Minority enrollment lags in race-neutral Washington.

Minority enrollment lags in race-neutral Washington. SPOKANE, Wash. Despite eight years of effort, minority enrollment is still down atcolleges and universities in Washington This is a list of colleges and universities in Washington. This list also includes other educational institutions providing higher education, meaning tertiary, quaternary, and, in some cases, post-secondary education. state after voters passed aninitiative outlawing racial preferences in admissions. Black, Hispanic and American Indian students are less likely to gofrom high school to college, and more likely to drop out, than theirWhite peers. And fewer than 5 percent of faculty members in the stateare members of any of those ethnic groups. Yet minority groups are the fastest-growing segments of thepopulation, expected to grow from 22 percent to 28 percent ofWashington's total by 2020. "I think there has been progress, it's just been slowprogress," says Ricardo Sanchez, an associate director of educationpolicy for the state's Higher Education Coordinating Board."People are feeling more and more the need to do better." A draft report by the HEC HEC Hautes ��tudes CommercialesHEC Hautes Etudes Commerciales (French)HEC Higher Education Commission (Pakistan)HEC Hydrologic Engineering Center (Davis, CA)looked at Washington's diversityefforts since the passage of Initiative 200 in 1998, and recommendedimprovements. Educators gathered recently at Spokane Falls Community College Spokane Falls Community College is located in Spokane, WA and is part of the Community Colleges of Spokane.The college, commonly abbreviated as "SFCC" or "The Falls," was opened in 1967 and lies in west Spokane, adjacent to Riverside State Park. todiscuss the report, the first in a series of forums statewide. "To many of us, the issue of diversity has a sense ofurgency," said Ben Cabildo cabildo(käbēl`dō), autonomous municipal council, the lowest administrative unit in the Spanish government. The institution was especially influential in Spanish America, where it was set up in the early 16th cent. , a board member for the CommunityColleges of Spokane The Community Colleges of Spokane is a community college district based in Spokane, Washington USA. It comprises Spokane Community College, Spokane Falls Community College and the Institute for Extended Learning. Its current Chancellor is Dr. . "It affects our lives on a day-to-daybasis." Dr. Gary Livingston, chancellor of the community college system,said he's become accustomed to hearing about good programs that endafter a year or two when the money runs out. "There are so many false starts in what we do that we fail tosee students through," he said. Among the report's recommendations: establishing pre-collegesummer scholarship programs for minority students to bring them tocampuses; expanding college outreach in junior and high schools;offering incentives and visiting professorships for faculty members ofcolor and developing goals for diversity. The report concludes that, while minority enrollments haverecovered from a drop after 1998, they've now stalled or &dinedacross the board. This summer, the Community Colleges of Spokane spent about $10,000advertising faculty openings in the Seattle and Tacoma area, in thehopes of attracting more diverse candidates, Livingston says. But itdidn't produce an increase in the schools' minority faculty. One reason may be that Spokane remains a largely White community,he says, noting, "Diversity begets more diversity." --Associated Press