The Brown College Experience

Nationally, fewer than 20% of men of color possessed a four-year college degree in 2012 (Pérez Huber et al., 2015). These numbers have not improved in close to 10 years (NCES, 2020) and have drawn national concern—prompting responses from philanthropy, postsecondary institutions, and policymakers that address how college climates have diminished retention and persistence (Museus et al., 2017). Many colleges and universities are not fully aware of men of color’s intersectional needs and have yet to develop appropriate institutional responses to address these students’ depressed retention and graduation rates (Clark et al., 2013). Many college campuses also have not considered how the college environment and institutional factors contribute to students’ lack of connection with faculty, staff, and administration (Museus et al., 2017; Huerta, 2020; Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Rendon, 1994). The disconnection leads to perceptions that individual student failure is outside the scope of professional and moral responsibility and that students “should know” how to navigate a “hidden curriculum.” On this episode of the podcast I had the pleasure of sharing the mic with X'andri Bautista and Jaime Cortez Jimenez. Both whom are recent and soon to be university graduates. In this episode we had the chance to speak on behalf of our experience as men of color and the peer perspective of X'andri. Digging in further to why the statistics have continued to read very low in the number of men attending colleges and universities. We hope you enjoy this episode, feel free to reach out and hopefully we can continue to keep the conversation going. Alrato