Minority student recruitment and retention: Is there a secret to success?

Abstract

In this chapter I discuss issues related to minority student recruitment and retention and present the model that is used at the California School of Professional Psychology: Los Angeles (CSPP: Los Angeles) to address these issues. If one surveys the literature, it is easy to note the ever-present shortage of ethnic minority mental health professionals in the field of psychology (President's Commission on Mental Health, 1978) as well as the continuing underrepresentation of ethnic minority students and faculty (Bernal, Barron, & Leary, 1983). The rapidly increasing numbers of ethnic minority individuals who potentially may seek psychological services is clearly disproportionate to the numbers of ethnic minority individuals entering into and finishing doctoral programs in the field of psychology (Bernal et al., 1983). It is clear that, although ethnic minorities nearly doubled their number among doctoral recipients between 1975 and 1984, they still represent only 8.7% of the new doctorates U.M. Jones, 1987). Furthermore, although ethnic minority students have shown interest in psychology and psychology-related experiences, their numbers in graduate school programs simply do not reflect their interest 0. M. Jones, 1987).Why, then, does there appear to be difficulty in the recruitment and subsequent retention of minority students in graduate programs? These problems occur because most institutions are not fully committed to, and do not behave in ways that allow for, successful recruitment and retention of ethnic minority students. If institutional values do not support the development of policies and programs that are geared toward successful recruitment and retention of ethnic minority students, then, in fact, the situation that currently exists in most graduate school programs in psychology is realized fully.When we talk about institutional values, we are in essence asking why and for what reason institutions are committed to having a diverse and mixed group of students within their educational structure. And further, we are asking what institutions 131

Minority student recruitment and retention practices among schools of professional psychology: A national survey and analysis.

“…Toward that task, they would benefit from knowledge of specific strategies that have been successful in attracting larger numbers of minority applicants and in facilitating their entry and completion of graduate study. Descriptions of successes in individual psychology training programs (e.g., Porsche-Burke, 1990) offer one source of assistance in developing plans for more vigorous recruitment campaigns and effective minority student support systems. The experiences of other health professions in minority recruitment and retention programs may also provide valuable information to the discipline.…”

Tension and opportunity in post-World War II American psychology.

“…Finally, effective programs incorporated training in cultural diversity into all aspects of the program, so that all students, not just ethnic minorities, benefited. At the best programs, multicultural viewpoints were salient but normal features of the entire graduate experience (Guzman, 1991;Hammond & Yung, 1993;Porche-Burke, 1990).…”