2003: ‘Academe’s Hispanic Future’

Hispanic high-school graduates were more likely to go on to college but less likely to earn bachelor’s degrees than their peers were, we reported in one of several articles on the fast-growing enrollment of Hispanic students in higher education. The pace of that growth has continued: Hispanic enrollment was nearing 1.5 million in 2003 and since then has not only doubled but has spread to colleges in more and more states. About 240 colleges were federally designated as “Hispanic-serving,” we noted in 2003; now the figure has reached 435. We also reported that colleges were eager to hire the relatively few Hispanics who made it through the academic pipeline to earn Ph.D.s.