Factors Influencing the Ethnic Identity Development of Latino Fraternity Members at a Hispanic Serving Institution

Higher education scholars have examined Latino/a student experiences and ethnic identity, yet there is no research describing the ethnic identity development of Latino fraternity members at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand how membership in a Latino fraternity at an HSI enhanced members' ethnic identity development. Using Bronfenbrenner's (2005a) bioecological theory of human development as the guiding framework, six themes emerged that enhanced members' ethnic identity development. Implications for student affairs and higher education administrators at HSIs and non-HSIs are discussed.

In 2003, the United States (U.S.) Census Bureau announced that Hispanics are the nation's largest minority group. As of July 2004, the Hispanic population constituted 41.3 million people -14% of the nation's population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005). In 2000, Hispanics represented 22% of 18-to24-year-olds enrolled in colleges and universities, up from 16% in 1980 (Llagas & Snyder, 2003). Llagas and Snyder noted, "The increase in Hispanic enrollment is being driven by both population growth and by increasing proportions of the [Hispanic] population enrolling in colleges and universities" (p. 96). With such increases of Hispanics in higher education, Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) have become an important option for Hispanic students entering higher education. According to Santiago (2007), almost half of all Latino undergraduate students were concentrated in the 6% of institutions identified as HSIs in the United States. Latino college students at HSIs (and at all colleges) are involved on campuses in a variety of ways. One way in which Latino college students become involved is by participation in Greek life, specifically Latino Greek letter organizations (LGLOs).

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand how membership in a Latino fraternity at an HSI enhances members' ethnic identity development. Minimal research has been done on Latino college students' participation in LGLOs. The research that has been done on LGLOs has focused on the history of such organizations (Johnson, 1972; Kimbrough, 2003; Mejia, 1994; Rodriguez, 1995), their growth (Castro, 2004; Kimbrough, 2002), and how they empower and provide academic and social support (Adam, 1999; Helem, 2004; Reyes, 1997). Only one study has focused on the impact of participation in a LGLO on ethnic identity. Nufiez (2004) found that members gained a heightened sense of ethnic identity through their participation in a Latina-based sorority at a predominantly White university in the Midwest. Several participants in Nufiez's study indicated that they were not active with Latino/a student organizations prior to joining the sorority. After becoming members, the women found that the sorority served as a support system with regard to ethnicity and ethnic identity and encouraged them to become involved in other Latino/a and minority student organizations and programs. As a result, their sense of themselves as Latina women was heightened.

This research study was focused on a Latino fraternity at an HSI located in the Southeast. No previous research was found that addressed how participation in a Latino fraternity at an HSI influenced members' ethnic identity development. This study is important because it focused on a combination of contexts with regard to Latino college students: a Latino fraternity nested within an HSI. Thus, through the voices of members of a Latino fraternity at an HSI, this study examined the following questions:

1. How is ethnic identity defined within the Latino fraternity?

2. In what ways does membership in a Latino fraternity at an HSI enhance members' ethnic identity development?

3. In what ways does attending an HSI enhance the ethnic identity development of Latino fraternity members beyond the contributions made by membership in the Latino fraternity?

Ethnic Identity Development

Ethnic, cultural, and racial identity development have been explored by various researchers (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1983; Cross, 1978; Helms, 1990; Kirn, 1981). Although a variety of ethnic identity development models, including Phinney's (1993) model of ethnic identity formation and Torres's (1999) bicultural orientation model (BOM), have been applied to Latino/a college students, we used Ferdman and Gallegos's (2001) racial identity orientation model in this study. The model is composed of six different orientations, varying from White-identified to Latino-integrated (see Table 1). Although there are six different orientations, they "do not exhaust the possibilities nor do they address the complex issues involved in ethnic and cultural identity" (Ferdman & Gallegos, p. 50). As Ferdman and Gallegos noted, because Latinos/as originate from a variety of different countries and have different cultures and social classes, they "are treated as an ethnic and cultural category more than a racial one" (p. 44); however, we deemed this model to be most appropriate for this study because it is broader than Torres's (1999) and not linear in fashion as is Phinney's. In addition, the variety of orientations that this model offers allowed Latino fraternity members the option to identify which orientations they chose in the specific microsystems (Latino fraternity, family, and the HSI campus) that were relevant in this study.