Colleges have fewer Latino, Black students

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. — The coronavirus pandemic’s disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities extends beyond higher rates of infection and deaths statewide.

Its economic fallout also is hurting their educational progress, say leaders at suburban community colleges seeing huge declines in student enrollment, particularly among adult learners and Black, Latino and other disadvantaged student populations.

Among the factors contributing to enrollment declines are students’ reservations with returning to in-person instruction amid a pandemic, limited access to technology, job loss and challenges balancing family and work obligations with supporting their children’s virtual schooling.

“It’s just too hard,” said Arlene Santos-George, dean of adult education and English as a Second Language for College of Lake County in Grayslake.

The college has 10,493 students enrolled this fall. Its adult learner population — students seeking to earn their high school equivalency and English literacy skills — is down nearly 42 percent compared with last fall. The percentage of new students enrolled is down 69 percent, students returning from more than a year ago is down 39 percent and continuing students are down 22 percent from last fall.

College officials have been reaching out to adult learners and Latino students through mailings, phone calls, social media and online and radio advertising.

“We also have flyers in the whole community where there are immigrant populations, grocery stores, laundromats, public spaces,” Santos-George said.

CLC has distributed $2.4 million in CARES Act funds for students in need due to COVID-19. Yet, some challenges are harder to overcome.

“Students are choosing to forgo going to school, because they don’t have the financial resources or they are choosing to support their family,” said Erin Fowles, CLC dean of enrollment.

Enrollment in for-credit college courses is down nearly 12 percent for Latino students.

“Of all our ethnic and racial categories, that is the worst,” Fowles said. “We’re helping students through continuous disbursement … about $500 per term that they are enrolled. For someone who has food, rent, transportation needs, that is not enough. We have seen more students saying we’re going to wait and see what next semester is like or take an entire year off.”