Metropolitan State College of Denver reaches record level of Latino undergraduate student enrollment —a 12 percent increase from 2010. This brings the College’s Latino enrollment to 18.2 percent (4,281 students) and overall students of color to 31.6 (7,443 students).
“We are making significant progress toward the College’s goal to become a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI),” Associate Vice President of Enrollment Services Judi Diaz Bonacquisti says. “Twenty one percent of our new students this year identified themselves as Latino, representing a 2.2 percent overall gain in this category for the year.”
Metro State was recognized nationally in 2010 by Excelencia in Education as one of only four institutions that are emerging Hispanic Serving Institutions. Federal recognition as an HSI requires a 25 percent Latino undergraduate enrollment. Securing HSI status is important to Metro State because it opens the door to a new level of federal assistance, programs and grant opportunities that benefit not only Latino students but the entire campus community, Bonacquisti added.
While overall fall 2011 enrollment is nearly flat at 23,828 students (23,578 undergraduate and 250 graduate), the College’s new master’s programs have experienced a fivefold increase. Social work (115 students), professional accounting (57 students) and teacher education (78 students) total 250 graduate student enrollments.
This fall’s 1.6 percent reduction in undergraduates aligns with the College’s enrollment management strategy to maintain or slightly reduce total enrollment due to the current space limitations on campus. The completion of Metro State’s new Student Success Building and classroom/office backfill construction in spring 2012 and its Hotel and Hospitality Learning Center in fall 2012, will bring an additional 173,000 square feet of space for classrooms, faculty offices andother essential programs.
The percentage of continuing students showed a slight increase, from 75.6 to 75.8 percent.
Continuing as the leader in educating undergraduate Coloradans, resident students total 96.1 percent of all students. Students from the seven-county metro area decreased by 2.4 percent, but still account for 93.4 percent of all students.
Nearly 13 percent of the student population is seeking teacher licensure, and the top 10 majors are: biology – 1,377; criminal justice and criminology – 1,278; management – 1,260; psychology – 1,088; art – 969; accounting – 912; marketing – 711; English – 688; human performance and sport – 645; and history – 626.