Population growth at Colony College produces diverse challenges

Author: Raul Martinez Jr.
Date of article: August 29, 2008


Colony College (CC) was founded in 1986 in Prosperity TX., as a community college to meet the needs of a growing population. When CC started out in 1986 they had 25 different Associate and certificate programs on one campus with enrollment around 2000 students. Today they have over 100 different degree, transfer and certificate programs with 3 different campuses, and student enrollment tops out at 40,000 students. In prosperity the city population has tripled in the past 10 years with the economy in the area booming. The ethnicity breakdown in the area was predominantly white, native Texans but within the past 5-8 years the demographics have changed. Big influxes of people have come from the north in recent years due to the economy in the north and job opportunities in the south. The Hispanic population has increased as well in the area making the demographic makeup very diverse in this area. With diverse populations come diverse dialects and languages, making it a challenge to communicate effectively.
This has become quite a challenge in the admissions office of CC where all 10 employees are native Texans with thick southern accents.

The Demographics of Prosperity is predominantly Caucasian, rural, upper middle class with a median income of 75- 85 thousand per household. This is reflective of the administration of CC from its 7 member board with 6 males and 1 female. The President is male who has 3 provosts, one for each campus who in turn has 3 VP’s on each campus’: Vice presidents of Academics, Vice President of Student Development and Vice President of Facilities. The Hierarchy of CC is very flat with the administration having little communication with the directors and managers of the separate departments relying on the VP’s for reporting and communication purposes. Each Department works independently of each other like in silos, which makes inter-department communication very time consuming because of the bureaucracy and territorial mentality and lack of “team” built within CC’s departments. The minority Community feels that the college is growing in leaps and bounds without input from community leaders in different groups and has the perception that its “doing things how they have always been done” mentality. “With growth comes change, and if we (Hispanics) are not involved in the change it passes us by and decisions are made for us without us!” this was a quote in a local newspaper from a local Hispanic leader at the board meeting addressing concerns that the college was not adequately addressing Hispanic concerns at CC.

In the past 6 months complaints have tripled due to what students call communication issues with the admissions staff. To make matters worse the college has been in transition to a new student software system to accommodate the increase in enrollment. Assistant Director of Admissions Johnny Blaze has expressed his concerns to the VP of student development about the fact that students come to admissions with east coast accents and mannerisms like talking loud or with there hands which is the staff find alarming and rude. Some Hispanic students who come into the admissions have little or no English proficiency and make it difficult for his admissions staff to talk to and understand the students. The staff doesn’t feel that they should help the Hispanic students if they don’t know English.

In turn the students are complaining to the AD of admissions and saying that they could not understand the admissions staff due to the “southern” accents and they were very short in the answers and explanations of the admissions process along with coming off very rude. The Hispanic students complained to the AD as well as the Minority student affairs office about the belittling and lack of effort to assist the Hispanic students whom spoke little or no English and how they were made to feel unwelcomed and not valued. The A.D. feels that his staff is feeling the pressures and stress of incorporating a new student software system and the demands of the students.
What changes or implementations should the AD make for his staff and students? What suggestions would you make to address the limited English students in order to feel welcomed and valued and served in admissions using Hispanic student research on success in college? What about the A.D., what resources should be available to him and his staff if any from the college and local community? Give examples from your community or place of employment using APA format to support your answers.