South Central Los Angeles: A Community In Transition - Los Angeles Southwest College student population changing

Black Issues in Higher Education, Sept 27, 2001 by Lydia Lum

LA'S SOUTHWEST COLLEGE SEEKS TO KEEP PACE WITH CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS

LOS ANGELES

Los Angeles Southwest College perhaps best illustrates the rising tide of Latinos and other minorities sweeping into higher education institutions of deeply steeped Black heritage, and of the challenges and new growing pains such schools face.

The community college is perched in Watts in South Central Los Angeles. In the 2000 fall semester, 78 percent of students were Black, and 19 percent Latino. Thirteen percent of Southwest College students reported Spanish as their native language. In 1980, 98 percent of the enrollment was Black, virtually what it was in its 1967 inception.

With the fall semester recently under way, Southwest enrollment figures were not immediately available. But school officials expect the Latino influx into Southwest only to continue. The 2000 Census found Latinos comprise about 47 percent of the once mainly Black area of South Central Los Angeles. Blacks make up only 45 percent. Even 10 years earlier, Blacks were still 52 percent of the population in the so-called "service area" surrounding Southwest College, and Latinos only 36 percent, according to the Los Angeles Community College District.

So where does that leave Southwest? The college rose from the aftermath of the 1965 Watts riots that drew national horror. In the upheaval, residents hit the streets to protest police brutality by the Los Angeles Police Department. The violence claimed 34 lives and injured 1,000 others. Studies later determined that poor educational opportunities, among other things, triggered the riots. The community college was finally created after many years of Watts residents clamoring for a school in their own neighborhood.

With such a well-defined history, and amid such rapid demographic shifts, what exactly is Southwest at this juncture? Is it still a primarily Black college? Or is it a melting pot? Should it even consider trying to serve as a melting pot?

"We should be a microcosm of this community," says Dr. Janice Hollis, Southwest's vice president of academic affairs. "That is my desire. We are making adjustments. We all learn and grow from each other. That's how we can prosper."

Warren Furutani, a Los Angeles Community College District trustee who lives only a few miles from Southwest, agrees. "I say we anchor the history and grow," Furutani says. "This does not mean we reject the past. It's safe to say that this is, historically, a Black college. But Southwest should be attractive to not only Blacks, but also to all students. So we should provide a solid academic program."

In recent years, Southwest officials have tried to do that with only a handful of resources. Hollis says they have increased the number of classes for people preparing for naturalized citizenship exams. Their certified nursing assistance program, created because of demand, has been made, up mostly of Latino students. Southwest officials are now recruiting students in local churches, frequenting not only Sunday services at Latino congregations, but also Korean. And, Hollis says, she and others want to reach out to the increasing numbers of Armenians, Panamanians and multiracial groups moving into South and South Central Los Angeles.

The stickler, though, is money. Southwest's $18 million budget pales against the $50 and $60 million budgets of some of its Los Angeles sister schools. And with only 6,135 students in the 2000 fall semester, Southwest remains the smallest of the nine institutions of the Los Angeles Community College District. Because full-time enrollment drives state funding, Southwest has lagged behind its counterparts in the City of Angels.

"We just don't have enough money for what we want to do, for what we need to do," says Hollis, who has been at Southwest since 1993. Indeed, school officials may be forced to combine some English as a Second Language (ESL) classes to stretch dollars, she says.

Southwest is not among the officially recognized historically Black colleges as defined by federal law, and therefore does not receive federal assistance as such. Still, school officials have made a point to retain Black cultural outlets, such as film festivals and forums. The college has continued to house many of the events at the annual Watts Summer Games that draws more than 6,000 high schoolers to athletic, arts and academic competitions. Like Southwest, the Summer Games also grew out of the 1965 riots aftermath and is designed to build cultural understanding through healthy competition.

"I have not seen nor heard of anyone who doesn't want to be at Southwest just because of its Black heritage," Furutani says. "Servicing the enrollment, but also acknowledging the Black history is an absolute plus."

Los Angeles Southwest college
((*)Student population, Fall 2000)

Black              78%
Latino             19%
Asian               1%
White               1%

(*) Statistics for other ethnicities, as well as foreign
students, were not immediately available.

SOURCE: LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

Mountain View College in Dallas
County ((*)Student population, Fall 2000)

Latino                            35%
White                             30%
Black                             29%
Asian                              4%
Foreign/International:   less than 2%
American Indian:         less than 1%

SOURCE: DALLAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

Note: Table made by from bar graph.