The Greenspun College of Urban Affair's Center for Urban Partnerships will be conducting a survey of UNLV's ethnic minority students this spring as part of a funded study to help ensure successful minority enrollment and retention.

According to Carrie Esposito, the center's research and project coordinator, the study will consist of focus groups, a mail survey, and intensive follow-up interviews with a sub-sample of randomly selected students. Focus groups will include current students, prospective students from local high schools, and minority faculty at UNLV. The survey will be sent to over 4,000 ethnic minority students who enrolled at UNLV in the fall semester, 2002.

"We will be asking the students for their opinions on a wide variety of university issues to assist us in determining the full range of educational, social, and psychological factors related to retention of minority students as well as motivational factors related to college enrollment," Esposito said. "Focus groups will help provide a more in-depth and detailed understanding of how different students perceive opportunities in higher education. Having faculty, current students, and prospective high school students participate in these groups will give us a much more vivid picture of how ethnic minorities experience higher education and what factors may inhibit or promote their success at universities such as UNLV."

The Center for Urban Partnerships was recently formed by UNLV faculty and operates under the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs. The center, known as CUP, is an applied research institute through which faculty collaborate with community organizations on research projects that can help better the lives of residents of the Las Vegas community. The minority retention study is funded by a UNLV Planning Initiative grant in conjunction with funding from the Clark County Commission. Principal investigator for this study is Lawrence M. Scheier, associate professor of counseling at UNLV and director of research at the Center for Urban Partnerships.

For more information about the study, call Carrie Esposito at 895-2926.