Two-Year Colleges for Women and Minorities: Enabling Access to the Baccalaureate

This book focuses upon approximately 250 nonprofit, two-year colleges with a student body that is entirely female or at least 25 percent black, Hispanic, or Native American. These special-focus colleges include two-year colleges, historically black colleges (HBC's), Hispanic-serving institutions (HIS's) and tribal colleges, with some of these schools being church-affiliated. Many of these schools serve as shining examples of how a genuine commitment to access and achievement for female students of color can enhance these students' academic success. The initial chapter briefly describes and lists each type of two-year special-focus college, examines their roles in the development of American higher education, and speculates about their futures. The remaining four chapters examine a particular type of two-year special-focus school and include a case study of an exemplary institutional type. The final chapter analyzes the characteristics of these colleges which facilitate their students to succeed, alsoindicating to coeducational, predominately white colleges how they can better serve minority students.

Ray Christie is a graduate student pursuing the Ph.D. in Higher Education at Georgia State University and is also Coordinator of Institutional Research and Planning at the State University of West Georgia Janet A. Guyden is an Associate Professor at Florida A and M University Philo A. Hutcheson is Assistant Professor of Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University Ella Inglebret is a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling Psychology at Washington State University Berta Vigil Laden is Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University D. Michael Pavel, whose traditional name is ChiXapkaid, is a member of the Skokomish Indian Nation. He is a faculty member in the College of Education at Washington State University Sheila Pedigo is the Dean of Students at Saint Mary College in Leavenworth, Kansas. She is also a doctoral student in the higher education program at the University of Kansas Barbara K. Townsend is Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Leadership at The University of Memphis Mark VanDenHende is a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling Psychology at Washington State University Lisa Wolf-Wendel is Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of Kansas