- Author: Educatiodive.com by Hallie Busta
At a time when higher education can appear bogged down by legacy, the University of California System's newest addition is far less restricted.
The University of California, Merced this summer wrapped up phase one of a $1.3 billion project to roughly double the size of its campus and make room for as many as 10,000 students. It is doing so using an innovative public-private partnership (P3) model that is among the largest of its kind in higher ed. And of all the UC System campuses, it has been the most effective at reaching and enrolling Latinos, who have become the largest ethnic group in California.
In an article detailing UC Merced's rise, The New York Times notes the campus and the system are at a critical juncture: "The future of the state depends on whether the University of California can grow to be more like Merced, and the future of Merced depends on whether it can grow to be more like other campuses."
HIGHLIGHTS Expansion plans: Underserved students: Outlook: |
Located in the San Joaquin Valley a few hours' drive from San Francisco and the state capitol in Sacramento, UC Merced formally opened in 2005 with the goal of improving access to the state's public university system — almost a decade into a ban on affirmative action that notably hampered diversity among campuses in the system.
"Many of these students were not gaining access as they should be to research universities," UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland said. "We were built there to create that access. They came, they loved it and they went back to their communities. So there was a lot of word of mouth."
By a wide margin, it is the smallest of the nine institutions in the system that offer both undergraduate and graduate instruction. It is also in one of the poorest areas of the state, where residents have long had low levels of educational attainment and lacked access to a research university. Many of its students are the first in their families to attend college. And its admission rate is higher and its incoming students' test scores lower than at other UC campuses.
Yet those seeming shortcomings in the ultra-competitive world of higher education admissions have proven to be competitive advantages, Leland said.
Being new means students can see themselves as pioneers and innovators, and the small size fosters community. Raising a campus from the ground up in the 21st century also has let sustainability factor heavily into construction, with all campus buildings currently or expected to be LEED certified.
And the college has been able to focus on undergraduate research from the start. In 2016, Merced attained the status of a "doctoral-granting university with higher research activity," the second-highest ranking from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
"When you build a new university from the ground up, you literally build everything," Leland said. "You build your traditions, you build your student organizations, you build your student volunteer connections to the communities. Many students who come here get to be the founders of traditions or organizations that will persist far beyond them."
Leland took the helm at Merced in 2011 with the task of ushering the college into the next phase of growth. While the recession's anemic recovery made that a challenge, it didn't change the need. "We were simply space-starved," she said. "Our students were sitting in hallways studying because there was no other place to go."
Beyond classrooms, the college needed facilities such as research labs, dorms, sports fields and dining halls as well as roads and other infrastructure to support current and future students. And it needed to do so affordably. As part of the deal, the private developer will maintain the buildings over a 39-year period and will be paid in part based on how they perform, Leland said.
"In all the unpredictability in the higher education environment, particularly in the public sector, we have a great deal of predictability around the long-term maintenance of what will be half of our campus," she said.
The expansion is laying the groundwork for future growth in Merced, which Leland and others expect will lead to change throughout the state.
"You see across the UC System a growing recognition that the demographic future of California cannot just be represented on one or two or three of its campuses," she said. "It has to be spread across all of the campuses, from the oldest to the youngest."
Source: Published originally on Educatiodive.com, University of the Year: The University of California, Merced, by Hallie Busta, December 3rd, 2018.
- Author: UCLA Newsroom by Jessica Wolf
More than 10,000 adults offered their thoughts on health care reform, immigration, climate change and other issues.
To capture a demographically and geographically diverse snapshot of the electorate, the survey queried more than 10,000 people and was conducted in five languages.
Initial findings from a UCLA-led nationwide survey of more than 10,000 adults reveal some of the differences and similarities among whites, blacks, Latinos and Asians when it comes to the White House agenda on immigration, taxes and health care reform.
Survey results showed significant differences in support toward both improving the Affordable Care Act and federal spending on Medicare, Medicaid and health services. Majorities from all groups — 77 percent of black respondents, 70 percent of Latinos, 68 percent of Asian respondents and 54 percent of white respondents — said they think that Obamacare should be amended and improved, not repealed. And while 57 percent of white respondents supported increasing spending for Medicaid and Medicare, the numbers were higher for all other groups — for Asians it was 60 percent, and 68 percent for Latinos and 76 percent for blacks.
UCLA political scientist professors Matt Barreto and Lorrie Frasure-Yokley served as co-principal investigators with Janelle Wong, professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland and Edward Vargas, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
“With this data, we can better understand how racial and ethnic groups differ in their views toward today's most pressing political and policy issues,” Frasure-Yokley said.
The survey asked people in the four groups their opinions about the 2016 election and ongoing public policy issues that also included climate change, federal spending, policing, racial equality and more.
To capture a demographically and geographically diverse snapshot of the electorate, the 2016 “Collaborative Multi-Racial Post-Election Survey” queried more than 10,000 people and was conducted in five languages — English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. To include the most comprehensive list of electoral, civic and policy-related survey questions, 86 researchers from 55 colleges and universities contributed questions. A full list of collaborators and access to topline results is available at Latino Decisions, the political opinion research firm that led the data-gathering effort.
In spring 2016, with the presidential primaries in full swing, the co-principal investigators began building a national cooperative of scholars in the social sciences whose research interests focus on the study of U.S. racial and ethnic politics. With its collaborative focus, the CMPS also contributes to building an academic pipeline of scholars in the social sciences, by bringing together a multidisciplinary group of researchers at varying stages of their careers, Frasure-Yokley said.
Majorities of respondents across all groups surveyed said they believe that taxes on the rich should be increased to give the middle class a tax break — 73 percent of all black, Latino and Asian respondents agreed with this sentiment, and 63 percent of white respondents did as well.
“While there was dovetailing agreement on many pressing issues, we see that race still matters in America,” Frasure-Yokley said.
Strong majorities from all racial groups surveyed favor a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants — 76 percent of black respondents, 81 percent of Latino, 69 percent of Asian and 71 percent of whites. Yet whites were much more likely than other racial groups to support deporting of undocumented immigrants. However, even in that case, less than one out of three whites said they supported deportation. Whites are the only group in which a majority supported increased public spending on border security and police.
Less than a quarter of Latino, white and Asian respondents agreed that there should be a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Slightly more —27 percent — of black respondents favored such a ban. Unusually, in response to this statement about a third of respondents in each group neither agreed nor disagreed.
Black and Latino respondents were the strongest supporters of increased spending on public education at 80 and 70 percent, respectively. Sixty-one percent of whites favored increased education spending and 66 percent of Asians.
“As academics and analysts we have a responsibility to help bring to light information that will aid in policy decision-making,” said Barreto, who is co-founder of Latino Decisions.
Participating scholars, which includes junior and senior faculty as well as graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, will convene to share findings during a conference this summer at UCLA. All who provided content and financial backing for the survey received access to responses from the complete set of 394 questions.
“One of the most exciting aspects of this project is that it is truly collaborative from across the country,” Barreto said. Frasure-Yokley and Barreto also were part of teams that conducted smaller post-election multi-ethnic surveys after the 2008 and 2012 elections. “Bringing a diversity of views and voices to the project greatly improved the topics and content we covered.”
Of those surveyed, 60 percent were registered voters. Of those voters, 92 percent of black respondents voted for Hillary Clinton and 5 percent for Donald Trump. For Latinos, 77 percent said they voted for Clinton and 19 percent voted for Trump. Asian respondents voted 73 percent for Clinton versus 22 percent for Trump. And 37 percent of white respondents voted for Clinton and 57 percent for Trump.
Attitudes were split on climate change. Only 49 percent of white respondents said the federal government should pass laws to combat climate change, compared to 69 percent of Asians, 65 percent of Latinos and 62 percent of black respondents.
Personal experiences with discrimination also varied widely, as did feelings about Black Lives Matter. Nearly two thirds of blacks support activism by the Black Lives Matter movement, along with nearly half of all Latinos and nearly 40 percent of Asians. Thirty-seven percent and 42 percent of Latinos and Asians, respectively, neither support nor oppose the movement's activism. On the other hand, 44 percent of white respondents oppose such activism.
The cooperative survey was self-funded through the purchase of question content by contributors. The survey is among the first to use an online platform in combination with web-based random sampling directly from the voter registration rolls. It included video and audio stimuli and split-sample experimentation in question wording, consistent with the latest methods and approaches in survey research. After collecting all responses, researchers weighted the final data with a standard model to bring it in matching balance with the 2015 U.S. Census demographics for each racial group.
Source: Published originally on UCLA Newsroom. UCLA leads nationwide, multiracial survey of attitudes about politics and policy, by Jessica Wolf, March 10, 2017.
Younger Hispanics have very different media preferences than their grandparents and even their parents. They have their own unique language preference. And they're much more educated.
This has over time shaped a unique demographic group that advertisers should be courting quite differently than the older one.
A new report from Nielsen takes an in-depth look at the Hispanic demographic, in which these growing differences emerge.
It's a fascinating portrait of a group that will account for “virtually all (93 percent) of the growth of the nation's working-age population between now and 2050.”
Right now there are nearly 57 million U.S. Hispanics. By 2020 that number will balloon to 119 million, or just 60 million shy of the number of non-Hispanic whites, who are on the decline.
Here's a look at three areas where the differences between younger and older Hispanics are most stark.
Language
Language is an age-old struggle for those targeting Hispanics. For years previous to 2000, much of the U.S. Hispanic population were immigrants, and they spoke Spanish, the language of their native country, usually Mexico.
But the vast majority of American Hispanics are now born in this country, and that's led to a language divide.
Nielsen says that among adults 55 and over, 35 percent are Spanish-dominant, compared to a mere 4 percent of those under 18, and 14 percent of Millennials.
It's not just Spanish where the differences come, though. Less than half of 55-and-overs are bilingual, while 58 percent of those under 34 speak both languages.
The takeaway: This gap will continue to grow with greater assimilation and as fewer kids grow up in homes with foreign-born Hispanics.
Media
This is the area where young and old most differ. Hispanic Millennials are voracious consumers of new media. For example, 91 percent use social media compared to 64 percent of those over 35.
Interestingly, young Hispanics' media device ownership closely mimics non-Hispanics rather than Hispanics over 35. So, for instance, 88 percent of Hispanic Millennials have smartphones compared to 86 percent of non-Hispanics and 68 percent of Hispanics over 35.
And there are vast difference between consumption of traditional media such as cable and broadcast, as detailed in the chart below.
The takeaway: When targeting this demographic, it's important to do it by age group to determine which media to use.
Education
Young Hispanics are more educated than their older counterparts, and becoming more so every year.
Sixty-seven percent of Hispanic high school graduates enrolled in college from 2012 to 2014.
“The number of 18-to-24-year-old Hispanics enrolled in a two- or four-year college more than tripled between 1993 and 2013: 2.2 million Hispanics enrolled in 2013 versus 728,000 in 1993. That trend has made Hispanics the largest diversity group on U.S. college campuses,” Nielsen notes.
There are more Hispanics to seek out these opportunities, for sure, but the growth is still stunning.
The takeaway: This will result in a more affluent Hispanic demographic going forward. Already, the number of Hispanic households making $100,000 annually has more than doubled from 2000 to 2014.
This article is part of an ongoing Media Life series entitled “Catching the next big wave: Hispanic media.” You can read previous stories by clicking here
Source: Published originally on medialifemagazine.com as Growing gap between younger and older Hispanics, by the editors of Media Life, September 1, 2016
- Author: Lisa M. Rawleigh
When it comes to those with the least means to pay for daily and monthly necessities, a lack of energy efficiency in America's major cities presents a disproportionate economic burden on low-income urban communities, as a recent report found.
The report, published by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) and the Energy Efficiency for All (EEFA) coalition, found in a review of 48 major U.S. metropolitan areas that the economic burden of energy costs on low-income households can be up to three times higher than the overall burden on higher-income households.
This applies especially for low-income African American and Latino households, which spend a disproportionate amount of their income on energy. In a hopeful note, the study also found that implementing more energy efficiency measures could close that gap by at least one third.
Big Takeaways
- Low-income households pay 7.2 percent of households income on utilities,
- That's three times more than higher income households pay (about 2.3 percent),
- Latino households experience the greatest energy burdens in the south and southwest United States,
- Midwest and Southeast regions had the highest energy burden across all demographics,
- Inefficient, out of date, low income housing contributes to the problem significantly,
- African American households experienced an average energy burden that was 64 percent greater than white households,
- Latino households paid lower utilities on average than African American and white households, but experienced an average energy burden 24 percent greater than white households,
- Renters pay 20 percent more than home owners, indicating rented homes tend to be less efficient.
Ranking Cities
Some cities across the U.S. fared better than others in measurements of energy efficiency and overall energy burden for residents, and the report pointed out the metropolitan areas with greater energy burdens depending on low-income demographics.
For Latinos, the greatest energy burdens were in the cities of Memphis, Providence, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Atlanta, Birmingham, Phoenix, Dallas, Fort Worth and Detroit.
For African American households, the worst energy burdens were in the cities of Memphis, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Kansas City, Birmingham, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Atlanta.
The ACEEE found that increasing energy efficiency levels in average homes across the U.S. would eliminate about 35 percent of the average low-income energy burden in these areas. And for low-income Latino households, the average energy burden that could be eliminated through efficiency was a much greater share than any other group, at 68 percent.
The report focused on 2011 data from the U.S. Census Bureau along with the 2013 American Housing Survey to determine the overall energy burdens for the 48 largest U.S. cities. The report defined low-income households as those with incomes at or below 80 percent of each area's median income, and focused on the relative burden for each demographic in those low-income communities.
You can request a copy of the report here.
Source: Published originally on LatinPost.com as More Green: Why Energy Efficiency Matters to Low Income Latinos, Urban Minorities by Robert Schoon, May 10, 2016.
The Department of Finance's demographic unit projects that the state's population, 37.3 million in the 2010 census and nearly 39 million now, will top 51 million by 2060, 38 percent higher than the census number.
That would continue the state's relatively slow growth of the past two decades, under 1 percent a year.
The demographers project that the state's Latino population will grow by 11.4 million during that 50-year period, or 81 percent, while the Asian-American population will grow by 3.2 million or 67 percent.
The state's rapidly aging white population, meanwhile, is expected to decline by 2 million during that period while the black population is projected to remain virtually unchanged.
Latinos are already the state's largest single ethnic group, but Latino growth is also slowing due to a declining birthrate and virtually no net gain from migration in recent years. By 2060, Latinos should be close to half of the state's population.
The Department of Finance projections also apply to counties. Demographers see Kern County as the state's fastest growing county during the 50-year period, with a 112 percent gain, followed by Madera at 101 percent. A few rural counties are projected to lose population.
Los Angeles County, home to more than a quarter of the state's population now, is projected to grow by less than half the rate of the state as a whole. That's true of most other coastal counties, while inland regions, particularly those with high Latino populations, have the highest projected gains.
Source: Published originally on The Sacramento Bee as California will see slow population growth, big Latino gains by Dan Walters, March 13, 2015.