Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - 02150159
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED281574 AUTHOR: Rendon, Laura I.
TITLE: The Demographic Imperative: Responding to New
Students in Postsecondary Education.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1986
NOTE: 18 p.; Keynote presentation at "Affirmative Action at
the Crossroads: A Manifesto for Change," a Conference
sponsored by the Board of Governors of the California
Community Colleges (San Jose, CA, September 26-27, 1986).
ABSTRACT: To appropriately plan for the year 2000, three
major issues must be addressed to reduce the gap between
what postsecondary institutions currently have to offer and
what the student population will require at that time.
First, anticipated increases in the numbers of minority and
immigrant students call for action to strengthen efforts to
achieve full equity and access by addressing problems such
as low retention and transfer rates. Second, these
demographic changes require community colleges and senior
institutions to address staff, curricular, and related
educational policy issues to ensure that there are faculty
role models for ethnic minorities, to increase the numbers
of minorities in leadership positions, and to improve the
quality of minority students' experiences at the college.
Finally, postsecondary institutions must guard against a
social vision that views new immigrants as "problem groups"
and work instead as agents of society to create a
responsible and informed citizenry. Racial and ethnic
diversity are becoming more and more an integral part of
American society, and colleges should do their best to
promote dignity and respect for all people, to cultivate
thought at both an intellectual and emotional level, and to
prepare future leaders. (AYC)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Access-to-Education; Change-Agents;
Community-Colleges; Educational-Change; Futures-of-Society;
School-Responsibility; Social-Values; Two-Year-Colleges; Two
Year-College-Students
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *College-Role; *Demography-; *Educational
Trends; *Immigrants-; *Minority-Groups; *Population-Trends
This is an ERIC database document. ERIC is the National
Education Information Network for providing ready access
to the literature of education -descriptions of exemplary
programs, research and development efforts, and related
information that can be used in developing more effective
educational programs. The ERIC database is currently
available on CD-ROM in the main library (ground floor of
the west wing) at Michigan State University. To locate
ERIC documents in the library identify the first line of
each record (i.e., the field ERIC TITLE NUMBER). ED
following ERIC TITLE NUMBER indicates an ERIC document,
an unpublished research study. Most of these items are
available in the Microforms library, located on the 3rd
floor of the west wing. All you need is the six digit ED
number. If EJ follows ERIC TITLE NUMBER the item is a
journal article. The complete journal name is listed after
the code JOURNAL.
This information is for educational purposes only. References
to commercial products or trade names does not imply
endorsement by MSU Extension or bias against those not
mentioned. This information becomes public property upon
publication and may be printed verbatim with credit to MSU
Extension. Reprinting cannot be used to endorse or advertise
a commercial product or company.
This file was generated from data base DP on 06/25/02.
Data base DP was last revised on 12/95/ .
For more information about this data base or its contents please contact
cook@msue.msu.edu . Please read our
disclaimer for important
information about using our site.