Most Sacramento community college students are Hispanic. So why is the faculty majority white?

In his times of need, Sacramento City College student Thomas Resendez visits the Raza Center, a Latino student affinity hub which employs Latino staff and offers a welcoming space for students.

“When I’m having problems in my personal life, and it’s affecting my school work, I can be able to come to them and they can understand that,” said Resendez, a fourth-year history major.

But everywhere else on campus, Resendez struggles to find mentors who look like him.

Hispanic students are the largest demographic group at Sacramento City College, making up 32% of enlisted students. The college is deemed a Hispanic-Serving Institution, which allows it to receive grant funding from the US. Department of Education because its Hispanic student population is over 25%.

But employees like Mauricio Gonzalez, who has been at the community college for two decades, said this designation isn’t reflective of the college and the district’s commitment to Hispanic students — it’s only because the population has grown, not because of the college’s or the district’s efforts, he said.

“There are no Spanish materials for people anywhere,” Gonzalez said. “We have a massive ESL (English as a second language) department, but provide no materials anywhere in terms of Spanish-speaking communities.”

Gonzalez criticized the effectiveness of Hispanic-Serving Institution funding and how it’s allocated. He said the only time he sees Latino faculty hired is through these temporary funding opportunities.

“When those grants go away, those people go away, too,” Gonzalez said. “The institution does not internalize those programs.”

Sacramento City College currently benefits from two five-year grants. Lee Crystal, the college’s spokesperson, said these grants fund the HSI Early College program, which dual enrolls low income and Latino students into courses at the college. The grant also funds Caminos de la Ciudad, a program that assists second year students through their “academic and personal journeys.”

Representation of Hispanic faculty is also disproportionate to its student population. According to the college’s fall 2023 headcount, Hispanic full-time faculty make up 15% of the population at Sacramento City College, while Hispanic part-timers are 12% of adjunct faculty population.

Across the Los Rios Community College District, Hispanic students make up 26% of the population (in fact, all of Los Rios’ four campuses are Hispanic-Serving Institutions). But district-wide, Hispanic instructors made up 11% of the faculty population in 2022.

Having a teacher of the same ethnic background as a student of color benefits their “social-emotional, academic and behavioral outcomes,” according to a study from Annenberg Brown University. The study found that students who had an instructor of color experienced a 42% decrease “in the probability of being chronically absent in high school.”

This suggests students of color significantly benefit from being taught by an instructor from their ethnic background.

For Resendez, he says he resonated with the courses taught by Latino instructors. He found their lessons to be more culturally competent than those of non-Latino professors when it came to subjects like Mexican history.

A ‘lonely’ experience

Roberto Chacon-Gutiérrez Young is a professor in the college’s film and theater department. They use the term Latine, a genderfluid term for Latino people.

They recalled during their first staff meeting being the only non-white faculty member in the room.

“It was shocking to me as a faculty member,” Chacon-Gutiérrez said.

Eight years later, they remain the sole full-time Latino professor and instructor of color in their department.

Adding more diverse faculty has been a “significant part” of the district’s equity work, said Gabe Ross, the college’s chief strategy and communications officer. He said this issue is “so important” to the district board it’s been integrated into their strategic plan. Los Rios also has a Faculty Diversity Internship program, aimed to recruit “qualified instructors who mirror the racial and ethnic diversity of the Los Rios Community College District service area.”

Ross said while the district has made “great progress” over hiring faculty in the past decade years, they still have a “a long way to go to make sure that our colleges truly reflect the diversity and inclusivity that are so central to our mission.”

“It’s a goal that we are working toward every single day, in both big and small ways,” Ross said.

Diversifying faculty is an obstacle across the state. A 2023 audit of the California Community Colleges showed that campuses system wide struggle to recruit non-white faculty, especially from Hispanic communities. The Hispanic student to faculty gap has remained significantly low for the past 20 years, the audit stated.

But this gap isn’t just in California, it’s across the country.

Black and Hispanic professors continue to be underrepresented in comparison to students and professionals from the same backgrounds, the Associated Press reported this week. Hispanic people make up 8.3% of professional workers and 19% of students, yet they only make 6.3% of faculty nationwide.

Most community college students are Hispanic, making up 47% of campus populations across the state. Yet, there is a 29% gap between faculty representation, with 18% of Hispanic faculty system wide. More than half of faculty employed at a California community college are white non-Hispanic.

Gonzalez said being a Latino faculty member is “lonely.” He is one of three Latino general counselors at the college, where the counselor to student ratio is 1 to 900, he said.

“There’s not a whole lot of us, especially at the tenured level,” Gonzalez said.

What’s the difference between adjunct and full time?

Race and social economics plays a part in who, demographically, can even be an adjunct, Chacon-Gutiérrez said.

“It’s pretty impossible to make a full living off of adjuncting; the work is not particularly reliant,” Chacon-Gutiérrez said. “Adjuncting positions just fill-in classes that full timers can’t take.”

At Sacramento City College, Hispanic instructors are 12% of the adjunct population. In total, the college employs more than 1,000 adjuncts. Eight hundred faculty at the college are full time.

For community colleges, it costs less to hire adjunct faculty. In 2021, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office stated the average cost of a full-time faculty member was $131,000. But for a a part time faculty member who teaches 15 credits and does not receive employment benefits costs a college about $45,000.

Ross said Los Rios has made “great progress” in other hiring areas. All four presidents of the Los Rios colleges come from historically underrepresented backgrounds. Sacramento City College’s current president is Latino.

“This does not make the hiring of diverse faculty any less important, but it is an indication of our focus on this important issue as well as efforts to hire diverse senior leaders who are responsible for hiring others in our organization,” Ross said.

Gonzalez said there are “no promotional opportunities” for adjunct faculty. He said there are adjuncts who don’t meet the “unwritten rules” for them to qualify for tenure or be promoted to a tenure track position.

“They’re not hiring Latinos either,” Gonzalez said. “They’re not hiring in the tenured faculty roles that give you the authority and the power to change the system.”