SAN DIEGO—Dr. Beatriz T. Espinoza had no idea of the challenges that awaited her shortly after she took over as president of Coastal Bend College, a community college located in a rural part of South Texas.
The college was financially strapped and was on the brink of losing its accreditation. There was also a “disconnect” between the college and the majority of Hispanics who reside in the town of 12,000 where the college is situated.
“I started letting people go who were not championing our students,” said Espinoza, who was intent on turning the college around as the school’s first Hispanic and woman president. “I told everyone that we’ve got to clean up the college because our students deserve the best of us, not the worse of us.”
Seventy percent of Espinoza’s students are poor and working-class Hispanics and are often the first in their families to go to college.
Closing Coastal Bend College was not an option.
“Many of our students barely made it to our front door and I was not going to close the door on them,” said Espinoza, who was once a migrant worker. “Lots of some ones worked very hard to pull me from being a migrant to a college president and there is nothing I would do to not keep the college doors open for others.”
In her quest to make reforms, Espinoza received a vote of no confidence during her first year as president from the largely White faculty.
