Testimony of
TOMAS ARCINIEGA
PRESIDENT EMERITUS, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY – BAKERSFIELD
AND MEMBER OF THE HACU GOVERNING BOARD
ON BEHALF OF THE HISPANIC ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (HACU) AND HISPANIC-SERVING INSTITUTIONS
WRITTEN TESTIMONY FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RECORD
ON HR 761, “EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRADUATE STUDY AT HISPANIC–SERVING INSTITUTIONS”
TO THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON SELECT EDUCATION OF THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
AT A FIELD HEARING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PAN AMERICAN
May 2, 2005
Good afternoon, Representatives Tiberi and Hinojosa. It is an honor for me to appear here to testify before the Subcommittee on Select Education of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on HR 761. I am here on behalf of the more than 242 Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and the 80 HSIs that will be eligible to participate in the graduate program delineated in the proposed legislation as a part of the Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1964.
My name is Tomas Arciniega, President Emeritus of California State University at Bakersfield, an HSI, and currently I serve as Special Assistant to the Chancellor of the California State University System. I am also a past Chair and current Governing Board member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).
HSIs are an important national resource for the education of Hispanics and other minority groups in the nation. Half of all Latino students engaged in higher education attend HSIs. In urban areas across the country, HSIs also educate a significant percentage of African-American students. In the institution I headed for over 21 years, 30% percent of the enrolled students are Latinos, who also represent 23% of all graduate students. African-Americans, Native Americans and Asian Pacific Islanders make up another 15% of the student population. Therefore, any programs that assist HSIs also benefit other minority group members attending such institutions.
Today, the Latino population is the largest minority group in the United States. The Hispanic population of the United States, according to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau as of July 1, 2003, numbers 43.8 million, 13.7% of the U.S. population, with 39.9 million in the mainland United States and 3.9 million in Puerto Rico. By July 1, 2050, according to U.S. Census Bureau projections, Hispanic Americans will number 102.6 million or one-fourth of the nation’s total population. The number of Hispanics will nearly triple between 2000 and 2050. These numbers reflect the dramatic growth in the Hispanic population in recent years, a growth that is expected to continue in the decades ahead.
Already an “emerging majority” in several regions of the country, Hispanics are also the fastest-growing school-age population, with U.S. Census Bureau projections anticipating a 60 percent increase in the Hispanic school-age population over the next 20 years. Current U.S. Department of Labor studies show that Hispanics, who currently represent about 13 percent of the U.S. work force and make up one of every three new workers, are projected to provide one of every two new workers by 2025.
The expanding Latino population has resulted in a growing number of Hispanic Serving Institutions, a number which is projected to continue to grow over the next five to ten years. According to the NCES 2003 data, there are now over 90 colleges and universities which have Latino enrollments between 18-24% and which are expected to become HSIs in the near future.
With a median age of 26.7, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (Statistical Abstract: 2004), Hispanics are more than a decade younger than non-Hispanic whites with a median age of 39.6. Our nation and economy will demand an expanded and educated workforce to replace the large number of retiring “baby boomers” who will vacate jobs crucial for the nation to maintain its preeminence in research, technology, science, and engineering. Latinos and other minorities must be encouraged and assisted to pursue advanced education beyond the baccalaureate level in areas essential for business, industry, government, the public sector, and the post secondary education system as faculty, administrators and presidents. These new graduates will provide the professional workforce necessary for the nation in the coming decades.
Advanced technical and scientific skills are becoming essential to future earnings and career achievement in areas necessary to the nation’s economic strength, security and position within the world economy. However, only 20 percent of HSIs offer a master’s degree. Less than 15 percent of HSIs offer a doctoral or first professional degree. Many under-funded HSIs do not have the infrastructure to offer advanced degrees. Funding to support the growth of graduate programs at HSIs, as proposed in HR 761, would contribute to reversing the persistent under-representation of Hispanics in research, teaching, science, technology and professional ranks and add to the nation’s professional work force for the immediate and long range future.
The chronic shortage of Hispanic professionals with advanced degrees, especially in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, biomedicine and professional careers, results in a work force in the scientific and professional communities that is not reflective of the nation’s diverse population. Advanced degrees translate into higher salaries with a concomitant higher taxable income, which can help alleviate federal and state budget deficits. Without the infusion of new professionals with advanced degrees and specialized knowledge, the U.S. will be unable to keep its competitive edge in the global economy.
At the same time, challenges to affirmative action, from Proposition 209 in California and the Hopwood court decision in Texas to more recent affirmative action court battles in Michigan and other states, have reduced minority enrollment in some graduate and professional schools. The U.S. Supreme Court, in Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger in June 2003, issued a split decision, ruling in favor of affirmative action in admissions policies at the School of Law of the University of Michigan, but against certain criteria for admissions policies for undergraduate students. The effects of these rulings likely will not be felt for some time. Meanwhile, current diversity efforts have been inadequate to offset the effects of Hopwood and other earlier court rulings.
The proposed Bill HR 761, as written, would provide HSIs with important and urgently needed resources to expand advanced education opportunities to Latinos and other minorities. Because so many of these students are already enrolled in HSIs, their access to graduate degree programs at their home institutions would bypass much of the affirmative action debate that rages at more selective institutions.
At 6.4%, Hispanics remain the only under-represented group in the federal work force. This inadequate representation occurs in all agencies, but especially at NASA, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and other agencies requiring advanced degrees for employment in an increasing number of positions.
The under-representation of Hispanics in higher education is even more daunting. The National Center for Education Statistics, “Fall Staff Survey (1999),” reports that only 3.1 percent of all the “executive/administrative/managerial” positions were held by Hispanics and a mere 3.0 percent of all faculty positions. For the federal work force to reach parity with the general civilian workforce, the government would need to double the number of Hispanics in federal jobs. For higher education to reach parity in faculty and administration ranks, the number of Hispanics employed there would have to more than quadruple.
HR 761 would support capacity building opportunities for HSIs to develop and enhance doctoral and professional programs which would increase the pool of qualified Hispanic faculty and administrators, including chief academic officers and presidents at HSIs, as well as highly educated professionals in many other areas.
Addressing the under-representation of Hispanics in key areas of the workforce takes on even greater urgency in light of NCES Digest of Education Statistics which show that Hispanics in 2002 earned 4.6 percent of all master’s degrees, compared to 68 percent for non-Hispanic whites (and 13.2 percent for nonresident aliens). In 2002, Hispanics earned only 3.2 percent of all doctoral degrees.
Title V of the HEA remains the chief vehicle for targeting federal funds to HSIs. HR 761 and S. 357 have been introduced to authorize a first-time $125 million level of spending for graduate education grants to HSIs to expand and enhance post-baccalaureate opportunities at Hispanic–Serving Institutions. The bill would establish a competitive grants program that would allow eligible HSIs to support graduate fellowships and support services for graduate students, infrastructure improvements, faculty development, technology and distance education and collaborative arrangements with other institutions.
In addition HR 761 will:
- Increase current support for two-year and four-year undergraduate efforts under Title V by increasing the authorization level to $175 million beginning in FY 2006. This increase in funding is needed in view of everything I have mentioned: the dramatic growth of the Hispanic population, their importance in the 21st century U.S. workforce, their under-representation in higher education and in professional, scientific and technical jobs which require college education, the key role played by HSIs, and the corresponding growth in the number of HSIs. Add to these issues the fact that HSIs on average receive less than half the funding per student accorded to all degree-granting institutions and the wisdom of increasing the Title V authorization level becomes self-evident.
- Reduce regulatory burdens for HSIs participating in the existing undergraduate Title V program by eliminating the two-year wait-out period between applications for grants. Currently the two-year wait-out now required between applications by eligible HSIs for Title V grants impedes the effort to implement long-range solutions to Hispanic higher education challenges. Clearly, eliminating the two-year wait-out period will be of immense importance in equipping HSIs with continuous funding needed to best answer these complex challenges.
- Remove the "50 percent" low-income assurance requirement from the federal definition of HSIs which will erase another inequitable component of the Title V definition of HSIs. Current law requires that at least 25 percent of the full-time equivalent student enrollment must be Hispanic. In addition, 50 percent of those students must also fit federal low-income definitions. This additional regulatory burden, requiring time-consuming documentation of information not normally gathered, is not required of other Minority-Serving Institutions and should be eliminated.
- Add a new use for Title V undergraduate grants by allowing the funding of articulation agreements and student support programs to facilitate the transfer of students from two-year to four-year institutions. More than 50 percent of Hispanic higher education students attend two-year community colleges, often because they are the closest, most affordable entry into higher education. Expanding the allowable use of Title V funding to develop articulation agreements and student support programs will provide HSIs the means to increase the numbers of Hispanic Americans with four-year degrees.
On behalf of the HSIs HACU represents and the Hispanic students they educate, I want to reiterate that HR 761 adds a powerful new dimension to Title V of the Higher Education Act. HR 761 will not only expand and enhance post-baccalaureate opportunities at Hispanic-Serving Institutions but prepare the future professional workforce for the nation.
Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Hinojosa, I appreciate the opportunity to testify before your Subcommittee and your Subcommittee’s long-standing support of HSIs. I would be pleased to answer any questions that you may have.
Tomas Arciniega
President Emeritus
California State University-Bakersfield
May 2, 2005