PRINCETON, N.J.
Educators, researchers and advocates gathered last week at the Educational Testing Center to set a research agenda for Hispanics in higher education. Nearly 60 people turned out to address the major obstacles to higher education success for Hispanics students.
The daylong event featured four presenters, each highlighting a different concern regarding the Hispanic achievement gap.
Dr. Amaury Nora of the University of Texas at Houston began with an overview of research, theory and practice of Hispanics in higher education. He delineated the “pull factors” that hinder college retention for Hispanic students, including family obligations, off-campus employment and commuting difficulties.
The second session was led by Dr. Victor B. Saenz of the Higher Education Research Institute. He focused on the impact of federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institutions on academic politics.
“There is a higher education debate between diversity and excellence,” Saenz said, asking the audience if they believed the two were mutually exclusive. The audience concluded that, despite some of the political rhetoric, they were not. One audience member stood up to quote former Yale University president A. Bartlett Giamatti: “This institution cannot be excellent if it is not diverse.”
“We have to be careful with the expectation that Latino students can finish in five or six years,” said Dr. Watson Scott Swail, president and CEO of the Educational Policy Institute and the third presenter at the event.
