HSI Task Force members Tat Sang So and Ellen Boswell produced the study of Latino majors.

HSI Task Force members Tat Sang So and Ellen Boswell recently completed a study of Latino students’ choices in majors, including the number of undeclared majors, over the last six years.

“The goal of our analysis was to determine which majors are under-represented and which are over-represented as far as Latino students,” said Institutional Research Director Boswell, who is on the HSI assessment subcommittee. So, an assistant professor of English, serves on the HSI curriculum development subcommittee.

“These numbers can help us devise strategies that support the HSI initiative,” So said.

To determine whether a major is under- or over-represented, So and Boswell compared the percentage of Latino students in each major to the overall percentage (13%) of Latino students enrolled at Metro State. For instance, the total number of students majoring in criminal justice and criminology (CJC) from 2002-07 is 6,313. Of these, 1,319 students—or 20.9 percent—are Latino. This means CJC is over-represented at 162 percent.

On the flip side, one example would be aviation technology: Out of 2,825 students, 191 or 6.8 percent are Latino for 52% representation.

For a general overview, the report gave the representation by school and division for 2002-07:

School of Business: 100%
School of Letters, Arts and Sciences 95%
- Humanities 95%
- Science and Mathematics 83%
- Social Sciences 103%
School of Professional Studies 109%
- Education (special) 57%
- Public Service 127%
- Technology 77%

Opportunities
So believes that large majors (those with many students) that are underrepresented for Latinos represent a big opportunity. “Small percentage gains in marginally underrepresented large majors would translate into many students,” he said, citing chemistry, computer science, mathematics and history as examples.

Likewise, large majors that are over-represented, like CJC, offer the opportunity to study what they are doing that helps them attract and retain Hispanic students. “Lessons learned there could be spread through other departments,” So said.

Boswell added that the study showed that service programs have a high concentration of Latino students. “CJC falls into this category as do social work and others,” she said. “Based on literature, the main drive for many Latino students, who are very family-oriented, is that if they were given help to attend college, then they want to give back to their community. This would explain this high concentration.”

However, according to So, the most important major that is over-represented is “undeclared.” “The first order of business should be academic advising that helps Latino students find majors they are excited to pursue and that promises them a path to success and graduation,” he said. “Our retention and graduation rates for students with declared majors are much higher than for undeclared.”

So emphasizes that this analysis will not be used to stereotype Latino students. “In fact, the most important conclusion we have drawn is that there are many great majors at Metro State that our Latino students are not sufficiently exposed to, and we have to make a greater effort to make sure all of our students are aware of how many exciting choices our system of majors offers.”

To view the complete report, go to http://www.mscd.edu/president/hsi and click on the documents tab.