Abstract
The goal of this paper was to address the question, Have the austerity measures enacted due to the global economic crisis impacted student enrollments at the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez? as Rodríguez (2011. Social protest and the future of Higher Education in Puerto Rico. Academe 97(4). http://www.aaup.org/article/social-protest-and-future-higher-education-puerto-rico#.U81ofj6gmpo (accessed 7 Dec 2011)) suggests. The costs, matriculation rates, and English language requirements of the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez and two nearby private universities were compared. The findings demonstrate that during the economic crisis matriculation rates of the poorest students at the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez decreased significantly, as Rodríguez suggested they would. However, the facts lead the current author to adduce that money does not appear to be the only factor causing decreasing enrollments. The data reviewed leads the author to suggest that English is functioning as a barrier to public higher education in Puerto Rico and that this may be a contributing factor in the falling matriculation rate over the period of the economic crisis.
Acknowledgement
The author wishes to thank Catherine Mazak and Rosita Rivera of Centro para la investigación del bilingüismo y aprendizaje [the center for bilingual and educational research] (CeIBA) at the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez and their students who invited me to present selected content of this paper in the Fall of 2014 at UPRM and provided insightful feedback. In addition, I wish to thank my former students and colleagues at UPRM that inspired this work especially Betsy Morales and Catherine Mazak for input on various drafts of this paper. Finally, Any errors are naturally those of the authors.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- “It’s not comfortable being who I am” – Multilingual identity in superdiverse Dubai
- Students’ orientations to communication across linguistic difference with international teaching assistants at an internationalizing university in the United States
- Is English a Language Barrier to Public Higher Education in Puerto Rico?
- Managing complaints in multilingual care encounters
- Book Reviews
- Philipp Sebastian Angermeyer: Speak English or What? Codeswitching and interpreter use in New York City courts
- Richard Fitzgerald and William Housley: Advances in membership categorisation analysis
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- “It’s not comfortable being who I am” – Multilingual identity in superdiverse Dubai
- Students’ orientations to communication across linguistic difference with international teaching assistants at an internationalizing university in the United States
- Is English a Language Barrier to Public Higher Education in Puerto Rico?
- Managing complaints in multilingual care encounters
- Book Reviews
- Philipp Sebastian Angermeyer: Speak English or What? Codeswitching and interpreter use in New York City courts
- Richard Fitzgerald and William Housley: Advances in membership categorisation analysis