University of Georgia, Department of Education to Partner on Hispanic Initiative

ATHENS, Ga.

The University of Georgia and the University of Texas at Austin will serve as test cases in a new initiative aimed at getting more Hispanic students to go to college.

The U.S. Department of Education is expected to announce the project at the 30th anniversary of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund luncheon this week. The fund, along with UGA and UT, will study the needs of Hispanic students to design programs that will get more of them into higher education.

The five-year project will be financed with a $12.3 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. The grant also will support the Hispanic Scholarship Fund’s work in Atlanta and other regional offices in the agency.

Nationally, Hispanics have the highest high school dropout rate of any major racial or ethnic group, according to U.S. Census data — 30 percent. Only 36 percent of those who do graduate from high school go on to college, and in 2000, Hispanics were only 7 percent of the students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities.

At UGA, Hispanic students made up 1.8 percent of this year’s total enrollment last fall. At UT-Austin, Hispanics were 13.3 percent of total enrollment.

— Associated Press

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