Cal Poly reaches major enrollment milestone for Latino students
Latino student enrollment at Cal Poly hit 25% this quarter — a milestone that paves the way for the university to become a Hispanic Serving Institution.
Over the last decade, Cal Poly has initiated efforts to counter its notorious lack of diversity on campus.
Among these efforts has been a push to reach 25% Latino student enrollment for two consecutive years — a benchmark required for a university to apply to be a Hispanic Serving Institution. This fall, Cal Poly reached 25% Latino student enrollment for the first time, according to university officials.
Hispanic Serving Institutions typically get additional resources and funding opportunities to support Latino students’ success in college.
“We are excited and proud to have achieved this important milestone on our journey toward designation as an HSI — which in itself is an important marker toward opening our doors more widely to underrepresented, first-generation, lower-income, and other students who in years past may not have had the option of attending Cal Poly,” said President Jeffrey Armstrong in a news release.
But Armstrong said the work is not done.
“We need to grow, and we need to continue to attract and enroll a more diverse student body,” Armstrong said.
The university census, which measures student enrollment numbers, was completed in mid-October.
Latino enrollment has seen an 87% increase since 2014, compared to 13% growth in the student population at large in the same period.
Cal Poly has also seen increases in its makeup of local students and transfer students over the last decade.
This year, the university saw a 12.5% increase in the incoming transfer student class, while local students were accepted to the university at a rate of 60% compared to 30% for non-local students.
The 2024 freshman class included more than 800 students from the local region — an increase of over 25% compared to 2023 numbers.
This is the second year that no single ethnic student group makes up more than half of the total enrollment at Cal Poly.
Officials say the increase in the number of Latino students is due in part to additional opportunities for financial aid and scholarships, increased recruitment of local students and National Merit and National Hispanic scholars, officials say.
This story was originally published October 30, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
