Minority student recruitment

Abstract

An open door? A closed door? A revolving door? What term accurately reflects the efforts of community colleges in attracting minority students to their campuses? The question is being posed by community colleges across the country as they examine their effectiveness in attracting and assisting minority students in achieving their educational goals. Though the problems and the solutions for recruitment initiatives may vary, minority student concerns related to academic preparedness and financial resources, as well as issues concerning institutional climate, are found on each campus. And it is vital that community colleges confront these problems now. Preparing for the student body of the 1990s and into the twenty-first century demands identifying and analyzing the barriers to access and equity for minority students entering community colleges. Moreover, developing positive guidelines for recruitment initiatives that enhance rather than inhibit the open door philosophy is a necessity.

Enhancing Recruitment Success for Two-Year College Students of Color

“…In addition, their presence on a college board may help encourage a campus climate of racial tolerance and acceptance of diversity that is perceived positively by prospective students of color. Other researchers have suggested that having members of minority groups serve on boards of trustees helps in the recruitment of more students of color (Brown, 1991;Harris, 1990;Mazon & Ross, 1990;Mulder, 1991;Smith, 1986).…”

“…A number of authors have argued that faculty members and administrators of color serve as role models and mentors for students 74 Ronald D. Opp of color (see, for example, Applegate & Henninger, 1989;Harris, 1990;Mazon & Ross, 1990;Mulder, 1991;Parker, 1997;Provencio, 1990;Scott, 1993;and Williams, 1990). Some have suggested that the presence of faculty members: and administrators of color creates the perception of a racially supportive campus climate for students of color (Harris, 1990;Provencio, 1990;Scott, 1993).…”

“…These recruitment strategies involve a wide variety of early intervention programs, including (a) enrichment programs (Adams, 1991;Brown, 1991;Cardenas & Warren, 1991;Freed, 1990;James, 1990;Lewis, Dorsey-Gaines, & DeGarcia, 1989;Rendon & Taylor, 1990;Twale, Douvanis, & Sekula, 1992); (b) mentoring programs (Mazon & Ross, 1990;Mulder, 1991;Phillips, 1991); (c) dual-enrollment programs (Harris, 1990;Provencio, 1990;Williams & Cox, 1991); (d) school partnerships (Moultrie, 1987;Parker, 1997); (e) corporate partnerships (Gregoire & Redmond, 1997); and (f) other programs designed to improve recruitment of students of color (Fenske, Geranios, Keller, & Moore, 1997;Shom, 1991;Thompson & Norman, 1994). These recruitment strategies all promote various types of interactions among college faculty members and administrators and both students of color and their teachers.…”

“…Birnbaum's study of presidential leadership focused primarily on administrative commitment to the goals of quality and access rather than on the recruitment barriers and strategies that in uence a college' s percentage of students of color. Most of the writing that has been done on the topic of recruitment of two-year college students of color has tended to be prescriptive, with authors presenting methods to eliminate barriers and implement strategies to increase the number of students of color (see, for example, Cardenas & Warren, 1991;Gorski, 1991;Harris, 1990;Mulder, 1991;Parker, 1997;Phillips, 1991;Rendon & Taylor, 1990;Urban Community Colleges Commission, 1988;Williams, 1990;and Williams & Cox, 1991). This study was designed to add to this body of literature by identifying empirically those recruitment barriers and strategies that in uence the percentage of two-year college students of color.…”

“…Attitudinal barriers mentioned in the literature on recruitment of students of color include (a) lack of institutional commitment to ethnic and cultural diversity (Harris, 1990); (b) staff indifferenc e to needs of students of color (Gorski, 1991); (c) lack of faculty commitment to hiring faculty members of color (Mazon & Ross, 1990); and (d) racially hostile campus climates (Smith, 1986;Thieblot, 1989). Structural barriers mentioned in the literature on recruitment of students of color include (a) poorly nanced schools (Applegate & Henninger, 1989); (b) decreased student nancial assistanc e (Cardenas & Warren, 1991); (c) inadequate student preparation for college (Mulder, 1991;Shom, 1991); (d) declining rates of college attendance (Rendon & Taylor, 1990); (e) few minority faculty members and administrators of color (Mazon & Ross, 1990;Scott, 1993); (f) insuf cient resources for student support services (Cardenas & Warren, 1991); and (g) lack of multicultural curricular perspec tives (Fretwell, 1990). These authors suggest that such attitudinal and structural barriers negatively in uence the percentage of students of color enrolled at postsec ondary institutions, but they simply describe atitudinal and structural barriers and do not attempt to determine empirically whether these barriers negatively in uence the enrollment of students of color.…”