Building Capacity, Advancing Equity

How Long Beach City College’s Commitment to Latino Student Success Strengthens Higher Education for All

By Mike Muñoz, Ed.D., Superintendent-President, Long Beach City College, and President in Residence, Excelencia in Education

The future of higher education in America stands at a crossroads. As legal and political challenges call into question the very definition of what it means to be a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), we must not lose sight of what’s truly at stake. Latino students are the fastest-growing segment of our nation’s college-going population. Their success is not a special interest, it is the foundation upon which the future of higher education rests.

At Long Beach City College (LBCC), where nearly 60% of students identify as Latino, this truth is lived every day. As a Seal of Excelencia certified institution, we’ve made a deep and enduring commitment to serving Latino students not just in name, but in practice. That commitment has transformed our systems, our culture, and our outcomes.

Our guiding belief is simple: When we intentionally build the capacity to serve Latino students well, every student benefits.

From Diversity to Intentional Services

LBCC’s journey has been one of transformation — moving from diversity as a descriptor to intentional service as a defining practice.

We began by asking difficult but necessary questions: Are we truly serving our Latino students, or simply enrolling them? Where are the barriers in our systems? Where are our students thriving and where are they being left behind?

Those questions pushed us to reimagine how we operate as an institution. We shifted from isolated programs to an integrated ecosystem approach, ensuring that every part of the college — academic affairs, student services, human resources, and community partnerships — works in alignment toward equity.

This ecosystem model is not about doing more; it’s about doing better, together. It’s about aligning structures, systems, and culture so that every student experiences LBCC as a place where they are seen, valued, and supported to succeed. This intentional alignment is one of the core reasons LBCC earned the Seal of Excelencia — national recognition that affirms our evidence-based, equity-centered approach to serving Latino students.

Building Systems that Serve

True capacity building requires infrastructure and systems that make equity sustainable. At LBCC, this capacity building was made possible through intentional institutional investment — expanding data infrastructure, dedicating staff to student success initiatives, and fostering cross-campus collaboration among academic affairs, student services, institutional effectiveness, and community partners. These shared efforts ensured that equity was not the responsibility of one office, but a collective institutional priority.

Through Guided Pathways, we redesigned the student experience from entry to completion, providing clear academic routes and proactive support. Our counselors now use data-informed tools to connect with students earlier and more often, preventing problems before they become barriers.

Our Promise Program, which provides two years of free tuition, continues to transform access to higher education for thousands of students — many of them first-generation or from low-income families. But the real power of Promise lies in its wraparound support: mentorship, dedicated counseling, and a strong sense of belonging.

We also strengthened our commitment to the mattering and belonging of our students, which has become the heart of culturally affirming engagement on campus. The CCL helps Latino students navigate college while affirming their identity and community. It’s a space that says, “You belong here.”

Through strengthening our commitment to the mattering and belonging of our students, this has become the rallying cry of culturally affirming engagement on campus. LBCC has created an ecosystem that helps Latino students navigate college while affirming their identity and community. And because success depends on meeting students’ full range of needs, we’ve expanded our Basic Needs Program to address food, housing, and wellness. Through our Viking Vault food pantry, emergency grants, and mental health services, we’ve built a safety net that allows students to focus on learning rather than survival.

These investments have paid off in historic outcomes.

Measurable Progress and Record Achievements

In the last three years, LBCC has achieved several milestones that reflect the power of intentional capacity building:

• Regained Large College Status — LBCC once again qualifies as a Large College under California’s funding formula, unlocking additional state resources. This recognition represents both growth and renewed vitality.
• Largest Enrollment in College History — This past year, LBCC celebrated the largest enrollment class in our 98-year history, even as many colleges across the nation continue to face declines.
• Historic Gains in Latino Student Success — Latino students are now the highest-performing group in completing transfer-level English in their first year, reversing historic equity gaps and setting a new standard for academic achievement.
• Stronger Post-Completion Outcomes — LBCC has expanded workforce partnerships and transfer pathways that support Latino graduates in securing family-sustaining careers and advancing along long-term degree pathways.
• Transformation of Campus Climate — Over the past three years, we’ve seen student perceptions of mattering and belonging rise from 49% to 92%. That’s not just a statistic — it’s a cultural shift. It means our students feel valued, seen, and supported like never before.

These are not isolated wins; they are the results of building capacity across systems, people, and culture.

Culture and Climate: Transformation with Cariño

While structures and systems form the foundation, culture and climate are the soul of sustainable change.

At LBCC, we have been intentional about fostering a culture where equity isn’t just a goal — it’s a shared value. We talk often about being a “student-ready college,” one that adapts to meet students where they are rather than expecting them to navigate outdated systems alone.

Through our Cultural Curriculum Audit, faculty have reexamined their courses to ensure that what students learn reflects their histories, communities, and contributions. Our Leadership Equity Congress develops faculty and staff who can lead with an equity lens in every role.

And this cultural transformation is reflected in how our students experience LBCC. When we first began measuring student belonging, fewer than half of our students felt that they mattered to the college. Three years later, that number has surged to over 90%. That change didn’t happen by accident, it’s the product of an ecosystem designed around relationships, relevance, and respect.

When students feel they belong, persistence and performance follow. This dramatic shift in belonging is also reflected in student outcomes: As students report stronger connections to the institution, we have seen corresponding gains in persistence, term-to-term retention, and progress toward completion. But more than that, belonging is the foundation of hope, and hope is what fuels student success.

The Broader Lesson: Building Capacity for the Nation’s Future

LBCC’s story reflects a larger truth about higher education in America: The success of Latino students is the success of higher education itself.

When we invest in building the capacity to serve — through structures, systems, culture, and climate — we create colleges that are more resilient, inclusive, and innovative. We build institutions that live up to the promise of opportunity that defines our democracy.

Across the country, Seal of Excelencia certified institutions are showing what’s possible when service becomes intentional. The question before us is not whether we can serve Latino students well, it’s whether we will choose to do so with courage and consistency. To sustain and expand this work nationally, state and federal policymakers must invest in evidence-based strategies that strengthen capacity at institutions serving Latino students. Supporting data infrastructure, student success initiatives, and equity-centered innovation will ensure that colleges across the country can deliver on the promise of higher education for this growing student population.

A Personal Reflection

As a first-generation college graduate, I know what it feels like to step onto a campus and wonder if you belong. I also know how life-changing it is when an institution makes you feel that you do.

That’s why this work is deeply personal to me. When we build the capacity to serve Latino students with excellence, we are not just transforming institutions, we are transforming lives.