Chico State has made strides in diversifying its student population in recent years, but some minority students are still having difficulty finding their place on campus.
Since 2000, the number of Hispanic students at the university has increased by 3,481. And in 2014, the Hispanic population surpassed 25 percent, making Chico State a Hispanic Serving Institution.
The change stems from greater awareness of need and the university’s efforts in outreach and support for low-income, first-generation and minority students, said Teresita Curiel, interim associate director of HSI Initiatives.
The Office of Admissions has also expanded its recruitment efforts to meet the diversity goals of the university. Since 2011, a permanent recruiter has been employed in Southern California to engage with schools that have diverse and low-income populations.
Anaiza Novoa, a first-generation student and senior psychology major, came to Chico State from Southern California.
“I didn’t really know what I was doing when I was applying to college and I messed up my applications,” she said. “Chico State was my last chance, so I came here.”
“EOP (Educational Opportunity Program) made my college experience better my first year, not so much the rest of my years because I stopped going to the office, stopped receiving advice,” she said. “It made a difference my first year, but it’s really more of a transitional thing.”
Annual reports show that Educational Opportunity Program maintains a strong student persistence rate -- the percentage of students who return to college for their second year -- in comparison to students not engaged in a support structure.
Novoa attributes the increase in the Hispanic student population to a rise in accessibility.
“I think it has a lot to do with a lot of Latinos finally realizing that college is important,” Novoa said. “When we were growing up, our parents don’t tell us much about college, so it’s kind of hard to go in that direction. I think now more people are understanding that college is important and accessible to us now.”
HSI status marks an important milestone in Chico State’s diversity efforts, but it also draws attention to the lack of progress among other underrepresented student populations.
Kimani Davis, an undeclared sophomore, came to Chico State from Inglewood after a recruiter visited his high school.
“(The recruiter) made it sound so possible, so good,” he said. “And the neighborhood I come from is not safe, so Chico was as far away as I could get from home while still being able to afford it.”
But Davis could not gain access to service programs like other first-generation students.
“I felt a lot of disconnect especially last year as a freshman when I came here,” Davis said. “I didn’t qualify for EOP (Educational Opportunity Program) so I was just kind of lost. I was ready to transfer at the end of the year. I was going to leave, but then I met Dylan Gray (Associated Students diversity coordinator) and met some people at CCLC and decided to stay. It’s really the only place that feels like home.”
Problems of access are an obstacle to maintaining diversity among students, according to Davis.
As of fall 2015, Asian Americans are nearly 6 percent of the Chico State student population while African Americans make up 2 percent. Native Americans and Pacific Islanders fair worse at less than 1 percent.
Access for all minority students is a complex problem, says Curiel of HSI Initiatives.
“A lot of these populations are not eligible, and that includes also Latinos that aren’t eligible to apply for admission to a four-year university because they didn’t satisfy the requirements to get in,” Curiel said. “Now in California, and this is specifically to the CSU, is that there are a lot of campuses that are impacted, so on top of that the state of California hasn’t been able to accommodate all of those eligible students. So there’s a funnel that happens.”
Retention is also an issue among minority students since many students have expressed concerns about not feeling comfortable or safe on campus.
Samuel Akinwande, the Black Programs intern at the Cross-Cultural Leadership Center, said he had a hard time finding his place and feeling comfortable on campus.
“From our background, we don’t deal with the same things the white or Hispanic students deal with,” Akinwande said. “There is so much that goes into being an African-American student on campus that nobody really knows. There have been plenty of times where I’ve needed counseling and I go to the Health Center and the counselor couldn’t relate. So what happens is I shut down because I have no one to relate to my struggles.”
Samuel Akinwande is the Black Programs Intern at Chico State's Cross-Cultural Leadership Center.
To address these issues, Curiel is organizing focus groups to better understand student needs. So far she has learned that African-American students would like to see more African-American faculty and cultural coursework.
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion is also working with the CCLC to reestablish the Black Student Union so African-American students can organize on campus.
“I think it’s wonderful that diversity is such an important value at Chico State because we want to diversify the student body not only so it looks more like California demographics but also because it makes sense to provide all students an enriched opportunity in their Chico State experience,” Curiel said.
By Molly Sullivan