Running head: Final

Alma Young
Multicultural Environments
Georgia Southern University
COUN7132 - Contemporary College Student

Running head: Final

FINAL

3
Multicultural Environments
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) has been a pioneer of multicultural

education amongst all community and state colleges in Georgia. For a number of years, ABAC
was heavily involved in bringing many programs to serve minorities. In 2010, ABACs
multicultural accomplishments had reached a pivotal point, in order to solidify the importance of
these programs, and to validate their importance on campus, the Office of Multicultural
Educational Programs was officially established.
At just over 3,000 students, the college has the largest multicultural educational
programs office than any other public college its size. The programs housed under the ABAC
Office of Multicultural Educational Programs umbrella include: Upward Bound (UB), African
American Male Initiative (AAMI), High School Equivalency Program (HEP), College
Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), Migrant Education Programs Consortium (MEP), and
Hispanic/Latino Scholarship Programs. All of the programs in this office are funded by either
federal or private grants. In addition, most of the programs have been at ABAC for a number of
years, the oldest being the Upward Bound program at thirty-five years.
The magnitude of the Office of Multicultural Educational Programs alone shows the
college long standing commitment to racial and socioeconomic diversity on campus. Finally,
through the establishment of these programs, ABAC has facilitated student identity development
by encouraging them to develop their racial identity, which is an essential part of student
development. As Phinney would say that ethnic identification with ones own groups, is
common to all human beings (Pascarella, 2005, pg.28)
Projections
The US Census projects that the United States in on track to become more racially and

FINAL

ethnically diverse in the coming years. Therefore, ABAC is anticipating changes related to
college attendance by expanding programs and scholarships that cater to minorities, Hispanics in
particular, as they are well on their way to becoming the largest minority in the United States.
Furthermore, the college location in rural South Georgia, where most Hispanics reside due to
agricultural work, is a strategic location that give ABAC a great advantage to attract these type of
students.
The Office of Multicultural Educational Programs at ABAC was officially established in
2010. Since then, according to an enrollment report by the University System of Georgia, the
number of Hispanic students enrolled at the institution has been steadily increasing. Although the
overall number of Hispanic students enrolled at ABAC is still small compared to their White and
African American counterparts, the number of Hispanic students has made great progress. As a
result, a special relationship has been established with three functional areas in order to continue
to achieve those goals, these include: the Office of Admissions, the Office of Student Financial
Services (SFS), and The Office of Academic Support. Since the establishment of the Office of
Multicultural Educational Programs, its staff has a main goal in mind, to work very closely with
multiple offices on campus in order to assist prospective Hispanic students from admission all
the way to graduation.
Functional Areas
Office of Admissions
The ABAC Office of Admissions has a strong reputation to go above and beyond to
provide all the resources needed to guide all students through the admissions process. However,
with assistance from the Office of Multicultural Educational Programs, admissions staff make
sure that minorities in particular take advantage of all the resources that the campus has to offer

FINAL

to make the admissions process easier.

The Office of Multicultural Educational Programs office is an essential part of college
recruitment as the ABAC recruiters often use the programs as incentives to get students to apply
to the college. Often times, during college tours or open campus days, the admissions staff
recommends potential students to the multicultural office to provide more details about the
programs and what they have to offer, increasing the likely hood that the student will find a
scholarship or a program that they may able to participate in, not only helping ABAC meet their
enrollment numbers but also the recruitment numbers of the several multicultural educational
programs. Additionally, in regards to recruiting, ABAC understands that Hispanic students need
a different approach when it comes to potentially attract that particular population of students.
Therefore, a reciprocal relationship between admissions and the multicultural programs has been
developed in order to make the recruiting and admissions process as smooth as possible for
students and parents. One of the ways the Office of Multicultural Educational Programs is able to
help, is by providing translating services to students family members who are unable to speak
English, making the college admissions more informing and welcoming to the whole family.
Finally, ABAC takes advantage of the multicultural office program recruiters as they are
essentially unofficial ABAC recruiters. For instance, if a CAMP recruiter is visiting an area
where the ABAC recruiter is unable to attend or if the recruiter needs to visit an area with a large
Hispanic population, the CAMP recruiter will visit the area and not only share the CAMP
program information but ABACs as well.
Office of Student Financial Services
Once the Hispanic student has been enrolled, they may face issues regarding financial
services support. These can range from financial aid, last minute scholarship assistance, to

FINAL

simple explanation of charges. Consequently, another functional area at ABAC that has been
actively promoting changes regarding the enrollment of Hispanic students is the office of Student
Financial Services. Since most Hispanic students are first-generation students, they often lack
guidance when it comes to navigating the much complicated financial aid process. Therefore,
key SFS staff has been assigned to assist with those students and families, when needed, just like
the Office of Admissions, this assistance can be done in Spanish to accommodate non-English
speakers. Since most Hispanic students also tend to be low-income, scholarship information
assistance is provided as most of them are not aware of the type of financial resources a college
has to offer. Additionally, the SFS office actively works to facilitate the financial aid processing,
tuition payment, and explanation of charges to any student that participates in any of the
multicultural programs. Furthermore, the SFS office helps staff in the multicultural programs by
saving the class schedules of students in the programs in order to prevent withdrawal due to nonpayment, while the scholarships are being processed.
Academic Support
The office of Academic Support (OAS) is the third and final functional area at ABAC that
is constantly promoting changes to promote the attendance of Hispanic students. OAS is a
collection of services and programs designed to help students achieve their full academic
potential and though a partnership established with the office of multicultural educational
programs, they ensure that Hispanic students succeed academically. One of the many ways in
which OAS supports the students in the multicultural department is by providing an early
response system. Through an early alert form, faculty can inform OAS if they are concerned
about a student's academic performance, number of absences, and/or emotional well-being.
When one of these forms is submitted, an academic support counselor will reach out to the

FINAL

student and/or make the appropriate referrals, which include communicating with the
multicultural programs staff in order to make sure that the students get the appropriate help when
its needed.
Several programs in the Office of Multicultural Educational Program require students to
complete mandatory tutoring as part of their program requirements. Through the Academic
Assistance Center (AAC), the multicultural programs staff receives assistance by allowing them
to have access to TutorTrac. This webbased program records tutoring visits, therefore, allows
the multicultural program staff to be able to retrieve data on their students and ensure that all
participating students are completing the mandatory tutoring hours required by their respective
programs.
Conclusion
ABAC recognizes the importance of establishing a multicultural college environment and
its doing its best to keep up with the changes related to college attendance. By establishing the
Office of Multicultural Educational Programs, ABAC has not only provided support to Hispanic
students from admissions through graduation by providing academic, financial, and social
support but it has also assisted several functional areas around the campus to ensure the Hispanic
students success. While these changes have not yet demonstrated what the future will bring,
ABAC has already produced desirable outcomes through programs such as the CAMP Program.
By allowing students to become co-curricularly involved, they have successfully implemented
the Astins I-E-O Model of Theory and Development. Through the student inputs (Hispanic, low
socioeconomic status, first-generation), the ABAC college environment (welcoming/assisting,
CAMP program, cultural experiences), and outcomes (knowledge, experience, beliefs they
developed through their time in college) the campus overall has not only impacted student

FINAL
change, but will also positively affect the perception that incoming students have of the college.

FINAL

References
Pascarella, E., & Terenzini, P. (2005). How College Affects Students A Third Decade of Research
(2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Colby, S., & Ortman, J. (2015, March 1). Projections of the Size and Composition of the U.S.
Population: 2014 to 2060. Retrieved from
https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p25-1143.pdf
Academic Support. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.abac.edu/academics/academicsupport