Increasing the Recruitment and Retention of Historically Underrepresented Minority Students in Higher Education

Abstract

There is a need for more bilingual and/or minority speech-language pathologists to serve an increasingly diverse population. To recruit and retain minority students, faculty in university training programs should increase their awareness of minority students’ needs and expectations. This paper reviews the literature pertaining to the factors relating to minority students’ success in higher education and reports the results of a survey designed to assess students’ perceptions of factors related to academic success. It also delineates how faculty of the Department of Communicative Disorders at California State University, Fullerton, used these results to improve the recruitment and retention of minority students. Because there is a dynamic relationship between faculty, students, and institutional requirements, other communicative disorders departments are encouraged to use this survey to better understand and respond to their students’ needs.

Beliefs Regarding the Impact of Accent Within Speech-Language Pathology Practice Areas

“…Mismatches in client-clinician language backgrounds are occurring with increasing frequency. First, the majority of SLPs in the U.S. are native speakers of English (Kritikos, 2003; Saenz, Wyatt, & Reinard, 1998), resulting in an inadequate number of SLPs to serve the growing number of multilingual clients. In 2009, for example, less than 6% of ASHA members identified as multilingual or bilingual (ASHA, 2010a).…”

Cross-cultural peer-mentoring: Mentor outcomes and perspectives

“…If students perceive limited support to participating in graduate CSD programs, students may not be successful despite interest or ability. In particular, social supports are critical for success of students from diverse groups (Saenz, Wyatt, & Reinard, 1998). Solberg and Viliarreal (1997) reported that Hispanic college students who perceived strong social support had less stress and higher selfefficacy.…”

Policies and Practices Regarding Students With Accents in Speech-Language Pathology Training Programs

“…It should also be noted that ASHA’s (1998) position statement and technical report focused on SLPs with accents in English. As most SLPs in the United States are native speakers of English (ASHA, 2004; Kritikos, 2003; Saenz, Wyatt, & Reinard, 1998), a more frequent scenario than SLPs with accents in English is native speakers of American English providing SLP services in Spanish. With L2s learned at an average age of 12 years old in the United States (Pufahl, Rhodes, & Christian, 2001), beyond many individuals’ “critical” or “sensitive” period in phonological development, it is likely that a majority of the native speakers of English working bilingually in the United States have American English accents in Spanish.…”