Monica Aguirre started preparing for college when she was in sixth grade. Today she is a freshman studying education at the University of Texas-El Paso and one of a steadily rising number of Hispanics in American colleges and universities.
The American Council on Education reported Friday that Hispanic enrollment in higher education grew 84 percent in the past decade, from 472,000 in 1980 to 867,000 in 1991. But it is still the lowest among all minority groups.In 1990, 28 percent of Hispanics 25 and older had attended college, and 6 percent had received degrees, according to the report based on statistics from the Census Bureau, the Education Department and other agencies. Among non-Hispanic minorities, 47 percent had some college education and 14 percent had graduated.
The report said gains in the Hispanic population have not been matched by Hispanic enrollment in colleges and universities. The 1990 Census counted nearly 22.4 million Hispanics, and they are projected to surpass blacks as the largest minority group in the United States by 2020.
The University of Texas-El Paso began a program in 1986 designed to increase the representation of Hispanic women in institutions of higher learning. Aguirre, now 19, was one of the first participants.
Starting in sixth grade, Aguirre began numerous visits to the Texas campus so she would be familiar with it once she started college. For career day, she was paired with a Hispanic woman who teaches school.
"They choose someone from our own neighborhoods," most of them low-income, Aguirre said. "We can see ourselves in them, and we can see that we can be successful."
The university also helped her apply for scholarships and other financial aid. Today, she is an exception among Hispanic students at the school: She does not hold a job.
Diana Natalicio, president of Texas-El Paso, said most Hispanic students on the campus need jobs to support not only their education but their families.
As a result, she said, "They typically cannot complete a degree at the same rate or at the same pace as more privileged students can."
The report found that more than half of all Hispanic college students do not get their degrees within six years.
"About half of Latino college students come from families with incomes less than $20,000, 56 percent attend two-year colleges, over half rely on financial aid and 44 percent attend school part time," the report said. "The implication is that Latino access to higher education is constrained by inadequate resources and their degree completion rate is slower due to attending college part time."
Hispanic college enrollment also is held down because Hispanics have the lowest rate of graduation from high school among all races and ethnic groups.
In 1991, the report said, 51 percent of Hispanics who might have graduated from high school actually did so. The high school graduation rate for the U.S. population as a whole was 79 percent in 1991.
The American Council on Education said that in the 1990-1991 academic year, Hispanic students earned 24,255 associate degrees, 36,612 bachelor's degrees, 8,382 master's degrees, 732 doctorates and 2,527 first professional degrees.
The organization recommended:
- Colleges establish programs to retain Hispanic students and ease their transition to college life.
- Procedures to help Hispanics transfer from two-year to four-year institutions.
- Recruitment, tenure and promotion policies at colleges and universities be re-examined. The report found that only 2.2 percent of all full-time faculty and 2.6 percent of part-time faculty are Hispanic.