Recruitment and Retention of Race Group Students in American Higher Education: An Annotated Bibliography

Challenges to American college and university affirmative action and racial and ethnic diversity initiatives were resolved by the Supreme Court in its 2003 decisions in the University of Michigan case. Those decisions affirmed, as a compelling interest, the attainment of racially diverse student bodies in higher education. The Court’s decisions and the predicted increases over the next decade in the numbers of race and ethnic group high school graduates have reinforced and in some cases strengthened the resolve of college and university officials that the positive returns from affirmative action and racial diversity are real and worth pursuing.

The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to provide a record of the research, scholarship, and programs for recruitment and retention of African American, Alaskan Native, American Indian, Asian American, Latino, and Pacific Islander students at the college and university levels. It is structured to facilitate access by college and university administrators, professionals, consultants, researchers, and students who require information on recruitment and retention to aid in their decision making about strategy related issues, and scientific and creative processes in the area. This bibliography covers more than forty years of literature and contains 969 citations organized into five chapters.