Recruiting and Retaining Latino Faculty Members: The Missing Piece to Latino Student Success

While Latino students are enrolling in greater numbers, Latino faculty have not seen similar growth, making up only four percent of faculty nationwide. 4 These contrasting images between the faculty and student demographics portend an inevitable truth that, while the higher education student population is dramatically changing, the faculty members of color still are not representative of the incoming cohort of students of color, especially the Latino student population. In this article, the author examines how education leaders can improve the recruitment and retention of Latino faculty members in higher education institutions. After providing an overview of the current situation vis à vis of Latinos in higher education, the author provides ten specific policy and programmatic recommendations to improve conditions for Latino faculty members.