BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — California State University Bakersfield (CSUB) is creating a new department on campus made to get more applicants from underrepresented groups.
According to the CSUB demographics and diversity report, the college calls itself a diverse university. However, this new department hopes to increase that, starting in local high schools.
The newest department at CSUB is the Student Access and Support Department. It aims to bring in more students that are not showing up enough in the student breakdown.
“There are certain ethnic groups that were starting to decline," explained Dr. Dwayne Cantrell, Chief Enrollment Officer at CSUB. "So African-American students, Latinx students, interestingly though there a large number of students, we started to see some declines. We started to see declines in Asian-American students, Native American students. Just certain groups, but then also more than just ethnic groups. Males in college, you can see a small decline as well."
With a decline in demographic, there's now an increase in recruitment. It's not just in high schools but in middle schools as well in order to make sure those students are taking the right classes to become university students.
“So yeah, we might go all the way out to Tehachapi. We might go all way up to Tulare," said Darius Riggins, Director of Studeny Access and Support at CSUB. "It really will just be based upon the need with regards to this office and in targeting those underrepresented groups.“
To find which schools have the underrepresented groups needed to supplement CSUB’s student population, the new department is pulling student accountability report cards from every school in the Kern High School District
“We're wanting to know where are those underrepresented groups based upon the high school," explained Riggins. "Let's say BHS [Bakersfield High School]. What is the percentage of African-American students? What is the percentage of the Latino students? What is the percentage of men and women? All that demographic information.”
CSUB’s new department staff does not expect to see a significant difference in the underrepresented student population anytime soon, with the earliest prediction for a change set in Fall 2024.
Cantrell says that the main goal of this new department is to make sure that nobody gets left behind.
