Search

Of the 53 Mexican-American full-time students at Cerritos College (Calif.) who completed questionnaires designed to determine their attitudes toward the institution and to detect possible reasons for their fellow Mexican-Americans' disinterest in attending college or dropping out of the institution, 90% reported that they themselves had not experienced any discrimination by the students or staff, 80% said that they felt socially accepted, and 50% indicated that the staff did not understand their problems. Major reasons cited by the respondents for the failure of other Mexican-Americans to attend college or to remain at Cerritos included (1) economic reasons, (2) problems with teachers, (3) academic problems, and (4) language problems. It was recommended that the college provide part-time employment and student loans for Mexican-Americans, that the programming of classes be improved, that regular counseling sessions be established to combat the dropout problem, and that special language arts classes be created for remedial work in English. (DG)