Meeting the Challenge: - The Council of Independent Colleges

Alvin P. Sanoff
“I have come to realize how many places there must be where talent
exists and if the educational opportunity is provided it can be
of tremendous benefit to the whole community.”
—Kathleen Ross, SNJM, President, Heritage University
St. Edward’s also brings the students’ parents to campus to let
the families learn what life will be like for their children—
in the process, helping to build family support for students
who will be entering a world very different from the one
they have known before. As CAMP students progress
academically, many of them become mentors to younger
students in the program.
Martin says that St. Edward’s has remained
committed to recruiting under-represented minorities while
at the same time expanding enrollment and improving its
academic profile. The university’s undergraduate enrollment,
which was below 2,000 in 1999, is now above 3,000; the
goal is to reach 4,000 students by 2010. The average SAT
score has risen by 71 points during the same period. As the
university has grown the number of Latino students has
increased proportionately, and the student body remains
more than 25 percent Latino. Diversity, says Martin “is one
of the essential elements of the St. Edward’s community.”
Heritage University in Washington state is much
younger than St. Edward’s but it, too, is committed to
educating historically under-represented students. The
university opened as a college in 1982 with a total enrollment
of 85, one-third of them Native-Americans and one-fifth
Latinos. Today, Heritage has grown to 1,100 students—53
percent Latino and 15 percent Native-American. About
70 percent of these students are women. Because so many
of its students are Latino, Heritage decided to seek state
approval to become a university instead of a college: the word
“colegio” means high school in Spanish, and that produced
confusion in the community about Heritage’s mission.
Only about 40 percent of Heritage’s students enroll
immediately after high school. The average age of the student
body is 35. “In many cases the academic preparation of
the students has not been strong,” says Kathleen Ross, the
university’s founding president and a member of the Sisters of
the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. Prospective students are
given assessment tests in English, mathematics, and reading
and many are then placed in remedial courses so they have a
better chance to succeed. “Our financial aid system allows for
a year of remedial work,” explains Ross.
Like other institutions that have made educating
under-represented minorities a priority, Heritage has a
network of academic support programs—including an
emergency revolving loan fund (students can borrow up to
$150 but must pay it back by the end of the semester). Many
of the students enroll for a semester or two and then take
time off to earn additional funds to pay their tuition. About
40 percent of low-income students at Heritage eventually
earn a degree, and that rate is more than three times the
state average for low-income students. Most graduates stay
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