Keep Running with Us: An Innovative Program at a Hispanic-Serving Institution Designed to Increase Graduate Enrollment of Hispanic/Latinx Students

Underrepresented minority (URM) students face unique challenges when pursuing graduate education, with some not even considering the possibility of pursuing a graduate degree. This paper describes a nontraditional approach to the graduate application process that involves identification of potential applicants by graduate faculty and staff at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) with an underrepresented student population of over 60 percent. UTSA’s Keep Running with Us (KRWU) program was developed to address barriers to Hispanic student recruitment, retention, and completion. Undergraduate URM students not considering graduate education and who met graduate program requirements were identified by faculty and staff. These students were auto-admitted into matching master’s programs using a streamlined application process that did not require traditional admissions criteria. An evaluation of the program showed that, as compared with students accepted into master’s programs via the traditional process, students admitted through KRWU had 1) an increased percent of Hispanic students enrolled, and 2) increased percent graduation rates among all Hispanic students at UTSA. These outcomes demonstrate the effectiveness of KRWU’s approach at increasing enrollment and awarded degrees for Hispanic students