UCLA Latino Policy Studies Research Projects 2007-2008

Principal Investigator: Lindsey Perez Huber, PhD candidate, UCLA Graduate School of Education

This study will rely on a Latina/o-focused critical race theoretical framework to assess the educational experiences of undocumented Latina/o college students in California. The study will look in particular at how race, class, gender, and immigration status intersect in the context of public higher education. Racist nativism will be used as a conceptual framework to explore this critical issue. The study will employ a robust inductive qualitative research methodology and testimonios, a combination that has great potential for the investigation of social problems.

 

Principal Investigator: Jose Luis Santos, Professor, UCLA Graduate School of Education

This study will examine the rising costs of a college education and the decline of financial aid, which severely limit the access of low-income students, many of whom are from underrepresented minority groups, to a college education. This project also highlights the trend observed in many institutions of public learning of providing merit-based financial aid. Because this study will address individual student and institution-specific outcomes, it has great potential to illuminate the public policy debate around this issue.