<DOC>
[109th Congress House Hearings]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:20913.wais]
EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRADUATE STUDY AT HISPANIC SERVING
INSTITUTIONS
=======================================================================
FIELD HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SELECT EDUCATION
of the
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
May 2, 2005 in Edinburg, Texas
__________
Serial No. 109-13
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and the Workforce
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/
house
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______
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COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
JOHN A. BOEHNER, Ohio, Chairman
Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin, Vice George Miller, California
Chairman Dale E. Kildee, Michigan
Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, Major R. Owens, New York
California Donald M. Payne, New Jersey
Michael N. Castle, Delaware Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey
Sam Johnson, Texas Robert C. Scott, Virginia
Mark E. Souder, Indiana Lynn C. Woolsey, California
Charlie Norwood, Georgia Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan Carolyn McCarthy, New York
Judy Biggert, Illinois John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania Ron Kind, Wisconsin
Patrick J. Tiberi, Ohio Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
Ric Keller, Florida David Wu, Oregon
Tom Osborne, Nebraska Rush D. Holt, New Jersey
Joe Wilson, South Carolina Susan A. Davis, California
Jon C. Porter, Nevada Betty McCollum, Minnesota
John Kline, Minnesota Danny K. Davis, Illinois
Marilyn N. Musgrave, Colorado Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
Bob Inglis, South Carolina Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
Cathy McMorris, Washington Tim Ryan, Ohio
Kenny Marchant, Texas Timothy H. Bishop, New York
Tom Price, Georgia John Barrow, Georgia
Luis G. Fortuno, Puerto Rico
Bobby Jindal, Louisiana
Charles W. Boustany, Jr., Louisiana
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Thelma D. Drake, Virginia
John R. ``Randy'' Kuhl, Jr., New
York
Paula Nowakowski, Staff Director
John Lawrence, Minority Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SELECT EDUCATION
PATRICK J. TIBERI, Ohio, Chairman
Cathy McMorris, Washington Vice Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
Chairman Danny K. Davis, Illinois
Mark E. Souder, Indiana Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
Jon C. Porter, Nevada Tim Ryan, Ohio
Bob Inglis, South Carolina George Miller, California, ex
Luis P. Fortuno, Puerto Rico officio
John A. Boehner, Ohio, ex officio
------
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on May 2, 2005...................................... 1
Statement of Members:
Hinojosa, Hon. Ruben, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Select
Education, Committee on Education and the Workforce........ 3
Prepared statement of.................................... 4
Chart submitted for the record........................... 36
Tiberi, Hon. Patrick J., Chairman, Subcommittee on Select
Education, Committee on Education and the Workforce........ 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 2
Statement of Witnesses:
Arciniega, Dr. Tomas, President Emeritus, California State
University Bakersfield, Valley Center, CA.................. 22
Prepared statement of.................................... 25
Cardenas, Dr. Blandina, President, The University of Texas-
Pan American, Edinburg, TX................................. 7
Prepared statement of.................................... 9
Chapa, Olga, Graduate Student, The University of Texas-Pan
American, Edinburg, TX..................................... 10
Prepared statement of.................................... 12
Paredes, Dr. Raymund A., Commissioner, Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board, Austin, TX............................. 14
Prepared statement of.................................... 16
Rivera, Dr. Jose Jaime, President, University of the Sacred
Heart, San Juan, Puerto Rico............................... 17
Prepared statement of.................................... 19
Additional materials supplied:
McMillin, Sue, President & CEO, Texas Guaranteed Student Loan
Corporation, Round Rock, TX, statement submitted for the
record..................................................... 32
EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRADUATE STUDY AT HISPANIC SERVING
INSTITUTIONS
----------
Monday, May 2, 2005
U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Select Education
Committee on Education and the Workforce
Edinburg, TX
----------
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:30 p.m., in
the International Room, International Trade and Technology
Building, The University of Texas-Pan American, 1201 West
University Drive, Edinburg, Texas, Hon. Patrick Tiberi
[Chairman of the Subcommittee] Presiding.
Present: Representatives Tiberi and Hinojosa.
Staff Present: Alison Griffin, Professional Staff Member;
Ricardo Martinez, Minority Legislative Assistant.
Chairman Tiberi. A quorum being present, the Subcommittee
on Select Education of the Committee on Education and the
Workforce will come to order.
STATEMENT OF HON. PATRICK J. TIBERI, CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON
SELECT EDUCATION, COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
We are meeting today to hear testimony on expanding
opportunities for graduate study at Hispanic Serving
Institutions. My name is Pat Tiberi, Chairman of the Select
Committee, Subcommittee on Education and the Workforce.
I'd like to thank the University of Texas-Pan American for
hosting this hearing today. I also want to thank Brett Mann--
Where's Brett? Brett? He's working--the executive director of
the Office Center for Operations and Community Service,
Division of External Affairs, with the University of Texas-Pan
American, for picking me up at the airport. Thank you for
sending an Ohioan, a former Ohioan, to pick me up.
It is my pleasure to be here today. I appreciate the
hospitality shown thus far. I am eager to hear from our
witnesses.
Before I begin, I ask for unanimous consent for the hearing
record to remain open for 14 days to allow Members' statements
and other extraneous material referenced during the hearing
today to be submitted in the official hearing record.
Without objection, so ordered.
Welcome to our presenters here today. I'd like to
especially thank my friend, my colleague, Congressman Hinojosa,
for his work in organizing this field hearing, his staff as
well. They've been terrific. I had the great pleasure of
hosting Mr. Hinojosa at my alma mater, The Ohio State
University, a few weeks back, and I'm honored to be here today
in the 15th Congressional District of Texas that is so well
represented, as all of you already know, by my friend and
colleague. He is a wonderful member to work with, a dedicated
Member of Congress, and I'm so pleased to be in his district.
I'd also like to recognize again the University of Texas-
Pan American for hosting our field hearing today. It is truly a
pleasure to be here at the university. Thank you very much.
I have prepared a formal opening statement that I will ask
be submitted to the record, but let me begin by saying that I
believe that expanding educational opportunities for all
students and students at Hispanic Serving Institutions is an
extremely important topic and a timely one, as well.
HSIs have improved access to higher education for Hispanics
and disadvantaged students and are committed to providing
academic excellence across our country.
As I said earlier in a press conference, education is the
great equalizer in our country. It can bridge social, economic,
racial, geographic divides, like no other force. It can be the
difference between an open door and a dead end. Nowhere is this
more true than in higher education.
In preparation for higher education reauthorization, we are
here today to examine the programs and use of funds that are
authorized under Title V, and to explore how we might increase
opportunities at the graduate level. Minority serving
institutions offer a unique contribution, not just to the
students they serve, but to the communities and to the Nation
as a whole.
The Federal investment in these institutions of higher
learning is significant and producing significant benefits.
I'm pleased to have the opportunity today to learn more
from our witnesses about how graduate studies at HSIs could
further expand access to higher education for minority and low
income students. This is an issue I look forward to examining
as the Committee moves forward with reauthorization of the
Higher Education Act.
I'd like to thank our the distinguished panel of witnesses
for their participation today. I know your time is very
important to you. I look forward to your testimony.
At this time I would like to yield to my colleague, the
ranking member of the Subcommittee, Mr. Hinojosa, my
distinguished colleague, for his comments and any other opening
statements he might have.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Tiberi follows:]
Statement of Hon. Patrick J. Tiberi, Chairman, Subcommittee on Select
Education, Committee on Education and the Workforce
Good afternoon. Welcome to all present for today's hearing,
entitled ``Expanding Opportunities for Graduate Study at Hispanic
Serving Institutions.'' First, I would like to especially thank my
friend and colleague, Congressman Hinojosa, for his work in organizing
this field hearing, and his staff as well. I had the great pleasure of
hosting Mr. Hinojosa at my alma mater, The Ohio State University, some
time ago, and I am honored to be here today in the 15th congressional
district of Texas that is so well represented by a distinguished and
dedicated Member of Congress.
I would also like to recognize the University of Texas-Pan American
for hosting our field hearing today. It is truly a pleasure to be here.
Let me begin by saying that I believe expanding educational
opportunities for students at Hispanic Serving Institutions is an
extremely important and timely topic. There is no doubt that HSIs
improve access to higher education for Hispanic and disadvantaged
students, and are committed to providing academic excellence. HSIs
enroll and graduate thousands of students each year, and enrollments at
these institutions are climbing.
A college education has long been viewed as a ticket to prosperity
and the gateway to the American dream. Today, higher education is
playing a more vital role than ever in shaping our nation's
competitiveness. Before our very eyes, the manufacturing economy of the
20th Century is being transformed into an economy in which a nation's
fortunes may be more directly linked than ever to the knowledge and
know-how of its workers. Parents, students and taxpayers are investing
billions in higher education each year, and institutions must be
accountable for ensuring that they're getting a quality return on that
investment.
In preparation for reauthorization, we are here today to examine
the programs and use of funds that are authorized under Title V, and to
explore how we might increase opportunities at the graduate level.
Minority Serving Institutions offer unique contributions not just to
the students they serve, but to their communities and to this nation as
a whole. The federal investment in these institutions of higher
learning is significant, and it is producing significant benefits.
The reauthorization process offers Congress an opportunity to enact
needed modifications to the programs under the Act and the rules that
govern them, with the goal of building upon the programs that are
working well. Continued federal support for HSIs reflects the great
need for institutions of higher education to serve minority and low-
income populations. Today's knowledge-based economy underscores the
importance of higher education. Education is the great equalizer in
this nation. It can bridge social, economic, racial, and geographic
divides like no other force. It can mean the difference between an open
door and a dead end. Nowhere is this more true than in higher
education.
I'm pleased to have the opportunity today to learn more about how
graduate studies at HSIs could further expand access to higher
education for minority and low-income students. This is an issue I look
forward to examining as the committee moves forward with
reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.
I would like to thank our distinguished panel of witnesses for
their participation today. I look forward to your testimony.
At this time I would like to yield to my colleague, Ranking Member
of the subcommittee, Mr. Hinojosa, for any comments he may have.
______
STATEMENT OF HON. RUBEN HINOJOSA, RANKING MEMBER, SUBCOMMITTEE
ON SELECT EDUCATION, COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am very pleased to
host the Select Education Subcommittee in the 15th
Congressional District of Texas. Thank you, Chairman Tiberi,
for agreeing to hold this hearing on a topic of vital
importance to my community and to our nation, expanding
graduate opportunities at Hispanic Serving Institutions, which
I will refer to as HSIs.
I would also like to thank the University of Texas-Pan
American and its president, Dr. Blandina ``Blandie'' Cardenas,
for hosting us. You represent the very best of our community
and what it has to offer.
Major leaks in the pipeline have put Hispanic Americans at
the bottom of the educational attainment ladder. We will not
see overall sustained improvement if we just focus on discrete
points at the front end of the pipeline. Our nation's HSIs are
uniquely poised to address this great need. Between 1991 and
2000, the number of Hispanic students earning master's degrees
at HSIs grew 136 percent. The number receiving doctor's degrees
grew by 85 percent. And the number earning first professional
degrees grew by 47 percent.
Additionally, strengthening HSIs not only promotes access
and degree attainment for Hispanics, but also builds the
capacity and strengthens the economic development of the
communities that are home to these institutions. It is time for
a similar investment in graduate education at HSIs. As the
109th Congress considers the reauthorization of the Higher
Education Act, the timing is perfect, as the Chairman said
earlier this afternoon.
The timing is perfect to expand the Federal support for
HSIs to post-baccalaureate programs. That is why I have
introduced H.R. 761, the Next Generation Hispanic Serving
Institutions Act, to establish a long overdue graduate program
for these institutions. This legislation will establish a
competitive grant program for HSIs that offer advanced degrees
to increase graduate opportunities for Hispanics and to expand
and enhance the post-baccalaureate offerings at HSIs.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, I want to say that grants will
support graduate fellowships and support services for graduate
students, facilities improvement, faculty development,
technology and distance education, and collaborative
arrangements with other institutions. This legislation has
broad bipartisan support, with more than 113 cosponsors, both
Democrats and Republicans, and yes, one independent.
A Federal focus on advanced degrees in the Hispanic
community will help us attain the educational levels needed to
meet our knowledge, economic--excuse me--to mete out knowledge,
economy-based workforce needs. We must seize this opportunity.
Our future depends on it.
I thank all the witnesses for joining us this afternoon,
and I'm looking forward to your testimony.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my
time.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hinojosa follows:]
Statement of Hon. Ruben Hinojosa, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on
Select Education, Committee on Education and the Workforce
I am very pleased to host the Select Education Subcommittee in the
15th Congressional district of Texas. Thank you, Mr. Chairman for
holding this hearing on a topic of vital importance to my community and
the nation: Expanding Graduate Opportunities at Hispanic-Serving
Institutions.
I would also like to thank the University of Texas Pan American and
its President Dr. Blandina ``Bambi'' Cardenas for hosting us. You
represent the very best our community has to offer.
Major leaks in the pipeline have put Hispanic Americans at the
bottom of the educational attainment ladder. Only 52 percent of
Hispanic adults over the age of 25 have completed high school, compared
to 80 percent nationally. Only 10 percent of Hispanic adults have
attained a bachelor's degree, and less than four percent have achieved
an advanced degree. In the general population over 24 percent of adults
have bachelor's degrees and nearly 9 percent, advanced degrees. Not
until the 1996-97 academic year did Hispanics break the 1,000 mark in
doctorates awarded, of the 44,780 doctorate degrees awarded for the
1999-2000 academic year, only 1,291 went to Hispanics. We will not see
overall, sustained improvement if we just focus on discrete points at
the front end of the pipeline.
Our nation's Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) are uniquely
poised to address this need. Between 1991 and 2000, the number of
Hispanic students earning master's degrees at HSIs grew 136 percent,
the number receiving doctor's degrees grew by 85 percent, and the
number earning first-professional degrees grew by 47 percent.
HSIs, established in the 1992 amendments to the Higher Education
Act, are those degree-granting, nonprofit institutions that serve a
high proportion of needy students and have at least a 25 percent full-
time equivalent enrollment of Hispanic students. Through a competitive
grant program authorized under Title V of the Act, HSIs receive federal
support to build capacity to better meet the needs of low-income and
Hispanic students, primarily at the undergraduate level.
The federal investment in HSIs, which began with $12 million in
1995 and has increased to nearly $95 million for 2005, has clearly paid
off. Between the years 1990- 1999, the growth in enrollment at these
institutions was double that of all institutions nationally. During
that same period the number of degrees awarded by HSIs grew by 36
percent, compared to 13 percent for all other institutions, with the
number of Hispanic students receiving degrees increasing by 95 percent.
Additionally, strengthening HSIs, not only promotes access and degree
attainment for Hispanics, but also builds the capacity and strengthens
the economic development of the communities that are home to these
institutions.
It is time for a similar investment in graduate education at HSIs.
As the 109th Congress considers the reauthorization of the Higher
Education Act, the timing is perfect to expand the federal support for
HSIs to post baccalaureate programs. That is why I have introduced H.R.
761, the Next Generation Hispanic-Serving Institutions Act to establish
a long overdue graduate program for these institutions
This legislation will establish a competitive grant program for
HSIs that offer advanced degrees to increase graduate opportunities for
Hispanics and to expand and enhance the post-baccalaureate offerings at
HSIs. Grants will support graduate fellowships and support services for
graduate students, facilities improvement, faculty development,
technology and distance education, and collaborative arrangements with
other institutions. This legislation has broad, bipartisan support with
113 cosponsors--both Democrats and Republicans.
A federal focus on advanced degrees in the Hispanic community will
help us attain the educational levels needed to meet our knowledge-
economy based workforce needs. We must seize this opportunity. Our
future depends on it.
I thank all of the witnesses for joining us this afternoon, and I
am looking forward to your testimony.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
______
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you. There's--thank you, Mr.
Hinojosa.
There's one particular witness that I'm going to recognize
my colleague to introduce, but I must say that ever since we
talked about having this hearing, he's been bragging about her,
and I'd just like to thank her again for hosting us, before Mr.
Hinojosa provides the formal introduction, but I've got to tell
you, he's really built this up, so I'm really looking forward
to it at this point.
With that, I yield to my friend from Texas for the first
introduction.
Mr. Hinojosa. When I was telling the Chairman a little bit
about our hosting president, he says, ``You're making her sound
like she walks on water.'' I said, ``She does.''
It's my honor to introduce a woman whom I admire greatly,
my friend, Dr. Blandina Cardenas.
Dr. Cardenas is the seventh president of the University of
Texas-Pan American and the first woman to lead the institution
in its 77-year history. Prior to coming to UTPA, Dr. Cardenas
was the dean of the college of education and a professor of
educational leadership at the University of Texas at San
Antonio.
Dr. Cardenas has an impressive history of educational
leadership and community service. She has served as the
chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Educational Testing
Service, a founding member of the Board of the Fundacion
Soledavidad Mexicana-Americana, as a member of the Board of the
American Association of Higher Education, and is a leader of
numerous state and local organizations.
A native Texan, Cardenas received her bachelor of
journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and
her doctorate in education administration from the University
of Massachusetts at Amherst.
We are thrilled to have Dr. Cardenas back in South Texas
leading this great institution. I thank her for the warm Texas
hospitality that she has--she and her staff have shown Chairman
Tiberi, my staff, and me, and I am looking forward to her
testimony.
Chairman Tiberi. Let me introduce the rest of the panel,
and then we'll begin. Thank you, Mr. Hinojosa.
Our next witness today will be Ms. Olga Chapa.
And let me apologize in advance if I mispronounce anybody's
name. I get mine mispronounced every day, as well, so--
``Chapa.'' Thank you, thank you.
Ms. Chapa is a Ph.D. Candidate in business administration
with a concentration in international business at the
University of Texas-Pan American. Her current area of focus
includes the intellectual property rights of American investors
in China, cultural influence on consumer complaint behaviors
among the U.S. Mexican border, and the effects of stress among
emergency response personnel.
She was previously an intelligence analyst in the United
States Army, and the director and owner of the Montessori
Development Center.
Thank you for being here.
Ms. Chapa. Thank you so much.
Chairman Tiberi. Next witness, Dr. Raymund--``Parades''.
Dr. Paredes. Parades.
Chairman Tiberi. ``Parades.'' Thank you.
Dr. Parades is the Commissioner of Higher Education at the
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. His past experiences
include serving as Vice President for Programs in the Hispanic
Scholarship Fund, Director of Creativity and Culture at the
Rockefeller Foundation, Vice Chancellor for Academic
Development at the University of California-Los Angeles.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Parades has been
recognized numerous times for his expertise in multiethnic
education, development of educational standards, and the impact
of demographic changes on American culture and education.
Thank you for being with us today.
Dr. Jose Jaime Rivera; Dr. Rivera is the President of the
University of Sacred Heart in San Juan, Puerto Rico. As a
recognized leader in higher education, Dr. Rivera has served as
a consultant in the United States and Puerto Rico and
throughout Central and South America. In 2002 he was recognized
as the Educator of the Year by the Third International Exchange
of Education and Thought for his development of a distance
education model for the Hispanic community and his initiative
to provide expanded student exchange opportunities for Puerto
Rican students.
Thank you for coming today.
And our final witness, Dr. Tomas Arciniega--pretty close.
Dr. Arciniega. Close enough, thank you.
Chairman Tiberi. The doctor is President Emeritus of
California State University-Bakersfield. He served as president
of the institution for 21 years, from 1983 to 2004. He is a
recognized leader in the fields of multicultural education and
institutional development and change, and has been recognized
for his achievements by numerous professional associations.
He's also served on the boards of several institutions and
foundations, and as a Presidential appointee to the National
Coalition on Education Research.
Thank you for coming today.
Before the panel begins, I would like to ask each of our
witnesses today to limit their statements to around 5 minutes.
Your entire written testimony will be included in the official
hearing report, which will be distributed to the members of the
Committee, the full Subcommittee and staff.
With that, we will begin our testimony. After everyone's
testimony is complete, then we will begin a round of
questioning, and we'll have a couple of rounds of questioning,
and, depending on what my colleague thinks, maybe even a third
round of questioning.
But it is really, really great to be here again, and let's
not waste any more time.
Dr. Cardenas.
STATEMENT OF DR. BLANDINA CARDENAS, PRESIDENT, THE UNIVERSITY
OF TEXAS-PAN AMERICAN, EDINBURG, TX
Dr. Cardenas. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman Tiberi,
Congressman Hinojosa, on behalf of the students, staff and
faculty of the University of Texas-Pan American, I am pleased
to extend a heartfelt South Texas welcome, bienvenidos, to our
beautiful Valley and to this campus. Thank you for the
opportunity to address this Committee on a matter which I
consider to be of great national importance. I will submit my
testimony for the record.
I speak to you not only from my perspective as president of
this university, but I speak to you from a perspective of
someone who spent the last 30 years focused on improving
educational opportunities for Hispanic students and all
students who do not have access to that educational
opportunity.
I've always done it from two perspectives: One, because I
think that the human capital, the human potential that is in
every child, should be developed, but also because I firmly
belief that our nation, and in particular our state, require
the development of a critical mass of people who are trained,
credentialed, and prepared to lead and to solve the very real
problems that face our nation, as well as to build on the
assets that are in all of our communities.
As I thought about this testimony, it occurred to me that
it was important for you, Mr. Chairman, and Congressman
Hinojosa, to understand the historical perspective; that is,
what brings us to this point.
When Lyndon Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act, he signed it in Cotulla, Texas, where he had
taught in a one-room Mexican schoolhouse, segregated Mexican
schoolhouse. When he signed the legislation in 1965, that one-
room Mexican schoolhouse was still operating.
Hispanics in states like Texas and others did experience
segregated education until the '60's, and we now have de facto
segregated education in many parts, and particularly in our
urban centers. We are characterized because of the demographics
of this part of the state. Many of our students go to school
exclusively with other Latino children.
That segregation diminished significantly, for other
reasons that we'll talk about later, the high school completion
of Hispanic students.
When it came to a university experience, Hispanics, at
least in this part of the country, had very little access to
higher education. You could count the numbers of students from
any community who managed to go to college. It wasn't until the
GI bill that those numbers began to expand after World War II,
and then it wasn't until the major improvement in higher
education legislation that we saw those numbers increase, with
the Pell Grant and others.
But unlike other communities in our country, we did not
have access to, if you would, national-origin based
institutions of higher education. We didn't have access to
mainstream institutions. We also didn't have access to
segregated institutions in higher education. So our numbers,
the numbers of college educated people that were produced, and
in particular the numbers of people prepared to be faculty in
institutions of higher education, was very, very low.
This began to change somewhat as resources were made
available to Hispanic Serving Institutions as a result of the
work of your Committee.
As these Hispanic Serving Institutions began to form their
programs and advocate, through legal and other means, the
urgency to create powerful graduate programs became very clear.
The problem that we face in Hispanic Serving Institutions
by and large across this country is that our students are still
coming from a predominantly low income base, so we have to keep
tuition low. The University of Texas-Pan American and the
University of Texas-Brownsville charge the lowest tuition of
any institutions in the UT system by a substantial margin.
We're trying to keep tuition low so that we can give more
students access to a baccalaureate education, and that means
that we have few resources available to invest both in
fellowships and program development and other--and in research,
for that matter, that would allows us to grow our graduate
programs.
Moreover, it becomes difficult for us to recruit faculty.
Young faculty coming out of our research run institutions want
to go to schools where there's a doctoral program, where
there's an abundance of research fellowships that they can do
their research--with whom they can do their research. So we're
caught in a bind.
The other impact of that bind is that because we don't have
the graduate resources, we don't have the doctoral programs, it
becomes harder for us to access the very substantial Federal
funds that go to research universities to create the solutions,
if you would, to problems in diabetes, in schooling, in
whatever. So we're caught in a bind. Basically, we get less
because we have access to less.
This legislation can make a marked difference in the lives
of students and, more importantly, in the creative and problem-
solving capacity of this nation.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Cardenas follows:]
Statement of Dr. Blandina Cardenas, President, The University of Texas-
Pan American, Edinburg, TX
Mr. Chairman Tiberi, Congressman Hinojosa, (any other members of
the Committee who are present), on behalf of the students, staff and
faculty of The University of Texas Pan-American, I am pleased to extend
a heartfelt South Texas welcome, Bienvenida, to our beautiful Valley
and this campus. Thank you for the opportunity to address this
committee on a matter of great national importance and for your
leadership in engaging the significant national challenge of graduate
education for Hispanics.
I speak to you not only from my perspective as President of this
University that leads the nation in the graduation of Mexican-Americans
in bilingual education and ranks fourth in the nation in master's
degrees awarded to Hispanics, but also from the perspective of almost
thirty-five years of engagement at the local, state and national level
in efforts to educate the critical mass of Hispanic students so
necessary to the long-term economic, civic and cultural well-being of
our beloved nation.
Over the course of your examination of this issue, you will be
presented with extensive data and analysis of the unacceptably low
rates of Hispanic participation and success in graduate education.
Among other statistics you will hear are that Hispanic graduate
enrollment in the Biological Sciences is only 3 percent, in Engineering
only 4 percent and 6 percent in the Health Sciences. While these rates
appear to be improving, the rate of improvement is inadequate to meet
this state's and the nation's requirements. Improving the rate of
graduate enrollment and completion for any group is a slow and lengthy
process. I believe it urgent that we intervene to accelerate that rate
of participation and completion consistent with the accelerated
demographic change that is occurring throughout the nation.
In a recent Supreme Court decision on diversity on college
campuses, Justice Sandra Day O Connor established as a national
expectation that we might reach, within 25 years, a time when
extraordinary consideration for diversity might not be necessary. It is
a goal whose achievement is deeply desired by those who, like me,
advocate in favor of diversity strategies. But the goal will not be
achieved unless we have both the push from the Pre K-12 system and the
pull from higher education institutions in all disciplines and at the
undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels.
For Hispanic Serving Institutions, like UTPA, the ability to pull
is hampered by a lack of funds at the institutional level and at the
student level. UTPA will grow more than any other institution in Texas
if we keep college affordable and provide substantial financial aid. At
UTPA, we serve 4,658 students who come from homes with a total family
income less than $20,000. Fifty percent of our students are Pell Grant
eligible. Eighty-seven percent are eligible for financial aid. Our
students come from the poorest families in the nation. Even with low
tuition and financial aid, they work one or two jobs--and they have the
lowest loan default rate in the State of Texas, (1.1) percent. By the
same token, we project that any growth in student population will not
come from students who are more affluent or more privileged, it will
come from students who are less affluent, who will have greater needs.
Our graduates go to work rather than pursue expensive graduate and
professional educations because they are driven by the noblest of
family values. They choose to help their families and perhaps help fund
younger brothers and sisters' undergraduate education.
UTPA finds itself in the same position as its students. We are
faced with the choice of raising tuition and investing in graduate
education or keeping tuition low and investing in undergraduate
education so that we can have more of our young people receive
bachelor's degrees.
Most HSI's lack the financial base to provide adequate
institutional support for graduate education. The policy dilemma for
the state and nation is that if you want to increase the number of
Hispanics with masters and doctoral degrees, you will have to go to
Hispanic Serving Institutions. As we say in Texas ``if you want to
fish, you must go where the fish are.''
Increasing the number of Hispanics in graduate education is
imperative to business, industry, medicine and education. Hispanics
with master's degrees will be required to lead a diverse work force and
create new products and product delivery systems for a diverse national
market and for competitiveness in the global market. Hispanics with
doctoral degrees must be available in sufficient numbers to serve the
teaching and research needs of our colleges and universities and
research organizations in the private and public sector. I believe that
Hispanics with post-baccalaureate preparation will bring significant
added value to the creative and problem-solving enterprise--not in
spite of the less privileged backgrounds, but because of it.
Academic institutions, in particular, have a high stake in the
production of increased numbers of Hispanic doctorates. Academics are
almost always produced through mentoring. Something or someone has to
make the potential scholar believe that he or she too, can become a
teacher and a researcher. When I received my doctorate in 1974, there
were less than a dozen Mexican-American women with doctorates in other
than Romance Languages. When I stopped counting some years ago, there
were more than 150 Latina women who had worked for me, requested my
mentorship, or told me that they had decided to pursue a doctorate
because they connected to my achievement. Hispanic faculty can be a
magnet for Hispanic student interest in a discipline. Particularly in
fields not traditionally sought by young Hispanics, one dynamic
Hispanic Assistant Professor can boost Hispanic majors in that field
almost overnight. But the demand for Hispanic faculty is rising sharply
as Hispanic college enrollments increase at the same time as the
overall demand in most fields far outpaces the supply.
H.R. 761 holds much promise for fulfilling the national need to
increase the number of Serving Institutions to build the master's
program enrollments and support doctoral programs in areas of
excellence. It will enable HSI's to collaborate on a more equal footing
with institutions with greater graduate capacity. It will help to raise
the aspirations of Title V students and the institutions that serve
them. It represents a logical extension to the success and the promise
of existing Title V provisions.
______
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Mr. Hinojosa. Mr. Chairman, could we ask the presenters to
bring the microphone a little closer to you, to be sure that
everything at the back can hear.
Chairman Tiberi. Very good suggestion. I was mesmerized by
the testimony and was listening. That was very good testimony,
by the way.
Thank you for bringing it closer to you so everyone in the
back can hear.
Ms. Chapa.
STATEMENT OF OLGA CHAPA, GRADUATE STUDENT, THE UNIVERSITY OF
TEXAS-PAN AMERICAN, EDINBURG, TX
Ms. Chapa. Good afternoon, and thank you for allowing me to
present this testimony to you today.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you.
Ms. Chapa. Thank you. My name is Olga Chapa and I'm
presently enrolled at the college of business. I have attended
the graduate program for 5 years now. I stand before you as a
representative for both the master's and doctoral students of
the college of business, and I can personally testify this day
that the main factor that restrains our ability to begin and to
finish our graduate students--studies, pardon me--is the lack
of funding.
We're all familiar with the cost of obtaining an education.
Many of us, myself included, earned our bachelor's degree
attending the university part time because of financial
restraints. It took me 9 years personally, and I am not alone.
Some of us returned to earn a graduate degree, and taking a
course here or there, repeating the same pattern as we did when
we earned our bachelor's. And one of the things I noticed was
the small number of Hispanic students along with me, but that
was not a very big--since, like I said, scholarships, stipends,
grants, are very, very limited, and we have to compete with
what exists in most of these programs with undergraduate
students, so of course there was no surprise.
It's not an unwillingness to work, either. Master students
work 20 hours a week to earn their stipend, and we, as doctoral
students, have to do the same. We're more than willing to give
that part of us to our community and our university.
Graduate students require a large amount of time in order
to read and also to conduct research, and therefore we cannot
give more than 20 hours in order to meet our financial
obligations. So we have to request today to please invest in us
and give us other graduate means so that we may finish and
accomplish this goal.
One thing I hear that's common today and one thing that
concerns us very much is this gap that's being created. It is
predicted that one in every four Americans will be of Hispanic
decent by the year 2050. If the ratio continues as it is of our
graduate accomplishments, then that means that one quarter of
our nation will be under-educated, and this is very dangerous,
as each and every one of you has stated thus far, because not
only do we compete here in our nation, but we compete globally,
so this is of great concern to us and we want to help you
address this issue.
So how can we do that? Well, we certainly have the people.
This institute has the people, and we have the commitment. You
have our commitment and our willingness to work hard and do
anything it takes to accomplish our goal to increase those
numbers, not just for our community, but for our nation, as has
been stated time and time again today.
The low Hispanic enrollment in the graduate students is not
only due to the lack of funding. Many students want to attend
but aren't, or are not qualified with the requirements
necessary to be accepted into a graduate program, so we're in
dire need of programs to address that issue, as well, to create
a jump start program, if you will, for those within our
communities and within our Nation that need that jump start in
order to qualify for these graduate programs.
We desperately need you to invest in us. We're committed to
you to make a difference, and we're committed to our country to
help make a difference, especially in the bleak statistics of
the Hispanic ethnic group, but we cannot do it alone any
longer. We need your help. We have overcome great hurdles, but
it is at a fork in our road that we are unable to continue at
times, and that increases the number of what we call dropping
out. We need increased funding opportunities. Anything you can
do for us will be greatly appreciated and utilized.
Speaking of research, at the college of business we are
encouraged to perform research, and we've come up with some
ground-breaking ideas and new added theories to existing
literature, and some of us have even had the honor of
publishing, but we cannot do this without research funding, so
there's always a constant block here, there, on and off, that
we're not able to continue helping in--and create a more
research-oriented facility, as is the strategy of Dr. Cardenas
and this structure.
We're pleading with our government, do not leave any adult
behind, either.
Thank you.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Chapa follows:]
Statement of Olga Chapa, Graduate Student, The University of Texas-Pan
American, Edinburg, TX
My name is Olga Chapa. I am a 45-year-old Hispanic female from the
Rio Grande Valley. My academic history as a student at the University
of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) has peaked, and I am now a doctoral
student. In the fall of 2005, I should present my doctoral
comprehensive and oral exams. My graduate studies began in the fall of
2000. Personally, during my MBA program, the only resources available
through student financial aid programs were student loans. I would not
have been able to continue my education unless I obtained private
financing. I worked and studied diligently to obtain acceptance in the
doctoral program at UTPA, College of Business Administration, but the
continuation of my studies, as well as other graduate students in the
same position, is not certain due to the lack of funding.
The reason I stand before you is to act as a representative member
of the Graduate Students at the UTPA to inform the Committee on
Education and the Workforce of the struggle Graduate Students face to
complete their education. As graduate students, most of us are of an
older age group, therefore, have family and other responsibilities that
hinder our ability to either begin graduate studies or complete the
degree plans.
I have two examples to share with the committee today that confirm
that the main obstacle we face is financial. First, I have been
privileged to teach undergraduate level courses. I make it a point to
emphasize the importance of the students' continued education. I
believe these students will not only better their lives financially and
intellectually, but improve our representation as Hispanics in the
United States (US). Some students are not interested, but many of them
state that they cannot afford to continue. Their families are
financially struggling with them as they earn a Bachelors degree, and
their graduation seems impossible. Second, within my experience as the
director of the child care center for 21 years, I met approximately
2,000 sets of parents. Due to the demographics of the area, 98-99
percent of the parents we served were of Hispanic origin. Out of the
2,000 parents approximately one-half had some form of formal education.
Only a handful of those parents continued with their post baccalaureate
degrees. Their primary reason was the lack of financial recourses.
Our resources as doctoral students are extremely limited. During
the fall and spring semesters, we work as research assistants providing
20 hours a week for a professor. Our stipend is $15,000 a year without
insurance coverage. Most other graduate programs are able to provide
more funding and insurance. If there is funding, our stipend is
extended throughout the summer sessions. The lack of funding creates
dire financial difficulties, because we are unsure whether we will have
funding to support our families during the summer months or need to
find employment elsewhere. For example, graduate students scheduled to
take exams during the fall 2005 period are uncertain of the probability
of accomplishing this task. The summer term, in addition to acting as
an assistant to a professor, should ideally be used to study for the
comprehensive examinations. The exams are comprehensive in nature and
cover material studied throughout a three-year period. Unfortunately,
the funding that is available is on a first come, first serve basis and
is limited due to budget restraints. Without sufficient funding, we may
have to sacrifice our studies in order to support our families during
the summer. We have met the class requirements and student loans and
scholarships are not available. This will delay preparations for
examinations. As you can witness, the lack of financial resources are
what hinders our abilities to obtain a post baccalaureate degree and
ultimately this will result in some graduate students faced with the
probability of ``dropping out''.
Although, the University is available, the programs are in place,
the professors and staff are qualified, and the Hispanic students are
enrolled, our ability to complete our studies and achieve our graduate
status is hindered. Hispanics make up approximately 89 percent of the
UTPA population, which consists of 13,082 Hispanic undergraduate
students and 2,242 graduate students. Currently, 1,731 Hispanic
graduate students are enrolled in UTPA. Approximately 1,200 are female.
If we consider the 13,082 undergraduate students as an example, only 13
percent of them would return to earn a graduate degree.
According to the U.S. Census, one in every four Americans will be
of Hispanic origin by the year 2050. The National Center of Education
Statistics reports that as of 1999, Hispanics earned only four percent
of the master's degrees, and only three percent of the PhD degrees
issued in the U.S. Ten percent of the college enrollment in the U.S.
are Hispanic, yet only three percent are instructional faculty. We must
increase our representation.
Our representation in the area of post baccalaureate degrees
remains low. Why would this be important? It is extremely important
because the Hispanic children and young adults are not exposed to role
models that have accomplished the task of furthering their education.
We can create a norm, common characteristics that Hispanic children and
young adults can emulate to increase our representation.
In addition to increasing our representation, the growth of Hidalgo
County requires qualified individuals in areas such as business,
education, engineering, and so forth to meet the needs of expansion.
Hidalgo County is part of a border area separating Mexico and the U.S.
This region is rich with businesses. All types of organizations have
expanded, including the retail and the maquila industries that are
predicted to continue expanding. This type of growth requires
individuals with skills and education to fulfill job openings. A
Bachelors Degree, although commendable, is no longer enough to compete
for the job openings that require higher levels of education and
skills. For example, the local population could fill those postings. In
addition to creating employment, the decrease in costs affiliated with
expatriates, would benefit the organizations as well. The Hispanic
graduate students that leave Hidalgo County are prepared to compete for
positions all over the country and internationally. Those that wish to
remain and contribute their skills and knowledge to the local community
can so with confidence. I can only speak for the UTPA College of
Business Administration, but I have been privileged to learn more than
I ever thought imaginable. This area is a ``goldmine'' to conduct
research in the business area, science, and technology fields. Our
college emphasizes research and skills acquired at the graduate level
are necessary to perform the research. If indeed Congress pledges to
strengthen the role of research at Hispanic serving institutions.
Please be advised that UTPA serves a large Hispanic population (88.5
percent). However, I feel that more needs to be done to recruit
students from the Rio Grande Valley to benefit from the UTPA
institution.
Personally, the odds of my achievement were stacked against me. My
parents are immigrants from Mexico. My father and his family were
laborers traveling the U.S. to find fieldwork in which to earn a
living. We were very poor and lived in government housing until I was
14 years old. My father was permanently disabled when I was two years
old. My mother was employed at a childcare center when I was 14 years
old. She did everything from changing diapers to cooking for $ 60.00 a
week. Eventually, we were able to own a child care center in Edinburg,
Texas. During those 21 years in the child care industry, I earned my
Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from UTPA as a part time
student. During that time, I also became the guardian of my father,
which entailed supporting him as well. Eventually, the center was sold,
and I returned to UTPA a graduate student. Although I could not obtain
scholarships, I was able to raise private financing. This was the only
way I could support my family. I was accepted into the doctoral program
the same year I graduated as an MBA student extending my graduate
program. I have been enrolled for five years. I am emphasizing that
without private financing and due to the lack of financial resources
available to the graduate students at UTPA, I would not have been able
to continue my Master's and Ph.D. studies. I am proud to be a part of a
growing number of Hispanics who believe we must make a difference in
the numbers of post baccalaureate degrees. Having worked and observed
small children for 21 years, I can personally testify that my
experiences led me to validate prior studies and research about
children and the importance of role-playing. Indeed, children live what
they learn and see everyday. If more children witness their brothers,
sisters, cousins, relatives, community members, church members, etc.
achieve not only baccalaureate degrees, but graduate degrees; they will
emulate this behavior. I see this in my niece's and my son's
achievements. Throughout their childhood, they witnessed their
grandmother, aunt, and mothers strive for a higher education. There was
never a question of whether they would obtain a higher education
degree. This was a ``norm'' to them; my niece graduated from Brown
University and will earn her Master's degree in social work this spring
from the UTPA. My son was accepted to the University of Texas, Austin
campus and will graduate with Honors in the top 10 percent of his
class. Therefore, I can testify that I have witnessed this behavior in
children for 21 years and am witnessing the same within my family.
I want to continue beating the odds and achieve this goal so I may
represent my people not only as a Hispanic but as a female. Sadly, I
must report that although I have overcome poverty and personal
tragedies within my family, I cannot overcome the obstacle of financial
resources. I have depleted my resources. I am one example and there are
many students with similar situations. There is very limited funding
for students who lack financial resources to continue their education.
Although some scholarships are available, they are limited.
Undergraduate and graduate students are eligible for the same
scholarships in most occasions. Most scholarship opportunities are
available to undergraduate students only. Student loans are available
in limited amounts as well. The lack of resources creates a great
obstacle for Hispanic graduate students who have to choose between
supporting their family and spending their resources on their
education. It is most difficult when the additional factors such as the
costs of textbooks, transportation, and childcare are factored into the
situation.
The structure to provide the graduate level degrees exists. It is
larger and stronger than ever. The President of UTPA, Dr. Blandina
Cardenas, provides the strategy to fulfill the educational needs and
opportunities for the community with her leadership and guidance. UTPA
ranks 2nd in the nation as a Hispanic serving institute. Moreover, UTPA
has the largest number of Hispanic students among universities in
Texas. We have the structure, the people, the opportunities, the
desire, and the strategy. All we need now is the financial support to
succeed in the goal of encouraging more and community members to
increase the number of Hispanic graduate students. The rise in
education helps everyone. The more educated our country is as a whole,
the stronger it becomes. We must all yearn to seek the unknown for that
is what innovation is all about. Our strength as a nation and Texas
depends on our capabilities to adapt to the increasing global market
and increasing competition with other nations whose population as a
whole is more educated academically. If you leave the Hispanic group
behind, that gap brings the entire nation and Texas down. Please
persuade those who can help us. Invest in our community. I promise you
will not regret it. The cycle of a poor education within our Hispanics
has to end now. If you invest in us, you invest in our children and our
community. They in turn influence others until one day, we, as a
people, will advance. We will make our state and our nation proud.
______
Chairman Tiberi. Doctor.
STATEMENT OF DR. RAYMUND A. PAREDES, COMMISSIONER, TEXAS HIGHER
EDUCATION COORDINATING BOARD, AUSTIN, TX
Dr. Paredes. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, and Congressman
Hinojosa. As Texas Commissioner of Higher Education, I'm
delighted to offer some comments today on the issue of
expanding opportunities in graduate education at Hispanic
Serving Institutions.
This topic is especially important to the Texas Higher
Education Coordinating Board because it relates to the Texas
higher education initiative called Closing the Gaps.
Closing the Gaps has various components, but the most
relevant here is to increase the number of students enrolled in
Texas higher education by 600,000 by year 2015. In order to
achieve this goal we need to dramatically increase enrollments
across the board in private as well as public institutions, in
two as well as 4-year institutions, in graduates as well as
baccalaureate programs.
And given the demographic trends in Texas, a large
percentage of both the undergraduate and graduate enrollment
growth we expect to create in Texas will be Hispanic. Put very
simply, a failure to reach the participation goals in the
Closing the Gaps initiative, with a special emphasis on
dramatically higher Hispanic enrollments, will result in gloomy
economic and quality of life outcomes for Texas.
Turning to the specific issue of Hispanic participation in
higher education, everyone in this room recognizes that while
we have made substantial gains, both here in Texas and around
the country in recent years, we still have a long way to go.
Hispanics still lag well behind other groups in college-going
rates, in retention and graduation rates, and, inevitably,
participation in graduate education.
In 2003, 34 percent of whites over the age of 25 had
completed four or more years of college in this country. But
for African Americans the figure was 17.3 percent, and for
Hispanics 11.4 percent.
In 2002, Hispanics received 4.2 percent of all master's
degrees awarded in the United States, compared to 62.1 percent
for whites, and 7.7 percent for African-Americans.
From 1992 to 2002, the percentage of Hispanics receiving
master's degrees rose from 2.6 to 4.2 percent.
In 2002, the percentage of Hispanics receiving doctoral
degrees was 3.1 percent compared to 57.3 percent for whites and
5.1 percent for African-Americans.
The share of doctoral degrees received by Hispanics in 1992
was 2 percent. This increase of 1 percent over 10 years is not
impressive, and I should point out that these numbers have been
relatively flat for about 30 years. The number of Hispanics
receiving doctoral degrees in the United States has been in the
2 to 2.3, 3.4 range since the early 1970's.
Clearly, progress in educational attainment for Hispanics
has been steady but slow, while the population growth has been
dramatic. I often say that in relation to the Hispanic
community, we keep coming up with arithmetic solutions to
geometric challenges.
In Texas, where educational data for Hispanics generally
reflect national patterns, we have 35 public and private
Hispanic Serving Institutions, 16 of which offer advanced
degrees. Especially at public institutions, the number of
graduate programs in Texas HSIs has increased greatly over the
past 15 years, largely in professional fields such as
education. This growth has occurred in both master's and
doctoral degree programs. A quick glance of degree-granting
data from Texas HSIs shows clearly that they grant graduate
degrees to Hispanics at much higher rates than non-HSIs.
At Sul Ross State University in Alpine, for example, of 102
master's degrees awarded in 2004, 42 went to Hispanics, or 39
percent. At another HSI, UT-Pan American, of 489 master's
degrees awarded, 373 went to Hispanics, or 76 percent.
By comparison, at the University of North Texas, a non-HSI,
of 1,512 master's degrees awarded, only 83 went to Hispanics,
or 5.4 percent.
At the doctoral level, the HSIs that granted the most
degrees were Texas A & M University-Kingsville and UT-El Paso.
Of 31 doctoral degrees granted at Kingsville in 2004, 13
went to Hispanics, 42 percent. And, at UTEP, 24 doctoral
degrees were granted, of which 5 went to Hispanics,.
21 percent.
By comparison, at UT-Austin, which is one of the largest
doctorate-producing institutions in the country, 31 of 683
doctorates went to Hispanics, 4.5 percent; while at Texas A & M
University, the other public flagship in Texas, only 15 of 151
doctorates went to Hispanics, 2.9 percent. The data for other
Texas public universities reveal a similar pattern.
Several conclusions can be drawn from these data. First, it
is clear that Hispanics participate at increasingly lower rates
the higher the level of degree program, whether at HSIs or non-
HSIs. Second, at both masters and doctoral levels, HSIs tend to
produce a higher percentage of Hispanic graduates than non-
HSIs. And the data from Texas show that HSIs tend to have a
relatively small number of doctoral programs, with relatively
small numbers of students.
In Texas, as around the country, there's a large gap
between the academic resources of HSIs and large public non-
HSIs, such as the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A & M
University, and the University of North Texas.
Finally, despite the large Hispanic population across
Texas, the numbers for Texas non-HSIs, in terms of doctorates
awarded to Hispanics, resemble non-HSIs around the country more
than they resemble HSIs in their own state. In other words,
their participation rates for Latinos in graduate programs do
not reflect the presence of a large Latino population in their
regions.
The challenge for HSIs in Texas is to maintain and increase
access while simultaneously improving quality, especially at
the doctoral level. Given the condition of the state budget, it
is doubtful whether Texas, or any other state, for that matter,
can provide the support necessary for HSIs to achieve the
proper balance between access and excellence.
Graduate education for Latinos does present distinctive
academic challenges, and any targeted support to HSIs from the
Federal Government, as represented by H.R. 761, is greatly
needed. They will also help Texas move more closely toward the
goals of Closing the Gaps in student participation in Texas
Higher Education.
Thank you.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you, Doctor.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Paredes follows:]
Statement of Dr. Raymund A. Paredes, Commissioner, Texas Higher
Education Coordinating Board, Austin, TX
Good afternoon, Chairman Tiberi and other members of the
Subcommittee on Select Education. I am Raymund Paredes, Commissioner of
Higher Education in Texas. I am delighted to offer some comments today
on the issue of Expanding Opportunities for Graduate Education at
Hispanic Serving Institutions. This topic is especially important to
the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board because it relates to the
Texas Higher Education initiative called Closing the Gaps.
Closing the Gaps has various components, but the most relevant here
is to increase the number of students enrolled in Texas higher
education by 600,000 by the year 2015. In order to achieve this goal,
we need to dramatically increase enrollments across the board, in
private as well as in public institutions, in two- as well as in four-
year institutions, in graduate as well as in baccalaureate programs.
And given the demographic trends in Texas, a large percentage of both
the undergraduate and graduate enrollment growth we expect to create in
Texas will be Hispanic. Put very simply, a failure to reach the
participation goals of the Closing the Gaps initiative, with a special
emphasis on dramatically higher Hispanic enrollments, will result in
gloomy economic and quality-of-life outcomes for all the people of
Texas.
Turning to the specific issue of Hispanic participation in higher
education, everyone in this room recognizes that while we have made
substantial gains both here in Texas and around the country in recent
years, we still have a long way to go. Hispanics still lag well behind
other groups in college-going rates, retention and graduation rates and
participation in graduate education. In 2003, 34 percent of whites over
the age of 25 had completed four or more years of college. But for
African Americans, the figure was 17.3 percent; and for Hispanics, 11.4
percent. In 2002, Hispanics received 4.2 percent of all masters degrees
awarded in the U.S., compared to 62.1 percent for whites and 7.7
percent for African Americans. From 1992 to 2002, the percentage of
Hispanics receiving masters degrees rose from 2.6 percent to 4.2
percent. In 2002, the percentage of Hispanics receiving doctoral
degrees was 3.1 percent, compared to 57.3 percent for whites and 5.1
percent for African Americans. The share of doctoral degrees received
by Hispanics in 1992 was 2 percent.
Clearly, progress in educational attainment for Hispanics has been
steady but slow, while the population growth has been dramatic. I often
say that, in relation to the Hispanic community, we keep coming up with
arithmetic solutions to geometric challenges.
In Texas, where educational data for Hispanics generally reflect
national patterns, we have 35 public and private Hispanic-Serving
Institutions (HSIs), 16 of which offer advanced degrees. Especially at
public institutions, the number of graduate programs at Texas HSIs has
increased greatly over the past 15 years, largely in professional
fields such as education. This growth has occurred in both masters and
doctoral degree programs. A quick glance at degree-granting data from
Texas HSIs shows clearly that they grant graduate degrees to Hispanics
at much higher rates than non-HSIs. At Sul Ross State University in
Alpine, an HSI, of 102 masters degrees awarded in 2004, 42 went to
Hispanic or 39 percent. At another HSI, UT Pan American, of 489 masters
degrees awarded, 373 went to Hispanics, or 76 percent. At the
University of North Texas, a non-HSI by contrast, of 1,512 masters
degrees awarded, only 83 went to Hispanics, or 5.4 percent. At the
doctoral level, the HSIs that granted the most degrees were Texas A&M
University-Kingsville and UT El Paso. Of 31 doctoral degrees granted at
Kingsville in 2004, 13 went to Hispanics (42 percent); UTEP granted 24
doctorates, of which 5 went to Hispanics (21 percent). At UT Austin, a
non-HSI, 31 of 683 doctorates went to Hispanics (4.5 percent) while at
Texas A&M University, the other public flagship, only 15 of 151
doctorates went to Hispanics (2.9 percent). The data for other Texas
public universities reveal a similar pattern.
Several conclusions can be drawn from these data. First, it is
clear that Hispanics participate at increasingly lower rates the higher
the level of degree program whether at HSIs or non-HSIs. Second, at
both masters and doctoral levels, HSIs tend to produce a higher
percentage of Hispanic graduates than non-HSIs. And, finally, the data
from Texas show that HSIs tend to have a relatively small number of
doctoral programs with relatively small numbers of students. In Texas,
as around the country, there is a large gap between the academic
resources of HSIs and large public non-HSIs such as The University of
Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University and the University of North
Texas. Finally, despite the large Hispanic population across Texas, the
numbers for Texas non-HSIs, in terms of doctorates awarded to
Hispanics, resemble non-HSIs around the country more than they resemble
HSIs in the same state.
The challenge for HSIs in Texas is to maintain and increase access
while simultaneously improving quality, especially at the doctoral
level. Given the condition of the state budget, it is doubtful whether
Texas, or other states for that matter, can provide the support
necessary for HSIs to achieve the proper balance between access and
excellence. Graduate education for Latinos does present distinctive
academic challenges and any targeted support to HSIs from the federal
government, as represented by H.R. 761 is greatly needed. This will
also help Texas move closer toward closing the gaps in student
participation in higher education.
Thank you.
______
STATEMENT OF DR. JOSE JAIME RIVERA, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF
THE SACRED HEART, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO
Dr. Rivera. Chairman Tiberi, Congressman Hinojosa,
colleagues and friends attending this hearing, my name is Jose
Jaime Rivera, and during the last 12 years I've had the
privilege of being the President of Universidad del Sagrado
Corazon, University of the Sacred Heart, a private Catholic
comprehensive nonprofit coeducational institution offering
associate, baccalaureate, post-baccalaureate certificates and
master's degrees.
It was established as a girls school in 1880, initiated
collegiate level programs in 1935, and master's programs in
1985.
In order to meet the 5-minute requirement, I would like to
submit my written testimony and concentrate on the following
key issues and conclusions.
No. 1, Title V institutional and comparative grant programs
have played a fundamental role in strengthening HSIs and in
moving them closer to the mainstream of American higher
education. Still, as shown in my written testimony, educational
attainment of Hispanics still lags that of non-Hispanics,
whites and blacks, even though Hispanics represent an
increasingly sizable proportion of the new workforce for this
century's national economy. Thus we must paraphrase the famous
statement of a nation at risk and say that if our military
enemies prevent this nation's investment in higher education of
Hispanics, this would be as devastating as the bombing of our
infrastructure.
No. 2, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has documented that a
relationship between educational attainment and lifetime
earnings are directly related, so that a person with less than
high school will have a lifetime earning of a million dollars.
Those with a bachelor's degree will earn 2.1 million. Those
with a master's degree will earn 2.5 million, those with a
Ph.D. will make 3.4 million, and those with professional
degrees will make 4.1 million during their lifetime.
I believe that the rate of return of what is invested in
supporting graduate higher education, especially for Hispanics,
can be shown to be high. When this return is joined by the
savings from means-tested social programs that will not be
required by those achieving their educational aspirations, and
the tax revenues that such higher incomes will pay, and are
accounted for, there should be no hesitation as to the
legislation that needs to be approved.
No. 3, given that HSIs provide a nurturing and supportive
environment to Hispanic students, and given the income
differentials through life that these students will receive by
having a graduate education, it is important for Title V to add
this new part to provide financial assistance in support of
HSIs efforts to develop and strengthen graduate programs.
These funds will assist in developing academic support
services, technological infrastructure, administrative support
services, recruiting additional faculty, improving physical
resources needed to offer these programs, among other uses.
Along the line of providing support for HSIs, there are two
areas I would like to add, which may be better served through
new programs. One refers to resources for physical construction
and renovation, to provide physical facilities for new graduate
programs. The second would call for special funds to establish
institutional endowments for the long-term support of the
graduate programs, to be matched through funds obtained by the
HSIs in the format of the Challenge Grants.
No. 5, a similar need has been identified for the creation
of a new section of the Title V for a technological enhancement
program for HSIs. It is critical for HSIs to have a competitive
technological infrastructure to make their students as
competitive as those students attending mainstream well-endowed
non-minority institutions.
No. 6, it is urgent to act now on the elimination of the 2-
year wait-out period of HSIs between grant completion and new
application cycles.
A significant number of institutions were affected this
year by this absurd requirement, and they are not receiving
support from Title V. An even larger number will end their
Title V support this year, and if this is not eliminated now,
there will be no time to call for a new proposal that can start
in October 2005.
Before I finish, I must state my absolute rejection of the
establishment of a single definition of a higher education
institution. Such a single definition will result in a
disservice to Hispanics and other minorities and will divert
resources from those institutions that have a commitment and
integrity to meet their community needs.
I will finish thanking the congressional members of the
Committee and the members of their staff for working to make
nation economically and socially viable by ensuring that it
remains competitive and capable of living by its creeds.
Thank you.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Rivera follows:]
Statement of Dr. Jose Jaime Rivera, President, University of the Sacred
Heart, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Honorable Members of the House Committee on Education and the
Workforce, colleagues and friends attending this hearing: My name is
Jose Jaime Rivera, and during the last twelve years I have had the
privilege of being the President of Universidad del Sagrado Corazon,
(University of the Sacred Heart), a private (Catholic), comprehensive,
non-profit, coeducational institution offering associate,
baccalaureate, post baccalaureate certificates and master's degrees. It
was established as a girls school in 1880, initiated collegiate level
programs in 1935 and Master's programs in 1985. The University has
consortia, academic and cultural agreements with several institutions
in Puerto Rico, United States and Europe. Study abroad and student
exchange opportunities are available in Spain, Mexico, France, Belgium,
and with over 150 universities in the United States through the
National Student Exchange Program.
The University has been regionally accredited by the Middle States
Association of Colleges and Schools since 1950 and it holds
professional accreditations in nursing (NLN), medical technology
(NAACLS) and social work (CSWE).
The University of the Sacred Heart has benefited significantly from
the diversity of programs available as a result of the Higher Education
Act of 1965 [as amended]. During the last eleven years USH was able to
initiate a mayor academic development effort with the support of TITLE
III [1994-99] and now, especially through TITLE V [2000-2005]. These
programs allowed our University to establish the first digital graphic
environment library on the Island in 1994 and latter on, with this
powerful project as its foundation, a TITLE V grant allowed us to
establish in 2000 a web-enhanced learning project which is impacting
all our programs and benefiting over 3,000 students. This technological
enrichment project is benefiting our students by allowing them to learn
how to learn through web-supported activities that prepare them to
enter the work force with very [first world] competitive skills.
Education programs, such as FIPSE have also assisted us in setting
two unique curricular projects. The first is a community-based learning
model centered on service/learning where all seniors in all majors
participate in courses where they work as consulting teams to grass-
root, community based organizations that present us with their
capacity-building needs. These requests are assigned to corresponding
courses where students will spend a semester working in small teams to
solve the assigned problem. As a result, since its inception in 1998,
over 150 organizations have been assisted by this methodology,
developed with FIPSE support. FIPSE also supported the establishment in
2002 of a unique project to integrate language/communication skills in
English and Spanish across the disciplines to address the expectations
that the labor market has for competencies in oral and written
communication. The University also benefits from the TRIO programs
which have assisted hundreds of low-income, first generation students
to attend college and improve the persistence and graduation rates.
Other federal programs have also contributed to our projects but, if
you compare our institution with similar non-Hispanic institutions you
will discover significant differences in the sources and scope of
support. As stated by HACU: ``Yet, HSIs on average continue to receive
less than half the funding per student accorded to every other degree-
granting institution. According to 2001-02 IPEDS statistics of the
Department of Education, HSIs received $8,596. per student on average
from all revenue sources, compared to $18,673 per student for all
degree-granting institutions.'' (HACU, Legislative Agenda 2005, p.5).
Needless to say, the contribution of the Higher Education Act of
1965 and its reauthorizations have played a significant role in our
capacity to meet community needs. The same can be said of our sister
universities in Puerto Rico, both public and private, which, without
the support provided by the Higher Education Act could not have
impacted thousands of Hispanic students who are now successful
professionals as a result of the resources the HEA has provided to us.
As more initiatives have been created to specifically address the needs
of HIS and Hispanic students, our colleges and universities have been
more capable of meeting, at least partially, some equity and quality
commitments we have made to our communities. But as the demographics
evidence, we still are highly under funded and, because of the
demographics and the changing economy, HSIs find ourselves increasingly
distant from the capacity to meet the needs of our community
This is why the TITLE V of HEA is so critical not just to our HSIs
future but to the future of this nation. TITLE V is a fundamental
initiative who's strengthening and expansion we support and promote.
Our first TITLE V grant, as described, assisted us in establishing a
web-enhanced learning project which has supported training over 68% of
our full-time faculty in the use of web-supported teaching strategies.
As a result, 135 courses were revised with this methodology, impacting
85% of our General Education courses which make up 45% of the
curriculum. In addition, over 75 courses in key majors have
incorporated web-enhanced methods. This TITLE V grant also allowed for
$238,600.00 to be added to our small endowment, a fund that is slowly
growing and should, in the long run, strengthen our financial
stability.
Given the leadership role that our University plays in Puerto Rico,
with the support of the TITLE V Cooperative Grant, we developed an
alliance to establish a virtual library between USH, the Municipality
of San Juan Community College, Polytechnic University and American
University in Bayamon. Our goal was to create this consortium to help
each other in strengthening our virtual collections and join forces in
purchasing these collections as well as obtaining expert services to
strengthen our web services and their security, provide training and
development opportunities for the professional personnel that work in
our libraries to better serve the students and community needs. As a
result of this TITLE V grant we have achieved the following results:
<bullet> 18,000 Hispanic students are being provided access to
37,808 journal titles 22,240 of which are full-text and which they can
access anywhere, anytime. None of these students or their faculty had
they been able to access such a wide range of learning resources.
<bullet> They can also access over 13,000 books with their full
text and a significant art collection of over 1,000,000 images, among
other resources.
<bullet> Collectively, our participating institutions have been
able to save over $1,175,000. This represents what we have saved by
buying together instead of individually if we had wanted to purchase
such a magnificent collection.
<bullet> Hundreds of training and development hours have been
provided which would not have been accessible to the individual
institutions where it not for this fundamental collaborative project.
Why are these initiatives important to the Hispanic community? Why
must they be not only maintained but expanded as a sound investment in
the future of the United States economy and social well-being?
The answer rests on the demographic and economic changes taking
place in the nation and the world.
As we all know, the future production possibilities and wealth of a
country depend on the profile and composition of its workforce. But the
profile of its workforce will, in turn depend on the educational
choices made by the men and women of that society and the investments
made to promote access and the quality of the educational experience.
The 2000 Census discovered or uncovered the fast growing presence
of the Hispanic community in the USA. It became evident to all that new
indicators had become critical for the profile of the new USA economy
and for the emerging new makeup of our communities and society in
general. As a result, it has become evident that the new USA workforce
will be increasingly Hispanic. As the baby-boomers retire, there will
be serious shortages of well-trained and educated individuals with the
highest degrees that this new economy calls for to develop the wealth
of the nation. The solution calls for significant investment in the new
workforce which is being served and can be served by HSIs.
If Adam Smith, the father of Capitalism, was living in this era, he
would recognize that in a knowledge-based economy, the profile of its
labor force will be the major determinant of wealth. A labor force
educated to its highest levels will be very productive, will foster
innovations, will strengthen out tax-base, will contribute larger
amounts to the Social Security System, will have little or no
dependency on social programs and will promote a higher level of
educational attainment in their children.
Let us look at some key economic facts identified by various US
Census studies:
<bullet> As more and more people continue their schooling, this
more highly-educated population pursues opportunities to enter into
occupations yielding higher returns in earnings.'' (US Census Bureau,
The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-
Life earnings, July 2002, p.2 [P23-210])
<bullet> Over the past 25 years, earnings differences have grown
among workers with different levels of educational attainment.''
(Ibid., p.3)
<bullet> The Hispanic population was less likely than other groups
to have completed high school or college. In 2000, 57% of Hispanics
aged 25 and older were high school graduates--a significant improvement
over the 1989 share of 51%. However, the percentage of Hispanics that
held a bachelor's degree or higher, 11%, was not significantly
different than the percentage in 1989.'' (USCB, Population Profile of
the US: 2000 (Internet release); 9-2)
<bullet> HACU represents more than 400 colleges and universities
committed to Hispanic higher education success in the U.S., Puerto
Rico, Latin America and Spain. Although HACU member institutions in the
U. S. represent less than 7% of all higher education institutions
nationwide, together they are home to more than two-thirds of all
Hispanic college students.'' (www.hacu.net; HACU 101.)
<bullet> Our nation's economic and social success rests on the
level of skills and knowledge attained by Hispanics, now the nation's
largest minority population. Education, indisputably, is the key.''
(Ibid.)
<bullet> At a time when advanced skills are becoming a more
important measure of future earnings, tax dollars and the nation's
economic strength, only 20% of HSIs offer a master's degree. Less than
12% of HSIs offer a doctoral degree. Many under funded HSIs do not have
the infrastructure to offer advanced degree programs.'' (HACU, 2005
Legislative Agenda, p. 9.)
<bullet> The proportion of the [Hispanic] population 25 years and
over with a high school diploma increased from 53% in 1993 to 57% in
2003; the proportion who had some college increased from 26% to 30%;
and the proportion with a bachelor's degree increased from 9% to 11%.
Nonetheless, they remain lower than the levels for non-Hispanic Whites,
Blacks and Asians.'' (2003 Current Population Survey report,
Educational Attainment in the United States: 2003, p.5)
<bullet> With regard to post baccalaureate degrees, Statistical
Abstracts from 2001 show only 3.3% of Hispanics have graduate degrees,
compared to 8.8% of non-Hispanic whites.'' But, ``According to
Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Handbook of Labor
Statistics for 2001, Hispanics comprise less than 5% of most fields
requiring advanced degrees. Hispanics comprise only 4.7% of all
employment in professional specialty fields, including only 4.7% of the
country's physicians, 2.8% of natural scientists, 3.6% of mathematical
and computer scientists, 5.4% of public school teachers, 3.5% of
engineers and 3.2% of lawyers and judges.'' (HACU, 2005 Legislative
Agenda, p. 9.)
<bullet> Although Hispanics make up over 12% of the US population,
they currently earn only about 5% of master's degrees, 3% of doctoral
degrees and 5% of first professional degrees.'' (Antonio Flores, HACU,
The Voice, March 2005, p. 1).
<bullet> On average, a man with a high school education will earn
about $1.4 million from ages 25 to 64 years. This compares with about
$2.5 million for men completing a bachelor's degree and $4.8 million
for men with a professional degree.'' (www.womenscouncil.org/pdfs/
educationalearnings.pdf )
All of these references, representing but a fraction of available
data, support our basic proposition. Investing in HSIs for capacity
building to allow them to establish solid graduate programs and
professional schools will significantly increase the pool of Hispanics
with advanced degrees. This is so because HSIs are better prepared to
produce a nurturing and supportive environment for Hispanic students,
assist them in the transition from high school to the bachelor's
degree, and from the bachelor's to an advanced degree. It is an
investment because the difference in life-long earnings between those
with only a bachelor's degree and those with masters or professional
degrees is highly significant. In an economy more and more
characterized by jobs in professional specialty fields, lacking the
corresponding required educational level will imply living a life of
low incomes, longer periods of unemployment, dependency on government
transfer programs, raising children that will have a higher probability
of low educational attainment, and other characteristics of the culture
of poverty. Such results are more expensive than investing in HSIs
development and in its graduate programs.
Thus, we are proposing the establishment of a new section under
TITLE V of the HEA to be identified as Part B, Graduate Education, to
assist HSIs efforts to build or strengthen existing capacity to provide
advanced education to capable students with a bachelor's degree. Such a
part should be properly funded with an initial assignment of $125
million.
Besides, there are some critical issues to be addressed by the
reauthorization of the HEA:
<bullet> The elimination of the two-year wait out period for HSIs
between grant completion and new application cycles to be legislated in
this first session of the 109th Congress.
<bullet> The elimination of the 50 percent low-income assurance
requirement from the funding criteria of Title V, since this
requirement is only applicable to HSIs among Minority Serving
Institutions, and it crates an unfair, unnecessary and costly
administrative burden.
<bullet> The creation of a new section under Title V, Part D, of
the HEA for a Technology Enhancement Program for HSIs to support
institutional efforts to improve technological infrastructure in order
to provide the Hispanic and other populations served at HSIs with
state-of-the-art digital technology to make them as competitive as
those students attending mainstream, well endowed and non-minority
institutions that provide their students with access to the most
advanced technological resources.
Thus, I close by reaffirming the urgent need for an immediate
repeal of the two-year wait out period imposed on HSIs to reapply for
TITLE V support; the need to support and expand TITLE V due to the
critical role it plays in increasing the quality of our educational
initiatives; the fundamental need for new parts in TITLE V to support
HSIs capacity to develop or strengthen graduate education and to
establish community-responsible technological infrastructures in light
of the competencies demanded from our workforce by the new economy. In
the next round of hearings we would like to address other elements of
the Higher Education Act that are also critical for the wellbeing of
this nation and which should be considered by the Honorable Commission.
Thank you again for the opportunity you have provided to us to present
our perspectives on this crucial effort.
______
Chairman Tiberi. And, finally, last but not least.
STATEMENT OF DR. TOMAS ARCINIEGA, PRESIDENT EMERITUS,
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY BAKERSFIELD, VALLEY CENTER, CA
Dr. Arciniega. Thank you. Good afternoon, Representatives
Tiberi and Hinojosa.
It is an honor for me to appear here to testify before the
Subcommittee on Select Education and the House Committee on
Education in the Workforce regarding H.R. 761. I am here on
behalf of the more than 242 Hispanic Serving Institutions and
the, importantly, 80 HSIs that will be eligible to participate
in the graduate program.
My name is Tomas Arciniega, professor emeritus at
California State University at Bakersfield, an HSI, and
currently I serve as special assistant to the chancellor of the
California State University System.
I'm also a past chair and current governing board member of
the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.
HSIs are an important national resource for the education
of Hispanics and other minority groups in this nation. Half of
all Latino students engaged in higher education attend HSIs. In
urban areas across the country, HSIs also educate a significant
percentage of African-American students.
In the institution I headed for over 21 years, 30 percent
of the enrolled students were Latinos, who also represent 23
percent of all graduate students. African-Americans, native-
Americans, and Asian and Pacific Islanders make up another 15
percent of that student population. Therefore, any programs
that assisted HSIs also benefited other minority group members
attending such institutions.
Today, as you've heard, the Latino population is the
largest minority group in the U.S. The Hispanic population of
the United States, according to the latest report from the
census, as of July 1, 2003, numbers 43.8 million, 13.7 percent
of the U.S. Population, with 39.9 million in the mainland U.S.
and 3.9 million in Puerto Rico.
By July 2050, according to the U.S. Census projections,
Hispanic Americans will number 102.6 million, or one fourth of
the nation's total population. The number of Hispanics will
nearly triple between 2000 and 2050. These numbers reflect the
dramatic growth in the Hispanic population in recent years, a
growth that's expected to continue, obviously, in the decades
ahead.
Already an--quotes, unquotes--``emerging majority'' in
several regions of the country, Hispanics are also the fastest
growing school age population, with U.S. Census Bureau
projections anticipating a 60 percent increase in the Hispanic
school age population over the next 20 years.
Current U.S. Department of Labor studies show that
Hispanics, who currently represent about 13 percent of the U.S.
workforce and make up one of every three new workers, are
projected to provide one of every two new workers by 2025.
The expanding Latino population has resulted in a growing
number of Hispanic Serving Institutions, a number which is
projected to continue to grow over the next five to 10 years.
According to NCES data, 2003, there are now over 90 colleges
and universities which have Latino enrollments between 18 and
24 percent, and which are expected to become HSIs in the near
future.
With a median age of 26.7, according to the U.S. Census
Bureau, Hispanics are more than a decade younger than non-
Hispanic whites. Our nation and economy will demand an expanded
and educated workforce to replace the large number of retiring
baby boomers who will vacate jobs crucial for this nation to
maintain its preeminence in research, technology, science and
engineering.
Latinos and other minorities must be encouraged and
assisted to pursue advanced education beyond the baccalaureate
level in areas essential for business, for industry and for
government, the public sector and the post-secondary education
systems of this country as faculty, administrators, and yes,
presidents.
These new graduates will provide the professional workforce
necessary for this nation in the coming decades. Advanced
technical and scientific skills are becoming essential to
future earnings and career achievement in areas necessary to
the nation's economic strength, security, and position within
the world economy. However, only 20 percent of HSIs today offer
a master's degree; less than 15 percent of HSIs offer a
doctoral or first professional degree.
Many underfunded HSIs do not have the infrastructure to
offer advanced degrees. Funding to support the growth of
graduate programs in HSIs, as proposed in H.R. 761, would
contribute to reversing that persistent underrepresentation of
Hispanics in research, in teaching, in science, technology, and
professional ranks, and will add to the nation's professional
workforce for the immediate and long range future.
A chronic shortage of Hispanic professionals with advanced
degrees, especially in science, technology, engineering,
mathematics, biomedicine and professional careers, results, as
we all know, in a workforce in the scientific and professional
community that simply is not reflective of the nation's diverse
population.
Advanced degrees translate into higher salaries, that's
obvious, with a concomitant higher taxable income, which helps
alleviate Federal and state budget deficits.
Without the infusion of new professionals with advanced
degrees and the specialized knowledge, the U.S. will be unable
to keep its competitive edge in the global economy.
At the same time, challenges to affirmative action from
Proposition 209 in California and the Hopwood Court decision in
Texas, to more recent affirmative action battles in Michigan
and other state, have reduced dramatically minority enrollments
in some graduate and professional schools across this country.
The U.S. Supreme Court in Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v.
Bollinger in June 2003 issued a split decision, ruling in favor
of affirmative action in the admissions policies at the School
of Law of the University of Michigan, but against criteria for
admissions policies for undergraduate students. Meanwhile,
current diversity efforts have been inadequate to offset the
effects of Hopwood and other similar court rulings.
The proposed bill, H.R. 761, as written, would provide HSIs
with important and urgently needed resources to expand advanced
educational opportunities to Latinos and other minorities, but
because so many of these students are already enrolled in HSIs,
their access to graduate degree programs at these institutions
would bypass much of the affirmative action debate that rages
all too often at so many more selective institutions.
At 6.4 percent, Hispanics remain the only underrepresented
group in the Federal workforce. This inadequate representation
occurs in all agencies, but especially at NASA, the National
Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and
other agencies requiring advanced degrees for employment in an
increasing number of such positions.
The underrepresentation of Hispanics in higher education is
even more daunting. The National Center For Education
Statistics reports that only 3.1 percent of all the executive
administrative positions were held by Hispanics, and a mere 3
percent of all faculty positions. For the Federal workforce to
reach parity with the general civilian workforce, the
government would need to double the number of Hispanics in
Federal jobs. For higher education to reach parity, the number
of Hispanics employed there would have to more than quadruple.
HR 761 would support capacity building opportunities for
HSIs to develop and enhance doctoral and professional programs,
which would increase dramatically the pool of qualified
Hispanic faculty and administrators, including chief academic
officers and presidents at HSIs, as well as highly educated
professionals in many other areas.
Addressing the underrepresentation of Hispanics in key
areas of the workforce takes an even greater in light of NCES
Digest of Education statistics, which show that Hispanics in
2002 earned 4.6 percent of all master's degrees compared to 68
percent for non-Hispanic whites and 13.2 percent for
nonresident aliens. In 2002, Hispanics earned only 3.2 percent
of all doctoral degrees.
Title V of the HEA remains the chief vehicle for targeting
Federal funds to HSIs. H.R. 761 and S 357 have been introduced
to authorize a first-time 125 million dollar level of spending
for graduate education grants to HSIs to expand and enhance
post-baccalaureate opportunities at HSIs. The bill would
establish a competitive grants program that would allow
eligible HSIs to support graduate fellowships, key support
services for graduate students, key infrastructure
improvements, faculty development----
Chairman Tiberi. Can you wrap it up?
Dr. Arciniega.--et cetera.
Chairman Tiberi. Can you wrap up your testimony, Doctor?
Dr. Arciniega. Yes.
I don't have to pinpoint, especially for you, the key
issues: Increase current support for 2-year and 4-year
undergraduate efforts, in terms of the infrastructure; reduce
the regulatory burdens for HSIs participating in the existing
undergraduate Title V program; remove the 50 percent low income
assurance requirement from the Federal definition of HSIs; and,
finally, add a new use for Title V undergraduate grants by
allowing the funding of articulation agreements and student
support programs to facilitate the transfer of students from 2-
year to 4-year institutions.
Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Hinojosa, thank you very
much for allowing me to--the privilege of testifying before
your Committee.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you, Dr. Arciniega.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Arciniega follows:]
Statement of Dr. Tomas Arciniega, President Emeritus, California State
University Bakersfield, Valley Center, CA
Good afternoon, Representatives Tiberi and Hinojosa. It is an honor
for me to appear here to testify before the Subcommittee on Select
Education of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on HR
761. I am here on behalf of the more than 242 Hispanic Serving
Institutions (HSIs) and the 80 HSIs that will be eligible to
participate in the graduate program delineated in the proposed
legislation as a part of the Reauthorization of the Higher Education
Act of 1964.
My name is Tomas Arciniega, President Emeritus of California State
University at Bakersfield, an HSI, and currently I serve as Special
Assistant to the Chancellor of the California State University System.
I am also a past Chair and current Governing Board member of the
Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).
HSIs are an important national resource for the education of
Hispanics and other minority groups in the nation. Half of all Latino
students engaged in higher education attend HSIs. In urban areas across
the country, HSIs also educate a significant percentage of African-
American students. In the institution I headed for over 21 years, 30%
percent of the enrolled students are Latinos, who also represent 23% of
all graduate students. African-Americans, Native Americans and Asian
Pacific Islanders make up another 15% of the student population.
Therefore, any programs that assist HSIs also benefit other minority
group members attending such institutions.
Today, the Latino population is the largest minority group in the
United States. The Hispanic population of the United States, according
to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau as of July 1, 2003,
numbers 43.8 million, 13.7% of the U.S. population, with 39.9 million
in the mainland United States and 3.9 million in Puerto Rico. By July
1, 2050, according to U.S. Census Bureau projections, Hispanic
Americans will number 102.6 million or one-fourth of the nation's total
population. The number of Hispanics will nearly triple between 2000 and
2050. These numbers reflect the dramatic growth in the Hispanic
population in recent years, a growth that is expected to continue in
the decades ahead.
Already an ``emerging majority'' in several regions of the country,
Hispanics are also the fastest-growing school-age population, with U.S.
Census Bureau projections anticipating a 60 percent increase in the
Hispanic school-age population over the next 20 years. Current U.S.
Department of Labor studies show that Hispanics, who currently
represent about 13 percent of the U.S. work force and make up one of
every three new workers, are projected to provide one of every two new
workers by 2025.
The expanding Latino population has resulted in a growing number of
Hispanic Serving Institutions, a number which is projected to continue
to grow over the next five to ten years. According to the NCES 2003
data, there are now over 90 colleges and universities which have Latino
enrollments between 18-24% and which are expected to become HSIs in the
near future.
With a median age of 26.7, according to the U.S. Census Bureau
(Statistical Abstract: 2004), Hispanics are more than a decade younger
than non-Hispanic whites with a median age of 39.6. Our nation and
economy will demand an expanded and educated workforce to replace the
large number of retiring ``baby boomers'' who will vacate jobs crucial
for the nation to maintain its preeminence in research, technology,
science, and engineering. Latinos and other minorities must be
encouraged and assisted to pursue advanced education beyond the
baccalaureate level in areas essential for business, industry,
government, the public sector, and the post secondary education system
as faculty, administrators and presidents. These new graduates will
provide the professional workforce necessary for the nation in the
coming decades.
Advanced technical and scientific skills are becoming essential to
future earnings and career achievement in areas necessary to the
nation's economic strength, security and position within the world
economy. However, only 20 percent of HSIs offer a master's degree. Less
than 15 percent of HSIs offer a doctoral or first professional degree.
Many under-funded HSIs do not have the infrastructure to offer advanced
degrees. Funding to support the growth of graduate programs at HSIs, as
proposed in HR 761, would contribute to reversing the persistent under-
representation of Hispanics in research, teaching, science, technology
and professional ranks and add to the nation's professional work force
for the immediate and long range future.
The chronic shortage of Hispanic professionals with advanced
degrees, especially in science, technology, engineering, mathematics,
biomedicine and professional careers, results in a work force in the
scientific and professional communities that is not reflective of the
nation's diverse population. Advanced degrees translate into higher
salaries with a concomitant higher taxable income, which can help
alleviate federal and state budget deficits. Without the infusion of
new professionals with advanced degrees and specialized knowledge, the
U.S. will be unable to keep its competitive edge in the global economy.
At the same time, challenges to affirmative action, from
Proposition 209 in California and the Hopwood court decision in Texas
to more recent affirmative action court battles in Michigan and other
states, have reduced minority enrollment in some graduate and
professional schools. The U.S. Supreme Court, in Gratz v. Bollinger and
Grutter v. Bollinger in June 2003, issued a split decision, ruling in
favor of affirmative action in admissions policies at the School of Law
of the University of Michigan, but against certain criteria for
admissions policies for undergraduate students. The effects of these
rulings likely will not be felt for some time. Meanwhile, current
diversity efforts have been inadequate to offset the effects of Hopwood
and other earlier court rulings.
The proposed Bill HR 761, as written, would provide HSIs with
important and urgently needed resources to expand advanced education
opportunities to Latinos and other minorities. Because so many of these
students are already enrolled in HSIs, their access to graduate degree
programs at their home institutions would bypass much of the
affirmative action debate that rages at more selective institutions.
At 6.4%, Hispanics remain the only under-represented group in the
federal work force. This inadequate representation occurs in all
agencies, but especially at NASA, the National Institutes of Health,
the Food and Drug Administration, and other agencies requiring advanced
degrees for employment in an increasing number of positions.
The under-representation of Hispanics in higher education is even
more daunting. The National Center for Education Statistics, ``Fall
Staff Survey (1999),'' reports that only 3.1 percent of all the
``executive/administrative/managerial'' positions were held by
Hispanics and a mere 3.0 percent of all faculty positions. For the
federal work force to reach parity with the general civilian workforce,
the government would need to double the number of Hispanics in federal
jobs. For higher education to reach parity in faculty and
administration ranks, the number of Hispanics employed there would have
to more than quadruple.
HR 761 would support capacity building opportunities for HSIs to
develop and enhance doctoral and professional programs which would
increase the pool of qualified Hispanic faculty and administrators,
including chief academic officers and presidents at HSIs, as well as
highly educated professionals in many other areas.
Addressing the under-representation of Hispanics in key areas of
the workforce takes on even greater urgency in light of NCES Digest of
Education Statistics which show that Hispanics in 2002 earned 4.6
percent of all master's degrees, compared to 68 percent for non-
Hispanic whites (and 13.2 percent for nonresident aliens). In 2002,
Hispanics earned only 3.2 percent of all doctoral degrees.
Title V of the HEA remains the chief vehicle for targeting federal
funds to HSIs. HR 761 and S. 357 have been introduced to authorize a
first-time $125 million level of spending for graduate education grants
to HSIs to expand and enhance post-baccalaureate opportunities at
Hispanic Serving Institutions. The bill would establish a competitive
grants program that would allow eligible HSIs to support graduate
fellowships and support services for graduate students, infrastructure
improvements, faculty development, technology and distance education
and collaborative arrangements with other institutions.
In addition HR 761 will:
<bullet> Increase current support for two-year and four-year
undergraduate efforts under Title V by increasing the authorization
level to $175 million beginning in fiscal year 2006. This increase in
funding is needed in view of everything I have mentioned: the dramatic
growth of the Hispanic population, their importance in the 21st century
U.S. workforce, their under-representation in higher education and in
professional, scientific and technical jobs which require college
education, the key role played by HSIs, and the corresponding growth in
the number of HSIs. Add to these issues the fact that HSIs on average
receive less than half the funding per student accorded to all degree-
granting institutions and the wisdom of increasing the Title V
authorization level becomes self-evident.
<bullet> Reduce regulatory burdens for HSIs participating in the
existing undergraduate Title V program by eliminating the two-year
wait-out period between applications for grants. Currently the two-year
wait-out now required between applications by eligible HSIs for Title V
grants impedes the effort to implement long-range solutions to Hispanic
higher education challenges. Clearly, eliminating the two-year wait-out
period will be of immense importance in equipping HSIs with continuous
funding needed to best answer these complex challenges.
<bullet> Remove the ``50 percent'' low-income assurance
requirement from the federal definition of HSIs which will erase
another inequitable component of the Title V definition of HSIs.
Current law requires that at least 25 percent of the full-time
equivalent student enrollment must be Hispanic. In addition, 50 percent
of those students must also fit federal low-income definitions. This
additional regulatory burden, requiring time-consuming documentation of
information not normally gathered, is not required of other Minority-
Serving Institutions and should be eliminated.
<bullet> Add a new use for Title V undergraduate grants by
allowing the funding of articulation agreements and student support
programs to facilitate the transfer of students from two-year to four-
year institutions. More than 50 percent of Hispanic higher education
students attend two-year community colleges, often because they are the
closest, most affordable entry into higher education. Expanding the
allowable use of Title V funding to develop articulation agreements and
student support programs will provide HSIs the means to increase the
numbers of Hispanic Americans with four-year degrees.
On behalf of the HSIs HACU represents and the Hispanic students
they educate, I want to reiterate that HR 761 adds a powerful new
dimension to Title V of the Higher Education Act. HR 761 will not only
expand and enhance post-baccalaureate opportunities at Hispanic-Serving
Institutions but prepare the future professional workforce for the
nation.
Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Hinojosa, I appreciate the
opportunity to testify before your Subcommittee and your Subcommittee's
long-standing support of HSIs. I would be pleased to answer any
questions that you may have.
______
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you all for your very good testimony
today and your written testimony, which has been submitted for
the record.
I'll begin with a few questions, and then yield to my good
friend, Mr. Hinojosa.
Dr. Rivera, you mentioned the 2-year wait-out period.
Dr. Rivera. Yes.
Chairman Tiberi. I want to tell you that the initial draft
of the higher reauthorization by Chairman Boehner eliminates
that 2-year requirement, which is a good thing. The bill, or at
least the markup going out of the Committee, is probably going
to occur this fall, and we hope to have a bipartisan bill.
There's a number of other things going on in this hearing
that, as Mr. Hinojosa said, is part of the formulation leading
up to reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, but there is
bipartisan consensus to do something good with what you talked
about, and we hope to have that as part of the final
reauthorization.
Dr. Rivera. May I comment on that.
Chairman Tiberi. You bet.
Dr. Rivera. Again, I appreciate a lot the effort that is
being made. The only sad thing about it is that those
institutions--I mean, if we wait for that process to complete
rather than introducing that piece of legislation right now,
many HSIs will go now into their second year of getting no
access to Title V, and a significant, even larger, number of
institutions will just have 1 year without this support, and,
let me tell you, it makes a big difference having access to
those resources to strengthen our institutions.
And the consequences of that, 2 years waiting out, de
facto, applied already for the previous group of institutions,
and a 1-year wait out for the big majority of HSIs has
seriously a significant, a very severe effect.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you. Can I ask you a question.
Dr. Rivera. Yes.
Chairman Tiberi. In your written testimony, you mentioned
several initiatives that have been developed as a result of
your institution's Title V grant. What impact have those
programs had specifically on student achievement at your
institution? Can you just share that with us.
Dr. Rivera. Well, yes, significant. I would say the first
grant allowed us to develop a whole infrastructure for our
library services, and a virtual, you know, system of resources
for developing our capacity in our students and our faculty.
With that grant we were able to provide laptops to all our
full-time faculty members, and it was the first one in Puerto
Rico and, I understand, in the whole U.S. That jump started a
whole change in teaching methodologies by the faculty that has
been very, very powerful on our students.
And another initiative is the cooperative project we
created with a municipal 2-year college in San Juan and two
other private, small-sized institutions. By the cooperative
program, we were able to join forces and have multiplied by
many factors access to periodicals, books, and all that, for
institutions that would have never had the money for access to
those resources.
Over 17,000 students are being impacted just because we're
buying together and we were able to create this cooperative
project. Now three more institutions want to join us, and the
impact of that is tremendous.
So, again, the benefit for the students is enormous. For
the faculty, it's very stimulating, and it gives a lot of hope
to the students that they can really achieve a first-rate
education in our type of institution.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Dr. Parades, the four goals driving the Closing the Gaps
initiative by 2015, can you expand on those four goals and how
you're working in Texas to implement them.
Dr. Paredes. Yes. The four goals relate, first of all, to
increasing the amount of Federal research support that Texas
institutions receive. Texas is the second largest state, and
yet Texas has been languishing well behind the other states in
terms of overall Federal research support.
So our goal is to double the amount of Federal research
support that Texas institutions receive by the year 2015. I'm
pleased to say we've already achieved that goal, so we're going
to recalibrate and set our goals even higher.
The second goal had to do with increasing the academic
quality of Texas institutions. That means creating more Tier 1
research universities; it means creating institutions that are
renowned for their excellence at the undergraduate level,
institutions that have a commitment to community-based research
and so forth.
We're developing a set of criteria that allow all
institutions, those institutions that place an emphasis on
undergraduate education, as well as those institutions that
primarily provide doctoral education in the state, to achieve a
certain level of academic distinction.
The third goal relates to the academic success of our
undergraduates. We wanted to dramatically increase graduation
rates in Texas, which are right at the average of about--six-
year graduation rates in Texas--of about 50 percent. Although
that is the national average, I think that nobody is pleased
with that. We want to increase both graduation rates and
accelerate time to degree.
We want to improve the number of students that transfer
from 2-year institutions to 4-year, and also increase the
number of AA degrees, certificates and vocational licenses
provided by 2-year institutions.
And then the fourth goal is the one that I referred to, and
that is to increase the number of students that go on to
college in Texas by 600,000 by the year 2015. That number is
the figure that would put us at parity with the national
average. Nationally, approximately 67 percent of all students
who graduate from high school proceed to college within a year
of completing high school. In Texas, the figure is about 45
percent.
Chairman Tiberi. Are those students that are going to
college somewhere or just going to college in Texas.
Dr. Paredes. They're going to college in Texas, yes.
Chairman Tiberi. OK. So that doesn't include students who
are graduating high school and maybe leaving the state.
Dr. Paredes. Yeah, except that those numbers aren't
terribly large.
Chairman Tiberi. They're not very large? OK.
Dr. Paredes. We don't transfer into other schools a lot.
Chairman Tiberi. There's a few at Ohio State (laughing).
Dr. Paredes. A few (laughing). There will be a few more out
at your campus in early September.
Chairman Tiberi. That's right; that's right. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Ms. Chapa----
Ms. Chapa. Yes, sir.
Chairman Tiberi.--very good testimony. Can you talk a
little bit more about your personal experience? You mentioned,
your word, the gap that's been created out there. How difficult
was it for you to make the jump from the bachelor's degree into
the next phase of your college degree, and how--what are some
of the things that you see, from where you sit, that we can do
to make it--to make that challenge less so, so more of your
peers will take the leap that you took.
Ms. Chapa. Well, to be quite honest with you, if it had not
been for private financing, I would not have been able to have
taken the leap. Unfortunately, the scholarships and grants are
very limited and highly competitive. It's no one's particular
fault, it just so happens that that's the way the agencies have
funded it. So therefore what you do in the private sector is
you go time and time again and try to refinance that same piece
of land over and over and over again. And that's how I was able
to come full-time and achieve my master's degree, and by the
grace of God was accepted into the graduate program.
Now, having remembered that it took me 9 years to reach
that goal, by this time, of course, your funding resources
begin to become very depleted, so now at the doctoral level
what we witness is that we can barely survive, and there are
not that many funding resources that we can apply for,
especially at the doctoral level. And that is key, because
although we have a low number of master's degrees obtained in
our ethnic group, it is even more serious, the jump from the
master's to the doctoral program. And, again, it's the lack of
resources.
We're at an age bracket, most of us, who have families, and
what we've done all along is ask them to struggle with us. And
so we do the--you know, I did the 9 years and had my family
struggle with me, and then I said, you know, ``Wait just a
little bit longer. Let me do this other one.'' OK. And then
it's like ``OK, can you wait just a little bit longer?'' And it
eventually takes its toll, of course, after so many years.
So I would highly suggest that there be programs funneled--
catered to the student who is not just leaving the bachelor's
world and going into the master's degree level, but also from
the master's degree into the Ph.D. level, especially the Ph.D.
level that requires a great deal of our time. As I said, our
class work is much more extensive than when we earned our
bachelor's. Our research time that we have to invest per class
is also--it restrains us so that we're not able to go out and
try and find additional sources of funding so that we can
complete our studies. It's a long-term commitment.
Chairman Tiberi. I don't want to put words in your mouth,
but if you didn't have this opportunity here, could you foresee
the ability to go to Texas A & M or UT Austin to pursue your
Ph.D.
Ms. Chapman. No, sir. No, sir, absolutely not. In fact, I
have come to school straight right here because it's available
to us. And because of the financial obligations and lack of
resources, we're not able to leave our community. So by the
grace of God we have this incredible structure that has been
able to ride along with us in our journey, and so I was able to
do it. Otherwise, absolutely not, no, sir.
Chairman Tiberi. Speaking of incredible structures, Dr.
Cardenas, you talked about the socioeconomics of the students
that you serve, and you and I agree on a basic philosophy about
education.
Is there anything that you can point to to share with the
Subcommittee that the investment pays off, meaning that the
ability for your role as an institution serving primarily
first-generation college students pays off for not only the
immediate community but the state and the nation? Can you share
with us your thoughts on that?
Dr. Cardenas. Let me start with----
Chairman Tiberi. Can you pull the microphone just a little
bit closer.
Dr. Cardenas. There it goes.
Let me start with an anecdote. At my former Hispanic
Serving Institution, the University of Texas-San Antonio, the
physics department had 17 majors. We hired one young Hispanic
assistant professor, and by the end of the academic year there
were something like 70 physics majors. The students connected
to this young, bright, recent Ph.D. Hispanic in physics.
I think that it is particularly--here at the University of
Texas-Pan American, we have a 42-year-old Hispanic female who
graduated from Rice with a doctorate in engineering. We have a
lot of other wonderful engineering faculty, but this young
woman is--she is a rare commodity in engineering. Her field is
nanotechnology. And we now have a wonderful group of young
Hispanic female master--undergraduate and master's degrees in
the field of engineering, who last semester won first place in
senior design at the American Council on Mechanical
Engineering.
In my field, which is education, we have a greater critical
mass of Ph.D.s, but in the sciences, both the social sciences
and the hard sciences, investment in producing that faculty
that can inspire and connect to those 600,000 students that Dr.
Parades was talking about, and the about 1.6 million additional
ones across this country, will create a dramatic impact in
those critical areas where we need--we need a reinvention, if
you would, of the way we do things, whether it's in engineering
or treating diabetes or whatever.
So I think that investment in creating that critical mass
of master's and doctoral, particularly academics, out of the
Hispanic community will make--will have a tremendous impact,
because it really is--we really are going to need that faculty,
No. 1. No. 2, it really is when one faculty member inspires
another young student to enter the academy that we create the
change.
I'm going to end just really quickly with this. My son is
25 years old, top student in a doctoral program at Berkley.
He's going to make a great contribution to this country, but I
believe fundamentally--and he's gone to all the best schools. I
mean, I don't apologize for it. But I believe fundamentally
that the kids here at UT-Pan American have an understanding of
the world and of the problems and of the assets in this
community that my son will never have, because they've lived it
in a very unique way.
So when we think about the demographics of this country, we
need to be pulling those Ph.D. and those master's degree
students out of these communities, because their perspective
will be important whether they become a congressman, the CEO of
Ford Motor Company, or a research scientist at NASA. And if you
want to reach those students, in Texas we say, ``If you want to
fish, you've got to go where the fish are,'' and the fish are
at Hispanic Serving Institutions.
Chairman Tiberi. Well, now I know what Ruben was talking
about.
Dr. Cardenas. I get a little passionate, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Tiberi. Well, with that, let me turn it over for
questioning to our host, Mr. Hinojosa.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I wish to raise a point of personal privilege before I
begin my questioning. I request unanimous consent to submit two
important documents for the record of this field hearing. They
include, No. 1, a document that is written testimony from the
Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation, regarding graduate
student financing at HSIs and non-HSIs.
Chairman Tiberi. Without objection.
[The information referred to follows:]
Statement of Sue McMillin, President & CEO, Texas Guaranteed Student
Loan Corporation, Round Rock, TX
Chairman Tiberi, Ranking Member Hinojosa, and members of the
Subcommittee, I am Sue McMillin, President & CEO of Texas Guaranteed
Student Loan Corporation (TG). On behalf of our board of directors and
our management team, I am pleased to submit to you brief remarks and
relevant data, which hopefully lend some context to today's discussions
before the subcommittee, and specifically on the critical issue of
graduate education opportunities at Hispanic-Serving Institutions
(HSIs).
TG is a public non-profit organization established by the Texas
Legislature in 1979 to serve as the designated state guarantor for
Texas for purposes of the Federal Family Education Loan Program
(FFELP). We serve as one of 35 guaranty agencies in the country, which
provide the necessary loan guarantee that ensures that all eligible
students, regardless of economic status or racial background, receive
the federal student loans they need to help them pay for a
postsecondary education. We operate under an agreement with the U.S.
Department of Education.
The issue before the subcommittee today is relevant not only to
Hispanic Americans who wish to pursue graduate studies at Hispanic-
Serving Institutions, but arguably also to the viability of graduate
education opportunities for all Americans who are enrolled at these
institutions. We appreciate the important role that HSIs have in higher
education and in addressing the postsecondary education needs of
Hispanics. TG commends the subcommittee for its leadership and
foresight in addressing this area. We support the intent and objectives
of H.R. 761, the Next Generation Hispanic-Serving Institutions Act.
Any discussion involving expanding graduate study opportunities
should include a review of how graduate students finance their post-
baccalaureate studies. Towards that end, we are pleased to provide the
following overview of data relevant to students' financing of graduate
studies, with a focus on Federal Education Loan borrowers.
The central question is how do graduate students finance their
educations? The answer is rather different than for undergraduates. The
cornerstone for financing undergraduate education is the Pell Grant. A
large, needs-tested federal grant program does not exist for graduate
students. The questions for graduate students are whether or not to
work and how much, whether or not to borrow and how much, and whether
or not a graduate assistantship is available and for how much.
The National Picture
The major factors that influence the answers to these three
questions are the student's degree level, the student's institution
(public or private), and the student's major program.
Master's students are very often part-time students who work.
Graduate students in education and Master of Business Administration
(MBA) programs often work full-time. Furthermore, MBA and education
master's students comprise 48% of all students seeking master's
degrees. Graduate assistantships are also not as readily available to
master's students (Choy & Geis, 2002). These students are very often
financing their educations through a combination of work and loans.
A majority of doctoral students are full-time; 58% according to
Choy and Geis (2002), and they secure the lion's share of
assistantships. Most assistantships are for full-time, doctoral
students. Additionally, doctoral students in the mathematical and
natural sciences secure the largest percentage of these assistantships.
Funding levels are best for all doctoral students at Doctoral/Research
Universities--Extensive (D Amico, 2000). Doctoral students with
relatively high paying assistantships are the least likely to borrow
large amounts to finance their educations (Choy & Geis, 2002).
Those students seeking a first-professional degree; (e.g., M.D.,
D.O., J.D., D.D.S., M. Div., etc.) are the most likely to attend full-
time, the least likely to work, and the most likely to borrow large
amounts of money to finance their educations. Additionally, there are
very few opportunities for assistantships compared to other groups of
graduate students. In recognition of this, certain first-professional
degree students in the medical professions are allowed to borrow higher
amounts of federal student loans than any other group of students.
In the current climate, some have asked whether or not the high
debt loads many new graduates carry forward from their undergraduate
educations might deter many students from entering graduate education.
The answers of two, national studies seem to be that it is not a
significant factor (Heller, 2001 and Eyerman & Kim, 2000). Using
different data sets, the studies agreed on this fact, but found
slightly different correlations. Eyerman and Kim (2000) found that
there was a slight positive correlation between higher borrowing and
graduate school aspirations and attendance; whereas, Heller (2001)
found a slight negative correlation between high amounts of borrowing
and the likelihood of graduate school enrollment
Graduate Education in Texas
Texas graduate students, at least doctoral students, are similar to
those nationally. According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board (THECB), Texas and the nation peaked in doctoral degrees awarded
in the late 1990s and the number is now rising again. U.S. and Texas
institutions awarded more doctorates in science and math than other
broad disciplines in 2001--approximately 25 percent. Doctoral degrees
awarded to women have increased and more women than men receive
doctorates in education. However, despite the fact that Hispanics make
up 34 percent of the Texas population compared to 13 percent
nationally, Hispanics in Texas only received seven percent of the
doctoral degrees awarded in 2001 compared to four percent for the U.S.
(Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 2004). Also, according to
THECB (2004), more than one-half of the doctorates awarded were from
two non-HSIs, Texas A&M or the University of Texas--Austin.
Financing Graduate Education
Graduate students generally have fewer options for financial aid
than do undergraduates. Therefore, a high percentage of them borrow
large amounts of money. According to Choy and Geis (2002), nationally
in 2000, 53 percent of all graduate students borrowed an average of
$16,728. The amount and likelihood of borrowing were partly due to the
type of degree sought and type of institution attended. Students at
private institutions borrowed more and more frequently than those at
public institutions. Furthermore, students seeking a first-professional
degree were most likely to borrow and to borrow more, followed by
master's students and doctoral students respectively. Eighty percent of
first-professional degree students borrowed an average of $22,961 at
private institutions compared to 26 percent of doctoral students who
borrowed an average of $10,628 at public institutions (Choy & Geis,
2002).
Graduate students in Texas also borrow at high levels. In general,
Texas students borrow more as they take more hours per term--and as
they persist in their programs toward graduation. So, at the end of
2001, students who were then listed as less-than-half-time had a median
borrower indebtedness (MBI) of $21,594. Students characterized as half-
time had an MBI of $24,594. Students who were characterized as full-
time had an MBI of $25,648. Students who had graduated by the end of
2001 had am MBI of $34,471. By the end of 2004, the MBI for graduates
and full-time students had changed very little, but for half-time
students, it had exceeded that of full-time and graduated students. The
MBI for less-than-half-time students had also risen by over $2,000.
This data suggests several things. First, graduate students change
status between part-time and full-time over their academic careers. The
data also suggests that full-time graduate students are not having to
borrow the increased amounts that part-time students are. Both of these
findings are consistent with the national data.
Graduate students at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) have a
somewhat different profile than those at other Texas institutions.
According to THECB (Paredes 2005) HSIs produce far higher percentages
of Hispanic graduate degrees than non-HSI institutions. Students at
HSIs also borrow differently than their non-HSI colleagues. Graduate
degrees awarded to Hispanics at HSIs range from 76 percent at UT-Pan
American to 21 percent at UT-El Paso. This compares favorably to the
two largest producers of graduate degrees, UT-Austin and Texas A&M, who
awarded 4.5 percent and 2.9 percent of their graduate degrees,
respectively, to Hispanics.
Graduate student borrowing at HSIs also differs from graduate
student borrowing at other institutions. In 2001, the MBI at non-HSIs
was generally higher than at HSIs. However, at non-HSIs in Texas,
students who graduated in 2004 had an MBI only about $200 higher than
in 2001, and students who graduated from HSIs in 2004 had an MBI nearly
$4,000 higher than in 2001 ($30,004 compared to $26,623.) There were
proportional increases in borrowing by every attendance category for
HSI graduate students as well. This is distinct from non-HSI borrowers
where the MBI decreased over $1,000 between 2001 and 2004 for full-time
students. In only three years, MBI at HSIs reached and surpassed the
level for non-HSI students by every attendance type except those who
graduated that year. If this trend continues, there is no doubt that
graduate students at HSIs will have higher MBIs than non-HSI graduate
students in the very near future.
Graduate students are handling repayment of their loans in an
excellent fashion. There are no statistically significant differences
in how Texas graduate students progress through student loan repayment.
Former graduate students from all parts of the state--and from HSIs and
non-HSIs--default at a rate between one percent and two percent based
on the most recent available data. These rates were measured using TG
estimates of the 2003 cohort default rate. This rate compares favorably
to the overall cohort default rate for loans guaranteed by TG, which is
6.7 percent. This should not be a surprise. Despite the fact that
graduate student MBI was considerably higher than undergraduate MBI,
graduate students have already achieved success by receiving their
bachelor's degrees. In fiscal year 2004, 71 percent of defaults were by
students characterized as freshmen at the time of default. However,
only three percent of defaults were by students characterized as
graduates of bachelor's degree programs (McMillion, Ramirez, & Webster,
2004).
Conclusions
The facts suggest that to meet the goals of Closing the Gaps, as
Commissioner Paredes has suggested, Texas must increase graduate
enrollment and graduation at HSIs. To accomplish this we must
investigate whether there is sufficient aid and sufficient support for
assistantships and fellowships at HSIs. Borrowing patterns at HSIs for
graduate students compared to other institutions suggest a funding gap
that is increasing, and national studies suggest that graduate students
at public institutions borrow less when there are significant other
sources of aid available. Those sources of aid tend to be clustered at
doctoral extensive institutions, and no Texas HSI is classified as a
doctoral extensive institution.
Recent studies indicate that undergraduate borrowing is not a
significant factor in determining whether or not students aspire to and
enroll in graduate school. Given the increases in undergraduate median
borrower indebtedness, and the fact that no study has been made of this
issue with a cohort who borrowed after 1998, researchers should begin
examining cohorts of potential graduate students who borrowed after
2001.
References
Choy, Susan & Geis, Sonya. 2002. Student Financing of Graduate and
First-Professional Education, 1999 2000, Profiles of Students
in Selected Degree Programs and Their Use of Assistantships,
NCES 2002 166. U.S. Department of Education. National Center
for Education Statistics. Project Officer: Andrew G. Malizio.
Washington, DC
Eyerman, Therese & Kim, Dongbin. 2000. Comparisons of Undergraduate
Borrowing and Its affects on Graduate School Aspirations and
Graduate School Attendance. ERIC document ED 449 745.
Heller, Donald. 2001. Debts and Decisions: Student Loans and Their
Relationship to Graduate School and Career Choice, New Agenda
Series [TM], vol. 3, 4. Lumina Foundation for Education.
Indianapolis, Indiana.
Kojaku, Lawrence. 2000. Financial Aid Profile of Graduate Students in
Science and Engineering, Working Paper No. 2000-11U.S.
Department of Education. National Center for Education
Statistics. Project Officer, Dennis Carroll. Washington, DC.
McMillion, Robin., Ramirez, Jason., & Webster, Jeff. 2005. State of
Student Aid and Higher Education in Texas. Texas Guaranteed
Student Loan Corporation. Round Rock, Texas.
Paredes, Raymund. 2005. Written Testimony of Raymund A. Paredes, Texas
Commissioner of Higher Education For the Subcommittee on Select
Education of the Committee on Education and the Workforce of
the Congress of the United States. Edinburg, Texas.
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. 2004. Doctoral Education In
Texas, Part 1: Past Trends And Critical Issues. Austin, Texas.
(http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/UHRI)
______
Mr. Hinojosa. The second is a list of HSIs identified by
the College Board and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and
Universities that offer postgraduate and first professional
degrees.
Chairman Tiberi. Without objection. Thank you.
[The information referred to follows:]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T0913.001
Mr. Hinojosa. I'd like to ask my--first make a statement
and then ask a question of Dr. Tomas Arciniega.
Dr. Arciniega, I know that you have been involved with the
California higher education system for many years now. Briefly
would you please give us a brief overview of how the fiscal and
policy support has evolved in your state since you started----
Mr. Hinojosa. Sorry. I turned this one off, but I forgot
this other one. Let me start my question again.
Would you please give us a brief overview of how the fiscal
and policy support has evolved in your state since you started,
the changes that have occurred, and your current assessment of
progress for HSIs in the California state system.
Dr. Arciniega. Thank you very much for the question. Giving
you a complete answer to that would take us till about the
middle of next week, but let me respond this way. I think that
California, along with all of the Southwestern states that I
know of, has been plagued by the ups and downs, mostly downs in
the last decade, in the available funding compared to the
growing need in higher education, and specifically in 4-year
undergraduate as well as graduate and in the community college
educational ranks of students.
The reality is that the needs have just quadrupled and
expanded so dramatically that there was no way that the
diminishing resources, with the problems of state funding and
budgeting issues, was going to keep pace with the demand.
In a nutshell, what has happened is that--you know,
California has had a very proud history. It was--you know, one
of the main reasons I moved to California from Texas was
basically the California master plan for higher education. It
was, at the time, way ahead of its time in guaranteeing a
college education to every eligible student, regardless of
background or geographical location, et cetera. And that proud
history continued until we got into the major budget crunches
that we've been into for particularly the last 2 years.
And the net effect has been that for the first time
California has had to go back on its promise to every student
that made good on the commitment to prepare themselves and make
themselves eligible to attend the state universities in the
University of California system and the community colleges in
California. For the first time, we've had to turn away students
simply because of the lack of adequate funding.
Mr. Hinojosa. If you will yield----
Dr. Arciniega. So basically that's the most significant
problem situation, and it has affected and will be a major
issue that will continue to snowball as we move into the next
decade.
Mr. Hinojosa. That response justifies the reason that I
used 125 million in the reauthorization level to get started.
And probably by the next reauthorization I will be asking for
250,000 new reauthorization level, simply because there are so
many students all over the--all over the country, but
particularly in states such as California, Texas, Florida, and
others.
So I thank you for that explanation, and I will come back
in the second round and ask you another question.
Dr. Rivera from Puerto Rico, your initial Title V HSI grant
really helped you develop curricular offerings at the
undergraduate level. Do you anticipate similar effects for your
graduate program should my legislative proposal be adopted by
Congress.
Dr. Rivera. Definitely, because, first of all, the
foundation has been laid. Those students--as a result of these
projects, we have added undergraduate research as a requirement
for every major at the university, and we've added now a
requirement of statistics, applied statistics, in every major
in every school in the university. Again, we're focusing on
preparing our students for graduate education and we're making
that a motto; you know, a statement that we make in every
speech. Every time we meet with the students, we tell them,
``You're going to go to graduate school. That's why we're
forcing you to take statistics and undergraduate research
courses.''
So definitely what we have received from Title V has laid
that foundation. So the process of now developing new master's
degree programs and professional degree programs, and at some
point in time doctoral programs, is also going to be the
essence of the use of those resources.
Mr. Hinojosa. Well, I agree with you, but you pointed out
toward the end of your presentation that you were also
concerned about the gap that would occur if we don't hurry up
and pass this reauthorization this year, because there is a one
or 2-year gap that wouldn't be filled if you break the work in
the service that had been done.
I would like to ask the Chairman, can you think of some way
in which we can give those HSIs that are facing this gap--if we
wait until 2006 to finish the reauthorization, what relief can
we give them.
Chairman Tiberi. Well, my immediate thought is maybe
talking to Chairman Ralph Regula of the Education
Appropriations Subcommittee, and talking to Chairman Boehner if
there's any other vehicles that are moving the language in, but
that's something that we should definitely pursue this week
with both of those individuals.
Mr. Hinojosa. Well, I appreciate that you've come up with
that suggestion that you and I meet with Chairman Regula, but I
think that I would like to ask the staff to highlight that
concern that was expressed, because we don't want to leave--I
don't know how many colleges or HSIs are in that situation, but
we've got to address it as soon as we get back.
Dr. Rivera. I would say probably about 200, close to 200
institutions.
Mr. Hinojosa. Well, that's what we have, but not all of
them will have the end of their four or 5-year period that they
have that designation.
Dr. Rivera. It will be a very large number, because this is
the year when the cycle started the second time, which was the
peak of that.
Mr. Hinojosa. I see.
Dr. Rivera. Again, you know, we're not talking about
authorizing more money----
Chairman Tiberi. Right. The challenge is to find----
Dr. Rivera.--but just allowing the institutions to
participate and also be competitive----
Chairman Tiberi. Right. Now----
Mr. Hinojosa. It's just like when we have a concurrent
resolution to keep government funding to keep working. So thank
you for bringing that up to our attention.
Chairman Tiberi. Great intention. The key is to find
something that will actually move past the House and past the
Senate to the President's desk, and that's why I was thinking
an appropriations bill, because that would definitely--that has
to get to the President's desk. It's something that we'll work
with.
Mr. Hinojosa. We'll work with you and Dr. Flores and see if
we can give you-all some relief.
Dr. Rivera. Thank you.
Mr. Hinojosa. I'd like to move on quickly to the next
presenter, Dr. Parades.
And I want to say thank you for your very clear
presentation regarding Hispanics at the graduate level. I
listened attentively to every one of the presenters, and I had
just one word after the last one, in saying that, wow, what
powerful presentations each and every one of you made this
afternoon.
I can tell you that last Congress we heard from your board
that, while you had laudable goals, Hispanic enrollment at the
undergraduate level was way behind. And that concerns me,
because here we are trying to move us to the next step,
master's and Ph.D.s, when we have so many that have not earned
their bachelor's. And so we have a very difficult--a very
difficult hurdle to get over, and that is to continue
graduating more with bachelors, and still address this acute
shortage of master's and Ph.D.s.
Now the postgraduate picture appears just as troublesome.
My Federal legislation will alleviate some of the problem, but
how will the State of Texas seriously implement plans to
overcome the obstacles and close the gap that you pointed out
to us.
Dr. Paredes. Well, there's several ways that the State is
trying to deal with these issues. First of all, we just adopted
an accountability system in Texas for higher education.
Governor Perry required the Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board to develop an accountability system during the past
calendar year, 2004. With the strong cooperation of
representatives of different campuses, we did actually put an
accountability system in place.
We'll now be able to monitor very closely graduation rates
at every institution. We'll be able to monitor data such as the
number of students that go from undergraduate programs to
graduate programs, and we'll be able to monitor the ethnic
composition of student performance, or take ethnic composition
into consideration in monitoring student performance.
So we'll have much clearer data on the way higher education
institutions are performing, and that will allow us to develop
interventions as appropriate.
We are now in the process of trying to call more attention
to developmental education. We know that students and high
school graduates in Texas are often not well prepared to do
rigorous college work, so we're working with the K through 12
sector to improve that situation. We're encouraging
institutions of higher education to work more closely with K
through 12 in vertical teams to deal with this issue.
We've been placing a lot of attention on graduation rates.
President Cardenas and President Garcia know that we've been
talking a lot about this at the Coordinating Board.
So we're trying to get more students to graduate with
baccalaureate degrees. And we're not only trying to get more
students to graduate, but we're trying to improve the quality
of academic performance that they have when they graduate so
that they will be well prepared to undertake rigorous graduate
programs in either the master's, the doctoral, or the
professional degree levels.
Mr. Hinojosa. Dr. Paredes, with all due respect to you and
your position, your title, what I'm going to say, take it from
someone who is doing it very respectfully. The figures that you
gave are shameful, for the State of Texas to have a 4-1/2
percent versus 68 percent of non-Hispanics getting postgraduate
degrees. 4-1/2 to 68 doesn't require any more study of
accountability. There's a humongous gap that has to be filled,
and it can be done with resources.
And the state legislature, the Board of Regents, the board
of--the Coordinating Board, everybody, like you and me, who are
in positions to make a difference, are just going to have to
speak up and say that we are sick and tired of waiting and
studying the problem when we know it's 4-1/2 versus 68.
All it takes is what they did here in the Rio Grande Valley
the last 8 years; increase the funding from the Federal
Government and the state government to be able to bring the
unemployment from 21 percent down to 8-1/2 percent, increase
the investment in human capital for job training 218 percent,
increase the amount of money for our public schools in the
GEAR-UP program, as we did the last 5 years.
It doesn't require a scientist to figure it out and stop
studying, because all that does is take more time and more time
and keep us in the same huge gap.
I think that folks like you and I are going to have to
simply speak up and say, ``Enough is enough, and let's invest
Federal funds and state funds.'' You do yours and I'll do mine,
because the Chairman is hearing it from the pros. California
has 90 some HSI--80 HSIs, twice more than the State of Texas.
No question about it, shameful that we have these
statistics to put into the record. And I just hope that every
one of my Congressmen colleagues will read these reports so
that they will pay attention to the Chairman and to me, that we
need to just get those appropriations built up again, instead
of accepting the 2006 proposals for the budget.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I'm going to yield and wait for
the second round, because I think I could keep talking, and I
don't want to be disrespectful.
Chairman Tiberi. Dr. Cardenas, what, in your mind, from
your expertise, what disciplines do you see show the highest
needs for Hispanic Americans with respect to graduate studies.
Dr. Cardenas. It's very difficult to--we need them across
the board. Education faculty can really impact the preparation
of teachers, which gets at that K-12 need that Commissioner
Parades was talking about.
There are fields in which we have very marked scarcities,
and most of those happen to be in the hard sciences, although
we have scarcities really--there's no discipline in which we
cannot point to a scarcity.
We know that problem-solving, research, the development of
knowledge, the generation of new ways of doing things, will
come out of interdisciplinary work. That is: the psychologists
working with the computer scientist, working with the engineer,
to attack a biochemical problem. I mean, that we know.
So it's--as I said, the scarcities are across the board,
but if we are going to inspire those young Hispanic students to
go into those fields, I would say that a major investment in
the hard sciences would be very much in order.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you; thank you.
Ms. Chapa.
Ms. Chapa. Yes, sir.
Chairman Tiberi. What percentage of your peers that you
have gone to school with at the undergraduate level and the
graduate level would you say work and attend college.
Ms. Chapa. Everyone that I know works, sir.
Chairman Tiberi. All of them.
Ms. Chapa. Yes, sir.
Chairman Tiberi. I figured that.
Ms. Chapa. All throughout, yes, sir.
Chairman Tiberi. Me, too. It's been awhile since I went to
college, but when I was in college--and I worked through
college and paid my way through college--one of the things that
was happening on the campus, and maybe it was just the time, at
that time, students, both working-class--students from working-
class backgrounds and students from nonworking-class
backgrounds--what I mean by that is their parents paid their
way--and less so them, but there were some of them, as well, at
least at Ohio State, and maybe this was just a phenomenon in
Ohio at the time, but one of the things that I'm trying to ask
you, if this makes any sense, is there any talk among students,
at least when you've been in school at the undergraduate and
graduate level, as to why is it so expensive, why college
tuition is so expensive; you know, why maybe it's more at one
institution than another institution? Do those discussions take
place anymore.
Ms. Chapa. They do. They do, and as Dr. Cardenas has
pointed out, this is one of the--how should I put it?--lower-
priced universities.
The biggest problem is our geographical area. This is an
area where low wages are very, very common. So during your
bachelor's degree plan, most of us worked minimum wage jobs,
and so you add--you factor that in, and that makes that very
difficult.
And of course at the MBA level it's the same, and at the
doctoral level, well, of course it gets worse. But definitely
it's the demographics. And we're all aware of that, and yet we
still--you know, every time we get the bill, it's like, ``Oh,
my God, this is so much.'' But we realize that it's really not,
in comparison to other places.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you.
Ms. Chapa. You're welcome, sir.
Chairman Tiberi. Dr. Parades, one of the issues that came
up during debate last year in the Higher Ed Subcommittee,
Chairman McKeon Chaired--and continues to Chair, Buck McKeon
from California--is the relationships, the relationship between
the cost of higher education today versus 20 years ago, and
how, at least through testimony, the cost has increased higher
than the rate of inflation.
From where you sit, particularly for students who are
economically disadvantaged, the first in their family to have
an opportunity to go to college, what do you say to them in
terms, more of the global perspective, of how we try to balance
the cost of educating a student versus allowing that student
who's sitting to the right of you to try to get a quality
education? Do you struggle with that.
Dr. Paredes. Well, we struggle with it all the time,
Congressman. First of all, we tell students that we're doing
all we can to increase student financial support in Texas
through state means.
The legislature right now is in session, and it is
struggling with how it can increase student financial aid in a
tight budget situation. I haven't encountered any member of the
state legislature who isn't committed to try to find ways to do
that. That means increasing outright to grant money, it means
increasing loans, including the zero interest forgivable loans.
It means increasing the student work study support.
I also tell students that even if you have to take out a
student loan--for example, here in Texas we have something
called a Beyond Time loan program that is a forgivable loan
under certain conditions, but in the worst possible scenario
it's a zero interest loan. And I tell students that even if
they have to take out loans, that the benefits down the road in
terms of their ability to earn over the life of their careers
makes it worthwhile.
I think clearly one of the things we have to do in Texas is
we have to help student do the best job possible with financial
planning. We know, for example, here in Texas, and this is the
case around the country, that students sometimes drop out of
college in order to earn income when in fact it would be in
their best financial interest to take out a loan and stay in
school, because of a lot of different considerations. And by
the way you're nodding your head I can tell you understand what
I'm saying.
So we have to encourage students to stay in school and get
finished as quickly as possible.
We are constantly talking to leaders around the state about
the urgent need to increase the number of college graduates. We
call particular attention to the issue we're addressing today,
the role of Hispanics in higher education, not only in Texas
but around the country, and point out that if we don't increase
these numbers significantly that the consequences, the dire
consequences, will apply to everybody, not just Hispanics, that
everybody in Texas will suffer a loss of economic well-being,
everybody in Texas will suffer in terms of quality of life
issues.
And so we're making it very clear all over the state that
it's in everybody's self-interest to promote educational
achievement broadly, and Latino education achievement in
particular.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you.
Dr. Rivera, in your written testimony you talk about
academic and cultural agreements that you have signed with
other institutions, both in the United States and Europe.
Dr. Rivera. Yes.
Chairman Tiberi. Can you talk about how that benefits the
graduate students at your institution.
Dr. Rivera. Well, right now for example we have made a
special agreement with the University of Navarra and Coro
Europeo, which is a European project for graduate students in
business, so that our students will be able to go over there
and experience one of the most exciting events in this century
by the fact that all of those countries that were killing each
other just 50 years ago now have a common currency and common
constitution and more and more commonalities, but still hold
onto their diversity and cultures and languages and many
things.
So one of the things we want our students to do is to be
able to spend time taking some courses there and studying that
whole interaction; the same thing we're doing with a program in
Valencia with script writers. Again, communications for
Hispanics is very important, and we have one of the few
programs, as a Hispanic Serving Institution, I think perhaps
one of the few that has just created a master's in script
writing. If you don't have a script, you don't have a film, you
don't have a documentary, you don't have an educational
product. So they have one of the strongest in all of Europe and
we've partnered with them to bring some of their resources to
Puerto Rico, with the help of a state agency.
But, again, that is a minute program, because most of our
students cannot afford to take those opportunities unless they
have some sort of support.
Chairman Tiberi. Do you have any agreements with Ohio State
yet.
Dr. Rivera. We haven't, but we would be happy to do one.
Chairman Tiberi. Let's talk afterwards (laughter).
Dr. Arciniega, you mentioned in your written testimony that
HSIs frequently lack infrastructure necessary to develop
graduate programs.
Other than dollars, in Mr. Hinojosa's bill, what else is
there in terms of the obstacles that you see.
Dr. Arciniega. Well, I summarized them. One, for example,
is removing the 50 percent low income assurance requirement
from the Federal definition of HSIs. That would erase another
inequitable component of that Title V definition of HSIs.
The current law requires that at least 25 percent of the
full-time equivalent student enrollments must be Hispanic, and
50 percent of those students must also fit Federal low income
definitions. This is an additional regulatory burden requiring
time-consuming documentation that's not normally gathered, and
it's not required of other minority serving institutions, and
it really flatly needs to be eliminated. That's a major issue.
And then you've already heard from my colleague here the
importance of eliminating the 2-year wait-out period between
application for grants. That's critical.
Then there's a request from--that you've had documented a
number of different ways to add a new use for Title V of
undergraduate grants by allowing the funding of articulation
agreements and student support programs to facilitate the
transfer of students from 2-year to the 4-year institutions.
That's critical, and that's in the request that we've made.
Mr. Hinojosa. Would the gentleman yield? Mr. Chairman, as a
point of clarification, I wish to say that my bill eliminates
those hurdles, including the 2-year wait-out period, and much
of the leadership on both sides of the aisle have agreed to
eliminating them, because there is no other group, either in
historically black colleges and universities, or any other,
that has those kinds of requirements as they placed on HSIs. So
I do want to clarify that.
Dr. Arciniega. Yes.
Mr. Hinojosa. The problem is that the 2-year wait-out
period is one that Dr. Rivera brought out, and I think I want
to go with the recommendation of the Chairman that he and I go
visit with the Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman, Regula,
and see if we can give you-all some support.
Chairman Tiberi. Yeah. Just to add a bit, there was an
attempted remedy at the--the data that you talked about,
reducing that, so I don't think that fight is over yet, but
it's something that the Committee has tried to work on and I
think you'll see us continue to make an effort to omit it, or
at least reduce it.
Mr. Hinojosa.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to say that
it's a pleasure to work with you and to see that you understand
very clearly the points that these individuals, these
presenters, have stated today, and so in an effort to move it
and bring it to a close soon, I want to ask Dr. Cardenas a
question.
Dr. Cardenas, you've served as a personal mentor for many
individuals, and you speak of it as a natural occurrence.
However, the hiring of Hispanics throughout the Nation in
higher education institutions is extremely low if you factor
out HSIs. What can be done to accelerate this hiring
nationally, both within HSI institutions of higher learning and
non-HSI institutions of higher learning.
Dr. Cardenas. Well, we're going to have to get them down to
South Texas and show them it doesn't hurt.
(Laughter)
The fact of the matter is that, one, we need to increase
the numbers. We are--it is a competitive market for high
quality Latino faculty. In some fields it is very competitive.
I came to this position in August after serving as dean,
and as dean I did the hiring, and it was a tough negotiation.
More prestigious and more financially able institutions can
logically compete more for those faculty. They may not always
want to, but they can.
I want to make one point about the relationship between the
current provisions of your bill and that issue. In Texas, all
institutions are funded under the same formula. The University
of Texas at Austin is funded under the same formula as we are.
Why do they have so much more money than we do? They have
much more money than we do because the formula allocates a
certain amount per credit hour based on the discipline. So if I
get a dollar for a history freshman credit hour, I get nine
dollars for a biology freshman credit hour, but I might get
three dollars--and I don't remember what the numbers are; Dr.
Parades does--but I might get three dollars for a junior level
history class.
Chairman Tiberi. This is like Medicare reimbursement.
Dr. Cardenas. Yeah, it is.
Dr. Paredes. Worse.
Dr. Cardenas. But the point is this: we have only two full-
fledged doctoral programs. Now, the reimbursement on a doctoral
program in education is about--what is it? Well, let me put it
this way.
Dr. Paredes. 16.
Dr. Cardenas. It's 16 dollars, OK. Reimbursement on a
biology Ph.D. is 27. The University of Texas at Austin has over
200 Ph.D. programs.
Ray, is it over 200?
Dr. Paredes. No, I don't think it's that many. It's----
Dr. Cardenas. 150. I'll give them that much. So the money
that's coming in from the State is substantially higher,
because their emphasis is that the junior--at the graduate
level.
Because we're still struggling at the undergraduate level,
we're still struggling with retention from freshman to
sophomore year, our margin of return from the formula is always
significantly lower than other institutions. And most HSIs are
in a similar situation. So we don't have the wherewithal to
invest in the graduate programs, we don't have the wherewithal
to compete for those faculty, and we don't have the wherewithal
to build the new programs that would allow us then to compete
for that money.
And we also find it much more difficult to compete for the
other Federal money that comes into an institution that is the
research dollars.
So the answer, Congressman Hinojosa, that you have proposed
in terms of providing institutional support as well as
individual support is very powerful. We will be able to
significantly advance the development of infrastructure to
prepare those faculty and to prepare those master students
through this bill, if you get enough money authorized, but I
don't think you ought to tell them what you're going to ask
them for the second time.
Mr. Hinojosa. You're right about the second time. But on
the first one, I think that we're on the right track, because
there are four senators who have already pledged their support
for that number, because they realize that the number of HSI
institutions, the number of students and the potential is so
great that it wouldn't be reasonable to just give us some
crumbs of 25 or 50 million for an authorization level just to
get this law in the books and to become a national policy. We
really need to address it full force, and really then go to the
appropriators and get the money that is necessary.
Yes.
Dr. Arciniega. In that connection, let me make a special
plea for one very important piece of this. I say this as a long
time president in the state university ranks. It's the pipeline
issue, and Blandie mentioned it. One of the--if I were to, you
know, hone in on first things first, as we look to the future,
one of the most dramatically obvious issues to us that are
working in these vineyards is, you know, the lack of ethnic
minority faculties, specifically Hispanic faculty, that--and
what a difference it makes when you do, you know, when you are
able to identify and bring into the ranks at your institution,
and the immediate impact it has with the students that you have
coming to your institution.
And if I were to--if I were asked the question, ``What
would be the top priorities in that arena,'' I would say math,
science, engineering, teacher education.
How do we dramatically increase in geometric proportions
the number of Latino faculty, faculties, in those key
disciplines? It would make just an incredible difference almost
in one decade.
Chairman Tiberi. Isn't the challenge, though, across the
country.
Dr. Arciniega. Yes.
Chairman Tiberi. Not just for Latinos----
Dr. Arciniega. Absolutely.
Chairman Tiberi.--but just for any Americans to go into the
math and science discipline.
Dr. Cardenas. Yes.
Chairman Tiberi. Because at Ohio State I know they have
struggled with getting professors who speak English who aren't
from either India or China. How do we get there.
Dr. Arciniega. The answer to your question is ``Yes, but. .
.'' And the triple underscored ``but'' has to do with the
magnitude of the tremendous difference.
You can point to, yeah, the problems that we have in
getting, you know, faculties, period, in those areas, yes.
But when you take a look at that in relation to the
problems of HSIs----
Chairman Tiberi. So how do you get there?
Dr. Arciniega. How do you get there? There are a number of
model programs out there. You've got to fund them.
They've got to be identified. You've got to focus spotlight
attention on them, and you've got to support that, and it has
to be a combination of state, Federal, and I would say private
sector support.
One of the most obvious successful models that we have in
the country in that regard that starts at the first part of the
pipeline at the undergraduate level is the math, engineering,
and science achievement, known as the MESA programs across the
country. You now have them in, I think, three or four of the
southwestern states, and that's--you know, the success of that
program has been proven. But you have to build from there to
the pipeline issue at the undergraduate and then at the faculty
ranks.
Mr. Hinojosa. Excuse me, reclaiming my time, I want to say
that a month ago the Chairman of the Higher Education
Subcommittee, Buck McKeon, was asking that question, ``How do
we get there?'' And he invited five other Members of Congress
on that Committee to go visit seven universities in China, and
we visited in Beijing and in Shanghai, and the answer to that
question was that they had these incubators, like I had never
seen before. I mean, they're talking about--the one in Shanghai
was 180 million dollar investment, where they had 150
corporations in and around that industrial park, and they were
the biggest contributor to the collaborative effort that was
being made so that they could produce the engineers and the
results that they want to be competitive globally.
And what was also interesting was that a big part of that
was research; that all these companies were putting into the
till to be sure that there was enough money to be able to bring
in somebody, with the idea that instead of having 12 major
components to build an automobile, that they could do it with
only four components, much faster and more effectively and so
forth. It was all researched. And what's interesting was that
they had Chinese, Taiwanese and other groups of the Pacific Rim
countries.
All of this to say that corporate America is not investing
either in the K-12 programs, nor in the higher institutions of
what we're talking about here, in the sufficient amount that
they could. And just think about the trillions of dollars that
they're getting in tax cuts here under this last President
Bush's Administration.
And so I think that we need to be thinking about how they
open up the faucets and put them into this type of work that
you're talking--all of you are talking about.
Dr. Paredes. I agree.
Mr. Hinojosa. Chairman, I'm sorry that I took a little bit
longer, but I wanted to share that with you because we are
facing a giant competitor in China, but they are investing in
what we're talking about here, higher education.
Dr. Rivera. May----
Chairman Tiberi. It's his time.
Mr. Hinojosa. I'm going to give you just 30 seconds to
respond, Dr. Rivera.
Dr. Rivera. Then I'm just going to say three letters, NSF.
Non-Hispanics set aside no particular efforts to award research
in our types of institutions.
You've mentioned it ten times: Research, research,
research, research. That's what graduate education is all
about. We get crumbs.
Mr. Hinojosa. I think that could be turned around if
several of us in the Committee were to recommend that a couple
of presidents of HSIs could be named to the board of directors
of the National Science Foundation.
Chairman Tiberi. I think you have one in mind in
particular.
Mr. Hinojosa. I do, and I'll bet you have the other one.
We definitely are shy, not only on that board but on
corporate boards so that those individuals could tell their
boards of directors that they have to invest in higher
education and research so that we can compete with the other
global competitors.
So with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my
time.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you.
In closing, let me just share with the three of you
panelists from Texas, about a year ago the Ohio delegation of
Democrats and Republicans were brought together by the higher
education community and we were told that we weren't doing as
good a job as the Texas delegation was in getting research
dollars back to their home state.
So you may not be doing as well as you think, but you're
doing better than many others are doing. So my hat's off to
you.
This is an ongoing process. I can't tell you how much I've
learned today. I'd like to thank the staff, both my staff, the
Committee staff, Mr. Hinojosa's staff, for coming today. Dr.
Cardenas----
Mr. Hinojosa. Cardenas.
Chairman Tiberi. Cardenas, thank you. Thank you for your
hospitality, your time, your staff's time, this facility, all
the witnesses. It has been fabulous. It really has been
fabulous.
Final thoughts.
Mr. Hinojosa. I repeat everything that you said. I agree
with it. The hospitality has been wonderful, the attendance has
been very good, and I have learned a great deal more today by
just listening to everything that you-all have said, and
pointing out the concerns and giving us recommendations that we
can take back to the Committee, the whole of which, as you
know, is made up of 55 Members of Congress representing
different regions of the country with different makeup of
constituents, and everyone trying, of course, to represent them
as best as they can.
But thank goodness that they have--that they have listened
to some of the recommendations that I have brought from South
Texas, and with the help now of our Chairman, I think that it's
going to raise this to a higher level and that we will be
successful in getting this legislation passed.
And last, Mr. Chairman, the issue that you had in the field
hearing in Ohio State University of international studies is
one that is of great interest to us in the Latino community,
and I bring that up because I learned that Ohio State
University produces many, many graduates that go on to serve in
the Federal Government in the State Department all over the
world. They went and brought from the University of Texas in
Austin a professor, a Hispanic professor, to help them on this
program, and they have one of the most successful Latino--
schools of Latino studies, international studies, in that
university, with 60,000 total student enrollment, and that one
department is getting about 10 million from Title IV funding
available for international studies.
And if I were to ask Dr. Cardenas how much we're getting
from Title IV, I think it would be quite low compared to Ohio
State. So we're going to invite Ohio State to become partners
with us and other HSIs in Texas so that we can introduce that
career path and opportunity to our bilingual students who
already have command of two languages. And that's what is
required in that particular program, except that they go beyond
that. Most of them have three to five languages that they
master.
Dr. Cardenas. We would be delighted to partner and to
welcome both of you back when we receive our first two million
in about 2 years.
Mr. Hinojosa. Good. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you, Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you very
much for inviting me down to your district. I really have
learned a lot from all of you, and I really appreciate your
willingness to help educate me. He doesn't need as much
education. He's educating us every day in Washington, but thank
you so much.
If there is no further business before the Subcommittee,
the Subcommittee stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
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