WHEN HISPANIC STUDENTS ATTEMPT TO SUCCEED IN COLLEGE, BUT DO NOT

Retention of higher education students has been decreasing over the last decades of the last century (Swail, 2004). Retention decreases, however, are not equally impacting all students or all higher education institutions. Community college retention rates are lower than rates in four-year institutions (Wild & Ebbers, 2002), and minority student retention rates are lower than rates for White students (Fry, 2004; Swail, 2004). Since community colleges are often the first entry into higher education for low-income students, and since often these students are minority students, community colleges are experiencing low retention rates, especially among first-year students (Hernandez & Lopez, 2005). Although volumes of research have been conducted regarding minority retention, few studies have focused on the problem-specific level of community colleges. This article reports barriers that first-semester Hispanic students at one community college reported they have experienced, identifies the institutional initiatives placed to counter this Hispanic student attrition, and provides recommendations to increase the retention of Hispanic community college students. The study suggests that when first-semester Hispanic students attempt to succeed in college but do not, it is not necessarily always the students' fault.