Forgotten: Support for minority students on the MU campus [abstract]

Abstract

The diversity of students in today's institutions of higher education has brought, to national attention, issues related to how campus' seek to meet the needs of the variety of student groups that currently seek an advanced degree. A large mid-western university was cited in 2006 as receiving a 'D' on an 'A-F' scale, by a non-for profit national organization. This grade reflects the degree to which minority students are supported on this particular campus. This research focused on Latino students and their sense of institutional support both academically and socially. Data were gathered through a process of three focus groups held in the fall semester of 2006. The fifteen participants discussed issues of academic and social support found on campus. Each group of primarily undergraduate Latino students was asked a range of questions about their own personal experiences as students on campus. Participants were encouraged to answer questions and expand on their thoughts about diversity in relationship to their campus experience. Findings suggest that the majority of students create an unsupportive environment for Latino students on campus. Participants described a range of experiences in which they felt unsupported as students in a social manner. However, participants also described experiences in which they received academic and social support from a variety of organizations on campus. Overall findings, however, suggest that Latino students did not feel supported as a minority group. These findings suggest a need to further investigate the level of support required to provide Latino students with positive social and academic experience on a predominately white campus.