Exploring the Community College to the Four-Year University Transfer Pipeline for Latino Males

• In Event: Pathways From the Community College: Building Successful Practices for Latino Males in the Community College

Abstract

Today, despite the growing population of Latino men enrolled in community colleges, recent data shows that only 15.4% will earn a certificate, degree, or transfer from a community college to a four-year institution within three years (Wood et al, 2014). Research shows that once enrolled at the community college Latino students may experience barriers that interrupt, delay, or prevent them from transferring to a four-year college or university including, part-time enrollment, financial challenges, academic obstacles, and limited access to information and resources that would prepare them to transfer (Acevedo-Gil, 2018). For Latino males, these barriers may be enhanced by different aspects of masculinity and may lead to negative educational outcomes (Sáenz et al, 2013; Sáenz et al, 2015; Vasquez Urias & Wood, 2015). Despite the growing body of literature on Latino men in higher education, less is known about how four-year institutions are developing transfer policies and practices that support more Latino males at the community college become transfer eligible, apply, enroll, and successfully complete their baccalaureate degree.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how Latino male community college transfer students confront the material conditions of the community college to four-year transfer pathway. Using semi-structured interviews with Latino male community college students who navigated the community college to university transfer pathway at Southwest State University (SSU) in Texas, the research questions that guided this study were: 1) What is the perceived transfer receptive culture by Latino male community college transfer students at Southwest State University? and 2) How do Latino male community college transfer students apply their community cultural wealth to create the transfer receptive culture at Southwest State University? Data was analyzed using a thematic approach in combination with the theoretical framework of a transfer receptive culture (Jain et al, 2011) and community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005). Findings highlight that even though SSU has established transfer policies and practices to thoroughly support community college transfer students. A challenge is that these policies and practices are not culturally responsive to meet the specific cultural needs of Latino male transfer students. As a result, students relied on their cultural knowledge, skills, abilities and contacts to transfer and graduate from SSU. This paper highlights how four-year institutions can better support Latino male community college students to become transfer eligible, apply, enroll, and complete their baccalaureate degree.

Author

• José Reyes Del Real Viramontes, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign