Fastest-growing minority group at UI is Latinos

IOWA CITY - Latinos are the fastest-growing minority group at the University of Iowa, with an enrollment gain of 110 percent in first-year Latino students from 2006 to 2010.

That far outpaced the enrollment growth of the next-closest minority group - African-Americans - which saw first-year student numbers increase 37 percent in the past five years.

Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa also have seen large increases in Latino enrollment.

University officials credit the growth partly to state demographics, as Latinos make up more of Iowa's population. Several Latino students said they also believe more of their peers are seeking a degree, often as the first in their family to go to college.

“I think more Latino students want to come to college,” said UI senior Celene Espinoza, 21, a first-generation student from West Liberty, “and for students from West Liberty, they see we are here, and we tell them the good things about it.”

Evelyn Cardenas, 36, is a UI student who returned to college last year to finish her degree, postponed in early adulthood when her son became ill. The West Liberty resident said enrollment growth is not just among high school grads; more of her adult Latino friends are seeking degrees, she said.

"For the older generations, it was food on the table comes first, before education,” she said. “Now I know quite a few people in my age group who started school, predominantly women.”

For the first time this summer, the UI ran recruitment ads on the Hispanic-focused Univision cable station across Iowa. Also, the admissions websites for the UI and ISU can be converted into other languages, including Spanish.

According to the state's Division of Latino Affairs, Iowa's Latino population increased 52 percent from 2000 to 2008, with Latinos making up 4.2 percent of the state's residents in July 2008. Latino enrollment in Iowa's K-12 schools grew 124 percent from 1999 to 2008, according to the Iowa Department of Education.

“Certainly we're reaching out to this population, because it is the fastest-growing group in the state,” UI Admissions Director Mike Barron said.

It's also possible the comparison of 2010 enrollment numbers to previous years is skewed slightly, Barron said, because of a change in federal government methods for counting minority groups.

Still, there is no doubt Iowa schools are seeing large increases in Latino enrollment, ISU Admissions Director Marc Harding said. ISU has a large contingent of Latino students from Puerto Rico, where the university has outreach programs, Harding said.

The UI's West Liberty Mentoring Program also has provided a big boost to Latino enrollment growth and retention, officials say.

Carolyn Colvin, associate professor in the UI College of Education, has for years tutored adult immigrants in West Liberty, a town of about 3,500, with a sizable Latino population, 20 miles southeast of Iowa City. Colvin wanted to branch out to high school students and received funding from the UI's Center for Diversity and Enrichment.

The West Liberty Mentoring Program, in place since 2007, focuses on three areas: providing monthly programs on academic and financial issues for Latino students once they get to the UI campus; involving family members and parents through contact and campus visits; and keeping close contact with teachers at the West Liberty High School.

“I know how worried and anxious these immigrant parents are to send their kids away to a university,” Colvin said. “I think the families from West Liberty have come to trust the university and see it as a place where they want to have their kids.”

Retention and graduation rates of most minority groups, including Latinos, continue to lag behind those of white students, but progress has been made. UI officials said it's important to focus on tutoring, mentoring and social programs that help students succeed once they get to campus.

One-year retention rates for entering classes of UI Latino students were 79.5 percent in 2000, compared with 83.5 percent in 2008 - comparable to the rates for white students.