Nineteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

While African American and Latinx students have experienced modest gains in U.S. college enrollment (U.S. Department of Education, 2018 and Krogstad & Fry, 2014), graduation rates among these students lag significantly behind their White and Asian counterparts. According to Inside Higher Ed, African American and Latinx graduation rates were 38% and 45.8%, respectively, as compared to White and Asian rates, which were 62% and 63.2% respectively (Tate, 2017). Much has been written about the various reasons for these disparities and the barriers that contribute to low completion rates of African American and Latinx college students, including the inhospitable environments of predominantly white colleges and universities. This exploratory study seeks to investigate how African American and Latinx students who self identify as religious or spiritual experience college life on predominantly white campuses. While overall religiosity in the United States has declined over the years, African Americans are reported to be more religious than Whites and Latinx (Masci 2018). While younger African Americans are reported to be less religious than older African Americans, they are more religious than other racial groups of their age group (Diamant & Mohamed, 2018). During fall 2018 and spring 2019, we investigate the role that religion and spirituality play in the identity formation and college persistence of African American and Latinx students, many of whom face various exclusionary –isms based on, but not exclusive to, their race and ethnicity. This research has implications for higher education and community organizations, including religious institutions that support these students.