Saenz, who has become a recognized authority on Latino males and higher education in recent years, is teaming again with Ponjuan to work on two studies about Latino males. One study focuses on Latinos at two-year colleges while the other examines Latinos at four-year institutions.
“We are focused on the issue of retention,” Saenz says. “Concerns exist for (Latino) enrollment in higher education, but also exist for degree completion. There is a gap at both ends of that pipeline. We lose them to alternative pathways, such as the military, and there’s a chunk of our young men that go into incarceration. The biggest chunk forgoes opportunity to go to college. A big proportion of young Latino males head directly into the work force. The larger problem is that many of them are not going into the work force armed with the kind of education designed to help them become upwardly mobile members of society.”
Saenz hopes his work and that of his colleagues gets the attention of policymakers.
“One of our aims is to raise awareness,” he says. “We need help to further understand this issue. We need to really get our hands on deck regarding its broader dimensions.”
One of those broader dimensions, Saenz says, is the impact it could have on family and culture in the Latino community.
Female partners are now outgaining male partners, he says. “We don’t know how that might affect gender norms in the Latino community. How are these gender norms going to be renegotiated?”
