More Latino students are attending Cal State. But where are the Latino professors?

In the last decade, Latinos in the California State University system have not made up more than 15% of all instructors, even as they made up nearly half of the student body in recent years.

Even at Cal State Los Angeles, where in 2024 a massive 75% of its student population were Latino, only about a quarter of its faculty were, according to Cal State data compiled by CalMatters.

The number of Latino students has been growing at a faster pace, with all but one of the 22 Cal State campuses qualifying as Hispanic Serving Institutions — meaning at least 25% of full-time undergraduates are Latino, and a majority are low-income. Some Latino instructors say they carry additional weight where their small cadres are disproportionately sought out by Latino students for mentoring. This can also fall on the shoulders of part-time and full-time lecturers, who make up the bulk of Latino faculty, but are on a lower pay scale – even those who work full-time and take on extra duties.

“When you’re able to see Latinos that look like you, that maybe have the same starting point, lived experience as you, you’re able to see what is possible,” said Feliza Ortiz-Licon, who has long worked with first-generation college students and is now executive vice president of the Campaign for College Opportunity, a California nonprofit that advocates for equitable college access and completion.

Faculty say critical barriers into entering teaching include limited mentorship and lax promotion of programs that support them getting their doctoral degrees. Further, these programs offer limited spots. Underlying cultural norms have also dissuaded generations of Latinos from stepping into academia. Cal State campuses have continued their efforts to diversify the faculty, such as conducting cluster hires where groups of faculty are hired for their specific areas of expertise and backgrounds.

Still, these efforts have done little to increase the number of Latino faculty. 

As an example, in fall 2024, Cal State had 27,505 instructors but only 4,079 of them were Latino. To meet parity with the number of Latino students, the system would have needed 13,477 Latino educators.

Why are there so few Latinos in academia?

Amy Bentley-Smith, Cal State’s spokesperson, points to low national numbers of Latinos entering graduate programs. In 2023, Latinos represented only about 14% of graduate students nationwide, according to a Council of Graduate Schools report.

CalMatters attempted to speak with multiple officials at the Cal State Chancellor’s Office but the spokesperson said they were unavailable to be interviewed for this story. Instead, Bentley-Smith emailed the following response:

“We have long been a leader in opening doors to opportunity and increasing access to higher education among all Californians, including historically under-represented populations,” Bentley-Smith wrote.

She added that Cal State consistently exceeds the national percentage of Hispanic faculty — who made up about 6% of all full-timers in 2023, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Among the few Latinos with advanced degrees, 10% have earned a doctorate-level degree, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of 2021 American Community Survey data. A master’s is usually required to teach as a lecturer at a Cal State, and a doctorate is typically needed for a tenure-track professor position.

In its research over the years, the Campaign for College Opportunity has attributed Latinos’ low educational attainment to high poverty rates, pressures to work and support family, and a lack of access to resources and information on navigating higher education.

And then there’s imposter syndrome. Since beginning her work as an academic advisor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s business college, Yesenia Marquez-Beas has seen countless students walk through her door feeling unworthy of success in the classroom. She finds those doubts to be far more common among Latino students than others.

“Maybe our Latinidad is holding us back a little bit to go out and seek positions that we see so far away,” Marquez-Beas said. 

Progressing through academia into teaching is rarely a part of the conversation when it comes to pathways after graduation, said Marquez-Beas.

Many Latinos live by certain cultural norms, Ortiz-Licon of the Campaign for College Opportunity pointed out. ‘No quiero molestar’ is one, which translates to “I don’t want to bother.” The approach keeps students reluctant to seek help or mentors, Ortiz-Licon said, once a first-generation student herself.

Anthonio Reyes, the president of Cal State Bakersfield’s student government, agreed that many first-generation Latino students have a “bad habit” of not speaking up about their issues. 

After high school in Bakersfield, Reyes attended San Francisco State, where he felt isolated and unable to seek help from his professors.

“That’s a huge thing in the community, you just don’t ask for help,” said Reyes.

Reyes’ second year at San Francisco State was interrupted by COVID, when he went home and started working instead. He worked for four years before enrolling at Cal State Bakersfield to study music, where he found a more supportive environment.

That’s why as student government president, Reyes often tells campus leaders that they have to be proactive about helping first-generation students.

Shortfall creates additional weight on Latino faculty

As students tend to seek out educators of similar backgrounds, the gap creates a larger workload for a small circle of these instructors of color to address. And lecturers might take that on despite it not being in their job description.

“There’s a lot of cultural taxation. That’s the biggest problem with a lack of diversity in higher education, the diverse faculty take on more work,” said Dirk Horn, a Latino political science lecturer at Cal State Bakersfield

That can also bottleneck support for some mentees, eager to find someone culturally relatable.

“I have like a total of two Latino mentors that I’ve ever had, and I’m trying to build a connection with another one but she’s just so busy,” said Isabella Cantu, a Latina doctoral student studying sociology at UC Davis in hopes of someday joining the Cal State faculty.

José Navarro, chair of the ethnic studies department at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, believed as a student that education could be transformative but that pursuing higher education was like “walking into a really, really, really dark room” that he could not navigate on his own. 

As a tenured faculty, Navarro serves as an academic advisor and mentor on top of teaching. While at times he works late nights or from home, Navarro sees it more an act of necessity than a burden.

“The last thing I want is for some student of color to come in, just like I was, into that completely dark room that is the university system,” Navarro said. 

‘El muerto entre muchos no pesa,’ Navarro said, translating to, “a dead man among many does not weigh heavily.” He said that’s how he feels at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where Latino representation is limited, but the weight of service and mentorship is lighter when others are there to support.   

Latinos at Cal State are less likely to be in tenure-track positions, which are expected to be involved with academic advising and research. Latinos made up 12% of tenure-track faculty in fall 2024 while whites made up more than half. Yet, whites made up 20% of Cal State’s student population.

Tenure-track professors shape major university university decisions such as evaluating faculty hiring and promotion. They also have greater job security, Navarro said. Meanwhile, full-time lecturers are paid less and have a greater teaching workload.

But lecturers like Horn keep their doors open for their pupils voluntarily.

Horn assists the campus’ Academic Senate, serves on committees, and advises student clubs on campus, all without additional compensation. Without the possibility of tenure, Horn also feels uncertainty about his job security. He tracks state budgets and enrollment rates to assess the odds — in a fiscal deficit, would he be laid off first?

Getting more Latinos into academia

“I think more than anything, mentorship is important,” said Cantu, the UC Davis student. “Not just seeing the representation but feeling that support and having someone who understands your background, understands where you’re coming from.”

She credits mentorship she received from a national program, the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, for giving her the push to become a professor. She is now a fellow with the Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program, one of two Cal State programs that help aspiring faculty obtain advanced degrees.

Horn, the Cal State Bakersfield lecturer, was also in the doctoral incentive program. It provided him with funds to focus on school while pursuing his doctorate at UC Irvine.

His journey to earning a doctorate degree was a rocky one. His father expected Horn to contribute to the family financially, so rather than enroll in high school, he worked full time while attending continuation school to obtain his GED.

Five years after receiving his GED, when his father’s health was declining, Horn realized that a college degree might bring him — and his family — more financial stability. He attended community college and then transferred to Cal State Bakersfield, where he found mentors who encouraged him to attend graduate school.

Horn postponed graduating to join the federally funded Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program, which helps prepare first-generation and underrepresented students for graduate studies.

Out of the 35 students accepted into Cal State’s doctoral incentive program this academic year, 54% are Latino, 24% Asian, 19% white and 3% Black, according to Bentley-Smith. The program offers mentorship, access to grants and financial awards worth thousands of dollars and professional opportunities for students pursuing a doctorate. They can also receive an optional loan that is forgiven if the fellow is an instructor at Cal State. Of the past program fellows, 69% earned faculty positions at Cal State campuses after earning their doctorate degrees.

Cluster hires help boost diversity — when there’s funding

Some Cal State campuses, such as Bakersfield and San Luis Obispo, have practiced cluster hiring to boost diversity among faculty. The process involves recruiting whole pools of faculty with diverse expertise and backgrounds. Ortiz-Licon, the higher education researcher, argues that such hiring of diverse groups “in community” increases their sense of belonging to their respective campuses, as well as strengthens retention of these educators for the long haul.

In fall, Sacramento State implemented its first cluster hire directly aimed at supporting Latino students. That semester, 37% of students there were Latino while 10% of faculty were Latino, according to the university’s institutional research database.

Rebecca Cameron, interim vice provost for faculty success at Sacramento State, said the university sought out faculty who had backgrounds in mentoring, teaching and researching Latino populations.

While Sacramento State hired 10 faculty across various departments, Cameron said two of the new hires for tenure-track positions previously held lecturer positions at the university.

Cameron emphasized the need to retain new cluster hires as sometimes she’s observed that faculty who are the first of a particular group in a department might get burnt out.

“It also continues to be really important that we not leave the work of inclusion [solely] to people who’ve identified a specific interest in it,” Cameron said.

Angel Corzo and Brittany Oceguera are contributors with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.