Asians’ Growth Tops at Cal State Fullerton : Latino Enrollment Also Increases, and Black Students Show Small Gain in 9-Year Survey

Asians are the fastest-growing ethnic group among students at Cal State Fullerton, but Latinos, the second-fastest in growth, also are showing “encouraging increases in enrollment,” university officials said Monday.

The university’s latest ethnic analysis of students showed that Anglos--a term the university uses for white, non-Latinos--still are the largest group, with 63.81% of the campus enrollment. Anglos counted 66.14% of the students in 1980, a base year used for comparison.

Asian students are the second-largest ethnic group at Cal State Fullerton, and the survey showed that they have increased at a much faster rate than any other category.

9-Year Period

Dolores Vura, the university’s director of analytical studies, said that the percentage of Asian-student enrollment jumped from 4.45% in 1980 to 12.68% this fall. During the same 9-year period, she said, Latino enrollment climbed from 7.33% to 9.97%.

Black-student enrollment has decreased slightly from 1980 to 1988, Vura’s statistics showed. In 1980, blacks accounted for 2.45% of campus enrollment. This fall, blacks made up 2.38% of the student body. (The report lists the remaining 11.16% of students as Filipinos, Pacific islanders, foreign nationals and “unknown.”)

Vura, however, said the 1988 figures are nonetheless encouraging for black enrollment because the total this year is slightly higher than the 2.32% black enrollment in 1987.

“We watch the percentage of black and Chicano enrollment, and every upturn, even a tiny one, is a good sign for us,” Vura said. “The percentages of black enrolled at Cal State Fullerton has been declining, in small increments, since 1981, until the slight rise this year.”

Vura said the university is very interested in monitoring Latino and black enrollment because they are “under-represented” minorities.

“Our goal is to increase the under-represented groups,” Vura added.

Asians ‘Treasure Education’

Michael Onorato, a professor at Cal State who specializes in Asian studies, said Monday that a major reason so many Asian students go on to college is that “these people treasure education. They realize how important education is to their lives.”

Onorato said the big increase in Asian-student enrollment at Cal State during the past 9 years mainly reflects the growing size of the Asian population in Orange County.

But he said the enrollment figures also show that Cal State Fullerton is the choice of the Orange County Asian students “because their parents don’t want them to go away from home (to college).” Asian parents traditionally have firm control over their children, and that control includes family decisions as to what each child shall major in at college, he added.

Most Prefer UC

Onorato’s research indicates that most Asian students and their families prefer a University of California campus, usually UC Irvine. “Somewhere along the line, they (Asian families) discovered that UC is where the (largest percentage of state financing) goes, and also where the prestige goes,” Onorato explained.