Chapter 17: From a Man’S Perspective: Latino Men’s Outlook on the Campus Community

Latinos, at almost 16% of the population, represent the fastest growing and largest ethnic minority group in the United States (Pew Hispanic Center, 2009). The majority of this change in demography, from 2000 to 2009 (37.3%), is attributed to native-born Latinos (43.7%; Pew Hispanic Center, 2009). Over half of all Latinos are male (51.7%) and nearly half of these males are under the age of 24 (23.8%). While the college enrollment rates for all racial/ethnic groups have increased, Latinos still lag behind every other ethnic group (33.4%)—Asians (71.6%), Whites (49.8%), and African Americans (42.5%) (Pew Hispanic Center, 2009). Latino college students are more likely to be first generation college students (18%; Warburton, Bugarin, Núñez, & Carroll, 2001) and are disproportionately represented at 2-year institutions, comprising 14% of all students at 2-year institutions and only 7% at 4-year institutions in 2000 (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, n.d.).