From the Editor

Welcome to the fall 2007 edition of Maricopa’s Expressions newsletter.  This edition highlights the upcoming Student Success conference – The Invisible Man: The Vanishing Minority Male in Higher Education.  The issue is especially compelling for community colleges, as some 50% of Students of Color attend community colleges. (NCES, 2002)1.  At Maricopa, we reflect the national trend of declining male enrollment with an overall 15% point differential between male and female enrollment. (Maricopa Indicator Report, 2006). 

Community colleges are the front line of accessibility in higher education for low-income, under-represented, first-generation and returning students, opening doors to new opportunities and higher earning potential.   But accessibility just gets students in the door. The community colleges must then emphasize retention and educational achievement. 

Many people at Maricopa have been viewing, “Discounted Dreams,” which explores the gap between the promise of community colleges and the results.  Coley (2000) lists six risk factors to student success: attending part-time, working (even part-time), delayed entry after high school, having dependents, being a single parent or not having a high school diploma.  Nationwide 24% of community college students enter with four or more of these risk factors as compared to 4% of students at four-year institutions. (Pope, 2006).

While underpreparedness and other student risk factors provide some of the reasons for lack of student success, the Association of American Colleges and Universities challenges the academy to rethink how responsibility for failure is delegated.  AAC&U speaks of Inclusive Excellence and suggests that colleges and universities must look at the institutional role in student outcomes.  They strongly support disaggregating data to better address outcomes by different population groups, and identifying population specific strategies to improve outcomes.

Ultimately, AAC&U challenges the academy to seek equity in outcomes such that when we disaggregate the data based on race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, etc. we no longer find significant differences.  Visualize the student population at graduation reflecting the student population at orientation.

This year’s student success conference moves Maricopa along the path of Inclusive Excellence by taking an honest and reflective look at how we are serving one sector of our student population and identifying actions to close the gap. 

In addition, this issue puts a spotlight on newly appointed President of Estrella Mountain Community College, Ernie Lara.  Dr. Lara has been an active member of DAC for many years.  We congratulate him on his appointment and look forward to working together to continue promote diversity initiatives throughout Maricopa.

And finally, this edition of Expressions continues to highlight other Maricopa diversity efforts including outcomes of this year’s DAC Planning Retreat, information on the Diversity Infusion program, and a special program at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

Our next edition of Expressions will be out in January.  We invite you to submit articles that highlight activities throughout the district.

Rory Gilbert

Manager for Diversity Initiatives
480-731-8211
rory.gilbert@domail.maricopa.edu