead in increasing diversity, and that is what is going to keep us at the top,” said Hammond, a Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering. “The idea was essentially that if we expect to have the top talent at MIT, we should be able to draw top talent from every part of our country.

The report was a warts-and-all assessment, particularly striking for its candor about flaws in administrative measures, recruitment and mentoring. While other institutions might opt to gloss over negative assessments and trumpet strides and even minimal improvements in URM faculty increases, MIT instead described in enlightening detail its weaknesses, and then recommended short- and long-term strategies to yield improvements.

“It was an unbelievably candid report and showed there was nothing to be gained by trying to finesse the issues,” said Shirley Malcom, the director of the Education and Human Resources program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It said, “if there are problems, then we need to talk about them. Many institutions have the same kinds of problems but don’t necessarily want to confront them.”

MIT’s efforts to hire and retain URM faculty produced some gains in recent years, but the report noted uneven reported results across MIT and called for more effective policies and practices. Additionally, the experience of URM faculty at its five schools was different from that of their nonURM peers – a disparity that led researchers to urge MIT to do more to foster a culture of inclusion.

“As an institution that prides itself on the ability to address some of the world’s most difficult problems, MIT can and should lead the nation in the important challenge of increasing the numbers of minority faculty via a strong institute-wide policy that facilitates advancement in the area of faculty diversity,” the report read.

Its research team, conducting statistical analyses and interviews with faculty members and administrators, found that conversation about race and diversity on campus was generated even before the report was issued.

In fact, it discovered an awkwardness to broach the topic of race and diversity, as well as recurring sentiments about the careful balance to seek diversity and excellence.

That research stage was going on even as then-presidential candidate Barack Obama delivered a landmark speech on race in America, touching on many of the same sentiments expressed during MIT’s interviews.

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

17

“As we moved forward with the report, we used the way the nation international origin. The report estimated that the percentage of U.S. responded to [now-] President Obama’s speech as a helpful gauge of where minority faculty appeared to be 3.5 percent to 4 percent, which is equivaour country is, as well as where our institution was. It was helpful to see lent to about one-tenth of the percentage of such URM groups in the generwhat kinds of things people could respond to positively,” Hammond said. al population. Such numbers reflected little to no growth in the numbers of The report drew praise for its candor and recommendations. MIT Provost U.S. underrepresented minority groups at MIT. Many more had come to L. Rafael Reif, who launched the initiative in 2007, said, “the report highlights the U.S. from other countries. important issues of race and diversity on our MIT campus, and supports our Among Hispanic faculty respondents, 40 percent indicated they were ongoing commitment to integrating a culture of inclusion into the fabric of the U.S.-born, 35 percent were from South America, 15 percent were from institute.” And MIT President Susan Hockfield noted that “We draw most of Mexico, and 5 percent each were from the West Indies and Europe. our faculty, students and staff from America, and we must make full use of the “One of our challenges with Hispanics was not only the uneven maletalent this country has to offer if we hope to continue to invent the future. We female gender ratio, which was marked, but that we needed to find a way to share this challenge with our peer institutions; only by working together with not only recruit,” Hammond said. “A number of existing Hispanic faculty were them can we effectively increase the coming from other countries, which is pipeline of academic talent, the central wonderful, but if you parse the numbers, resource in meeting our diversity and we were not doing a very good job findinclusion goals.” ing Hispanic talent that is in our schools The origins of the report date back right now in the United States, and getseven years ago, to 2004, when MIT ting them into an academic field.” faculty resolved to address the issue of If MIT can accomplish that, she diversity, particularly the underrepresaid, “then we will really benefit from sentation of minority faculty members. what is a growing cohort of young The problem was particularly acute – people who intend to contribute a lot not just at MIT, but nationally – in but move to the private sector. We’d what are known as STEM fields, areas like to see them in academia as well of science, technology, engineering and as the head of the class and leadand mathematics. Hammond said the ing research. We need to do a better report drew on MIT’s earlier experijob with our talent at home. We ence developing the Women in Science haven’t found a way to be effective at Report, a 1999 study that examined reaching that group, and there’s no equity among women faculty. excuse for that, given the increasing In early 2007, Reif impaneled the number of Hispanics in this country.” new committee, with representatives The report additionally found that from each school, to probe whether MIT heavily recruited from its own and and how race and ethnic identity a few peer institutions. For instance, affected MIT’s ability to recruit and from the minority faculty who were retain underrepresented minority facinterviewed, 36 percent had an MIT ulty. The committee additionally was graduate or undergraduate degree, charged with examining what aspects while 60 percent received their docof MIT’s culture, procedures or envitoral degree from either MIT, Stanford ronment might have influenced URM or Harvard. This news was bittersweet: faculty, causing them to leave before MIT made good use of itself as a Shirley Malcom, Director of Education and Human Resources Program, American Association for the Advancement of Science receiving tenure, for instance. pipeline to faculty hiring, but an In 2008, the committee conducted increase in breadth of recruitment a quality-of-life survey of the entire MIT faculty and conducted thorough could garner larger numbers of underrepresented faculty. interviews of all URM faculty and a small comparison group of White and Underrepresented minority faculty reported more active recruitment than Asian-American faculty. It also looked into salaries to determine whether nonminority counterparts. This found that the dominant route for nonminority URM faculty was paid comparably to non-URM faculty, and compared pro- faculty began with a generally unsolicited decision to apply while minority facmotion and tenure rates and other hiring data by department and school. ulty more often than not were approached and actively encouraged to apply.

What it discovered was at turns troubling or inspiring.

Hiring by school and department showed patterns in which minorities The country’s population demographics have dramatically changed, with were consistently not hired in certain departments. However, there were Hispanics representing 15 percent of the population and minority groups over- hiring patterns that were apparent in other departments and disciplines. all representing about 30 percent, numbers that continue to climb. However, For example, MIT’s Whitaker School had a 22 percent underrepresented the number of minority faculty at MIT had increased much more slowly. minority hiring rate, and MIT’s Sloan School had a 13.3 percent rate. The The report pointed out that underrepresented minority faculty was at 6 School of Architecture and Planning had a 6.3 percent rate, and the School percent in 2009, an increase from 4.5 percent in 2000. It is clear, the of Science had a 3.4 percent rate. report states, that talent within the United States was not tapped at the highWhen drilling down the numbers by departments within each school, est levels of the education system: the faculty. the research team found that some had not hired any Hispanic, AfricanA substantial number of underrepresented minority faculty were of American or Native American faculty in the last two decades.

18

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

A snapshot of the 2009-10 academic year found that seven departments at the five schools had no underrepresented minority faculty members at that time.

Researchers found that some units had relatively no success in such hiring.

Furthermore, a disproportionately significant number of minority faculty left within the first three to five years before the potential to promotion to associate professor without tenure. For 14 Hispanic faculty studied, for instance, the percentages were even, with 50 percent promoted to associate professor without tenure and the other 50 percent leaving between 1991 and 2004.

Mentoring proved to have a lack of consistency as well. The report noted that such endeavors lacked a level of commitment and a defined role for mentors. Many underrepresented faculty, particularly at three schools, worked in research areas that were different than a majority of their peers.

This was noteworthy because, authors explained, there was concern about the appropriate choice of referees for promotion.

The climate around race and inclusion was a significant element, too.

MIT’s nonminority faculty saw diversity as less critical to MIT’s core value of excellence, and discussion of race-related issues was avoided at MIT, to the detriment of many minority faculty who might have faced but could not confront such issues directly, the report read.

Overall, underrepresented minority faculty reported greater dissatisfaction than their nonminority peers.

The research committee described several examples within its own borders, and from other institutions, that achieved success, hoping these models could be replicated to advance its overarching goals.

For instance, MIT’s Department of Biology intentionally focused on addressing graduate student enrollment and, in particular, student diversity.

Biology instructor Mandana Sassanfar, who coordinated many of the department’s new outreach programs, facilitated that progress. As a result, from 2004 to 2009, the percentage of underrepresented minorities in its graduate program rose from 5.2 percent to 14.4 percent.

The department, for example, offered summer research opportunities to minority students and participated in a number of conferences such as the Society Advancing Hispanics/Chicanos.

“I visit minority-serving institutions, meet with interested students and establish long-term relationships with faculty and program directors at those schools,” Sassanfar said. “I introduce students to the culture of the biology department at MIT and make sure they are not intimidated by MIT’s rankings and reputation.”

Sassanfar added, “Many students have no idea what kind of starting salary and career options are opened to them after graduate school. Being a professor or a teacher is not appealing to everyone, and having a Ph.D. in a biologyrelated field opens so many doors. I try to make sure that they are aware of it.”

The summer biology program has proved to be an attractive endeavor, and usually about 50 percent of the participants are Hispanic. The payoff has been clear, Sassanfar said, because at least 10 of the department’s current Hispanic graduate students spend a summer or longer at MIT before entering its Ph.D. program.

The research committee delivered a set of recommendations to increase and promote diversity among MIT faculty, by strengthening many of the core elements of MIT’s hiring, mentoring and promotion processes.

It created a framework for greater oversight and self-evaluation at all levels, from departments to labs to school and administration.

Structurally, it recommended that each departmental unit, lab and center should work with its academic dean and associate provost of faculty equity to establish realistic but meaningful goals with timelines.

Administration and school deans should provide better resources and support for recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority faculty.

Additionally, MIT administration should endeavor to appoint leaders such

as deans and department heads who are committed to diversifying faculty.

When it came to recruiting, researchers recommended that department heads and faculty search chairs be held accountable for minority recruiting, and faculty chairs should be better trained and informed on issues including hidden biases and existing resources.

The report recommended that MIT should build strong pipelines on campus and network with top peer institutions, and searches need to be broadened to other carefully selected institutions to boost the numbers of qualified URM candidates.

As well, faculty searches that involve hiring in small groups or clusters, as opposed to single hires, be pursued so that final top candidates are grouped and not ranked. Ranking often led to the exclusion of qualified candidates based on arguments about need or specific “fits” to an open position.

Carlos Castillo-Chávez, one of the initiative’s advisory board members, said this process, occurring at higher education institutions across the nation, often could shut the door on many qualified Hispanic and AfricanAmerican candidates.

“Often, even though they are incredibly qualified, they don’t fit in at institutions that are based on disciplinary borders, where everything is in a silo,” Castillo-Chávez said. “They need to recognize that the world has changed and that should be good for science, and good for engineering and good for diversity.”

MIT likewise could take steps to improve its mentoring. Formal mentors should be assigned to junior faculty hires, and mentors and mentees should be informed about expectations, and mentors should receive training and be held accountable to the department in their role.

The departure of minority faculty early during their MIT experience prompted researchers to recommend a general oversight process for all tenure cases from the dean and provost level that could take place early on.

Beginning with first annual reviews, there should be careful discussion of potential referees, including their competency levels. And all junior faculty should be given guidelines on promotion and tenure when they first arrive.

Finally, MIT from the highest levels must introduce, create and maintain a climate of inclusion, should hold forums where race and cross-cultural interactions are openly discussed, and should harness its top and most highly respected scholars, scientists and engineers to act as spokespeople in diversity issues.

Hammond said that since the report was unveiled, MIT has launched strategic steps. Much of the first year was spent in discussions with each school to devise implementation plans.

Consequently, several short-term recommendations presented by the initiative were already implemented, such as including a new template for collecting information on recruiting efforts for minorities and women, and meetings by the associate provosts for faculty equity with each department head to discuss the mentorship progress.

“Across the nation, all of us can do a better job of recruiting underrepresented minority faculty into the field in undergraduate years, as well as in graduate years,” Hammond said.

Castillo-Chávez, recognized as one of the most prominent mathematicians in the country, has spent much of his career trying to enhance the participation and opportunities for underrepresented minorities. He was warmed by MIT’s welcoming reaction to the findings, warts and all.

“Personally, it was a very welcome response from MIT,” Castillo-Chávez said. “Most significant is that MIT took this initiative because a lot of less elite institutions don’t take this very seriously, and it is welcome when institutions that have such high standards in terms of faculty think diversity is important.

“I expected that MIT would be very positive and come up with all sorts of ways to adopting the recommendations. It was a recognition that there are issues that have limited progress and that they face serious challenges ahead.”

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

19

GAO Finds Fraud, Deception and Tactics at For-Profits ADMISSIONS

This

by Frank DiMaria

guy walks into an admissions office and announces that he has recently inherited $250,000 and wishes to apply to the school. Although the inheritance is sufficient to pay for the estimated cost of the applicant’s tuition for the next four years, an admission officer encourages the applicant to seek student loans and assists in committing fraud, thus making him eligible for grants and subsidized loans.

This is not a joke. According to the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), this is standard practice at some for-profit colleges and universities.

In August of last year, the GAO released a report and Gregory D. Kutz, managing director, forensic audits and special investigations at the GAO, testified before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in the U.S. Senate on practices at for-profit colleges. The U.S. Department of Education commissioned the GAO to conduct undercover testing to determine whether for-profit college representatives engaged in fraudulent, deceptive or otherwise questionable marketing practices and to compare the tuitions of the for-profit colleges tested with those of other colleges in the same geographic region.

The GAO sent several undercover agents to 15 for-profit colleges in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington, D.C., had them pose as prospective applicants, and secretly videotaped the meetings between applicants and admissions officers. The colleges were selected based on several factors, one of which was that the school received 89 percent or more of its revenue from federal student aid.

“We identified four colleges where representatives encouraged our undercover students to commit fraud on their federal financial aid applications, and deceptive or otherwise questionable practices at all 15 colleges related to sales and marketing. We also reported good practices identified during our investigation,” says Kutz.

Other college representatives exaggerated undercover applicants’ potential salary after graduation and failed to provide clear information about the college’s program duration, costs or graduation rate, despite federal regulations requiring them to do so.

In recent years, enrollment at for-profit colleges has grown from about 365,000 students to almost 1.8 million, far faster than enrollment at traditional schools. For-profits offer degrees and certifications in programs ranging from business administration to cosmetology. In 2009, students at for-profit colleges received more than $4 billion in Pell Grants and more than $20 billion in federal loans provided by the Department of Education.

For-profit colleges range from small, privately owned colleges to colleges owned and operated by publicly traded corporations. Fourteen such corporations, worth more than $26 billion as of July 2010, have a total enrollment of 1.4 million students. With 443,000 students, one for-profit college is one of the largest higher education systems in the country – enrolling only 20,000 students fewer than the State University of New York.

20

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

“We identified four colleges where

representatives encouraged our undercover students to commit fraud on their federal financial aid applications, and deceptive or otherwise questionable practices at all 15 colleges related to sales and marketing.”

Gregory D. Kutz, Managing Director, Forensic Audits and Special Investigations, GAO

Questionable Marketing Using fictitious identities, GAO personnel posed as potential students to meet with colleges’ admissions and financial aid representatives and inquire about certificate programs, associate degrees and bachelor’s degrees. Undercover students inquired about one degree type and one major. The GAO tested each college twice. First an undercover applicant posed as a prospective student with an income low enough to qualify for federal grants and subsidized student loans. Then a second undercover applicant posed as a student with a higher income and assets to qualify the student for certain unsubsidized loans.

Using additional bogus identities, investigators posing as four prospective students filled out forms on two websites that asked questions about their academic interests, matched them to colleges with relevant programs, and provided the students’ information to colleges for follow-up about enrollment.

To compare the cost of attending for-profit colleges with that of nonprofit colleges, the GAO used Department of Education information to select public and private nonprofit colleges located in the same geographic areas as the 15 for-profit colleges the undercover applicants visited. The GAO compared tuition rates for the same type of degree or certificate between the for-profit and nonprofit colleges.

Fraud and Deception Four admissions officers at four of the 15 schools encouraged the applicants to falsify their FAFSA in order to qualify for financial aid, although the applicants indicated that they had just come into an inheritance worth approximately $250,000. The Department of Education requires students to report assets and income, and the $250,000 the undercover applicant was said to have in the bank was more than enough to pay for tuition without securing loans.

“The primary examples of encouraging our applicants to falsify our FAFSA related to first telling us not to report the $250,000 of savings we had reported and disclosed to the colleges, and second, to add bogus dependents to our application. The effect of these actions would have been to make our undercover students eligible for federal Pell Grants and subsidized loans that they were not really eligible for,” says Kutz.

Bob Cohen of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU, formerly the Career College Association) calls the tapes the GAO presented as evidence to the congressional committee “mystery shopping videotapes” and says that while the APSCU cannot comment on the specifics of the situations raised by the tapes, he insists that admissions and financial aid officers must deal with prospective students in the most honest and ethical manner possible and that compliance is key. He went on to say that just one instance of misrepresentation by any school, whether a private sector college or university or traditional college or university, is one instance too many. “College enrollment is a major decision, and prospective students need full and complete information on which to

base their determination. APSCU and its members have put much more emphasis on compliance since the report was issued. For instance, APSCU tightened its member Code of Conduct,” says Cohen.

Cohen contends that the “GAO report has been substantially revised since it was originally released, correcting many overstatements by GAO in the original report of alleged faults, calling into question the true nature of the findings and potential bias against the sector in the GAO inquiry.” It is true that the GAO reissued its testimony on Nov. 30, but Chuck Young of the GAO public affairs office says that it was revised to clarify and add more precise wording on two pages and some examples cited in certain tables.

“The overall message of the report did not change,” says Young.

Kutz says that when schools encourage and enable applicants to commit fraud, federal taxpayers end up funding college for ineligible applicants through Pell Grants of subsidized loans. “When we went into the test, we assumed that because we did have the ability to pay for the education, that Pell Grants and student loans, especially subsidized ones, would not be applicable to our students,” says Kutz. But with a little help from crooked admissions officers, they were.

While fraud was practiced at only four of the 15 schools GAO personnel visited, deception ran rampant at many, according to the report.

Admissions or financial aid representatives at all 15 for-profit colleges provided deceptive or otherwise questionable statements. Admissions representatives at four colleges either misidentified or failed to identify their colleges’ accrediting organizations. Although all the for-profit colleges were accredited, federal regulations state that institutions may not provide students with false, erroneous or misleading statements concerning the particular type, specific source or the nature and extent of its accreditation.

At one college, a representative indicated that the school was accredited by the same organization that accredits Harvard and the University of Florida. It is not. At a small beauty college in Washington, D.C., a representative indicated that the school was accredited by an agency affiliated with the government, although federal and state government agencies do not accredit educational institutions.

“As the APSCU Code of Conduct makes clear, students deserve complete, clear and accurate information. Individuals or schools, regardless of sector, who knowingly misrepresent the facts or purposely mislead prospective students deserve to be sanctioned. Again, the manner in which investigative results are gathered plays a critical role here. The fact that the GAO has significantly revised its findings raises major questions about the validity of the agency’s findings,” says Cohen.

Concerning graduation rates and potential earnings at for-profits, on 13 separate occasions and by 13 different college representatives, GAO’s applicants were provided deceptive or questionable information.

According to federal regulations, a college may not misrepresent the employability of its graduates, including the college’s ability to secure employment for its graduates. Representatives at two colleges told under-

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

21

cover applicants that they were guaranteed or virtually guaranteed employment upon completion of the program. At five colleges, applicants were given potentially deceptive information about prospective salaries. At a small beauty college, a school’s representative told a GAO applicant that barbers can earn $150,000 to $250,000 a year, although statistics show that 90 percent of America’s barbers earn less than $43,000 a year.

Many individuals interested in attending for-profit schools hold down full-time jobs, are raising families and are older than traditional college students. These individuals are often concerned with the duration and, of course, the cost of their education. During the GAO investigation, representatives from nine colleges offered deceptive or otherwise questionable information about the duration or cost of their colleges’ programs.

Representatives at these colleges used two different methods to calculate program duration and cost of attendance. Colleges described the duration of the program as if students would attend classes for 12 months per year, but reported the annual cost of attendance for only nine months of classes per year, thus disguising the program’s total cost.

Those applicants who inquired about financial aid were denied access to important information by the colleges, although federal regulations require schools to provide such information. Six colleges in four states would not allow the undercover applicants to speak with financial aid representatives or find out what grants and loans they were eligible to receive until they completed the college’s enrollment forms and paid a small application fee.

Enrollment Standards and Questionable Marketing It would seem that any student who has the money for tuition or can secure a student loan is guaranteed a seat at the for-profit feast. At one forprofit, a representative told the GAO applicant that she needed to answer only 18 questions correctly on a 50-question test to be accepted to the college. The test proctor coached her during the test. At two other schools, applicants were allowed 20 minutes to complete a 12-minute test or took the test twice. “The only apparent standard is a high school education or its equivalent. For our 30 tests, it appeared there were no standards beyond that to be admitted,” says Kutz.

Cohen says that private sector colleges and universities hire third parties to conduct what he calls ability to benefit examinations. But he insists that there is no excuse for unethical behavior by test administrators and that admitting students to programs for which they lack the necessary learning skills serves no purpose. “From the perspective of the institution, such a practice lowers retention rates, graduation rates and placement rates, the criteria by which many schools are judged. Such practice also lowers student morale and ultimately will prove damaging to the school’s reputation,” he says.

No school can afford to have its reputation damaged. But the competition between for-profits is so fierce that many risk it and resort to aggressive marketing tactics. Four GAO investigators filled out forms on two websites that matched them to colleges with relevant programs and provided the students’ information to colleges. Within minutes of filling out the forms, three prospective students received numerous phone calls from colleges. One received a phone call within five minutes of registering and another five phone calls within the hour. Another prospective student received two phone calls separated only by seconds within the first five minutes of registering and another three phone calls within the hour. One student received 182 phone calls and another received 179 phone calls in a month.

22

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

“Our tests showed a high level of motivation at the colleges we visited to enroll students. In a number of the tests, the admissions representatives pressured our applicants to sign a contract for enrollment before allowing them to speak to someone from financial aid to determine what the cost to the student would be,” says Kutz.

All schools, for-profit and nonprofit, are vying for tuition dollars. But for-profits are charging considerably more in tuition than their nonprofit counterparts. The GAO compared the cost of tuition at the 15 for-profit colleges in its study with public and private nonprofit colleges located in the same geographic area. In 14 out of 15 cases, tuition was higher at the for-profit college.

Tuition for certificate programs at for-profit colleges was often significantly more expensive than at a nearby public college. GAO applicants would have paid $13,945 for a certificate in a computer-aided drafting program at a for-profit compared to $520 at a public school.

In Illinois, a student spends $11,995 on a medical assisting certificate at a for-profit college, $9,307 at a private nonprofit college and $3,990 at a public college.

On average, for the 15 colleges the GAO visited, it cost between six and 13 times more to attend the for-profit college to obtain an associate degree than a public college. One interested in an associate degree in respiratory therapy would pay $38,995 at a for-profit and $2,952 at a public college.

Regarding bachelor’s degrees, four out of five times a degree was more expensive to obtain at the for-profit college than the public college. In Washington, D.C., the bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems would cost $53,400 at a for-profit college, and $51,544 at a public college. The same bachelor’s degree would have cost $144,720 at a private nonprofit college.

But Cohen defends the higher tuitions at for-profits, and for-profits in general, indicating that they charge a tuition that reflects the real cost of postsecondary education. Public colleges, he says, can charge less for instate students because their tuition is subsidized by the taxpayers. While public institutions are paid in part by the number of students they enroll, for-profits only prosper if the outcomes justify tuition. For-profits “achieve these outcomes through value-added services, like smaller class sizes, more personalized attention, immersive learning styles and flexible course delivery. Education offered [at for-profits] actually costs taxpayers less, if public subsidies for higher education are taken into account,” says Cohen.

Cohen admits that the GAO’s report has damaged the reputation of the for-profit sector and contends that, as a result, it also has damaged its students. He fears that if the negligent practices that led to the need for so many changes in the report are repeated in future reports, the consequences could be as great or greater. He implores the GAO to live up to its name and act with accountability.

“Putting research in a broad context would be a good first step. Further steps in the right direction would be stating the number of schools visited in its original report (as opposed to those reported on), releasing the videotapes collected by mystery shoppers to the schools involved, and discontinuing the use of disingenuous prompts in mystery shopping activity.

We need to understand how and where this process went off the rails and take steps to assure that it never happens again,” says Cohen.

UNCENSORED

by Peggy Sands Orchowski

EDUCATION REFORM MORPHS INTO OVERSIGHT – The big new ideas for education that President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan pushed the first two years of his presidency might be the peak accomplishments of this administration’s first term. They started with Direct Pay for college loans, which took out third-party bank officials in the loan process; and included “Race to the Top” competitions for state school systems reform. But with a now-Republican-dominated Congress, it seems that new education initiatives will focus on oversight. This means an enhanced push for teacher evaluations based on student performance and accountability studies of schools of education. There is bipartisan support for the concept of major programs such as charter schools and No Child Left Behind, but the amount of resources for program expansion vs. accountability first will be what is fought over in the months to come. The underlying question that support will depend on is this: “How does this program increase American competitiveness?”

UN

CE

CEOS DOING WELL – EVEN IN UNIVERSITIES – Seven years ago, no college presidents made salaries of one million dollars. But that was before university trustees pushed their institutions to be operated more like businesses. One indication they were heard: many college presidents added CEO to their titles. As of 2008, 30 of these chiefs made seven-figure salaries, according to an annual survey in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Dozens of public and private college presidents make more than $500,000. “We have to remain competitive,” said a University of George Washington spokesman. “Salaries reflect the stressful 24/7 nature of the position,” said David Warren of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

“Presidential salaries have virtually no impact on tuition increases.”

NS

OR

RACE DIVERSITY INCREASINGLY MIXED – Diversity in America increasingly means not only mixing among various ethnic and racial groups, but also increasingly inside those groups themselves. A comprehensive series of articles in The New York Times in late January, “Race Remixed: A New Sense of Identity,” shows that “the crop of students moving through college right now includes the largest group of mixed-race people ever to come of age in the United States, and they are only the vanguard: the country is in the midst of a demographic shift driven by immigration and intermarriages.” Almost all of them prefer to be referred to as “mixed race” and are increasingly marking their census forms as such. Within the ethnic groups, stratification is also taking place. Every Latino knows (even if the American media do not) how diverse the Hispanic community is.

But so is the Black community, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson. According to his new book, Dis-Integration, the Black community has been dividing into four different socioeconomic and cultural groups since the 1970s. One group includes the 10 percent of the Black population who are foreign-born – “the highest educated immigrants ever seen,” Robinson writes. No one knows quite how the growth of the multiracial population will change the country, the Times reports. Optimists say the blending of the races is a step toward transcending race.

Pessimists say that a more powerful multiracial movement will lead to more stratification at the expense of the number and influence of other minority groups, particularly African-Americans.

ED

CONGRESSIONAL COMS POLITICAL NAME CHANGES – Regular readers of Uncensored already know that the House Education Committee’s name changes depending on who is the majority: Democrats name it the Education and Labor Committee; Republicans rename it to Education and Workforce. Now the Republicans have changed the name of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Refugees; now it’s simply the Immigration Policy Group.

IS OBAMA “FIRST TIGER DAD?” – Suddenly, everyone is talking about Tiger Moms – those audacious, usually Asian-heritage mothers who push, demand and expect their children to earn only the highest grades, perform the best in athletics and music, win top prizes, trophies, awards and scholarships – beginning in elementary school. Their target: to get their kids into the best universities in America. The furor started with a book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom, by Any Chua and raged throughout the media. Are American parents too soft? Are Asian parents too hard? How much should be demanded and expected? How much discipline? The book came out in early January at the same time as two documentary films hit urban theaters, Race to Nowhere, about our overstressed American schoolchildren, and Two Million Minutes, contrasting the study lives of Indian, Chinese and American pre-college students. Even President Barack Obama took up the theme in his State of the Union speech on Jan. 19. “The responsibility begins in our homes and communities,” said the president. “Parents need to make sure the TV is turned off, homework gets done, the winners of science fairs are celebrated and our kids are taught that success is a function of hard work and discipline.” Could Obama be America’s First Tiger Dad? 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 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

23

INNOVATIONS/PROGRAMS

Boosting Minority Acceptance into Business School: One Nonprofit Paves the Way

M

by Gary M. Stern inorities have had a hard time being accepted into graduate business minorities along the way in the chief executive suite. Using his fundraising schools. Competing in the GMATs (Graduate Management Admission skills, he raised $2 million from Atlantic Philanthropies to launch MLT in Test) against majority students who have gone through extensive 2001. MBA Prep is one of its programs. training often puts minority candidates at a disadvantage. That’s why John In its first year, Rice brought in Boston Consulting Group via a former Rice launched Management Leadership for Tomorrow in 2001, a nonprofit HBS classmate to conduct a strategic analysis of MLT. Boston Consulting organization dedicated to helping analyzed how MLT was helping minorities gain entry into M.B.A. minority students and how it needed programs. to solve students’ problems at every Management Leadership for stage to help them surpass each hurTomorrow (MLT) reports that dle. “That rigorous analysis of how Hispanics and African-Americans we solve the problems of leadership comprise about 30 percent of the tomorrow drives our results today,” American population and yet only 3 Rice said. Earning an M.B.A. often percent of most senior executive serves as the springboard to highpositions at major companies and paying jobs and promotions into the nonprofits. Moreover, MLT notes that executive suite.

Hispanics and African-Americans Though a nonprofit organization, constitute just 7 percent of students MLT describes itself as the “premier in the top 20 business schools. career development institution” tarWhy are minorities shut out of geting high-potential minorities. It most business schools? Rice said has sparked numerous MLT graduthat the key ingredients to succeed ates into establishing careers at in business school “aren’t taught in Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & the classroom or in places where Company, Citigroup and other leadmost minorities have access to.” ing firms. At some points, MLT’s Instead they’re passed down inforgraduates numbered 30 percent and mally via friends or family. Hence more of the minorities in leading minorities need a roadmap to sucbusiness schools, Rice suggests. cess, building informal networks “We’ve developed a critical mass at and finding mentors. these schools,” he added.

MLT, which is based in New York MLT’s programs address talented but is nationwide, trains minorities minority students at a variety of levin the skills required for success, els: Career Prep strengthens underincluding practicing GMATs, mastergraduates, MBA Prep trains and preing interviewing skills and honing pares students to enter business their essays. school, and Career Advance steers Founder John Rice graduated mid-career professionals into trainfrom Harvard Business School ing for the executive suite. In 2010, (HBS) and spent 20 years as a MLT added a six-month MBA senior executive at Walt Disney, Professional Development program John Rice, Founder, Management AT&T and the National Basketball that helps students define their ideal Association, encountering few job, fit into an organization and Leadership for Tomorrow

“That rigorous analysis of how we solve the problems of leadership tomorrow drives our results today.”

24

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

move up the organization. includes presentations from admission officers and mock interviews; 4) Helen Summers, director of MBA Prep, based in Chicago, Ill., describes After the student has been accepted into an M.B.A. program, the fourth MBA Prep as a 10-month program that entails one-on-one coaching, a seminar discusses core skills required to succeed in business school; 5) business curriculum, assignments and seminars targeted to help students Boot camp, which demonstrates how to succeed post-business school and develop a strong M.B.A. application. In 2010, 226 students were accepted secure a job in firms such as Goldman Sachs, Google and AT&T. into MBA Prep of the 711 students who applied, so about 30 percent were The one-on-one coach plays a pivotal role in preparing the MLT student accepted. for business school. Most coaches advise 40 to 48 students and guide them Summers describes the ideal MBA Prep student as a minority student through the business school application. Coaches, who are often former with at least one year and often several years of business experience, admissions personnel or from industry, ask students pointed questions to strong academic credentials such as a high GPA, involvement in the com- improve their essay, review résumés and clarify their career aspirations. munity and demonstrated leadership skills. Moreover, MLT expects stuThe major skills taught in MBA Prep include “being able to clearly dents to be coachable and open to feedback and suggestions. The average define and determine what you want, learning resiliency, an ability to manage of an MBA Prep student is 26 years old. age time and handle performance,” said Summers. Besides the pragmatic MBA Prep is only open to students of underrepresented minorities, skills, students also need to “feel confident about their aspirations and namely African-Americans and Hispanics, but no financial data are know these opportunities are achievable,” Rice noted. requested, so candidates don’t have to be poor or working-class and can MBA Prep’s results have been impressive. Of its MBA Prep students, 95 be middle-class or affluent. Of its MBA Prep students, African-Americans percent who apply to business schools are accepted. MLT raises GMAT constitute 79 percent and Hispanics constitute 21 percent, making four of scores an average of 100 points, with 80 percent of its MBA Prep students five students African-American. scoring above 600 (out of 800), Why haven’t more Hispanics been which makes them competitive for accepted? “We’re trying to address top 20 business schools. that and work on it and have been For example, Michael Pages, a working with different organizations 30-year-old native of Hackensack, to do more recruiting,” Summers N.J., whose parents are Ecuadorian, said. She added that the number of was director of Institutional Hispanics has been increasing Advancement at the Future Leaders steadily and will rise to 25 percent Institute, a charter school in for the 2011 class. Rice added that Newark, N.J., in 2007, but wanted to MLT has formed partnerships with make a career change into the the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and finance industry. A school board other nonprofits that should help member suggested Management fuel the Hispanic pipeline.

Leadership for Tomorrow. He The cost of participating in MLT researched it, thought it could help is nominal. Students pay a $400 him make the transition into an application fee of which half is M.B.A. program, applied and was returned at the program’s concluaccepted in 2009. sion. Many middle-class students Pages described MLT’s applicadon’t ask for reimbursement, donattion process as rigorous and coming the rest of the fee to MLT. MLT petitive. MLT serves as a “first screen partners pay for hotels and food to business school, so they want to when students are on campus, but make sure you are employable” and MLT fellows (that’s how they’re are business school material, he described) pay airfare to seminars. said. To be accepted into MBA Prep, MBA Prep consists of five semiPages wrote two essays describing nars: 1) Starting with a kickoff that his short-term and long-term goals, covers setting expectations, meeting presented two recommendations, alumni and the basics such as was interviewed by telephone and résumé writing, defining career submitted his 3.5 GPA from Amherst goals and meeting with coaches; 2) University. He also took a practice A summer seminar concentrating on GMAT and scored above 500. meeting admissions officers and getIn MBA Prep, Pages participated ting a better sense of what business in weekend seminars at the University Helen Summers, Director of MBA Prep, of Minnesota and Emory University in schools are looking for; 3) A preapplication seminar that reviews and a boot camp in New York.

Management Leadership for Tomorrow Atlanta how to sharpen the application and The first MLT seminar concentrated

“We’re trying to address that and work on it and have been working with different organizations to do more recruiting.”

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

25

on participants determining what their passion was, where they could see themselves in five years and identifying their career path. “That will help you secure employment and be happy and successful,” Pages said.

At the second MLT conference, Pages interacted with admissions personnel from the top 15 business schools to determine what exactly they were looking for in a candidate and establish a good fit between him and the school. Meeting one-on-one clarified the application process and what each school was looking for. Pages found the conferences “inspirational” because he was surrounded by professors and admissions staff from around the country. Moreover, socializing with the other MLT fellows renewed his sense of purpose.

At the boot camp, students are expected to be impeccably dressed, on time and to act professionally, Pages said. Those skills will enable MBA Prep graduates to eventually be hired.

Because he wanted to remain living in New York City, Pages applied to Columbia and New York University business schools and was accepted by both. “MLT made sure we got the details right, and our essays were spotless. A single error could hold you back,” he said.

Pages is finishing his final year at Columbia Business School. Through Columbia, he applied for a job at Goldman Sachs and was accepted. He interned at the firm in the summer of 2010 and after graduating in spring 2011 will become an associate in Private Wealth Management. At his new job, he’ll provide financial expertise to foundations, nonprofits and wealthy individuals. His main goal is to help nonprofits stretch their dollars and derive a better return on their charitable dollars.

Why do Hispanics and minority students need a support program like MLT? Pages replied that most minority students lack role models and MLT

26

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

supplies plenty of them. “We don’t have a Hispanic Ivy channel. MLT provides the resources to make sure we’re successful,” he said. Summers added that much of succeeding and getting into business school derives from informal networks of family and friends, which most first-generation minority students’ lack. “We formalize mentors,” she noted.

Financing an M.B.A., which on average costs about $80,000 for a two-year program, can be daunting. MLT doesn’t offer scholarships but helps students track down financial grants. Minority students should not be deterred because “acquiring an M.B.A. positions students for future success,” Summers noted.

Pages said, “Without MLT, I wouldn’t be where I am. I had the drive, brains and intellectual curiosity, but without mentors and support, you don’t get where you want to go.” To give back to the nonprofit, he speaks about leadership and his experiences at MLT’s boot camp and seminars.

Despite the recession’s effect on Wall Street, which provides a prime source of funding, MLT has withstood the economic downturn. Rice says that its budget was flat in 2008 through 2010, but in 2011 it is rising to $7 million from $6 million the previous year due to its diversified funding.

“Why isn’t higher education providing the real-world learning of MLT?” Rice asks rhetorically. Higher education could do a better job of preparing students for business careers beyond concentrating in accounting, finance or their major.

MLT sees its programs as not just helping individuals but also strengthening communities. It expects that as MBA Prep graduates move up the corporate ladder and into middle management positions they will volunteer in the community, serve on boards, create jobs, act as a role model, and mentor other people, creating a cycle of success.

Interesting Reads Clemente! The Enduring Legacy

By Kal Wagenheim Roberto Clemente, the first Latino baseball superstar, died on Dec. 31, 1972, when his plane crashed while he tried to fly relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Those who loved and admired Clemente speak out with touching memories in this book.

2010. 268 pgs. ISBN 978-1558-7652-76. $24.95 paper. Markus Wiener Publishers. (609) 921-1141. www.markuswiener.com.

Adobe Odes

By Pat Mora The author takes the ordinary in life and translates them into lyrics that give readers a glimpse into the lives of those living inside the adobe universe.

2006. 152 pgs. ISBN 0-8165-2610-9. $15.95 paper.

The University of Arizona Press. (520) 621-3920. www.uapress.arizona.edu.

The Very Nature of God: Baroque Catholicism and Religious Reform in Bourbon Mexico City

By Brian Larkin The author advances the argument that baroque and reformed Catholicism rested on different understandings of the very nature of God. His study examines efforts to reform baroque Catholicism in colonial Mexico City.

2010. 326 pgs. ISBN 978-0-8263-4834-0. $27.95 paper. University of New Mexico Press. (505) 277-2346. www.unmpress.com.

and Media...

Global Cities Immigration and the World Economy (6-part series) The globalization of the world’s economy has brought about massive shifts in population. This series tours five cities where such changes are evident, gathering perspectives from New York, Tokyo, London, Frankfurt and Mexico City.

2004. 26 minutes each. ISBN 978-1-4213-1030-5. $599.70 DVD collection. Films for the Humanities and Sciences. (800) 257-5126. www.films.com.

How to Hire the Perfect Employer: Finding the Job and Career that Fit You Through a Powerful Personal Infomercial

So

by Jim Beqaj BPS Books, Toronto and New York, 2011, 140 pages, $22.95 paper ISBN 978-1-926645-36-0.

much is written about how to find the right job and appeal to the people doling out those positions, but hardly any consideration goes into what makes up the perfect work situation for the individual. Sure, times are tough, but that doesn’t mean you have to settle for a working environment and position that are not a perfect fit for you. Jim Beqaj, the head of Beqaj International Inc., providing recruiting, coaching and business consulting services, has penned this interesting guide to finding the job and career that fit you through creating what he calls a powerful “personal infomercial.” He insists that if you desperately need a job, or are woefully underemployed, you don’t have to – and you shouldn’t – take anything that comes your way. He says it’s time to turn the tables and hire the right employer.

For Beqaj, who has personally hired more than 800 people, it gets down to basics. “If you ask a person ‘What are you good at?’ many have a hard time answering. You have to understand what you’re good at, what you love to do, and present yourself in a clear and persuasive manner.”

His book lays out three steps to creating that self-promoting plan. The first step, according to Beqaj, calls for some serious introspection. You literally need to conduct your own interview to assess what you are good at, what you love to do, how you are “wired,” and your personality. Next, you need to do your own search to find companies that are in what he calls your “Target Rich Environment” – that share a philosophy similar to yours, including vision, culture, conflict resolution techniques, and size, growth and opportunity. Finally, you need to create your own “infomercial” – presenting yourself with clarity, persuasiveness and strength rather than just the person whose name is on a résumé.

The book explains what the dynamics of a personal infomercial are all about and goes through a step-by-step process on how to develop this important tool for seeking employment. He also details ways to inspire interviewers and demonstrates how to convince your prospective employers that you would be an invaluable asset to their companies. And for those who have often wondered why the interview that they felt went so well did not result in their getting a job, Beqaj details the five biggest mistakes that job applicants make during an interview and how to avoid those mistakes.

Beqaj says this kind of job hunt is a win/win situation. “For an employer, nothing is better than having people who love what they do and love the culture of their company. From an employee’s perspective, loving what you do and where you are and truly fitting in dramatically increases your opportunity for advancement.”

Reviewed by Mary Ann Cooper

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

27

HIGH SCHOOL FORUM

More High School Seniors Opt for College as Job Market Shrinks

It’s

by Mary Ann Cooper the best of times and the worst of times for the current crop of high school seniors. On one hand, record numbers are applying to America’s colleges, trade schools and universities as first-time freshmen. On the other hand, colleges are facing serious cutbacks in state and private funding. At the nexus of higher education’s blessings and curses is the anemic state of the United States economy, which has contributed to the boom and bust facing high education.

In its study Minorities and the RecessionEra College Boom, the Pew Research Center examined enrollment trends among minority and White first-time freshman students between 2007 and 2008. And this study packs a double wallop for today’s high school seniors. The Pew study notes that the period of 2007 and 2008 marks the beginning of the freefall economic recession. And a significant increase in firsttime freshman enrollment. What accounted for this change?

The study also cites changes in the demographics of the United States – an increase among minorities and the age demographics of 18 to 24 years old, which will mean more competition for admissions.

The economic downturn is encouraging more and more high school seniors, who see their employment prospects as grim, to commit to the pursuit of higher education – to either wait out the economic storm or improve their skills to make them more competitive.

Currently, the overall increase in first-time freshman enrollment is 6 percent. Most of the increase comes from Hispanic enrollees at 15 percent. Black first-time freshmen have registered an increase of 8 percent, and AsianAmerican first-time freshmen have risen by 6 percent. White first-time freshmen have increased as well, but only by 3 percent. The additional 144,000 first-time freshmen in 2008

28

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

that make up the 6 percent overall increase bring the raw number of freshmen up to 2.6 million enrolled in more than 6,000 colleges, trade schools and universities.

According to an executive summation of the study’s findings by Richard Fry, “the first year of the recession was a time when young Hispanics, in particular, were completing high school at record rates. According to Census Bureau surveys, the Hispanic high school completion rate reached an all-time high in October 2008 at 70 percent. This was up 2.5 percentage points over October 2007 – a larger increase than that of any other racial or ethnic group.”

The report highlights the plight of today’s high school seniors who are facing the prospect of ballooning college classes or an anemic job market. Pew reports that the high school graduating class in 2008 was 3.3 million and is estimated by the National Center for Education Statistics to be the largest class ever recorded.

Pew also notes that 68 percent of the students who completed high school that year enrolled in college, trade school or universities that fall. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that 70 percent of high school graduates in 2009 also entered college that same year.

Arguably, the rise in enrollment and graduation trend appears to be continuing at least for the foreseeable future. The increase in full-time freshman enrollment was not limited or favored by one gender. Participation by both men and women increased by 6 percent. But minority students drove the enrollment boom. Three-fourths of the increase in enrollment was attributable to minority student participation.

If the current trend continues, today’s high school seniors will be less likely than previous generations to be overly selective in their choice of higher education. As Pew examined recent numbers, it concluded that the increase in enrollment was not limited to any specific type

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

of higher education institution. The increase was across the board, from two-year colleges and less to four-year institutions. Private schools benefited from the increase in freshman enrollment as much as public institutions. And, for the most part, the size of the institution did not seem to matter to prospective students. Fouryear institutions saw a 4 percent spike in freshman enrollment, two-year colleges rose 11 percent while less-than-two-year schools saw a modest 5 percent increase in freshman enrollment. Public and private schools each saw a 6 percent increase in freshman enrollment, forprofit private school enrollment increased 11 percent, and not-for-profit institution enrollment rose 2 percent.

In terms of institutional size, only schools with fewer than 1,000 students saw no increase, percentage-wise, in their enrollment. Schools with more than 20,000 students had the biggest spike, 12 percent. Schools with 10,000 to 19,999 students increased their freshman ranks by 5 percent; schools with 5,000 to 9,999, 4 percent; and schools with 1,000 to 4,999 students, 3 percent.

The conventional wisdom has been that today’s high school senior is more likely to enroll in two-year and less-than-two-year institutions rather than at four-year institutions. And that at four-year institutions, White students will dominate enrollment. The enrollment data on recent high school seniors do not bear this out.

According to the Pew study, “The recent large increase in minority freshman enrollment was not disproportionately concentrated in the lower tiers of postsecondary education – that is, twoyear colleges and less-than-two-year institutions.

Total freshman enrollment increased by 144,000 students. White freshman enrollment increased by about 39,000 over all postsecondary institutions, so White freshmen accounted for about 27 percent of the freshman increase. The increase

in White freshmen did not disproportionately occur at four-year schools. Total freshman enrollment at four-year institutions increased by about 55,000 freshmen, of whom only about 12,000 were White. So White freshmen accounted for about 23 percent of the freshman growth at four-year colleges and universities.

Alternatively, non-Whites accounted for about 73 percent of the freshman growth throughout postsecondary education and about 77 percent of the growth at four-year colleges.”

Today’s high school seniors may be joining a slightly different demographic when they attend school this fall. The other message behind the figures is that the numbers of White freshmen have declined in the period from 2007 and 2008. In 2007, the incoming freshman class was composed of 55 percent White students at lessthan-four-year institutions. In 2008, the incoming freshman class was composed of 53 percent at these same schools. The same percentage decline of White incoming freshman students was seen at other categories of secondary education. In 2007, White students made up 64 percent of the incoming freshman class at four-year colleges; in 2008, 62 percent.

Although most economic indicators show that the recession is ending, the job market is a lagging indicator, and today’s high school seniors are likely to follow the same pattern as 2008 college freshmen. Pew points out that the “greatly diminished labor market opportunities” coincided with the growth of freshman enrollment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate for teens ages 16 to 19 climbed to 21 percent in December 2008, up from 17 percent in December 2007, when the recession first began. The picture was bleaker by December 2009 – the highest level since 1948 –

a whopping 28 percent.

More and more college-bound high school seniors are minorities, according to the report.

Besides the faltering economy, Pew cites the dramatic rise in the number of minority high school completers as another reason for the college enrollment boom. The study states, “Given the lag times in the availability of data, it is difficult to fully disentangle all the causes of the growth in minority freshman enrollment since 2007. For example, one possible explanation is that there has been a disproportionate increase in the number and share of minority students among the nation’s high school graduating senior classes.”

The Census Bureau, states Pew, offers a snapshot of 16- to 24-year-olds who completed high school in 2007 and 2008. “From October 2007 to October 2008, the total number of recent high school completers increased by about 47,000, so Whites accounted for only about 24 percent of the growth in the stock of young high school completers. These data strongly suggest that the minority freshman college enrollment spike that occurred from 2007 to 2008 is closely related to the minority high school completion spike that occurred that same year.” The Census Bureau data show that in 2008 the completion rate for White and Hispanic students 18 to 24 was at a record all-time high of 84.9 percent. From October 2007 to October 2008, Hispanic high school completers increased by 29 percent.

If current trends continue, today’s high school seniors will be more concerned than ever with where they go to school. Pew reports that while the increase in freshman enrollment is evenly distributed across the board when it comes to the type and size of the institution, it is a much different case when it comes to

where these institutions are located. A doubledigit boom in enrollment seems to be concentrated in no more than six states and the District of Columbia. California leads the pack with an increase of 21 percent in its 2008 freshman class over 2007. This increase is responsible for 35 percent of the national freshman enrollment increase. The District of Columbia had the second biggest increase at 16 percent. Arizona was third with an increase of 13 percent; then Alabama at 12 percent; and Nevada, Georgia and Alaska each with an 11 percent increase. It is noted that California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico are states with large Hispanic populations.

Enrollment in some states went down in 2008. Oklahoma’s freshman population decreased by 5 percent; Delaware’s, 2 percent; Minnesota and Nebraska, 1 percent. Only New Hampshire’s numbers remained flat.

For high school seniors, going to college in 2011 makes good sense. The unemployment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds in March 2009 was 19 percent; and for 18-to 24-year-old undergraduates, 9 percent. Unemployment nearly doubled for both nonenrolled and young undergraduates between March 2007 and March 2009.

Another way of looking at it is that the employment rate for 16- to 24-year-old college students was 45 percent in October 2009, down from 50 percent in 2008.

What’s clear from the data in the Pew study is that today’s high school seniors going on to college will have to adapt to an uncertain world. Rather than enter a dismal job market, today’s high school seniors are more and more likely to increase their odds by pursuing higher education.

Putting Theory into Practice Many economists are talking about what constitutes the “new normal” in the United States. Is it possible that the prevailing wisdom that all students benefit from and should pursue some form of higher education or career training beyond high school is still valid in today’s world? The answer is yes, while keeping the following in mind: 1) Not just any port in a storm – Jobs are a lagging indicator of economic recovery, and while most economists think we are in the midst of a long road to recovery, unemployment will remain high for a period of time. Still, some students and their families might want to enroll in some school – any school – to wait out the recovery, a decision that is a waste of their time and money.

2) Aim high – the motto of NASA really applies to the students in your charge. Two-year schools might be the vehicle of choice for some of your students, but some students might want to insist on this route even though they are ready and able and focused enough on career goals to apply to four-year schools. Be on the lookout for the “path of least resistance” mindset.

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

29

The Hispanic Outlook In Higher Education

www.hispanicoutlook.com

Latinos and Digital Technology, 2010 WASHINGTON, D.C.

Latinos are less likely than Whites to access the Internet, have a home broadband connection or own a cell phone, according to survey findings from the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. Latinos lag behind Blacks in home broadband access but have similar rates of Internet and cell phone use.

While about two-thirds of Latino (65 percent) and Black (66 percent) adults went online in 2010, more than threefourths (77 percent) of White adults did so.

In terms of broadband use at home, fewer than half (45 percent) of Latinos have it, and two-thirds (65 percent) of Whites and more than half of Blacks (52 percent). Fully

Luce Foundation Grant to ACE Will Promote Multicultural Education and Internationalization WASHINGTON, D.C.

The Henry Luce Foundation has awarded the American Council on Education (ACE) a three-year, $400,000 grant for At Home in the World, a project to promote collaboration between internationalization and multicultural education initiatives on college and university campuses.

Among the long-term goals of At Home in the World, an ACE initiative started in 2006, are to help a more diverse group of students understand and prepare for the implications of globalization while improv-

30

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

April 04, 2011

85 percent of Whites owned a cell phone in 2010, compared with 76 percent of Latinos and 79 percent of Blacks.

Hispanics, on average, have lower levels of education and earn less than Whites.

Controlling for these factors, the differences in Internet use, home broadband access and cell phone use between Hispanics and Whites disappear. In other words, Hispanics and Whites who have similar socioeconomic characteristics have similar usage patterns for these technologies.

Survey questions also probed for the use of nonvoice applications on cell phones.

Respondents were asked specifically about whether they access the Internet and whether they use e-mail, texting or instant messaging from a cell phone. The findings reveal a mixed pattern of nonvoice cell phone application use across ethnic and racial groups. Hispanics are less likely than Whites to use any nonvoice

applications on a cell phone (58 percent vs.

64 percent). But when the sample is limited to cell phone owners, there are no differences between Hispanics, Whites or Blacks in the likelihood of using nonvoice data applications (77 percent of Hispanics, 75 percent of Whites and 79 percent of Blacks do so).

Though they are no more likely than Whites to access the Internet from a cell phone, Hispanics are more likely to do so in lieu of a home Internet connection. Some 6 percent of Latinos report that they access the Internet from a cell phone but have no Internet access at home. This rate is the same for Blacks, but notably higher than the rate for Whites (1 percent).

The report, Latinos and Digital Technology, 2010, authored by Gretchen Livingston, senior researcher, Pew Hispanic Center, is available at the Pew Hispanic Center’s website, www.pewhispanic.org.

ing cultural communication skills among students, faculty and staff to reduce conflict on campus and worldwide.

“At present, few institutions take full advantage of the crossover between multiculturalism and internationalism. By bringing these concepts together, we can better prepare students for their careers in a pluralistic, global society,” said ACE President Molly Corbett Broad. “We are thankful to the Henry Luce Foundation for its support of these efforts.”

“From our previous grants to ACE, we are confident of the council’s capacity to foster leadership and encourage best practices in the country’s colleges and universities,” said Michael Gilligan, president of the Henry Luce Foundation. “At Home in the

World offers great promise of linking existing efforts at promoting global education with commitments to diversity and multicultural education. We look forward to seeing models that individual institutions develop.”

In coming months, ACE will accept applications from colleges and universities to join a learning community to be comprised of eight institutions.These institutions will share approaches and develop model practices for effective multicultural/internationalization collaboration efforts through a series of meetings and consultations with ACE and each other.

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

The Hispanic Outlook In Higher Education

College Retention Rates Improving at Two-Year Schools, Declining at Four-Year Schools IOWA CITY, Iowa

The first-to-second-year retention rate at U.S. two-year public colleges has risen to its highest level in 27 years of research while the retention rate at four-year private colleges has dropped to its lowest level in that time, according to data from ACT Inc. Overall college retention rates – the percentage of first-year, full-time students who return to the same institution for their second year of college – remain relatively stable. Just two-thirds (67 percent) of all firstyear students at U.S. two- and four-year colleges returned their second year of school, compared to 68 percent in 2005 and 66 percent last year. The data were gathered in

College Board and MTV Unveil New Research Addressing College Affordability WASHINGTON, D.C.

A new research study commissioned by the College Board, Cracking the Student Aid Code, has found that early awareness and a simplified student aid process are key to navigating the federal financial aid system, especially at a time when U.S. students and their families face rising college prices and stagnant incomes. Based on extensive focus-group and survey research with parents and students, the study found that nearly half of the parent respondents did not know the cost of attending a public college

www.hispanicoutlook.com

April 04, 2011

ACT’s annual survey of more than 2,500 two-year and baccalaureate colleges and universities across the country.

“College retention is a very challenging problem facing our nation,” said Jon Whitmore, ACT’s chief executive officer and former president of San Jose State University and Texas Tech University. “If we are to meet the goal set forth by President Obama to increase the number of young adults who earn a college degree, we must not only ensure that more students have access to college, but also make certain that they are well prepared to succeed once they get there.”

Retention rates continue to be substantially lower at two-year than at four-year institutions overall. The gap, however, has narrowed in recent years.

The percentage of students at two-year colleges who returned to the same institution for their second year of school has been

trending up, from 53 percent in 2005 to a record high of 56 percent currently. The retention rate at four-year private colleges, in contrast, has been trending down, from 75 percent in 2005 to 72 percent currently.

The reasons for this shift may be related to problems in the economy, according to Wes Habley, ACT’s principal associate, who has been conducting analyses of retention data for the not-for-profit organization since 1985.

“With many jobs gone and fewer new jobs available, high school graduates and newly unemployed workers may be seeking the fastest, least expensive route to gainful employment,” said Habley. “Two-year colleges tend to be less costly than four-year schools and offer programs that provide entry into specific jobs. Those factors may increase students’ motivation and incentive to come back for their second year.”

in their home state, and only 44 percent of Latino parent respondents were aware of the Pell Grant program.

To address these and other challenges, the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center and MTV convened a briefing on Capitol Hill with educators, state and federal policymakers, and business leaders. The discussion highlighted the financial barriers that students and parents face and how to reduce these barriers through a more student-centered, predictable and simpler federal financial aid system.

“Today’s confusing financial aid process is a roadblock to college access and completion for far too many students,” said College Board President Gaston Caperton.

“Improving performance in higher educa-

tion is critical to our country’s future. We can’t do that work without a simpler federal student aid system that is more effective for students.”

At the briefing and policy discussion, the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center presented Cracking the Student Aid Code, a comprehensive study based on research with 1,000 parents and 1,250 students of low- and moderate-income backgrounds.

The report underscores families’ urgent need for earlier information about the cost of college and the resources that are available to help them afford it. Seventy percent of parent respondents and more than 90 percent of student respondents agreed that a college degree is more important than ever in this economy.

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

31

HI S PAN I C S O N T H E MO VE Azari Selected to Head Riverside City College In California, the Riverside Community College District Board of Trustees unanimously approved the appointment of Dr. Cynthia Azari as the next president of Riverside City College (RCC). Azari, who becomes the 10th president in RCC’s 95-year history, was previously president of Fresno City College. She has an Ed.D. in education leadership from Seattle University, an M.A. in education administration and M.S. in industrial relations from West Virginia University, and a bachelor’s degree in government and secondary education from HoustonTillotson College.

Jessica Mejía, a University of Arizona senior majoring in Mexican-American studies and history, was honored with a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation award.

The Woodrow WilsonRockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowships for Aspiring Teachers of Color awards recipients $30,000 for their graduate studies. Mejía joins other recipients attending institutions such as Brown University, Howard University, Spelman College, the University of California-Santa Barbara and Yale University.

Dr. Carmina Sánchez-Del-Valle, associate professor in the Hampton University Department of Architecture, recently received the 2010-11 Distinguished Professor Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). The award recognizes sustained creative achievement in the advancement of architectural education

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

Photo © Mark Thaler

UA Graduating Senior Earns National Fellowship Award

Sánchez-Del-Valle Awarded for Service in Architectural Education

O U T L O O K

Sylvia Méndez Receives Medal of Freedom Photo © Phil Farnsworth

Noted composer and producer Javier Limón, a Grammy Award- and seven-time Latin Grammy Awardwinner, has been appointed visiting professor at Berklee College of Music during 2011-12. Limón will concentrate his efforts on teaching Mediterranean music, styles rooted in the cultures of the Mediterranean rim. He is a graduate of New York’s St. Francis Preparatory School and the Madrid Royal Conservatory, where he studied classical piano, oboe and guitar.

Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations’ newly named undersecretary general for women’s rights and the former president of Chile, recently led a special seminar at the University of California (UC)Berkeley on democratic governance, development and global women’s rights.

Bachelet reflected on the key issues she faced while governing Chile and the challenges she is confronting in her new position at the United Nations. The seminar marked Bachelet’s third visit to UC-Berkeley in the past four years.

H I S P A N I C

Chantell Rivera, a sophomore at New Jersey City University (NJCU), has been appointed to the university’s board of trustees. Rivera, a prelaw student majoring in business management who has been a resident assistant at NJCU since 2009, will serve a one-year term as a nonvoting member and the following year as a voting member of the board.

Berklee Names Limón Visiting Professor of Mediterranean Music

Bachelet Leads UC-Berkeley Latin American Studies Seminar

32

Sophomore Student Appointed to NJCU Board of Trustees

through teaching, design, scholarship, research or service.

Sánchez-Del-Valle has a doctoral degree in architecture from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in architecture and bachelor’s in environmental design from the University of Puerto Rico.

President Barack Obama awarded civil rights activist Sylvia Méndez the 2010 Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., in February.

Méndez played a key role in the desegregation of schools in the state of California.

When her parents were denied in their attempt to enroll Méndez and her two brothers in the “White only” school in their neighborhood in the early 1940s, they filed a lawsuit. The resulting historical case, Méndez v. Westminster, ended the practice of school districts having “White” and “Mexican” schools.

cooley.edu

"

knowledge. skills. ethics.

People are our greatest asset. Cooley’s students come from every state in the Country, and we lead all law schools in foreign national students.

Cooley stands firm in its belief that a diverse student body enhances both the academic experience and the legal profession. Cooley ranks second in total minority enrollment among the 195 ABA-accredited law schools. With four campuses across Michigan – Lansing, Auburn Hills,Grand Rapids, and Ann Arbor – Cooley offers classes year-round, days, evenings, and weekends. Students receive a legal education that provides them with the knowledge, skills, and ethics that distinguishes our over 14,000 graduates worldwide. !

Thomas M. Cooley Law School is committed to a fair and objective admissions policy. Subject to space limitations, Cooley offers the opportunity for legal education to all qualified applicants. Cooley abides by all federal and state laws against discrimination. In addition, Cooley abides by American Bar Association Standard 211(a), which provides that “a law school shall foster and maintain equality of opportunity in legal education, including employment of faculty and staff, without discrimination or segregation on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age or disability.�

cooley.edu

ICG.0710.019.AD

04/04/2011

•

HISPANIC

OUTLOOK

33

34

HISPANIC

OUTLOOK

•

04/04/2011

GGraduate raduate SSchool chool

AASS AAN N EMERGING EMERGING RRESEARCH ESEARCH UUNIVERSITY, NIVERSITY, UUTEP TEP IS IS A LLEADER EADER IN IN GRADUATE GRADUATE EDUCATION. EDUCATION. TThe he University’s University’s graduate graduate business business program program was was nnamed amed No. No. 1 and and tthe he graduate graduate eengineering ngineering pprogram rogram was w as ranked ranked NNo. o. 5 iinn tthe he nnation ation ffor or HHispanics ispanics iinn 22010 010 bbyy HHispanic ispanic BBusiness usiness m magazine. agazine.

W ith a ddistinguished istinguished faculty, faculty, an an aggressive aggressive rresearch esearch agenda agenda aand nd an an international international ssetting, etting, With UUTEP TEP offers offers a growing growing list list ooff ggraduate raduate options options that that includes includes m ore tthan han 100 100 m aster’s and and doctoral doctoral programs programs iinn a vvariety ariety of of fifields. elds. more master’s

DDOCTORAL OCTORAL PROGRAMS PROGRAMS DDoctor octor ooff EEducation ducation ((EdD) EdD) Educational Educational Leadership Leadership and and AAdministration dministration

DDoctor octor ooff PPhilosophy hilosophy ((PhD) PhD) Biological Biological Sciences Sciences Chemistry Chemistry Civil Civil EEngineering ngineering Computational Computational SScience cience Computer Computer Science Science Electrical Electrical aand nd Computer Computer EEngineering ngineering Environmental Environmental Science Science and and Engineering Engineering Geological Sciences Sciences Geological History History Interdisciplinary Health Health Sciences Sciences Interdisciplinary International Business Business International Materials Science Science and and Engineering Engineering Materials Psychology Psychology Rhetoric and and Composition Composition Rhetoric Teaching, Learning Learning and and Culture Culture Teaching,

DDoctor octor ooff PPhysical hysical TTherapy herapy DDPT) PT) Physical Physical Therapy Therapy

MASTER’S M ASTER’S PROGRAMS PROGRAMS Master of Master of AAccountancy ccountancy ((MACY) MACY) M Master aster ooff AArts rts ((MA) MA) Art Art EEducation ducation Clinical C linical PPsychology sychology Communication Communication Education Education English and and American American Literature Literature English Experimental Psychology Psychology Experimental History History Latin American American and and Border Border Studies Studies Latin Leadership Studies Studies Leadership Linguistics Linguistics Philosophy Philosophy Political Science Science Political Rhetoric and and Writing Writing Studies Studies Rhetoric Sociology Sociology Spanish Spanish

Studio Art Art Studio US/Mexico Border Border US/Mexico

KKinesiology inesiology M anufacturing EEngineering ngineering Manufacturing M athematics Mathematics M echanical EEngineering ngineering Mechanical M etallurgical aand nd M aterials EEngineering ngineering Materials Metallurgical PPhysics hysics SSpeech-Language peech-Language PPathology athology SStatistics tatistics SSystems ystems EEngineering ngineering

Master of Master of Arts Arts iinn IInterdisciplinary nterdisciplinary Studies Studies (MAIS) (MAIS) M Master aster ooff AArts rts iinn TTeaching eaching EEnglish nglish ((MAT) MAT) M Master aster ooff AArts rts iinn TTeaching eaching M Mathematics athematics (MATM) (MATM) M Master aster ooff AArts rts iinn TTeaching eaching SScience cience (MATS) (MATS) M Master aster ooff BBusiness usiness AAdministration dministration ((MBA) MBA) M Master aster ooff EEducation ducation ((MED) MED) EEducational ducational Administration Administration Educational Diagnostician Diagnostician Educational Guidance aand nd Counseling Counseling Guidance Instructional Specialist Specialist Instructional RReading eading EEducation ducation SSpecial pecial EEducation ducation

Master Master of of Science Science in in EEnvironmental nvironmental EEngineering ngineering ((MSENE) MSENE) M Master aster ooff SScience cience iinn IInformation nformation TTechnology echnology ((MSIT) MSIT) M Master aster ooff SScience cience iinn IInterdisciplinary nterdisciplinary SStudies tudies ((MSIS) MSIS) M Master aster ooff SScience cience iinn NNursing ursing ((MSN) MSN) NNurse urse Clinical Clinical SSpecialist pecialist NNurse urse PPractitioner ractitioner NNursing ursing SSystems ystems M anagement Management

Master M aster of of Engineering Engineering iinn EEnvironmental nvironmental EEngineering ngineering ((MEENE) MEENE) M Master aster ooff FFine ine AArts rts ((MFA) MFA)

Master Master of of Science Science in in SSocial ocial W Work ork ((MSW) MSW) M Master aster iinn RRehabilitation ehabilitation CCounseling ounseling ((MRC) MRC)

CCreative reative Writing Writing

Master M aster of of Music Music ((MM) MM)

CCOMBINED OMBINED PROGRAMS PROGRAMS

Music M usic EEducation ducation Music Music Performance Performance

Master of Master of Occupational Occupational TTherapy herapy ((MOT) MOT) M Master aster iinn PPublic ublic AAdministration dministration ((MPA) MPA) M Master aster ooff PPublic ublic HHealth ealth ((MPH) MPH) M Master aster ooff SScience cience ((MS) MS) Bioinformatics Bioinformatics BBiological iological SSciences ciences CChemistry hemistry CCivil ivil EEngineering ngineering CComputational omputational SScience cience CComputer omputer EEngineering ngineering Computer Science Science Computer Construction Management Management Construction Economics Economics Electrical Engineering Engineering Electrical Engineering Engineering Environmental Science Science Environmental Geological Sciences Sciences Geological Geophysics Geophysics Industrial Engineering Engineering Industrial Intelligence and and National National Security Security Intelligence

MBA/MPA M MBA/MPA Master aster ooff BBusiness usiness AAdministration/ dministration/ M Master aster ooff PPublic ublic AAdministration dministration

OONLINE NLINE PPROGRAMS ROGRAMS Master ooff FFine Master ine AArts rts – CCreative reative W Writing riting ((MFA) MFA) M Master aster ooff EEducation ducation ((MED) MED) IInstructional nstructional SSpecialist pecialist

CCOOPERATIVE OOPERATIVE PROGRAMS PROGRAMS UTEP/UT AAustin UTEP/UT ustin CCooperative ooperative PPharmacy harmacy PProgram rogram M Master aster ooff PPublic ublic HHealth/U.T. ealth/U.T. Health Health Science Science Center Center Houston Houston Border Border SStudies tudies Emphasis Emphasis Ph.D./U.T. Ph.D./U.T. Austin Austin DDoctorate octorate iinn NNursing/U.T. ursing/U.T. HHealth ealth SScience cience CCtr. tr. HHouston ouston

The U The University niversity ooff TTexas exas aatt EEll P Paso aso GGraduate raduate SSchool chool AAcademic cademic Services Services Bldg.

Bldg. Room Room 223 223 500 W niversity Ave. Ave. 500 W.. UUniversity El PPaso, aso, TTXX 779968-0587 9968-0587 El 915-747-5491 915-747-5491

www.utep.edu/graduate w ww.utep.edu/graduate 04/04/2011

•

HISPANIC

OUTLOOK

35

36

HISPANIC

OUTLOOK

•

04/04/2011

̺

*DLQ EXVLQHVV *DLQ E DQG PDQDJHPHQW VNLOOV VNLOOV WWR RV HW \ RX VH DSDUW DSD W VHW \RXUVHOI ,,PSURYH PSURYH \ \RXU RXU FKDQFHV FKDQFHV LQ LQ WRGD\·V WRGD\·V FRPSHWLWLYH FRPSHWLWLYH MRE MRE PDUNHW PDUNHW

ǣ

Z ZLWK LWK D EXVLQHVV EXVLQHVV GHJUHH GHJUHH IURP IURP 1DWLRQDO 1DWLRQDO 8QLYHUVLW\ 8QLYHUVLW\ $V $V DQ DQ

%XV %XVLQHVV VLQHVV $GPLQLVWUDWLRQ

D DFFUHGLWHG FFUHGLWHG Q QRQSURILW RQSURILW LLQVWLWXWLRQ QVWLWXWLRQ 1 1DWLRQDO DWLRQDO 8 8QLYHUVLW\ QLYHUVLW\

+XPDQ +XP PDQ 5HVRXUFHV 0DQDJHPHQW 0DQ QDJHPHQW

PDNHV LW FRQ FRQYHQLHQW QYHQLHQW WR JHW \RXU EDFKHO EDFKHORU·V ORU·V RU PDVWHU·V

0DQDJHPHQW 0DQ QDJHPHQW

GHJUHH ZLWK D RQH FRXUVH SHU PRQWK IR IRUPDW RUPDW DV ZHOO DV

$FFRXQWDQF\ $FF FRXQWDQF\ DQG )LQDQFH

RQOLQH DQG RQ FDPSXV R RSWLRQV

2UJDQL]DWLRQDO 2UJ JDQL]DWLRQDO /HDGHUVKLS

Ǩ

Ǩ

Ǥ Ǥ

Ǥ Ǥ ȁ ͜ ͔͜​͔Ǥ Ǥ

͔ ͔ Ǥ Ǥ

ȋ͚͖͜ Ǥ ͚͜ ͘ ͜Ȍ The T he University University of of Values Values An Affiliate filiate of the National University System 5H[PVUHS <UP]L <UP]LYZP[` LYZP[`

04/04/2011

•

HISPANIC

OUTLOOK

37

38

HISPANIC

OUTLOOK

•

04/04/2011

04/04/2011

•

HISPANIC

OUTLOOK

39

Theatre Manage – Princess Theatre Manager/Lecturer Mass Communications Roane State Community College is a multi-campus comprehensive community college serving an eight-county area in East Tennessee.

Qualified applicants, including current employees, must apply for and submit a new application and resume (if required) for each position opening. Unofficial copies of transcripts/certificates must be included with the application or resume when a degree/certificate is required, in order to be officially considered. Official copies of college transcripts required upon employment.

Applications accepted online only.

RSCC-EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504/ADA/ADEA Employer.

A Tennessee Board of Regents Institution.

To apply for these positions please go to: www.roanestate.edu/humanresources

Dean of the College-Conservatory of Music The University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC) invites nominations and applications in search for the next Dean of the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).

The University of Cincinnati (UC) ranks among the nation’s top public research universities, educating over 42,000 students. As the founding place of co-operative education, UC also has a long tradition of putting theory into practice while standing among an elite group of universities with “very high research activity.” The University of Cincinnati and its affiliates topped $443 million in research funding for FY10, an increase of more than $65 million over FY09.

One of the oldest institutions of its kind in the country, with educational roots dating back to 1867, CCM has long been a center of visionary instruction and inspired performance. The school currently consists of eight separate divisions: Composition, Musicology, and Music Theory; Dance; Electronic Media; Ensembles and Conducting; Keyboard Studies; Music Education; Opera, Musical Theatre, Drama, Arts Administration, Theatre Design, and Production; and Performance Studies. CCM’s annual enrollment is approaching the 1,500 mark with approximately 780 undergraduate students and 710 graduate students. Nine degrees are offered (BA, BM, BFA, MFA, MM, MA, AD, DMA, PhD) with around 100 possible majors.

Reporting to and working with the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, and in coordination with the Deans from other colleges, the CCM Dean has responsibility for the strategic, programmatic, financial, fundraising, and management operations that support CCM’s vision and its role within the University of Cincinnati.

CCM seeks an inspiring leader with intellectual breadth, strong interpersonal skills, demonstrated expertise in financial management, and experience leading a complex arts and/or media organization. The successful candidate must have significant leadership experience in developing and executing a strategic vision and must be a persuasive and sophisticated communicator who can represent CCM to the professional performing arts and media communities and a broad range of donors, stakeholders, and partners. This individual must show evidence of a personal passion and appreciation for aesthetics, performance, academic scholarship, media technology, and the ability to sustain long-term efforts in promoting the performing arts and relevant disciplines represented at CCM. An entrepreneurial sensibility is highly desirable, but candidates must also understand the complexities of higher education, be sensitive to the perspectives and values of faculty and students, and possess a proven ability to inspire, motivate, and provide leadership as an arts advocate and pedagogue. The willingness and ability to raise funds is essential.

UC has retained J. Robert Scott Executive Search to assist in the search process. UC is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Please contact: Jonathan Fortescue, Ph.D 91843@j-robert-scott.com 617-563-2770 260 Franklin Street, Suite 620 Boston MA 02110

40

HISPANIC

OUTLOOK

•

04/04/2011

Vice President for University Advancement Georgia Southern University is conducting a nationwide search for a Vice President of University Advancement. Georgia Southern invites letters of nomination, applications (letter of interest, resume/CV, and contact information of at least five references), or expressions of interest to be submitted to the search firm assisting the University.

Confidential 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 May 4, 2011. For a complete position description, please visit the Current Opportunities page at www.parkersearch.com.

Laurie Wilder, Senior Vice President Ryan Crawford, Principal 770-804-1996 ext: 102 lwilder@parkersearch.com Georgia Southern University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.

Georgia is an Open Records Law state.

Five Concourse Parkway Suite 2900 Atlanta, GA 30328 770.804.1996 parkersearch.com

University of Cincinnati VISITING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR/INSTRUCTORBIOLOGY (211UC0331)

Full-Time Faculty Positions Minnesota West Community and Technical College is accepting applications for full-time faculty positions to begin in fall semester of 2011 in the disciplines of English, Physics and Sociology.

Candidates should possess a master’s degree in the appropriate major or a Master’s degree in any field with a minimum of 16 graduate semester credits/24 graduate quarter credits which would apply to the major.

Please see our website for a full listing of qualifications, responsibilities and application requirements.

Apply online at: http://agency.governmentjobs.com/ mnwestedu/default.cfm Minnesota West Community and Technical College is an Equal Opportunity employer/ educator committed to the principles of diversity.

The University of Cincinnati, Raymond Walters College, a regional campus located in Blue Ash, OH, invites applications for a full-time, visiting faculty position in the Biology Department beginning September 1, 2011. Applicants must be strong communicators and effective classroom facilitators who enjoy teaching in a culturally diverse, student-centered environment.

Job Description: This is a non-tenure track position at the Visiting Assistant Professor level for the academic year 20112012. Major responsibilities include teaching 12 credit hours per quarter (autumn, winter, spring) as well as departmental service. The primary content area will include General Biology courses (lecture and lab) and possibly other areas, depending on departmental needs. Review of applications will begin on May 2, 2011 and continue until the position is filled.

Min. Quals.: Candidates must have an earned doctorate in Biology or a related field to be considered at the Visiting Assistant Professor level. Candidates must have college level teaching experience in biology. Candidates with an M.S. in Biology and significant college teaching experience may be considered for a Visiting Instructor position.

To apply for position (211UC0331), please see www.jobsatuc.com

The University of Cincinnati is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. UC is a smoke-free work environment.

04/04/2011

Experienced Oracle/ PeopleSoft Personnel Applications Developers – HCM, FMS, CS Systems Administrators Oracle Database Administrator Data Warehouse Architect Hyperion Application & Database Administrator ;OL +P]PZPVU VM 0UMVYTH[PVU ;LJOUVSVN` H[ 4VU[JSHPY :[H[L <UP]LYZP[` PU]P[LZ HWWSPJH [PVUZ MYVT OPNOS` X\HSPÄLK WLYZVUULS [V Z\WWVY[ [OL PTWSLTLU[H[PVU HUK VUNVPUN THPU[LUHUJL VM H JVTWYLOLUZP]L Z\P[L VM 7LVWSL:VM[ HWWSPJH[PVUZ 1VPU V\Y Z[HMM VM 0; WYVMLZZPVUHSZ ^VYRPUN VU JOHSSLUNPUN WYVQ LJ[Z PU H MHZ[ WHJLK LU]PYVUTLU[ ^OPSL LU QV`PUN V\Y JVSSHIVYH[P]L HUK ]PIYHU[ JHTW\Z LU]PYVUTLU[ PU [OL 5L^ @VYR 4L[YV HYLH -VY TVYL PUMVYTH[PVU HUK [V HWWS` VUSPUL ]PZP[ 1VI 6WWVY[\UP[PLZ VU V\Y >LI ZP[L! O[[W! ^^^ TVU[JSHPY LK\ OY QVIZ QVIVWWVY[ O[TS HUK ZLSLJ[ [OL ¸\UJSHZZPÄLK¹ JH[LNVY`

•

HISPANIC

OUTLOOK

41

Western Regional Conference National Association of Hispanic and Latino Studies September 29-October 1, 2011 Town & Country Resort Hotel San Diego, California

2011 CALL FOR PAPERS

Abstracts, not to exceed two (2) pages, should be submitted that relate to any aspect of the Hispanic and Latino experience. Subjects may include, but are not limited to: literature, demographics, history, politics, economics, education, health care, fine arts, religion, social sciences, business and many other subjects. Please indicate the time required for presentation of your paper (25 minutes OR 45 minutes).

ABSTRACTS WITH TITLE OF PAPER, 35(6(17(5Âś6 1$0( +20( $1' &2//(*( AGENCY ADDRESS AND E-MAIL SHOULD BE POSTMARKED BY: Friday, April 29, 2011.

SEND ABSTRACTS TO: Dr. Lemuel Berry, Jr. Executive Director, NAAAS & Affiliates PO Box 6670 Scarborough, ME 04070-6670 Telephone: 207/839-8004 Fax: 207/839-3776 Email: naaasconference@earthlink.net

www.NAAAS.org

Director, Science and Mathematics Teaching Center (SMTC) (Full Professor) The University of Wyoming is seeking an innovative, effective leader to direct its Science and Mathematics Teaching Center. The SMTC is an intercollegiate, interdisciplinary unit delivering programs committed to excellence in science, mathematics, and technology education. The SMTCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is carried out by affiliate faculty drawn from the Colleges of Education, Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Agriculture and Natural Resources. SMTC affiliate faculty collaborate with leaders from public schools; state and federal government; business and community groups; and professional organizations, to create and execute on-campus and in-service programs, conferences, and professional development activities aimed at improving K-12 mathematics, science, and technology teaching and learning in Wyoming. These programs include Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree offerings in science education and mathematics education for teachers, and in experiential environmental education. Programs leverage university-wide, nationally recognized expertise in energy, environment and natural resource education. The SMTC currently has two major NSF grants and is interested in continued grant development. More information about the SMTC and this position can be found at: http://smtc.uwyo.edu.

The University of Wyoming is committed to diversity and endorses principles of affirmative action. We acknowledge that diversity enriches and sustains our scholarship and promotes equal access to our educational mission. We seek and welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.

Review of applications will begin April 15, 2011 and continue until the position is filled.

Anticipated start date is August, 2011. Applications must include: (1) Letter of application addressing interest in the position and qualifications, (2) Curriculum vitae, and (3) Contact information for five references. Send completed applications to Dr. Alan Buss, UW Science and Mathematics Teaching Center, Department 3992, 1000 E. University Avenue, Laramie, WY 82071, 307-766-3972, abuss@uwyo.edu.

The University of Wyoming conducts background investigations on all prospective employees.

42

HISPANIC

OUTLOOK

â&#x20AC;˘

04/04/2011

KAVLI INSTITUTE FOR THEORETICAL PHYSICS

Deputy Director A Deputy Director position at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics will be available with a starting date of approximately September 1, 2011. The Institute is supported principally by the National Science Foundation and has the responsibility of contributing to progress in all areas of theoretical physics.

The Institute seeks a person with a proven research record and administrative capabilities. The Deputy Directors work closely with the Director in planning research programs, assisting with outreach planning, and in administering the Institute. It is expected that a Deputy Director spends one half time in scientific research. This is an appointment for a fixed term whose duration is negotiable, typically two or three years or more. Persons interested in the position, or wishing to nominate candidates, should contact the Director of the KITP, Professor David Gross, at gross@kitp.ucsb.edu. Deadline: May 31, 2011.

The University of California, Santa Barbara, is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

F

ounded in 1956, the University of South Florida is a public research university of growing national distinction. The USF System is comprised of two separately accredited institutions, USF and USF St. Petersburg. USF consists of the main research campus in Tampa, which includes USF Health, the College of Marine Science in St. Petersburg, and two regional campus-USF Sarasota-Manatee, and USF Polytechnic, located in Lakeland. USF is one of only three Florida public universities classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in the top tier of research universities. More than 47,000 students are studying on USF campuses and the University offers 228 degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate, specialty and doctoral levels, including the doctor of medicine. USF is a member of the Big East Athletic Conference. And, USF is listed in the Princeton Review as one of the nation’s 50 “Best Value” public colleges and universities.

The university is currently recruiting for the following positions; the number in parentheses represents the number of positions available to that specific title:

Administrative Positions:

Director Student Services (Engineering) Associate Vice President, Human Resources Sr. Director of Development (Advancement) Associate Vice President, Student Affairs Director of Development (Advancement-St. Petersburg Campus) Director, Innovation Incubation (Research Foundation) Regional Assistant or Vice Chancellor (St. Petersburg Campus) Director, Public Health

Faculty Positions: College of Arts and Sciences

College of Business

Assistant/Associate Professor (1) Assistant Professor (3) Chair/Associate/Full Professor (1) Associate Professor (1)

Assistant Professor (1) Assistant/Associate Professor (1)

Professor/Chair (1) Professor of the Practice (1) Director, Urban Transportation Center

Engineering

Samuel Merritt University, founded in 1909 and located in Oakland, California, educates health science practitioners to be highly skilled and compassionate professionals making a positive difference in diverse communities. Over 1,400 students are enrolled at SMU, with campuses in Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco and San Mateo.

The University offers an undergraduate degree in nursing; master’s degrees in a variety of nursing fields, occupational therapy, and physician assistant; and doctoral degrees in physical therapy and podiatric medicine. For more information visit the SMU website:

www.samuelmerritt.edu

Persons of color are encouraged to apply.

Samuel Merritt University is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Center for Community Partner Associate Professor (1)

Education

Assistant Professor (2) Assistant/Associate Professor (1)

Marine Science

Assistant/Associate Professor (1)

PolyTechnic Campus

FMHI

Assistant/Associate Professor (4) Assistant Professor (3) Sr. Associate Vice President (1) Assistant/Associate/Full Professor (1)

Associate/Full Professor (1)

College of Public Health

College of Nursing

Assistant Professor (4) Associate Professor (1) Associate Professor/ Professor (2) Professor, Chair, & Center Director (1)

Assistant/Associate Professor (4) Assistant Professor (2)

College of Medicine

Assistant/Associate Professor (6) Student Health Service Medical Director (1) Associate Professor/Professor (1) Professor and Chair (1)

Associate Professor (2) Chair of Pharmacy (1) Assistant Professor (18)

For a job description on the above listed positions including department, disciple and deadline dates: (1) visit our Careers@USF Web site at https://employment.usf.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/Welcome_css.jsp; or (2) contact The Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity, (813) 9744373; or (3) call USF job line at 813.974.2879.

USF is an equal opportunity/equal access/ affirmative action institution, committed to excellence through diversity in education and employment. www.usf.edu • 4202 E. Fowler Ave,Tampa, FL 33620 04/04/2011

•

HISPANIC

OUTLOOK

43

State Center Community College ege District

Pasadena, CA

Fresno, CA

Equal Opportunity Employer

State Center Community College District is announcing the search for: Sta or:

PRESIDENT ESIDENT State Center Community Co State College ollege District is seeking a visionary visionar nary educator educa tor with a record of strong rong leadership and accomplishments ents to serve serve as its next President of Reedley Reedley College. Reedley Reedley (25 miles m southeast of Fresno) enrollss aapproximately pproximately 6,990 students in in a variety of courses and programs, programs, ams, including agriculture, agriculture, aeronautics, tics, dental assisting, forestry forestry and na natural tural resources, as well as academic emic courses in the arts and sciences. nces. The College g has a strongg faculty, faculty cultyy, staff and administration administration who are a committed to the highest academic emic staff quality. Less than an hour from quality. om the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the city of Reedley Reedley of offers fers easy access cess to the Kings Canyon, Canyon, Sequoia and YYosemite osemite Na tional Parks.

National APPLICA TION PROCESS APPLICATION Nominations and aapplications pplicationss will be accepted until the position on is Nominations date for for aapplications pplica plications is Monday filled. The target date Monday,, May 2, 2011 2011..

For detailed inf ormation on the he Presidential profile and inf ormaation information information pply please visit www.scccd.edu w .scccd.edu or www www .acct.org org. on how to aapply www.acct.org.

Electronic copies of the aapplication pplica ication package package must be submittedd to sear rches@acct.orrg. searches@acct.org.

In addition, a pa per cop paper copyy must be mailed to: Reedley College ege President Search Attention: Dr olonio Dr.r. Narcisa P Polonio mmunity College TTrustees rustees Association of Community 1233 20th Street, NW NW,, Suite 301 W ashington, ngton, DC 20036 Washington,

For additional inf ormation, nomina nnominations tions or confidential inquiries, ries, information, contact Dr CCT Search Consultant at at pamfisher@ er@ Dr.. Pamila Fisher Fisher,, ACCT bresnan.net or call (406) 570-0516 -0516 or Dr T, Vice V Dr.. Narcisa Polonio, ACCT ACCT, President ffor or Educa tion, Research earch and Board Leadership Services, Services, ces, Education, 202-276-1983 (mobile) or npolonio@acct.org. polonio@acct.org.

An ACCT Search

44

HISPANIC

Equal Opportunity Employer oyer

OUTLOOK

â&#x20AC;˘

04/04/2011

Pasadena City College is now hiring for the following positions: Accounting Instructor

Music Lab/Library Instructor

Chemistry Instructor

Music Theory Instructor

Computer Science Instructor

Teacher - Specialist/Learning & other

Counselor

Disabilities

Digital Media Instructor

Spanish Instructor

English Composition Instructor Librarian Mathematics Instructor (Basic Skills Emphasis)

For application deadlines and materials, please visit our website: http://apptrkr.com/182029. Or to request the District application by telephone, call 626.585.7257.

Equal Opportunity, Title IX, Section 504 Employer

2011

Publication Dates

dates Save these & Reserve your space SPECIAL ISSUES Coming your way

•

Colleges for Hispanics May 2 Ad Deadline: April 12

• Health Professions Issue June 6 Ad Deadline: May 17 • Arst Issue

Aug. 1 Ad Deadline: July 12

• Back to School Issue Sept. 19 Ad Deadline: Aug. 30 Use The Hispanic Outlook to promote:

Faculty/Staff Recruitment Institutional Advertisement People, Places, Publications and Conference announcements and acknowledgements

Call Hispanic Outlook advertising representatives at 1-800-549-8280, ext. 102 / 106 or e-mail your ads to Outlook@sprintmail.com

Ad Deadlines

21 YEARS Covering Hispanic and minority topics in higher education.

ISSUE DATE

THEME ISSUE

AD DEADLINE

• April 18

March 29

• May 2

Colleges for Hispanics

• May 16

April 12 April 26

• June 6

Health Professions Issue

May. 17

• June 27

June 7

• July 11

June 21

• Aug. 1

July 12

Arts Issue

• Aug. 22

Aug. 2

• Sept. 5

Aug. 16

• Sept. 19

Back to School Issue –

Aug. 30

Volume 21 Editorial Index

Visit our Web site for all your advertising possibilities

www.HispanicOutlook.com

Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine®

P.O. Box 68 • Paramus, NJ 07652 1-800-549-8280

04/04/2011

•

HISPANIC

OUTLOOK

45

ADVERTISING INDEX POSITIONS CALIFORNIA

Coast Community College District

44

Pasadena City College

44

State Center Community College District

44

University of California, Santa Barbara

42

FLORIDA

University of South Florida

43; 46

GEORGIA

Georgia Southern University

41

MINNESOTA

Minnesota West Community & Technical College

41

NEW JERSEY

Montclair State University

41

NEW YORK

New York City College of Technology/CUNY

42

OHIO

College of Wooster

32

University of Cincinnati

40; 41

TENNESSEE

Roane State Community College

40

WISCONSIN

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

41

WYOMING

University of Wyoming

42

INSTITUTIONAL

Cambridge College

MA

38

Law School Admission Council

PA

38

National University

CA

37

Northeastern University

MA

2

Samuel Merritt University

CA

43

Texas A&M University, College Station

TX

36

Texas State University, San Marcos

TX

34

Thomas M. Cooley Law School

MI

33

University of Texas at El Paso

TX

35

National Association of African-American Studies & Affiliates

ME

42

National Council of La Raza

DC

39

CONFERENCES/FELLOWSHIPS

*To see all our “Employment and other Opportunities,” including all Web Postings, visit our website at www.HispanicOutlook.com

46

HISPANIC

OUTLOOK

•

04/04/2011

I

n this

of economic uncertainty, you

probably think that

may not be

subscribing to magazines. That the taken them away from

From

to

world has

, this is far from true.

to

educators are reading magazines to broaden their Sure, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a ton of on the

being spent

, however, there is also a

being spent on magazines, with thousands of paid subscriptions.

Read magazines and broaden your

Outlook

P.O. Box 68 Paramus, NJ 07652-0068 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

P ri min g the Pump. ..

TEACHING LATINO STUDENTS HOW TO ADAPT TO COMMUNICATION AND WORK STYLES

Miquela Rivera, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist with years of clinical, early childhood and consultative experience. She lives in Albuquerque, N.M.

A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.

– Horace Mann

Few

things can be as discouraging as lukewarm students.

Showing little enthusiasm for the class, they might appear to nonverbally defy the instructor to teach them anything. Unfortunately, tepid Latino students are often labeled as not wanting to learn – a commonly inaccurate conclusion. Chances are the apparently uninterested Latino student simply does not feel engaged with the teacher, subject or other students. Hispanic students need to learn the communication and work styles of academia in middle and high school so they can participate fully from the outset in higher education.

And teachers who understand the communication and learning styles of Latino students can engage them and bring the academic subject to life via that connection.

Ruby Payne, an educator who has developed a framework for understanding the mindsets of poverty, middle class and wealth, cites the need to use the proper register of speech to match the group with whom one is communicating. Instructors typically speak in a formal, technical style to convey academic content, and they expect students to reply in the same formal way. Latino students who are more accustomed to informal or casual speech might feel unprepared to respond to teachers more formally. When not understood, the teacher might be perceived by students as arrogant, snobby or unfriendly.

A Latino student might decide that he does not like and cannot learn from the teacher because he has erroneously concluded that the teacher does not like him. The teacher, less concerned with being liked, is meanwhile more focused on the learning itself.

On the other hand, students who hold back while waiting to connect with the teacher interpersonally might be perceived by teachers as lazy, undisciplined, immature or not suited to learning the material.

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

To connect, both parties need to speak in the same register – formal or informal. Middle school and high school students must be specifically taught how to use technical, academic language in school, with expectations and structured opportunities to practice connecting in a formal approach. With practice, students will be more attuned to listening to the content, not the style, of what is being said. Meanwhile, teachers who become more versed in informal communication can converse casually with students, connecting stylistically while serving as a positive role model and maintaining appropriate boundaries.

Since Latino students are often contextual learners, teachers could prepare middle and high school students for higher education by teaching them strategies for taking a general academic concept in any subject and placing it into a meaningful context so that the material can be understood and retained. By applying the academic concepts to practical situations in the lives of students, teachers engage and retain the students more effectively. Students then perceive learning as exciting and can share what they have learned with others. The material becomes their own.

By teaching Latino students to adapt their informal communication and work styles to the more formal approach of the instructor, students can then meet the professor halfway in the college classroom, knowing that the issue is not about “liking” the teacher, but about mastering material – and hopefully making a good personal connection along the way. This does not excuse instructors from the responsibility of engaging students meaningfully, early and consistently. That responsibility remains. Preparing Latino students to adapt communication and work styles helps assure that they are not isolated or misunderstood, waiting for someone to step up and connect. They will be able to understand the style in play and know how to respond in any classroom, all the way to graduation.

These articles appeared online only in the 04/04/11 Issue

TARGETING HIGHER EDUCATION

Graduate School Realities

This

by Gustavo A. Mellander issue of HO is dedicated to graduate education. That level of specialized education used to be the domain of the highly intelligent and privileged in our society. Sometimes being privileged, financially secure, was more important than academic superiority.

The Ph.D. has long been the pinnacle of graduate education. It was first developed in Germany and contained all the admirable and less than admirable characteristics of that culture. The program of study was rigid, academically sound, demanding, elitist, and a method of conducting research that included strict compliance to scientific precepts. It was also sexist with a blind allegiance and acceptance of everything Herr Professor pontificated from on high. There was no room to question his views or authority. It could be a brutal experience.

Yet it was the standard bearer worldwide. America’s elite flocked to Germany to study. Ultimately, our universities copied the German masters.

Remnants of many of those early characteristics existed in American universities as late as the 1970s. They still do at some.

Originally, few students were admitted, and many fell by the wayside.

But the system chugged along and in its fashion worked. Many outstanding students survived and went on to serve themselves, their community and the world most admirably.

Doctoral programs are more egalitarian nowadays. The old-boy network is less evident, and truly talented and hardworking students, men and women, abound. Many professors are now collaborating colleagues instead of “the sage on the stage.”

Unfortunately, few Hispanics go to graduate school. What can we do to encourage more to pursue graduate education? Which fields seem particularly promising? Hopefully, this column will provide some useful suggestions.

Recent Trends Historically, graduate applications rise when the economy falters. Bright people unable to get the jobs they want frequently decide to enhance their education with a graduate degree or two in order to help them in the job market.

The recession, which began in 2008, saw the same phenomenon repeat itself.

Applications to graduate schools in the United States rose by 8.3 percent from the fall of 2008 to the fall of 2009, the last year studied by the Council of Graduate Schools.

By contrast, over the previous five years, from 2003 to 2008, the growth in applications to graduate schools had been flat, rising by an average of less than 1 percent a year.

Most Popular Fields Among those entering graduate schools in 2009, the most popular fields were business, engineering, and selected social and behavioral sciences. But the bloom was off business, and engineering requires a discipline not in vogue with many young people.

The fastest growth was seen in the health sciences. Applications rose by an astounding 14.6 percent. Part of the reason, it is believed, is related to

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

all the discussion about national health plans and the realization we are living longer and need more medical care. That trend is not going to abate.

Men and Women The report also revealed that women reached a milestone during the 2008-09 academic year. For the first time in the nation’s history, women earned a majority of the doctorates awarded in the United States. It was part of a continuing trend. Women had heretofore already accounted for solid majorities of degrees awarded at the associate, bachelor’s and master’s levels.

Men regained some ground, however, in terms of their share of all graduate studies. They reversed a long-term trend – men’s total enrollment in graduate schools grew by a faster rate than enrollments of women from 2008 to 2009. Men’s enrollments rose by 6.7 percent while women’s increased by 4.7 percent. No provable explanation springs forth.

Female graduate students varied greatly by race, ethnicity and citizenship status. For example, women accounted for about 71 percent of Black U.S. students but just 42 percent of international students who enrolled in graduate schools.

Other Key Findings Minority representation in U.S. graduate schools continued to grow, rising from 28.3 percent of first-time domestic enrollment in 2008 to 29.1 percent in 2009.

International students’ share of first-time graduate enrollments dropped from 18 percent in 2008 to 16.5 percent in 2009.

From 2008 to 2009, first-time graduate enrollment increased faster at the doctoral level than at the master’s level, rising by 6.3 percent at the former and 5.1 percent at the latter.

Nevertheless, about three-fourths of all graduate students enrolled in 2008-09 were at the master’s level, and almost 90 percent of graduate degrees conferred that year were master’s degrees.

Hispanics continued to lag behind. Only 4 percent of them were in graduate school. That bodes poorly for their role in our society.

Graduate education has not always progressed in an errorless trajectory. It stumbled in the 1980s, when there was a flurry of new M.B.A. pro-

grams. Some were good, many were just moneymakers for the colleges, who bent their very values to rush in where angels dared not tread.

Luckily, today many good programs exist, and since many higher-level business positions require that credential, students will continue to flock to them. Should Hispanics? Yes, why not?

How to decide which one to attend? Easy enough, the famous, established ones are a good bet. For the others, the proof of their quality is to track how well their graduates have done, how many received job offers and how many were promoted. That information is available at any good college. If they don’t readily offer it, move on.

The Current Scene One thing that has become clear over the past 30 years is that most good jobs now require a graduate degree. They are no longer merely the province of professors and researchers. The business world, government service and other arenas seek out those with graduate degrees. It is a screening mechanism. It proves, to some, that one has brains and determination. That may not be always accurate, but it is assumed to be true.

The best opportunities go to those with graduate degrees. Young Hispanics should be made aware of that reality.

Council of Graduate Schools Many fine organizations work to facilitate the process of and improve graduate education. But the premier umbrella group is the Council of Graduate Schools. It is composed of nearly 500 institutions in the United States and Canada that engage in graduate education, research and the preparation of candidates for advanced degrees. They award more than 90 percent of the doctoral degrees and over 75 percent of the master’s degrees in the United States.

Hispanic students considering graduate education should become acquainted with the council’s services and its many excellent research reports and recommendations.

It emphasizes the importance of graduate education not only for the individual but for the nation. It recently sounded a warning: “It is tempting to be complacent about the future of American competitiveness. The United States is the world’s largest economy, and our higher education system is the envy of the world. As the home of Google, Genentech and other path-breaking enterprises, we are known for our innovation and creativity.

Our investments in scientific research have produced products and processes that have improved prosperity and national security.”

After that soul-enriching preamble, it then quickly burst the bubble by stating we are falling behind in leadership, in innovation and in our competitiveness. It warns that we face the risk of losing our highly trained work force that is essential to maintaining our economic leadership.

Is that really true? What’s the evidence? Well, warning signals exist. For example, the National Science Foundation reports that the number of scientific papers published by Americans has fluctuated around a constant number over the past decade. Meanwhile, the number of scientific papers published in other countries has grown by more than 30 percent. That is ominous and easily predictive of the future.

U.S. scientific and technological leadership has until now been assured by the combination of graduate programs unparalleled in excellence (foreigners have long flocked to American graduate schools).

Since World War II, there has been a steady supply of the world’s most talented students to our graduate schools. However, other countries have begun to significantly increase their investments in graduate education.

They are now attracting top students worldwide, including Americans.

Policymakers, business leaders and higher education officials, it is suggested, should unite to make the necessary investments to enhance U.S. innovation and national security through stronger support for and atten-

tion to graduate education. That is not happening as of yet. Too many are relying, coasting on, past successes.

A highly trained work force is essential to America’s future economic competitiveness and national security. Graduate education, as a vital part of the U.S. education system, must be strengthened as part of a national strategy on innovation and competitiveness. The work of graduate students contributes directly to the nation’s sustained economic growth and prosperity.

U.S. Competitiveness We know the world is in the midst of a knowledge-based transformation. Quality graduate education ensures that “the knowledge creators and innovators of tomorrow have the cultural awareness, skills and expertise to compete effectively in a knowledge-based global economy.”

The council, in several reports, has recommended an action agenda to strengthen U.S. competitiveness and innovation through a renewed commitment to graduate education.

It suggests the following steps: • Develop a highly skilled work force by fostering collaboration among leaders in higher education, business and government. This seems to be a no-brainer, but in times of economic uncertainty, many good ideas are placed on the backburner.

• Encourage graduate schools to urge their students to become citizen scholars by using their knowledge and skills in a real-world setting to gain scholarship and experience through service to the community, the state, the nation and the world. Rather idealistic but I guess pragmatic as well.

• Identify successful models that incorporate entrepreneurship across graduate curricula, as well as future directions for exploring the power of entrepreneurship in graduate education. If it’s America, entrepreneurship has to be interwoven in every program.

• Provide more opportunities for doctoral students to evaluate the entire range of career options in various nonacademic settings so that they can make sound career choices and successfully prepare for and pursue nonacademic careers. Beginning in the 1970s, many doctoral graduates could not find employment in their chosen academic fields at our universities. Many, out of necessity, looked outside academia; some found meaningful jobs, some did not. Our universities weren’t very proactive in warning them about the realities they faced after graduation. What is now being suggested is that those employment and career options be provided students long before they graduate so they can plan accordingly.

• Continue to expand innovative professional master’s degrees in order to address pressing national needs in such critical fields as mathematics, science, engineering, social sciences and humanities.

• Continue to provide exposure to the array of roles and responsibilities graduate students face as part of the professorate of the 21st century.

• Broaden awareness of the risks associated with underfunding graduate education and the impact on innovation and national security.

Bottom Line One can only assume or hope that powerful elements within government and business sectors will heed these suggestions. They seem practical enough, and America still has an entrepreneurial spirit and can-do mentality. This is hardly the time for defeatism.

For our purposes, opportunities abound for Hispanics both within the academy and beyond. Our problem is to get more Hispanics to graduate from high school and to be prepared to pursue college work. Serious societal realities are at work to impede such progress.

Dr. Mellander established doctoral programs at three universities and more recently was a graduate dean at George Mason University.

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

LEADERSHIP

Arizona-Bred

Kris Gutiérrez New President of Research Association

by Clay Latimer

It

has been nearly half a century now, but Kris Gutiérrez can still picture her school days in Miami, Ariz., a small desert town 90 miles east of Phoenix. She can still see her teachers, spurring her on through another project; her father, coming to another school function after a long day in the copper mines; her friends, cramming for an upcoming exam.

Sentimental memories?

Yes, but they’re also the foundation for Gutiérrez’s groundbreaking work at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Colorado (CU), where she has embedded her research in local community needs and real-life practice.

“I’ve been thinking about these designed environments for two decades now,” says Gutiérrez, who holds the inaugural Provost’s Chair at CU. “In Miami [Ariz.], there was an environment that supported education, from the school to the parents to generations of students who valued education.

The mines were very rich; the economy was stable; there was low unemployment. You had a lot of stability. There was an ecology that supported education. I used that experience to design these programs.”

But her contributions extend well beyond CU and UCLA, where she was a professor of social research methodology in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

At UCLA, for example, Gutiérrez helped develop the Migrant Student Leadership Institute, an intensive one-month academic and leadership skills program for high-achieving students from throughout California’s migrant farm-working community Like a page from her own past, young people bloomed in UCLA’s academic-rich atmosphere.

A national leader in education and urban education, in particular, Gutiérrez served on President Obama’s Education Policy Transition Team, is president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), has held prestigious positions as a scholar in Japan and Canada, frequently speaks at international conferences, and was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford in 2006-07.

Gutiérrez was also recently elected to the National Academy of Education

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

and nominated by President Obama to be a member of the National Board for the Institute of Education Services.

Much of her recent work has been centered on AERA, a 95-year-old organization that represents 25,000 educational researchers in the United States and throughout the world.

“I’ve been very focused on thinking of AERA more as a go-to place for policymakers,” she says. “I want to use our thorough, vigorous research to influence policymaking.”

Adds Lorrie Shepard, dean of Colorado’s School of Education: “Professor Gutiérrez is not content to merely use complex theories to describe what is. She is very influential.”

While growing up in Miami, where ore has been dug from the ground for more than 135 years, Gutiérrez aimed for a future as a teacher. After earning her undergraduate degree at Arizona State University (ASU) in English and reading, she taught in a public school for a couple years and then returned to ASU. “They needed someone who could teach writing, and writing in particular to Latino students,” she says. “So I took the offer, and there I was at the university, as a baby, much earlier than I had planned. I just knew it was where I wanted to be. I knew I had to get a Ph.D. – one, because I love learning, and two, to have the kind of influence that I wanted to have.”

At CU, she was identified as a rising your star in the graduate school of education. Armed with a newly minted doctorate, Gutiérrez joined the UCLA faculty in 1989 as an assistant professor of education in the division of administration, curriculum and teaching studies – now the division of urban schooling. A familiar figure in Los Angeles area schools, she conducted long-term ethnographic studies across various school districts.

Traditional programs have been designed with little regard for the people who were supposed to benefit from them, she says. Her research examines learning in designed learning environments.

“I loved UCLA. It was the best place in the world, a place to work with the best researchers in the world. It also gave me an opportunity to work exclusively with populations that are low-income and underserved,” she says.

It didn’t take long for Gutiérrez to make an impact in Southern California, where her projects included a computer-based learning club for students at an elementary school near the Los Angeles airport.

Supervised by UCLA undergraduates, the children played board games, computer games and used digital storytelling designed to motivate them and develop their problem-solving and literacy skills.

“It was based on what we had started in Colorado many years before,” she says. “The goal was to help students develop good program-solving and literary skills through undergraduates we brought to the school. We partnered with computer scientists and cognitive scientists on campus to bring high technology to the after-school program.”

Next Gutiérrez helped develop the Migrant Student Leadership Institute, designed to provide participants with a glimpse of university life. California has the largest migrant student population in the nation, according to the Department of Education. But cultural and language barriers, frequent relocation and economic pressures make getting a high school education a formidable goal, much less college.

But the Migrant Student Leadership Institute enables them to live in the dorms for a month, take a couple of courses, participate in leadership training and get to know students from across the state.

Roughly 50 percent of students applied to the University of California system, with an 85 percent acceptance rate, compared to only 25 percent applying from the control group, with a 75 percent acceptance rate.

The underlying theme – “Yes We Can” – was evident at one graduation ceremony when students broke into a “migrant clap,” a burst of short claps that begins slowly, then picks up speed and force. Farmworkers have used it to spur one another on for hundreds of years.

“People generally think that by the time students are in high school it’s too late,” Gutiérrez says. “We showed year after year how wrong that was.

Our students had an extraordinarily high college-bound rate. I hear from them all the time. ‘Thanks for the migrant program; this experience really changed my life.’ ... They’re in graduate school, they’re teachers. So we’ve actually seen the fruits of that program more than any other.

“It was more of a social design experience, where we bring the best of what we know to really serve a population that by all measures is one of the most vulnerable student populations in the country. We had amazing support from the university, from our department, from our school. I think people understood how the university benefited as well as the children.

Our job was to show the project was based on sound research and principles of learning.”

The program helped Gutiérrez gain a spot on President Obama’s transition team, the latest in a long list of honors. Gutiérrez received a UCLA Department of Education Distinguished Teaching Award in 1996, the Harriet and Charles Luckman UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award in 1997 and a Spencer Foundation Mentorship Award in 1997. She was director of the Education Studies Minor and of the Center for the Study of Urban Literacies. In 2007, she was appointed to a three-year term on the U.S. Department of Education’s Reading First advisory committee, and her research has been published widely in elite academic journals.

“She is known equally as an exemplary methodologist, an insightful theorist, an effective program developer and as a well-grounded empirical researcher,” Shepard says.

“She is acutely aware of past practices that deny opportunities for academic success to children from nondominant communities ... and uses her exquisite understanding of supportive learning environments to design

“My parents never missed

one parent-teacher conference, one activity – and believe me, I was in all of them.”

Kris Gutiérrez, Provost, University of Colorado programs that rigorously ensure students’ competence and confidence.”

The American Educational Research Association’s presidential gavel passed from Carol D. Lee of Northwestern University to Gutiérrez at the 2010 convention in Denver. The governing council passed a resolution saying it wouldn’t hold meetings in Arizona until the state’s then-new controversial immigration law is rescinded, with Gutiérrez wearing an altered conference name badge that read “I could be illegal.”

While preparing her presidential address for the 2011 convention, Gutiérrez focused on another part of Arizona.

“My father was a copper miner, meaning he had shift work. But I was telling him the other day that my parents never missed one parent-teacher conference, one activity – and believe me, I was in all of them. My parents would go to the library to help me do research.

“The whole town was supportive. In my president’s speech, I’m writing about resilient ecologies, and how I used that life experience.”

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

DISTANCE LEARNING/TECHNOLOGY

First Lady Promotes Study Abroad, and Gilman Scholars Program Funds It

It

by Peggy Sands Orchowski

is rare when you hear a first lady indicate she has regrets. But Michelle Obama did recently, in front of a university auditorium full of students interested in studying abroad.

She urged them to do so and suggested that she wished she had herself when she was in college.

“Getting ahead in today’s workplaces isn’t just about the skills you bring from the classroom,” she said at Howard University Jan. 19, the afternoon before the elegant State Dinner at the White House for the visiting president of China. “It’s also about the experience you have with the world beyond our borders, with people and languages and cultures that are very different from our own. These experiences set the stage for young people all over the world to come together and work together to make our world stronger.”

The first lady enthusiastically detailed the number of opportunities that college students now have to go abroad. “We’re headed in the right

direction,” she said. “But still there are many students here in the U.S. who have that chance but are reluctant to seize it. Maybe they feel that study abroad is something that only rich kids do, or they ask ‘How will this really be relevant in my life?’”

“Now I say this because I understand these feelings,” the first lady continued. “I felt that same way when I was back in college. The idea of spending time abroad just never registered with me. My brother and I were way more focused on getting in, getting through and getting out of college than we were finding opportunities that would broaden our horizons.”

Interrupted several times by loud applause, Obama continued: “The truth is also, however, that with the high cost of college these days, many young people are struggling just to afford a regular semester of school let alone pay for airline tickets and living expenses to go halfway around the world to study. So we know it’s not

Erika del Cid, a Virginia Commonwealth University Senior, in India

Valery Lavigne, a College of New Jersey Senior, in China

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

enough for us to simply encourage more people to study abroad. We need to make sure that they can actually afford it.”

The first lady described several new programs oriented to giving more students from widely diverse backgrounds the chance to study abroad, especially in China. “My husband just announced the “100,000 Strong” initiative to double the number of Americans who study in China – a program that the Chinese government is offering – listen to this! – 10,000 scholarships to cover all in-country expenses for American students and teachers who study in China.

“We’re launching a new “Community College Minimester” program that provides shorter-term, more affordable study abroad opportunities. And we’re placing a special emphasis on reaching Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Historically Black Colleges with these programs,” the first lady said, amid cheers and standing applause.

Valery Lavigne, a senior at the College of New Jersey who was born in the Dominican Republic and who had just returned from five months in China, confirmed everything the wife of the president said as part of a panel that followed the first lady’s talk.

“Even though I started learning Chinese in high school, I was still a little hesitant about going abroad, mostly because my main obstacles, like I imagine most students, are financial.

But then I heard an EOF student talk who had just gotten back from Oxford University in England, and I knew I just had to go abroad myself. I’m glad I got the opportunity through the Gilman International Scholarships program, which provided everything I needed – not only financial support but also encouragement from staff and other scholars.” Now Lavigne is “giving back” by making recruiting for Gilman Scholars her return project.

The Gilman Scholarship program is among the most successful and growing U.S. government-sponsored study abroad programs, such as the Fulbright Program, the National Security Language initiative and Critical Language Scholarships. “Gilman was established particularly to increase the number and diversity of young people who are studying internationally,” said Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Ann Stock, who followed Obama at the podium.

The Gilman Program offers grants for U.S. undergraduate students of limited financial means.

Its specific mission is to “broaden the student population that studies abroad who have been traditionally underrepresented, including not only those who might not participate due to financial constraint but also community college students, students in underrepresented fields such as the sciences and engineering, students with diverse ethnic backgrounds, and those with disabilities.

In 2009, 13 percent of the Gilman Scholars were Latinos, compared to 6 percent in national study abroad programs, according to the Open Doors report of the International Institute of Education in New York City. In 2001, only 8 percent of Gilman Scholars were Hispanic.

The congressionally funded program (through the International Academic Opportunity Act of 2000) gives those who qualify up to $5,000 for school expenses and airline tickets and an additional $3,000 for studying criticalneed languages such as Arabic, Farsi, Chinese (both Mandrain and Cantonese), Russian, Swahili, Korean and a number of Turkic, Persian

Erika del Cid at Taj Mahal

and Indic languages. The Gilman program encourages students to choose nontraditional study abroad destinations – mainly those other than Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

“Of course for many students who are the first of their families ever to go to college or even leave their home states, going to England can be very far-reaching for them, and we consider that as well,” said Marianne Craven, managing director of academic programs for the BECA. Students apply for the Gilman grants once they have been accepted into a college-based study abroad program for which they will receive academic credit and which requires them to study in another country for at least four weeks.

“Grants are based on student qualifications and the programs they are going on. We encourage stays for a semester if possible,” said Craven.

“But we are looking for diversity. There is no age limit for students, and no general criteria for language achievement – no pre- or post-tests.

But of course, language learning is a big part of the experience.”

Two Hispanic Students: One in China, One in India Lavigne was just the kind of student the Gilman Scholarships were established to help. Growing up in English and Spanish, “I always liked languages,”

she said. So in her junior year in high school, she started studying Japanese. In her senior year, she took a special online course in Chinese. “Studying these languages greatly enriched my social anthropology major,” she said. “After all, for my generation who grew up with other languages, we know that the best way to understand another culture is to know the language.”

“There were a lot of choices in study abroad programs to go on,” Lavigne said. “Although my [Latino] heritage is important to me, I was looking for something different. I wanted to go for my personal growth and career development as well.

Once I decided on the Chinese program, though, I saw the costs and thought, ‘there is just no way I can go!’ I couldn’t have done it without the Gilman Scholarships. Now I advise everyone not to look at the bottom line of the program you want to go on. Many of the costs can be negotiated – especially personal expenses once you are in the country where living costs are cheaper.”

In China, Lavigne studied at Beijing University in a special Council on International Educational Exchanges (CIEE) program. She spoke mainly Chinese with her fellow exchange students, who were from all over the world but especially Russia, Korea and Spain. “I almost always ate in the campus cafeteria with Chinese students, who were very friendly and interested in meeting us,”

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

•

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

Valery Lavigne (pictured l.) at the Great Wall of China

she said. She took martial arts classes, shopped in local stores and traveled throughout the country, both with CIEE students and alone, by train, bus and even donkeys.

Lavigne continues to take Chinese courses, and remains in contact with her friends in China.

And yes, she learned to write a bit in Chinese.

“Necessity is the mother of all language learning,” she laughed.

“In the end, I learned as much about myself as I did academically. The experience made me become more adaptable, independent but also able to work with all kinds of different people. It made me realize that I want to work with international people, teaching in the United States or abroad, maybe being able to enter the Foreign Service and the State Department some day.”

Until then, Lavigne is applying for the Peace Corps – hoping to be placed in China. The first lady and the audience applauded that.

Erika del Cid, a senior in political science/international relations at Virginia Commonwealth University who grew up in Woodbridge, Va., of El Salvadoran parents, came to many of the same conclusions as Lavigne, after studying in India. At first, she had wanted to go to France, since she’d studied French for seven years in school. Then she thought about Latin America, but her parents promised her a graduation trip there. “The only other country I really wanted to go to was India.”

H I S P A N I C

O U T L O O K

•

There were lots of reasons why India attracted her. She enjoyed Bollywood films. She is a vegetarian and loves Indian food, and she had grown up with many Indian and Pakistani friends in her hometown and schools in Virginia. “I actually knew a lot about what to expect there,” said del Cid. “It was noisy, colorful, crowded with pedestrians, and had a completely different infrastructure, especially traffic.” She knew people pushed and shoved there and didn’t say “sorry” or “thank you”; “It seems rude, but they’re not; that’s just the way it is,” she said. “The food was spicy; the people were friendly. All my senses were on high all the time,” she said.

Del Cid lived in a foreign student dorm on Hyderabad’s university campus (unlike many other buildings there, the dorm had air conditioning and seat toilets in the bathrooms, which del Cid said she very much appreciated). But the exchange students attended regular university classes with Indian students. Instruction was in English. “The grading was completely different,” she said. “They don’t have multiple-question tests; all the exams were open questions, and their answers were expected to be pages long. I was advised to write big and repeat a lot.” The issues they discussed in political science classes were also completely different than in the states.

One big topic: farmer suicides. “They also talked a lot about religious ideas in politics, about Hindi vs. Moslem disturbances.” Del Cid did not

0 4 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 1

see much tolerance for the mixing of religions and ethnic groups. But everyone constantly asked her about studying in the United States.

“Everyone wanted to come.”

Her most surprising experience happened almost every day. “Everyone thought I was Indian. Only one student of all she met guessed that I was Latina – on her second guess.” Being considered native was a big advantage on the streets, she said. “I didn’t get accosted as much by street vendors, who at times could be exceedingly physically aggressive, and I was often charged the cheaper Indian prices for everything I bought in the stores.” Many acquaintances invited her to their homes, to see “their” India.

But she also saw how skin color affected blatant racism, class and social status, and poverty. “The thing I never could get used to were all the mutilated children begging in the streets (she would give them a bottle of water, not money), and how many even simple middle-class families had servants in their homes,” she said.

Del Cid would love to go back to India and spend more time. But not immediately. After graduation, she is applying for teaching positions in Spain or El Salvador. And she is actively encouraging other Latino students to go abroad to study and live for a while.

There are more and more opportunities for Hispanic students to do so. Many colleges and even professors have unique study abroad programs, such as Political Science Professor Larry Martínez at California State University-Long Beach. Every summer, he takes a dozen or so students to Kazakhstan for four weeks of joint accredited classes, study projects, travel and a model United Nations day with native students.

“Model U.N. gets the students emotionally involved in arguing issues from another country’s point of view,” Martínez said. The course is called “Politics Through Culture.” More than 50 percent of the California students who go are Latinos. “That matches our campus demographics,” said Martínez. “Latino students go because it’s what all students should do as part of their university studies.”

Perhaps Lavigne summed the study abroad experience up best at the panel with the first lady. “It wasn’t until I studied abroad in China that I realized that I am not just an American citizen, but I am a citizen of the world. I know that my career and life goals do not have to be limited to even one country, one region nor even one continent.”