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About three out of every 10 undergraduates were born outside the United States. Roughly half of all students come from families that include at least one parent who is an immigrant. About one-third of the students learned English as a second language. |
Becky Marquez, a California native, says she went through culture shock when she enrolled as a freshman at UC Davis five years ago.Shefeltlikeastrangerina Marquez had excelled in her classes at James Garfield High School, the East Los Angeles school made famous by the 1988 movie Stand and Deliver. Her teachers and counselors encouraged her to go to college.
But Marquez said her life growing up in the barrios of East L.A. gave her little idea of what university life was about. Her mother, a "I had heard the word 'college' on TV," Marquez said. "I had seen it on TV. But I didn't know what it was." She said she arrived at UC Davis with little understanding of how much she would have to study if she wanted to do well. "I guess I didn't see a long-term goal," she said, recalling her first year here. "It was really hard for me. My grades weren't that good." After her freshman year, though, Marquez quickly caught on. She has since done so well in her field of neurobiology, physiology and behavior that she has been accepted to a Harvard University summer research program. She plans to go to graduate school to study reproductive biology. In many ways, Marquez represents the new face of UC Davis, where increasing numbers of students come from immigrant families, learned English as a second language, grew up in poverty and are the first in their families to go to college. Those changing demographics are challenging the campus to help students not only improve their language and study skills but also understand what the university is all about. In recent years, UC Davis has started offering workshops and other programs to help students explore academic ethics, social norms and their own racial prejudices. And in turn, faculty members and student advisers say, the students are changing the culture of the campus itself--to one based as much on differences as on shared experiences. Over the past 30 years, the student body at UC Davis has undergone a dramatic transformation. In 1968, 91 percent of freshman students were white. Only 5 percent were Asian American, and 1 percent were African American. Mexican American was not even included as a category in the 1968 freshman survey. By 1994, whites were no longer a majority of undergraduate students. This fall, 43.7 percent of the freshmen are white, 27.7 percent are Asian, 10.5 percent are Mexican American or Latino, 2.7 percent are African American and 0.9 percent are Native American. Southeast Asians, Chinese and Hispanics have been the fastest growing groups, as waves of immigrants and first-generation Americans reach college age. "There has been this wonderful change," said John Boe, an English lecturer who started teaching at UC Davis in 1981. "You take roll, and it's like the whole world is there.... Seeing all the viewpoints, it makes you believe in America." The remaking of UC Davis, and other UC campuses to greater or lesser degrees, reflects tremendous social changes in the state. California has seen unprecedented rates of immigration over the past three decades. The state is now home to one-third of the nation's immigrants. According to a recent Rand report, 1.8 million immigrants entered the state during the 1970s, more than in all previous decades combined. In the 1980s, that number nearly doubled, to 3.5 million. "Immigrants have continued to come at these high rates during the 1990s despite a recession that was the state's most severe since the Great Depression," the report's authors wrote. "As a result, immigrants now constitute in excess of one-quarter of California's residents and workers and are now responsible for more than half of the state's population and labor force growth." About half of California's immigrants are from Mexico or Central America. Another 33 percent are from Asia. * A terrible thing to waste UC Davis senior Loc Nguyen was 4 years old when he left Vietnam with his mother--two more "boat people" among the more than 1 million refugees who fled the country after the Vietnam War. Nguyen said he remembers little about his voyage or a stay in a Malaysian refugee camp. His shopkeeper father had left the country two years earlier. The family eventually reunited and moved to California, settling in the Silicon Valley where Nguyen's parents became technicians.
Nguyen will be the first in his family to graduate from college when he receives his bachelor's degree this academic year. His parents had attended some college in Vietnam but left school to take care of Nguyen said he grew up with the expectation that he would attend a university. "There was really no doubt at all that I was going to go to college. I think back in Southeast Asia it's such a hardship just to go to school. When parents come here, they see public school as such a great opportunity. You can't waste it." * The disappearing middle
Of the more than 19,000 undergraduate students at However, about three out of every 10 undergraduates were born outside the United States. Roughly half of all students come from families that include at least one parent who is an immigrant. About one-third of the students learned English as a second language. As the percentage of non-native students grows so does the dichotomy with more traditional students who come from families that are increasingly well-educated and well-to-do. A campus survey done three years ago found that 19 percent of freshmen had parents who had not attended college, but for another 40 percent, one or both parents had a graduate or professional degree.
The study also shows an increase in the number of low-income students. In 1994, about one in seven freshmen came from families whose incomes were at or below the federal poverty level--$14,763 for a family of four at that time. Nearly 30 percent reported family incomes less than $30,000 a year. But at the other end of the scale, Despite the wide-ranging backgrounds, students arrive with surprisingly similar ambitions. In the 1994 survey, 87 percent of freshmen said they planned to get advanced degrees. A record 31 percent said they wanted to become doctors, veterinarians, dentists or other health-care professionals. Interest in the health fields was highest among Latino, Japanese American and Southeast Asian freshmen. However, Carol Wall, vice chancellor of student affairs, said many students come to campus with little understanding of what it takes to reach their career goals. "We find ourselves increasingly focused on creating that information for them, sort of a 'University 101' orientation for them," Wall said. "They come to us as very bright young people who want to be doctors, but they haven't really taken much in the way of science classes. The connection between science and medicine isn't always clear. "Or they want to go into business, but they haven't really thought about what they need to be successful in business and what course work relates to their professional choice." |
