Support Services

In Fall 2000, the retention rate for first year students at the University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) was 60%. In Fall 2003, it had increased to 65%. The retention rate for the entire entering freshman cohort has steadily increased since Fall 2000 as follows: Fall 2000 = 60% • Fall 2001 = 65% • Fall 2002 = 65% • Fall 2003 = 65% • Fall 2004 = 68% (first year of implementation of UNIV 1301) • Fall 2005 = 73% • Fall 2006 = 68% • Fall 2007 = 72% • Fall 2008 = 74% • Fall 2009 = 73% • Fall 2010 = 74% • Fall 2011 = 75%. The retention rate for first-time, full-time entering freshmen at UTPA has increased by 13.6 percentage points since Fall 2000, the greatest increase of all institutions of higher education in Texas. While it would not be accurate to state that all of the increase has been as a result of implementation of UNIV 1301, the data indicates that success of students in this course has contributed significantly to the overall retention rate.

The mission of Grow Your Own Teachers, a community-based initiative, is to prepare highly effective teachers of color who will teach in the low-income communities where they live. The target populations are parents, paraprofessionals, and community leaders. Grow Your Own has three goals: 1) to develop a pipeline of teachers of color; 2) to reduce high rates of teacher turnover in low-income schools; and 3) to develop teachers who share the culture, language, and community of the students.

Since its establishment in 1999, TAP has served over 4,200 students. It currently serves 1,000 students who are studying at 31 community colleges in California. TAP serves 400 Latino students each year. 31% of all Latino California community college students who transfer to Berkeley are alumni of the Transfer Alliance Project. Each year, more than 85% of Latino TAP students are admitted to Berkeley and more than 80% enroll. In 2010 for example, 82 (88%) were admitted and 67 (82%) enrolled. From 2004 to 2010, TAP assisted 419 Latino community college students in applying for transfer admission to UC Berkeley. Of these, 361 (86%) were admitted, a rate of admission that was more than three times the admit rate of overall transfer applicants. 100% of the Latino TAP students who applied to Berkeley were admitted to at least one University of California campus. Of the 361 Latino TAP students who were admitted to Berkeley, 322 (89%) chose to enroll. Many were first-generation college going students. Those who did not enroll attended colleges including Stanford and UCLA. The TAP Latino admit and enroll rate greatly exceeded the 26% admit rate and 62% enroll rate of overall Latino California community college transfer applicants to Berkeley.

• Service to Latinos: 71 of the 207 are Latino; 11 are still undergraduates (15%); 22 are still in graduate school (31%); 24 have received masters degrees (34%); and 10 have received doctoral degrees - 7 Ph.D.s, 2 M.D.s, and 1 J.D.(14%).
• Two hundred and seven students have been served since 1992 in the McNair Program at UNT. Of these, four have withdrawn, 31 are currently being served and 172 scholars have graduated with baccalaureate degrees (as of May 2010).
• Of the 172 scholars who have completed a baccalaureate degree, 26 have continued on and earned doctoral-level degrees.
• Of those who have enrolled in graduate school (121 of 162 eligible or 75%), 22% have received doctoral level degrees (rate of doctoral degree attainment for target population is 12% nationally and 10% for Texas).