Student Recruitment and Retention Resources
Society for the Teaching of Psychology (Division 2) Diversity Committee
October 23, 2006
Recruiting and Retaining Students
- An overview of a meeting at the ETS that had the goal to address the obstacles for Hispanics in higher education.
Comments are given about the meeting but no specifics are mentioned.
- Improving Minority Retention in Higher Education: A Search for Effective Institutional Practices. Four 4-year university programs that are considered to have high retention rates are examined. Successful factors for retention are that could be adopted at other institutions are identified.
- Facilitating Retention and Transfer for First Generation Students in Community Colleges Claims that students attending two-year colleges are non-traditional. Examines attrition rates as well as enrollment rates and identifies retention barriers in two-year programs. Ideas fir retaining students are presented.
- California Community College Access & Equity Policy Brief Examines the under education of California’s youth. Several are dropouts or immigrants who have come to America without an educational background. A high school exit exam that is required in the sate of California contributes to the number of students that will never receive a high school diploma. The CCC(California Community College System) is reviewed along with their attempts to get undereducated youth to attend community colleges or vocational programs.
- Center for the Study of College Student Retention. Minority Student Retention: Resources for Practitioners. “The chapter provides retention/attrition and graduation data, a brief literature review, information on African American, American Indian, Hispanic retention, commonalities and looking ahead.”
- Diversity Web: American Assoc of Colleges and Universities AHANA (African American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American) student programs at Boston College examine the retention rate of minority students. The retention rate at this institution went up from 17% to 93% since 1970. Ways of achieving this rate are examined.
- Minority Student Retention and Academic Achievement in Community Colleges. ERIC Digest. Emphasis is placed on certain techniques used to increase minority student retention in community colleges. Such techniques include the role of faculty members, campus climate, mentoring, and freshman seminars.
- Student Affair staff reviewed almost 1,000 college and university web pages in 2002. Presents a summary of best practices used by specific schools to recruit and retain students of color.
General Support Information for Ethnic Minorities
- A Survival Guide for Ethnic Minority Graduate Students. This is an actual handbook that was created for minority students beginning their graduate degree in psychology. Several issues are introduced that all students, but especially minority students may have trouble with. These include feelings of doubt and racism. Specific techniques are introduced that may help minority students avoid these issues. More general topics such as finding a mentor and doing research are also examined.
- A Survival Guide for Ethnic Minority Graduate Students. This is the same source that is listed above. The only difference is that it appears on the APA website instead of on a particular university site.
- Justgarciahill.org. Virtual Community of Minorities in Science. This site is presented as a site for minorities in the field of science. The site is structured to pay tribute to past minority scientists. The stated goal of this site is to increase the number of minorities in the sciences. Students can register and participate in discussion forums and other activities.
- Resources for minority doctoral students
Ethnic Minority Support Programs
- Continuing Umbrella of Research Experience. Promote potential cancer research careers in underrepresented populations, site gives information about application
- Bridges to the Doctorate. Describes the bridges to the doctorate program. The focus is to increase the number of minority students in the biomedical sciences doctorate programs. Specifics on requirements and allowable costs are presented.
- Bridges to the Future: Focus is to increase the number of community college students who successfully transfer to the university and complete the baccalaureate degree in the biomedical & behavioral sciences
- Mental Health Minority Research Fellowship: nursing lists priorities and objectives of the fellowship
- EXPORT. Goal is to promote the participation of health disparity groups, promoting HIV and cardiovascular disease research
- Minority Access to Research Careers. (Goal is to increase the number of minority students in the biomedical and behavioral sciences fields. Encourages minority students to seek a Ph.D.)
- Summer research programs UCSD
- Minority Fellowship Program APA. Explains the eligibility and requirements for the minority fellowship program offered by the APA. Applicants must be continuing their education in the neurosciences.
- Diversity Project 2000 & Beyond: exposes promising underrepresented community college students to successful professional role models. Students receive leadership training, mentoring networks, career options and exposure to nationally known professionals)
- Directory of Selected Scholarship, Fellowship, and Other Financial Aid Opportunities for Women and Ethnic Minorities in Psychology and related fields.
- McNair Post Baccalaureate program. Junior & seniors are prepared for doctoral programs. This program offers opportunities for underrepresented students and tracks their progress through their undergraduate degree. They are then encouraged to apply for graduate degrees. Tutoring, counseling, and financial assistance are offered to the students enrolled in this program.
- SAMSHA’s Minority Fellowship Program. Train doctoral and post doctoral students for ethnic minority psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, social workers)
- National Association of School Psychologists Minority Scholarship Program. Applications and donation procedures for the Minority Scholarship Program for Graduate Training in School Psychology.
- Minority Biomedical Research Support. For sophomores through graduate students in Chemistry, Biology, Psychology, Communicative Disorders, Public Health, and Health Sciences. Conduct research with faculty. Grants are awarded to institutions that have a significant minority enrollment.
- Minority Access to Research Careers. Junior and seniors conduct research in Biology, Chemistry, Psychology, Physics or Mathematics. Assists students pursuing a doctoral science degrees, or academic careers in biomedical research in basic sciences, medicine, behavioral sciences, or epidemiology. Grants awarded to 4-year institutions with a significant minority enrollment.
- Answers to frequently asked questions about the Bridges to the Future program
References from the Literature
- Alex-Assensoh, Y. (2003). Race in the academy: Moving beyond diversity and toward the incorporation of faculty of color in predominantly White colleges and universities. Journal of Black Studies, 34, 5-11. Focuses on how to retain and recruit minority faculty members. This source states that the focus of research needs to go beyond the mere diversity in hiring but researchers also need to be in a position that helps them identify with minority faculty members.
- Chavez, A. F., Guido-DiBrito, F., & Mallory, S. L. (2003). Learning to value the “Other”: A framework of individual diversity development. Journal of College Student Development, 44, 453-469.
The article proposes a framework for understanding the diversity of faculty members and staff. This framework is analyzed in the context of higher education institutions. Another goal of the article is to outline how to influence the diversity of students and faculty. Tips are given to encourage healthy diversity.
- Fenelon, J. (2003). Race, research, and tenure: Institutional credibility and the incorporation of African, Latino, and American Indian faculty. Journal of Black Studies, 34, 87-100.
Focuses on the idea the universities (mostly private) are more concerned with pleasing their alumni than their current faculty. If this is the case they may not give as much support to a minority faculty member that is doing controversial research on minority issues. This allows the dominant group to avoid thoughtful discussions about racism problems on campus. Thoughts are presented on sports mascots and how they can be seen constituting racism.
- Guanipa, C., Santa Cruz, R. M., & Chao, G. (2003). Retention, tenure, and promotion of Hispanic faculty in colleges of education: Working toward success within the higher education system. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 2, 187-202.
- McKinley, B., & Brayboy, J. (2003). The implementation of diversity in predominantly white colleges and universities. Journal of Black Studies, 34, 72-86.
- Moradi, B., & Neimeyer, G. J. (2005). Diversity in the ivory white tower: A longitudinal look at faculty race/ethnicity in Counseling Psychology academic training programs. The Counseling Psychologist, 33, 655-675. This source provides a review of the changes that have been made in the field of counseling psychology. There have been advancements for retaining minority faculty, but there have also been challenges. This article talks about both of these things as well as what we can do in the future to support diversity.
- Osborne, J., & Walker, C. (2006). Stereotype threat, identification with academics, and withdrawal from school: Why the most successful students of colour might be most likely to withdraw. Educational Psychology, 26, 563-577. (Examines the hypothesis that negative stereotypes may affect the intellectual capacity of certain minority groups. It is hypothesized that individuals who are highly invested in their education may be the ones that suffer the most. Research suggests that this hypothesis is in fact true even though this phenomenon is not seen in Caucasians.)
Thanks to Jennifer Chivon Milliken for her assistance with compiling and annotating these resources.