Latino Retention in Higher Education: Moving Beyond Ideas and Implementing Change

We are on a perpetual quest for the elusive real Latino student and the most authentic Hispanic, the Latino who best captures what a successful Latino student is and should be. There are many opinions about the keys for Latino success in higher education and what the best practice truly is. It’s a convenient fantasy. If a true solution to Latino retention and higher graduation rates for students of color existed, we could create a handy checklist advising us how to be the best possible students, educators, and advisors.Then, perhaps, world peace would be possible. At the very least, we might avoid the inevitable friction that arises when we mistake Latino activists for what people do in the name of activism, kind of like religion.

“Sometimes, change requires an ultimatum. Sometimes, change demands difficult choices.”

Being a Latino is not a possession. It is not a credential. It is not the mantle on which to build one’s brand. There are liberal and conservative Latinos. There are religious or spiritual and atheistic or agnostic Latinos. Latinos inhabit the gender spectrum and are represented by all races and ethnicities. Breaking news! Latino students are individuals who ideally share the belief that their education rights are as inalienable as the rights of people from distinct backgrounds regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Various Latino solidarity movements through social media and hashtags reveal fractures in American inequalities. Those fractures run so damn deep it’s hard to believe they can be healed. In truth, I have struggled with the conversation while recognizing its importance and necessity. Latinos in higher education have been discussed in sweeping generalizations as if all Latinos are the same and all Latinos speak Spanish or have trouble getting into college.There are people of color active in higher education communities and I don’t want their voices to be erased. I’m not sure there’s a clear sense of what we mean when we call for solidarity. I don’t know how solidarity is possible when some people refuse to listen and others act like everything is just fine and others are so busy performing their understanding they neglect to offer anything of substance to the conversation. We have to shift from catharsis and reckoning to change. It’s time to build on the important work rising out of the hashtag. We have serious problems to deal with. We have a painful, infuriating history to reconcile — one where the concerns of heterosexual, able middle-class white men and women have too often been privileged at the expense of everyone else. But I’m not ready to turn my back on privileged people. I’m not even close. I am a fairly bad activist full of contradictions, but Latino education is as much a part of who I am as being a Mexican-American, a son of immigrants, and everything else that defines me. Intersectionality is an awkward word representing an important idea. While students of color should have equal representation in higher education and rights of students of color are as inalienable as the rights of anglos, no one assumes only one identity. We cannot consider the needs of Latino students without also accounting for race, ethnicity, gender, citizenship, class, sexuality, ability and more. Such nuanced awareness, such intersectionality, is the marrow within the bones of student success. Without it, Latino retention and graduation rates  will fracture even further.

“We have a painful, infuriating history to reconcile — one where the concerns of heterosexual, able middle-class white men and women have too often been privileged at the expense of everyone else. But I’m not ready to turn my back on privileged people.”

I have a few ideas about how we can do better in bringing more diverse voices into higher education, how we might at least try. Don’t pigeonhole students of color as capable of only speaking to a narrow set of issues. Students of color contain multitudes and they should have the same opportunities as white students to express those multitudes. The statement “I can’t find diverse contributors” is unacceptable. It is a willful act of dismissal to do nothing to change the status quo. We’re talking about whose voices are heard and whose voices are silenced. We’re talking about reach, visibility and influence. The shorthand for that is platforms, and platforms matter because they allow Latino students, faculty, and staff to reach beyond their personal and professional networks and participate in bigger conversations in front of broader audiences. Platforms allow Latinos to be seen and heard. A more diverse range of Latino professionals needs to be able to build platforms. Some of the change needed for this to happen is systemic, but editorial and/or executive diversity is also critical. There is no excuse for the appalling homogeny among decision-makers. When you diversify the gatekeepers, you diversify who is allowed past the gates. We have a responsibility to share the ladders we climb when reaching for success. Without those ladders, there’s nowhere to grow. Building a platform takes years, regardless of who you are. It takes some talent, some luck, and the right people finding your work in the right places at the right time. There is no denying how much easier it is for the more privileged among us to put in those years and catch the lucky breaks. We need to level the playing field. Latino communities must be more committed to formal mentorship that is intersectional in word and deed, actively supporting programs that make it possible for the voices that have so long been silenced to be heard in the right places at the right times. Organizations with the financial means must compensate Latino faculty and staff they solicit. All too often, Latinos are invited to share their perspective without compensation as if being given the opportunity to be heard is payment enough. Last I checked, working for free doesn’t keep the lights on. It makes no sense that this exploitative practice has occurred even once.

“Make small but significant gestures. The smallest ideas can create the greatest change.”

When editing or otherwise curating work, decision-makers can ask more of themselves and the administrators they work with. Is a given piece intersectional in ways that serve what the piece is trying to accomplish? If not, how can administrators guide faculty and staff toward work that is intellectually rigorous and reflective of the multiple contexts that influence our lives? All Latino students, faculty, and staff should demand more of themselves and their communities. We should educate ourselves on how to move from intersectional theory into practice. We should abandon the relentless affirmation of online culture in favor of substantive discourse. We should recognize that intellectual diversity is as important as other kinds of diversity. Make small but significant gestures. The smallest ideas can create the greatest change. What if men stopped contributing to publications that have an appalling lack of gender balance? What if white writers stopped contributing to publications that lacked diversity or intersectional awareness? What if Latinos declined to publish in magazines or serve on panels only privileging certain voices? Sometimes, change requires an ultimatum. Sometimes, change demands difficult choices. No one tactic will heal the fractures in Latino or retention and graduation rates in higher education. Creating long-lasting and necessary change requires a committed and sustained effort on many fronts. Until we put our ideas into practice, that change cannot begin. The post above was inspired on a piece written by NPR on August 23, 2013. The original article is predominantly about feminism but the meaning can be applied directly to Latino student retention. The Feminist and Latino movements have similarities and differences that I will explore in future posts.