Group Tries to Halt Drop of Latinos in MBA Programs

On college campuses these days, concerned students and academicians say one group has become as rare as student sit-ins: Latino MBAs.

While the nation’s six-year-long economic expansion has sparked increased enrollment in graduate business school programs overall, proportionally fewer Latinos have been seeking master’s degrees in business administration over the last six years, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council in Los Angeles.

Latinos accounted for only 4,776, or 2.3%, of the 208,712 students enrolled in graduate business school programs in the 1986-1987 school year, according to the lastest federal government figures. That was down slightly from about 3% in the peak year for Latino MBA enrollment in 1980. And Latinos represent only 1.6% of those taking the graduate management admissions test--a figure that’s remained unchanged throughout the 1980s, according to the National Council of La Raza, a Washington-based Latino civil rights organization.

“The proportion of Hispanics in MBA programs and the absolute number of Hispanics has declined since 1980,” said William Broesamle, president of the admission council, which sponsors the graduate management school admissions examination. “The participation of minorities in higher education in general has declined since the beginning of the ‘80s. It’s attributable to a number of things: efforts to recruit have not been sustained . . . there has been a decline in financial aid.”

To stem the slide, two Latino business executives who earned graduate degrees in business administration recently formed the National Society of Hispanic MBAs to promote greater awareness about MBA programs.

The group, founded last March by Henry Hernandez and Esther Torrez, held an awards ceremony last Friday at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, to focus attention on the dearth of Latino MBAs. In its first awards ceremony, the group honored Los Angeles businessman Richard Riordan, Pepsi-Cola Co. and the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management.

“What we’d like to do is create a stronger awareness of the Hispanic MBA,” said Hernandez, who is a senior financial analyst at TRW and president of her own Los Angeles consulting firm. “We’d like to get more Hispanic MBAs into the board rooms,” he said. “We want to be a part of the action.”

Barely a Presence

Latinos are barely a presence at many university MBA programs.

They represent less than 2% of total enrollment at the nation’s 10 leading business schools. And even in California, which has a large Latino community, only 226 of 5,573 MBA students are Latino, according to figures compiled by the society.

Though other groups, notably blacks, have formed organizations to promote enrollment in graduate business programs, Latinos face a different set of obstacles.

For one thing, Latinos have no institution of higher education in the United States equivalent to the network of black colleges and universities that offer MBA programs, such as Howard, Florida A&M; and Atlanta universities, that have trained scores of black MBAs, Hector F. Elizalde, director of promotions for Pepsi-Cola Co., noted.

What’s more, programs aimed at Latinos are just beginning to reach out to college students. Attempts to reach high school students are still mostly in the planning stages. Meanwhile, cultural tradition continues to blind many Latinos to a career in business, students say.

“There’s a lack of information associated with MBAs,” said Jeannine Jaramillo, a second year graduate business student at the University of Southern California.

Arrives in Southland

“When people think of a professional degree they think of an MD (medical degree) or a JD (law degree) because you know what you are going to do,” she said. “But (in the Latino community) there is little awareness of MBAs.” As a result, said Jaramillo, “you tend to look more at what your parents do or what your parents friends do” for a living.

To change the situation, the society this year joined the admissions council and the National Black MBA Assn. in sponsoring a nationwide series of workshops aimed at black and Latino undergraduates and others interested in management careers.

Los Angeles, this weekend, became the latest stop on the groups’ 10-city “Destination: MBA” tour. About 300 to 400 prospective MBA candidates were expected to attend the free Saturday event to obtain information on how to apply, finance and succeed in a graduate business degree program.

Still, some experts blame schools rather than lack of student interest for the MBA minority drought.

“Both of our groups run into the same kind of difficulties with schools,” Stanley T. West, president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Black MBA Assn., said referring to the Hispanic Society. “If we work together we will have a much stronger power base” to combat obstacles such as the shrinking pool of financial aid and reduction in special programs to assist minorities.

“The nature of the problem has changed,” the council’s Broesamle said. “It’s no longer a matter of simple affirmative action--which is still a noble goal--rather, it is a matter of . . . ensuring the continued overall success and health of the economy and business. We need more Hispanic MBAs” to accomplish that, he said.