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COLLEGE OF THE CANYONS : Latino Students Underrepresented

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Latinos are underrepresented in the College of the Canyons student body and the college may be required to mount a special marketing campaign to encourage enrollment, a recent report concluded.

The 1990 census showed that 75.5% of the population in the area served by the Santa Clarita Community College District is Anglo and 17% is Latino, according to the report prepared by John Drislane, dean of personnel services, for the Dec. 11 board of trustees meeting.

Enrollment figures for the fall semester showed the college population was 77% Anglo and 11.6% Latino. “To equal their proportional representation in the total population, another 333 Hispanic students would have had to enroll in fall, 1991,” the report said.

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Fall enrollment at the college was 6,209, while the population of the Santa Clarita Valley, the area the college district serves, is 154,706, according to census figures.

Two ethnic groups--Asians and “Other Nonwhites,” a classification that includes American Indian, Middle Eastern and Filipino students--were found in the report to be overrepresented in proportion to the community’s population.

Black students were slightly underrepresented with 2.3% of the enrollment and 2.8% of the population, the report said.

Recommendations of the Affirmative Action Advisory Committee to trustees included sensitivity training and education about diversity for staff and faculty members and providing a weekly support group for minority students, Drislane said.

Trustees are expected to act on the committee’s recommendations sometime next year.

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